Hiking Sapa

Sa Pa! Located far in the northwest highlands of Vietnam, this town of mountains, markets and terraced rice fields takes time to reach, but is worth the effort. 

Unfortunately, we discovered that the secret is out and LOTS of people are willing to make the effort. I was kind of shocked by how touristy the town. Having traveled via night train, we arrived at the station in Lao Cai early in the morning. We were so far north that the border to China was just one kilometer further. From there we found this cafe and waited for our shuttle to Sapa.  We had prepaid our tickets but no was waiting our arrival--we were getting rather nervous that someone would come fetch us, but in the end it all worked out.

The shuttle dropped us off right in the center of town where we were immediately swarmed by women trying to sell us souvenirs. I confess to feeling both overwhelmed and annoyed, but after learning a little bit more about these Hmong women and the limited opportunities they have to provide for their families, I view the situation with more compassion. 

I'd hoped to get away from the traffic of Ha Noi, but the streets were still plenty crazy.

Before long we'd made it to our peaceful little treehouse homestay.

We had 4-5 hours before we could check-in, so fortunately they let us store our luggage. In the end, my Mom decided to hang out and read a book at the cozy little adjoining Matsu Cafe while I headed out for a hike. Don't worry--my Mom had some pretty adorable company to hang out with.

Looking on All Trails, I found this a seven mile route from Sa Pa to Tan Va Bridge. The plan was to hike to the village, then take a car back to Sa Pa.

Getting up above the town, I felt grateful for the quiet and solitude. The route quickly became quite steep--a very narrow paved path just wide enough for a motorbike.

I must have passed hundreds `of chickens. Every family has dozens.

There were tons of dogs as well. So can anyone explain to me how come all of the stray dogs in Viet Nam and Cambodia seem not reactive, but Zion barks his head off every chance he gets?

At least the puppy yipped for a moment.

For me, it was really special to catch glimpses of regular village life in spaces where tourists were unexpected.  For the most part I tried not to take too many photos, but I snagged this cute school class that was being taught by song.

The silver necklaces that Hmong children wear are for spiritual protection.

I also loved getting to see the terraced fields up close.

I was so entranced by all the sights that I forgot to check my trail may for a while. When I did, I realized that I was the blue dot far away from the red route. Oops! It was a bit of a slog back up the hill, but worth it to get off the beaten path. By the way, my cell service was fantastic the entire way even though I was in such remote places. Apparently phones and internets are controlled by the government, so there are strong connections no matter where you go. Downside is the government definitely monitors all that is going on. 

Further along I made it the terraced rice paddies. We just missed the harvest, so the rice paddies weren't the golden yellow hue that sends tourists flocking to Sa Pa. Still, it was fascinating to see. At the lower elevations, the Vietnamese farmers can get two to three harvests a year--one to feed their families and others to sell for profit. At the higher elevations, the Hmong people have to terrace the land to make it farmable and may only get one rice harvest--hopefully enough to feed their families, but not enough to sell. This helps explain why so many Hmong women and children must sell to tourists in the market in order to survive.

As I began the descent into Ta Van, I passed through a bamboo forest.

Rounding a corner, I came nose to nose with some water buffalo in the paddies. Glad they are docile!

Somewhere along the descent I lost the trail again so I never ended up making at Ta Van bridge or even the touristy little village there. I could have made it there along the main road, but a driver stopped and offered me a ride back to Sapa for a fair price. By that point I'd already gone a few extra miles and was eager to join up with my Mom. 

Also, our tree house was waiting! The view was pretty superb.

A little later we went for a walk back through town to explore. After hours of hiking, I was famished and ready for some carbs. The local specialty of chestnut cake was the perfect solution.

Thanks for the great day, Sapa!

 

Hello Ha Noi

Next step of the adventure: Ha Noi. Folks, it was soooo crazy! With a population as large as New York City, I feel like I should have anticipated this more. We stayed right in the Old Quarter, arriving late at night. Even at 11pm, it felt like the block was buzzing with activity, When I woke up at six the next morning, the streets were already full of honking motorbikes, busy market stands, kids to headed to school, etc. It was an absolute collision of vibrant sounds, colors and smells.

Our AirBnB was in this white building pictured center., directly above Mr. Wash. Look closely and you can spy my Mom lounging on our little balony.

Many of the nearby shops seemed to be preparing food for sale to nearby hotels or restaurants, such as these beautiful roasted ducks adorned with flowers.

In terms of beauty, not much surpasses dragon fruit. We heard one fellow say that the dragon fruit wastes all of its energy on looking good instead of tasting good, but this certainly wasn't the case for the fruit we ate!

My favorite part of the day was the early morning run I took jogging laps around Hoan Kiem Lake. In truth, I selected our AirBnBjust for its proximity. Even though there were plenty of people out exercising, it still felt peaceful in the early morning light. 

By my observation, almost all of the runners appeared to be tourists. It felt like the Vietnamese knew far better than to run in that heat and humidity. Instead, I saw so many locals (particularly women) engaging in these great dance exercise classes, often with matching outfits.

