24 hours in Sapa

Dec 17

We arrived around in Lao Cai 7:30 AM and took a van to Sapa, about an hour away. We encountered many scam artists in Lao Cai which seems to exist solely to pray on sleepy eyed tourists. We had been told that we should pay 60,000 dong ($3.00) for the van ride.(21,395 dong to $1. US; The best part is there are no coins in this currency.) We were swarmed as we got off the train by men yelling ' ride to Sapa, $15.00 US per person'. We persisted in searching for those $3 vans but they had colluded  and everyone of them said $15.00. As we walked away  for the fourth time, they said $10 per person.  We managed to get it down to $10 for the two of us, and we agreed. After we got loaded into the van they wanted another $5. It didn’t feel good but we were tired and just wanted to get to Sapa.so we paid it.

Mike, the guide we had met on the train had given us a name of a friend who could arrange a guide and car for the day. We walked to the hotel which was under construction and found Chung easily. It was quite cold in Sapa as it is at 5,000 ft. in elevation. The hotel where we met Chung was unheated. After discussing our plans we went to a restaurant for some breakfast and discovered this hotel/ restaurant was unheated. Dang it was cold. We had each worn a heavy wool sweater, socks and a light jacket. After breakfast we bought some warm polar fleece gloves which really helped.

Our guide Dan showed up and we were off walking through town to get to the Black Hmong village. As we got close there were many roadside stalls selling all manner of souvenirs, some authentic textiles and some cheap textiles from China. Once in the village there was less junk but still some. I stopped at one home where there was a display of some really nice textiles and bought a highly embroidered cloth belt made of indigo cotton. I asked the price and the woman said 700,000 (about $35). I asked if she would take 600,000 (bargaining is expected). She said 700,000 with assertion. I tried a third time and paid her asking price and commended her for her excellent bargaining skills. I found out that her mother had made the piece and asked if we could take her photo with the piece. Her mother was in traditional dress with beautiful silver jewelry. 

In all we walked mostly up for a little over 2 hours. Both of
us got winded and had to rest frequently due to the altitude. The government has provided schools for the children of the minority communities and helps them with economic development. Here, the economic development included a stone walkway throughout the entire path through this village. At one point the walkway was muddy and Dan walked Ron first on the narrow edge of the walkway holding Ron’s hand while Dan walked on the the other edge. He came back and did the same for me.

They also had trained locals in performance arts and they provided a brief show of dance in traditional costumes. One of the dances had them steppng in between pieces of bamboo that were being banged together by others. The villagers had crafted some traditional items that were brilliant ideas for marketing to tourists which were bedspreads made from the traditional textiles, They were quite attractive.

Sapa is a beautiful place located in the mountains with rice terraces everywhere. They have oneVietnam growing season whereas Hanoi has two and Saigon has three. There are 54 ethnic minorities in 

A van met us at the end of the walk and took us back to town where
we had lunch before meeting up with Dan and the van. The sun came out during the walk and helped immensely warming up the temps which had been in the mid 30’s I would guess. The restaurant was unheated however. I guess it is just too costly. There are throngs of street vendors in Sapa town area. Many travel in small groups. Very short women selling trinkets or textiles while wearing traditional dress. They spoke excellent English. I had a great time with fiv of them after lunch. They love to appeal to your guilt by saying 'please buy from me, I haven’t soled anything today'. When you say no they said 'maybe later'. So I say 'how about tomorrow, I won’t be here'. We all laughed. Then we talked about our children and shared a special exchange.. One of the women is from the Red Dao minority. She shaves her head and wears the red headdress which is typical. There seems to be no animosity among the different minorities. Most of the minorities marry quite early and have large families. All of these women except one were 18-34 years old with 1-4 children. One was a grandmother and in her 50’s.

Next Dan took us to the Red Dao village. This was an easier and shorter walk. This village is better off economically because of the land they own and there many ways of earning money: tourism, foraging in the forest for herbal medicines and growing medicinal herbs. They also have good rice farms. However when the tourism board built them a market place where they could sell their wares to tourists in their village they decided not to use it and instead descend on tourists as they alight from the tour buses. We have been warned so we didn’t speak to anyone who approached us and we didn’t make eye contact. Later on the walk I admired some needle work a woman was doing and she got up and started following me and asked where I was from. This is the typical way of engaging tourists. Later she invited us into her home which we always consider a privilege. Her husband was outside near the front of the house washing a motorcycle.

Her home was a large wooden structure. To the right of the front door was a concrete structure which was the toilet and bathing rooms. Inside the house was a dirt floor. The first room was large and her family members were sitting around a small fire built directly onto the floor. The front door was open I assume to let in light. There was  no lighting and it was dark so I went slowly waiting for my eyes to adjust. The walls were not insulated and at places you could see daylight. There was a loft where they stored food for animals according to Dan. The next room was divided into two rooms, one was hidden from our view but it was where the family slept. Our host has a couple of her adult married children living with her. There was a loft here as well where they stored rice for the family. Outside this room was a veggie garden. I am amazed at how many gardens we saw today as it is cold here and it is December but obviously they have a growing season during the winter. We went back through the house and she again asked me to buy something. I wanted to support her in some way as she had been very kind to us. She pulled out a sack filled with items she had made and I bought a beautiful little cloth bag that was heavily embroidered in blue threads. We were surprised at the number of satellite dishes in the village. It turns out they are free from the government and you have 20 channels to choose from. If you want 80 channels you pay about $5. a month.

We  dropped Dan off at the main road and he returned to Sapa and we headed down the mountain to Lao Cai to catch our train. Dan works 20-25 days a month then goes to see his wife and kids who live about 100 kilometers from Hanoi. When we got back to Lao Cai our driver was supposed to exchange our voucher for our train tickets and then take us to a hotel restaurant that Dan had recommended. Instead he drove up to a hotel near the station and a man was standing there, took our voucher and led us into his restaurant where we were told to wait. After a while we could see this was a racket. Most people felt trapped and ordered their dinner here. We didn’t like the feel of the bait and switch as it were so asked for our voucher. After a bit Ron retrieved it and we left. We went to the train station only to discover that the train station doesn’t give you tickets here. They said ‘outside’. We looked around outside and saw a window and walked up to it, 'no' we were told. This went on for a while with us trying several options, No one spoke English. We went back inside and asked at the window again. A tourist approached us and said to go outside that there were women with the tickets. At the same moment a uniformed man came over and told us to go with him. He led us around to three different women before we got resolution. I am sure there is a system but have no idea what it is. We grabbed dinner at what we thought was the recommended restaurant but is was very bland and neither of us finished it.

While waiting for the train a man opened an instrument case and proceeded to play some beautiful music on asian stringed instrument. Everyone applauded each time he finished playing a piece. It turned out he was one of our bunk mates but spoke no English. We turned in early and arrived in Hanoi around 5:00 a.m. We took a taxi to our hotel.