Day 76 - Sapa
Monday, October 25, 2010
Saturday 23rd October
Although I was able to get to sleep easily last night, I was woken nice and early by the loud voices and disgusting habits of my neighbours. I wandered down to my 'local breakfast place', Chocolat and Baguette, for my normal eggs and toast, and was just reading a magazine when Abi walked in. (I'd recommended the cafe to her yesterday, and told her she would find me here in the morning). She had the last part of her trek beginning at 9:30am, but was eager for a nice breakfast as the food at her hotel did not look appetising in the slightest!
Abi left for her trek and had most of the day to fill in before we caught the train back to Hanoi. After packing my bags and checking out of the hotel, I started walking in the north of the town, away from the tourist traps. I then stumbled upon a hairdressers, and asked if they could straighten my hair (it's an easy pick-me-up - leaves you feeling much better than a massage). For only $2.50, the pink haired male hairdresser tended to my hair, and I emerged feeling like a supermodel! (Ok, not quite. But when you've been backpacking for almost 3 months, it's nice to feel pretty!)
I really struggled for things to fill in my time here. Sapa was renowned for its Saturday market, but it was exactly the same as the market that occurred everyday on the square, with the only difference being that more tribespeople came from the surrounding villages to sell to the tourists! The mountain has really been ruined by tourism and the salespeople local - it is such a beautiful location and would be the perfect place for a retreat, but when you're constantly being pestered every step by numerous people trying to sell you things, you just want to get out of the town.
I had some tapas at the same restaurant I ate at on Thursday - some beautiful mushrooms done in an olive sauce on bruschetta - and a Spanish hot chocolate, made with egg and cinnamon (I really need to stop drinking hot/cold chocolate ... my excuse is that it's helping me give up diet coke, but it's really just that I like it!) I filled in some more time by having a foot massage, and instantly regretted it. Abby had told me of her horrible experience at a massage parlour the previous day, and as we concluded later, I'd stumbled into the same one.
Returning to my guesthouse, Abi came running out of the Sapa Rooms restaurant, where she was enjoying a wine after finishing the trek, so I spent half an hour in there with her and a few Aussie women she'd met. Exchanging stories, it seems no one here is very impressed with Sapa.
I'd been told to return to my guesthouse at 4:30pm to await my transfer to the Lo Cai train station, and I checked with the receptionist that I should just sit in the lobby to wait. "Yes", she replied, "Wait 5 minutes". The five minutes stretched into twenty-five, and I was chatting with a Vietnamese guy when a man came in, took one look at me, and then said to the receptionist (in Vietnamese, which my new friend translated for me), "The bus has already left!" Luckily it wasn't too far away and the receptionist called it back for me, although I wasn't too impressed!
The bus wasn't full, just consisting of four Aussie women from Moree (whom I would see again on Monday, as they had booked the same flight to Danang as me). They told me that on their trek, their guide had told them how in Vietnam, once a child reaches two years old it's considered that they can fend for themselves. It's not a surprise to see young children wandering the streets by themselves, or six year olds carrying their baby brothers on their back. Whilst having a drink with Abi and a few Aussie women, we saw a young child with a plastic bag on his head. In Australia, the child would never have a plastic bag to begin with, due to the suffocation hazard, but the mother was completely unconcerned (meanwhile, I was looking on in horror and ready to jump up and help him!)
We reached the train station at about 5:30pm, despite my train not being to 8:45pm - due to the early onset of nightfall and the mist the hangs around the mountains, the buses leave Sapa very early. Abi and I had tickets on the same train but were being transported to the station separately, and we arranged to wait for each other at the front of the station. Well, I waited ... and waited ... and waited .. for almost 2 hours, before her bus finally arrive at 7:15pm! We then needed to exchange our coupons for actual berth locations on the train, and of course there were no tickets left in the same carriage - we were quite despondent at the thought that we might be sharing our cabins with some Vietnamese men and their horrible habits!
Desperate for a drink, we headed to a nearby restaurant where we found the Aussie women I'd shared the bus with, and bunkered with them whilst waiting to board the train. They all admitted how they were in awe of us, travelling by ourselves - they could never do it, they said.
Onwards to the train, we kept seeing people we knew (like the Western couple we'd spoken with on the train ride up, to tell them what had happened with that Vietnamese guy), and hoped we would be sharing our cabin with some nice Westerners. My cabin turned out to be ok, sharing with three Thai dentists all about my age, but Abi wasn't so lucky, making two new Vietnamese 'friends'. ;-) She came in to check on me and take a few photos for my blog, and then retired to her room whilst I fell asleep (well, at least tried to - I had a terrible night's sleep, not made much better with a 5am wake up call as we arrived back in Hanoi).