You couldn't miss all the nationalistic pride as the women dressed in red and gold, the colors of the Vietnamese flag. I even saw a group where the instructors marched around waving huge Vietnamese flags to motivate their participants. It certainly makes for this odd clash of cultures when set against the backdrop of McDonald's.

 

My personal favorite were the pompoms.

On the way back, I felt kind of proud of myself when I could read this sign in Viet. "Stop! Contains Electricity. Danger. Kills people." My Vietnamese is still really poor, but still leagues ahead of my three words of Cambodian.

Later in the morning, my Mom and I ventured over to the Ngoc Son Temple located in the middle of the lake.

Constructed in the early 19th Century, it seemed so fresh after the ruins of Angkor.

From there we dropped our bags off in storage at the train station, then headed out to explore the famed Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first natural university.

Doctoral graudates were commemorated with an enormous stele perched above a stone turtle, a symbol of longevity and wisdom. In total, the Temple of Literature contains 82 doctoral steles.  This makes me think we should have done much more for Christy and Ben, the PhDs in our lives! 

Even today students come to rub the head of this bronze turtle for good luck with their exams.

A glimpse inside the temple itslf. Confucius and his four favorite scholars were all honored here.

Personally I loved the art on display even more. This tremendous wood carving illustrated the enormous celebration that would occur when a scholar passed his exams. A doctorate was awarded so rarely (one every few years), that the entire village would come to celebrate the scholars arrival back home. In general, these scholars went on to become important heads of state and military leaders.

As girls were not allowed ot take these exams, this painting is entitled "Longing for the Examination Hall." 

I feel so grateful to live in an age and place where education is available to both me and my daughters.

After the Temple of Literature, we tried to grab a Grab to take us over to Train Street. The Uber of Vietnam, Grab generally worked great for us, but this time was a fiasco. We ordered a car and could see from the app that it had pulled up. We walked over to the meeting point and at that point a man junped out of his Grab-labeled car and said "Grab?" Assuming that this was our vehicle, we hopped in. Well, once we got to Train Street, we discovered that his was actually a Grab Taxi and wanted to charge us 4 times the price I'd agreed to on the app ($12USD vs $3USD,) In the end, I gave him the equivalent of $6 and I think we both left the encounter feeling a bit cheated. From then on, we were much more careful with all of our Grab rides. Before getting into the vehicle, I always made sure the driver could tell me both my name and where I was going ahead of time.

If we got overcharged on the taxi, we got way overcharged for our non-alcoholic Train Street drinks. They were definitely the priciest beverages we ordered during our whole trip. However, if you wanted a good seat at a cafe to watch the train come by, you had to order and pay the tab. It was just part of the experience.

So what is Train Street anyway?  In a nutshell, it's a sensory overload on steroids. It's this wild section of Ha Noi where a high speed train passes just inches from the buildings and cafes multiple times a day. .

Before the train came, the cafe owners pushed the tables right up to close to our bellies so that we wouldn't get smashed. They also took down all of the shade umbrellas and parked them right on the tracks!

Traffic getting across the intersection was nuts. (Just like everywhere else.)

Crazy as it all was, I'm really glad I got to experience the adventure.

If like me you are prone to overstimulation, may I suggest a few hours of quiet reading at Tranquil Books and Coffee? This was the perfect rejuvenating retreat from the bustle of Hanoi, plus the drinks and food were so comforting.

Come evening we embarked on one final adventure to the Night Market. Once the roads were closed down, the market was more enjoyable because we weren't dodging crowds and cars and motorbikes.ake In general, we found the sidewalks in Hanoi to be pretty unusable because of all the motorbikes parked on the pavement, meaning that we had to walk in the street which is kind of terrifying. It's super noisy because it's customary to honk everytime you overtake someone to let them know you are there. The honking isn't aggressive or angry, but the commotion is crazy! Corny as it sounds, my Mom and I started holding hands to safely cross the street. You kind of have to just start walking and hope that people stop, but it's pretty terrifying. I figure the worst thing that could happen would be for one of us to start crossing and the other one to pause. If we went down, at least we would go down together!

Horrifically, that evening my Mom did go down. Afer the Grab we ordered was taking forever to arrive because the area was so congested, we decided to walk to the train station. We were trying to walk when my Mom stumbled and went down hard, scraping her hands and knees and losing her glasses. I was so scared that she would be seriously injured, but fortunately the scrapes healed okay and her glasses were okay. I have to say, it was kind of a relief to finally board our night train to Sa Pa, even if we were sharing a berth with another couple. They were from Burma and really kind. I'm glad we got along since we ended up sharing the train compartment with them on the way back as well!

I slept surprisingly well in the top bunk. It felt like the rattle of the train was rocking me to sleep with its chug-a-chug white noise. (I'm sure the sleepy meds helped too.)

Before dozing off, I looked outside and realized that we were traveling down the very same Train Street we had visited earlier in the day! Talk about traveling full circle. 

Ha Noi, you were surely a party! Glad to have spent the day with you, but one was enough to last me a good long while.