Right before we left 2 other gentlemen entered the cabin, and they were nice enough. We exchanged a few English words and then I delved into my book until my "night queen" tablets kicked in and the click-clack of the train on the track lulled me to sleep. A few hours later, around 2 AM, I awoke to what I thought was a chainsaw duet. These two gentlemen were snoring so loud, I could hear them through my earplugs and poor Paul could hear them through his Ipod headphones. I consider myself the lucky one, because I at least slept from around 10pm to when I was awoken by the awful snoring, but Paul had to endure the sounds from about 11pm onwards. Our dreams of a nice overnight train ride were shattered, and anger escalated as nothing woke these two men up. Here is how our journey escalated:
- I wake up to earth shattering nasal sounds and realize Paul is awake, and not happy.
- I shove a pillow around my head and try to block out the sounds and shove the earplugs farther into my ears, yet stll hear snoring
- Paul decides to go look for another cabin, and has no luck as all the other doors are closed and locked
- Paul shouts explicitives and is very loud, yet the snoring still continues
-I "accidentally knock over" a 1.5 liter bottle of water, which hits one of the men in the head. He wakes up with a look of shock, I say "oh I am so sorry, are you okay?". He says nothing, closes his eyes and seconds later snoring continues.
- Paul and I both take another "night queen" tablet, put our ipods on full blast (thank god for ipods and headphones) and finally fall asleep after an hour of trying to make them wake up or stop snoring. We were so frustrated. I don't know how these guys didn't wake up....
At 6 AM I am wide awake and looking out the window, and I must say the scenery is beautiful. The train passes fields of rice paddies, misty mountains, and lots of water buffalo. The men are still snoring, but the Bon Iver on my ipod keeps me calm.... I look at them with disgust, nonetheless. By 7 AM, we are both up and exhausted, and awaiting our stop in Lao Cai. I wish I could tell these men how awful it was to share a room with them, but I am too tired and they probably can't understand anyways. I have a tendency to unknowingly hit Paul with a pillow if he snores.. Snoring and being kept from sleeping are two things that really drive me wild, and these guys are lucky I did not smother their faces with a pillow. I did not want to end up in a SEAsia jail. This experience reinforced why we do not stay in hostel dorm rooms.
We arrived to Lao Cai, and was greeted by our guide, Pham. From Lao Cai, we waved to China and made our way on the winding 1 hour journey to Sa Pa. I slept most of the way, and fog covered the mountains so you couldn't really see much anyways. We felt so out of it from lack of sleep, but once we got to Sapa, had a freshen up in the hotel room, and had some breakfast we were ready to explore and begin our trek.
We would be walking just around 7 KM per day, through the local villages and up and down the surrounding hills, so it was nothing like our other trekking experiences such as the Inca Trail. The mountains in Sapa are huge, so I am sure if you wanted to be hardcore and do some serious trekking there was a trail and a guide for you.
We headed off with Pham on our first walk, where we were accompanied by some local girls who were making their way from Sapa town back to their village. There are little villages dotted all around the region, each group with their own indigenous clothing, dialects, values, etc. During our walk we saw lots of rice terraces, cute little kids playing, a woman spooling natural hemp by hand, and tons of people selling local handicrafts. Some of the main things that the local people made here were handmade bags and clothing which they dye naturally with the indigo plant. The locals all seem to think that the purpose of you walking through the beautiful countryside is to purchase their goods, which for long-term travelers like us is not always the case. That was the only downside about our trek, is the constant question that was asked "hello. where you from? you buy from me? shopping?" It is hard to say "no thank you" when you know that is their only source of income, but if we bought stuff from everyone who tried to sell us something we would have no money.
During the first trek, Pham showed us local plants that were used in dying and medicine, gave us sugarcane to snack on, and even brought us into a wedding that was in progress! She was so cool - we got to see a lot of things that weren't on the "itinerary" and learned a lot from her. Here are some pics from the first day of the trek.. More to come..for some reason my photos aren't syncing correctly. Maybe because the wifi here isn't spectacular.
That night, we ate at a local place that Pham recommended. It wasn't even really a restaurant... It was a space that a lady rented out, and you had to let her know in advance if and when you were coming for dinner so she would have enough food and woudn't close up shop. There was one long metal table, with plastic chairs and 2 fire stoves where the lady cooked her food. There wee a couple other locals there and a tv showing the news had their attention. A little kitty with a leash oround his neck also sat in the corner and meowed as we ate... I am sure he wanted some of what we were having. It was the first time we had really eaten with locals in a local spot, and it was amazing. We've had our fair share of vietnamese food and street food, but this was real home cooking. We had rice (of course), two types of delicious local greens, some kind of fish dish, and tofu. She kept refilling the bowls and we were sooooo stuffed when we left.. A really nice way to end the day.
The next morning, we ventured out with Pham for our second walk, where we visited a place called Cat Cat village. We walked all through the hills and saw a really pretty little waterfall. We also were entertained by some local dancers as they put on a performance. Mostly we enjoyed walking in the resh air and geting to know our guide. She told us all about their beliefs, such as when you bury a person in the ground, you cannot build anything above the grave, all the way up the mountain. She also told us about their belief in spirits and how evil spirits can cause disease, illness, and even catastrophes. She told us that not long ago a funeral procession was crossing a suspension bridge, despite the warning from an older woman about evil spirits, and the bridge broke as people were walking across and were injured or killed! Another belief was that when someone is ill, they kill a chicken as a sacrifice. It was so interesting to learn about her culture and the beliefs of her tribe.
That afternoon, we went and saw a bigger waterfall, called the Silver Waterfall. Because we were in Sapa during the dry season, the waterfall didn't flow as strong as it usually does, but it was still pretty to see.
Our last day in Sapa was my favorite. We woke up, explored the town a bit more, had lunch, and in the afternoon Pham came and met us at a hotel. We took a minibus to her village, where we were dropped off and then walked through rice farms to get to her home. She offered us tea and rice wine, and we had a great time meeting her sister and chatting around her dinner table. We met some of the other people from the village and exchanged stories with fellow travelers who had stayed the night at her house. Looking back now, I wish we had done the homestay option rather than the hotel, because it would have been awesome to spend more time with Pham. She was the nicest, most knowledgable, and coolest guide we could have asked for! We enjoyed walking the same paths she walks daily, and spending the last day with her. She even joined us for dinner in Lao Cai before we got our night train back to Hanoi! She took us to a local place famous for its fried rice, which was cheap and yummy. (The fried rice here is nothing like the stuff we get at home...)
After our bellies were full from some bomb fried rice, Pham took us to the train station and we said our goodbyes. We promised we would be back (maybe with kids) and we would stay with her.. Sapa would be a cool place to grow up as a kid.. so many places to run, climb and play. We would looove to come back and visit, for sure.
We were lucky to have some nice cabin-mates on the train, a young Vietnamese couple who did not snore and spoke excellent English. I slept like a dream and woke up refreshed when we arrived back in Hanoi. We spent 2 nights in Hanoi, and did basically nothing for a whole day in anticipation for the 24 hour bus ride we had booked through our hotel to Luang Prabang, Laos. But that, my friends, is a whole new epic blog post coming your way soon. It will be titled "The Bus from Hell" and I am sure many travelers have endured the same style of bus hell we did... Our story will be coming soon.
Until then!
MC
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