Although I was able to get to sleep easily last night, I was woken nice and early by the loud voices and disgusting habits of my neighbours. I wandered down to my 'local breakfast place', Chocolat and Baguette, for my normal eggs and toast, and was just reading a magazine when Abi walked in. (I'd recommended the cafe to her yesterday, and told her she would find me here in the morning). She had the last part of her trek beginning at 9:30am, but was eager for a nice breakfast as the food at her hotel did not look appetising in the slightest!
Abi left for her trek and had most of the day to fill in before we caught the train back to Hanoi. After packing my bags and checking out of the hotel, I started walking in the north of the town, away from the tourist traps. I then stumbled upon a hairdressers, and asked if they could straighten my hair (it's an easy pick-me-up - leaves you feeling much better than a massage). For only $2.50, the pink haired male hairdresser tended to my hair, and I emerged feeling like a supermodel! (Ok, not quite. But when you've been backpacking for almost 3 months, it's nice to feel pretty!)
I really struggled for things to fill in my time here. Sapa was renowned for its Saturday market, but it was exactly the same as the market that occurred everyday on the square, with the only difference being that more tribespeople came from the surrounding villages to sell to the tourists! The mountain has really been ruined by tourism and the salespeople local - it is such a beautiful location and would be the perfect place for a retreat, but when you're constantly being pestered every step by numerous people trying to sell you things, you just want to get out of the town.
I had some tapas at the same restaurant I ate at on Thursday - some beautiful mushrooms done in an olive sauce on bruschetta - and a Spanish hot chocolate, made with egg and cinnamon (I really need to stop drinking hot/cold chocolate ... my excuse is that it's helping me give up diet coke, but it's really just that I like it!) I filled in some more time by having a foot massage, and instantly regretted it. Abby had told me of her horrible experience at a massage parlour the previous day, and as we concluded later, I'd stumbled into the same one.
Returning to my guesthouse, Abi came running out of the Sapa Rooms restaurant, where she was enjoying a wine after finishing the trek, so I spent half an hour in there with her and a few Aussie women she'd met. Exchanging stories, it seems no one here is very impressed with Sapa.
I'd been told to return to my guesthouse at 4:30pm to await my transfer to the Lo Cai train station, and I checked with the receptionist that I should just sit in the lobby to wait. "Yes", she replied, "Wait 5 minutes". The five minutes stretched into twenty-five, and I was chatting with a Vietnamese guy when a man came in, took one look at me, and then said to the receptionist (in Vietnamese, which my new friend translated for me), "The bus has already left!" Luckily it wasn't too far away and the receptionist called it back for me, although I wasn't too impressed!
The bus wasn't full, just consisting of four Aussie women from Moree (whom I would see again on Monday, as they had booked the same flight to Danang as me). They told me that on their trek, their guide had told them how in Vietnam, once a child reaches two years old it's considered that they can fend for themselves. It's not a surprise to see young children wandering the streets by themselves, or six year olds carrying their baby brothers on their back. Whilst having a drink with Abi and a few Aussie women, we saw a young child with a plastic bag on his head. In Australia, the child would never have a plastic bag to begin with, due to the suffocation hazard, but the mother was completely unconcerned (meanwhile, I was looking on in horror and ready to jump up and help him!)
We reached the train station at about 5:30pm, despite my train not being to 8:45pm - due to the early onset of nightfall and the mist the hangs around the mountains, the buses leave Sapa very early. Abi and I had tickets on the same train but were being transported to the station separately, and we arranged to wait for each other at the front of the station. Well, I waited ... and waited ... and waited .. for almost 2 hours, before her bus finally arrive at 7:15pm! We then needed to exchange our coupons for actual berth locations on the train, and of course there were no tickets left in the same carriage - we were quite despondent at the thought that we might be sharing our cabins with some Vietnamese men and their horrible habits!
Desperate for a drink, we headed to a nearby restaurant where we found the Aussie women I'd shared the bus with, and bunkered with them whilst waiting to board the train. They all admitted how they were in awe of us, travelling by ourselves - they could never do it, they said.
Onwards to the train, we kept seeing people we knew (like the Western couple we'd spoken with on the train ride up, to tell them what had happened with that Vietnamese guy), and hoped we would be sharing our cabin with some nice Westerners. My cabin turned out to be ok, sharing with three Thai dentists all about my age, but Abi wasn't so lucky, making two new Vietnamese 'friends'. ;-) She came in to check on me and take a few photos for my blog, and then retired to her room whilst I fell asleep (well, at least tried to - I had a terrible night's sleep, not made much better with a 5am wake up call as we arrived back in Hanoi).
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