We caught the sleeping bus from Hanoi to Sapa, an eleven hour journey overnight. I've never been on a sleeping bus before in my life. Imagine three rows of 'beds' lengthways down the bus with a row on top and a row on the bottom. We were herded like prized cattle into the rows and there we stayed for just over eleven hours. It was actually fine. I slept reasonably well waking up now and then with a jolt of the bus. My only complaint was the lack of leg space and not for my own legs. You see, the guy behind me had nowhere to stick his feet and plonked them at either side of my ears. They did not smell good. Ah well, the smell faded after an hour and I dozed off to sleep.
In short, Sapa is unbelievable. Not just the scenery but the town itself is so familiar and European in feeling we could easily imagine we were in some sort of Swiss Ski resort - apart from no snow. Compared to Hanoi it is a dream come true. Our first adventure was to hire a scooter and driver to take us to the silver waterfall through a fantastic valley. The waterfall was incredible. It looked almost as if the water was coming from nowhere. The whole way round the waterfall we were followed by a whiskey vapored Vietnamese tourist. When we got back down to the bottom he asked for a picture together and casually slipped a hand on our behinds. We shouted at him and then we laughed.
Our second and third days in Sapa, we spent with a local tribeswoman called Lis. She had approached us on the street the day before and invited us to trek to her house and stay the night in her village. Normally I would refuse such offers for fear I'd never be seen again. On this occasion however, Lis seemed like a bit of craic so we couldn't really pass it up. We met her the next morning at the local Christian church (I took a picture for my gran) and started out on our trek to Lis' house. And what a trek it was. It ended up being about 4 1/2 hours, about 12km in total (25km counting day one and two). Which isn't so much apart from the fact a clear path was absent about 70% of the time. We went up ditches, across rivers, climbed rocks, jumped stones and navigated our way through slippery rice paddies. We did it with our runners and backpacks but Lis and her two companions managed it in little flip flops, full traditional outfits and heavy bamboo baskets strapped to their shoulders, no bother. Me and Lorna on the other hand were struggling just a tiny, tiny bit and our feet came back mangled in blisters. Nice. Our consolation being that the view is unbelievable. I will never see anything quite so stunning again I am sure.
But let me talk a bit about Lis. Lis is a black H'mong tribeswoman. I say black because these people wear black pants as part of the traditional costume. She is 26 and married with two children. She can speak her tribes language, Vietnamese, English and French, learned from interacting with tourists. Lis is nothing short of amazing. She literally hasn't a moment to herself. She goes to town everyday to try sell her handmade items. If she can, she takes tourists like ourselves on a trek to her house to make a bit extra. She makes all her family's clothes herself, weaving, sewing, dyeing. She and her children feed all their farm animals, they grow crops and she cooks dinner for the whole family every night. She said her children will continue school until they are 19. Then they find a job for themselves or if they want to be a teacher or doctor or whatever she will find a way for them to do that. That won't be easy as it seems pricey for education in Vietnam. Lis seems happy and it appears her family are doing quite well for themselves andI hope that will continue as they are really beautiful people.
Oh, and she has a social life! The next morning we got up and found her holding her head after too much rice wine at a neighbors little shin dig. So, we aren't so different after all!
After our trek, we managed to negotiate a free shower in a hostel and we are now sitting back on our respective sleeping bus ready for another nights driving. The only thing about taking the bus back from Sapa in the evening is the fair chance that a lot of other Trekkers didn't have the opportunity to negotiate a free shower somewhere. Welcome to stinking sock central.
Oh and P.S. Myself and Lorna only had one blanket to ourselves when we slept in Lis'. Which ended up with me trying to cuddle Lorna in my sleep. Awkward. I think I must be missing himself....
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