Sapa
We don't really plan too much in advance. Aside from flights, once we're in a country we only book things a couple of days at time. This flexibility comes at a price. Sometimes it is the actual price. Sometimes it's the service. Having not booked a night train early enough, we took a last minute private cab from Hanoi airport. With the fixed rate, the inexperienced taxi driver must have seen this as an opportunity to increase the effective hourly rate as he halved the journey time to 2h overtaking every car on the road in the process. He did this whilst face-timing his wife and others, speeding in all 4 lanes on both sides of the road and this included some near misses with oncoming traffic. Emma slept through the whole thing. When he dropped us off he asked for my number. Ten minutes later he texted asking if we needed any more driving in the area. No thank you.
I was excited about Sapa having not been there on my previous trip to Vietnam. Sapa is a small town of Lào Cai Province in the Northwest region of Vietnam with a population of around 60,000. It's a cultural hub, home to several ethnic minority groups (who seem to look and dress more Peruvian than East Asian). It is also a place of natural beauty, with cascading rice terraces, misty valleys, and majestic peaks. All this puts Sapa firmly on the map of backpackers and Asian tour groups alike. We arrived in town and checked into our lovely boutique hotel My Gallery Boutique Hotel and were instantly in love with the mountain view from our balcony. After a stroll around the hilly town, when night was creeping through, we noticed parts of Sapa that surprised us. The town felt a bit Las Vegas-y with neon signs, clubs with thumping music, giant spotlights in the sky and a huge billboard that lit up town square, playing marketing material to Sunworld Fansipan Legend on repeat.
As we continued to walk around we saw children from the native minorities selling things on the street, also busking in the town square for money through performances of traditional dance. Girls as young as three or four were dressed in full outfit and make up performing for the masses and similar ages carrying babies on their back past 8/9pm with no parents in sight. At the risk of indulging some western saviour complex, we felt pretty uneasy with what seemed to be a lot of child labour. I've seen this in other poor areas like India or parts of Africa but what made this more surprising was all of the kids looked very healthy. They had perfect teeth and were wearing beautifully colourful clean clothes which to me would signify a level of wealth that I wouldn't have associated with what was happening here. Perhaps what once was a necessity for these families to survive has now become convention, greed or was just a case of higher standards at the lower end of society? Either way authorities are trying to clamp down, pleading with tourists not to buy goods so that a cultural shift can occur and the children can be just that, children. Perhaps this coupled with legislative change is what's needed? It all feels different however, when you're presented with a particular situation and your humanity (or maybe guilt) takes control. In the end we gave some money to the dancers as it felt right at the time. Whether we should have or not.. who knows?
Busking kids in Sapa Town Square performing a traditional dance.
With the giant billboard, the town felt like it was sponsored by Sun World, the company that set up all the infrastructure on Fansipan Mountain. We were recommended going up this from a random Malaysian man on a bus in Taiwan. It was incredible. The Parisian art-deco style train station in Sapa taking you to the perfectly manicured gardens and beautiful indigenous village square at the base of Fansipan. The staggering views on the record breaking cable car ride taking you near the summit where you could see beautiful temples, more gardens and a giant 60 foot bronze buddha statue at 3100 metres above sea level. It was all an amazing feat of modern engineering and left us with our mouths open wide in awe for the 4 hours we were there. At £30 a ticket we were initially shocked at the price point for Vietnam, only to realise just how much it was worth it.
Side Note: Fansipan cable car climbs 1.4km in height (from 1700m to 3140m) and is 6.3km in length, breaking the world record in both of these measurements. 800 days of expert engineering and £136m lead to the impressive 20 min journey and this is something not to be missed by anyone. Luckily we managed to get a private journey to ourselves on the way up as no one else jumped aboard our car.
Domi and Guillermo arrived in Sapa a couple of days later than us after taking the night train from Hanoi. We'd booked a 9am trek through the rice paddies that day and they both seemed amazingly upbeat considering they'd had minimal sleep on the train. The early morning chat made a nice change from having to give Emma a few hours before I'm allowed to disturb her in the morning. We all set off from the hotel and descended down some sketchy trails immersing ourselves into the rice paddies pretty quickly. Our guide was racing ahead on the steep downhill and we all managed to keep up despite Guillermo and I having had some recent leg/ankle surgeries. Some natives had also joined part of the group and kept interacting with us whilst trekking through the paddies. They even made us hearts and animals out of straw and it all became apparent when they reached their home en route and started trying to guilt trip us into buying things. We all succumbed and admitted they were very good sales people despite all our initial declines (the blue satchel bag I bought now resides in a Japanese bin having stained through a number of my items). The whole trek was a lovely social affair as we chatted and enjoyed the views through the paddies, having lunch at one of the natives villages. Our guide was informative throughout the experience as we learnt more about the differences and similarities between the four tribes (H'mong, Tay, Red Dao and Giay). Some of the shared customs included arranged marriages at quite a young age which is now transitioning to a choice based approach later in life. An interesting difference is that the Giay tribe whilst influence by Chinese culture also speaks Thai language where as some members of the Hmoung tribe can speak Cambodian.
Our 'in between' time in Sapa was spent getting massages, eating great food and 'North Fake' / 'Pataphonia' shopping. The foot massages we received were amazing especially for the fiver price point. Unfortunately a terrible full body one performed with one hand on the phone and the other lightly stroking left me thinking it was better to not have got one at all. Emma had found 2 amazing vegan restaurants, Thong Dong 1 and Thong Dong 2. My second/third favourite restaurant names in Vietnam after the cafe chain 'Phuc Long'. The tasty food included hot pots, noodle soups and salads. We went to Thong Dong 1 three times and Thong Dong 2 once, closing out Sapa with Thong Dong 5 in total.
Initially we were going to rent ski gear in Japan but after seeing the vast amounts of quality fake trekking gear in Sapa we indulged. Spending around £60 on gloves, salopettes, a fleece, a jacket and inners we were fully kitted up. Tough pill to swallow knowing you've paid more for rounds of drinks in London. I mean there have been days, when Im feeling generous with the by-weight cherry tomatoes at the De Beauvoir Whole Foods, where I'll have spent more than the gloves.
Hanoi
We took a 'limousine' (essentially a fancy shuttle bus) to Hanoi. Having been there before I had some idea what to expect. We checked into Eliana Premio Hotel which had just been established a few months prior. The most helpful (sometimes overbearing) staff clearly wanted it to get amazing reviews from the get go and we were subjected to next level hospitality. There was literally someone ready at your beck and call as soon as an eye glanced in their vicinity. At times it was almost too much and it continued throughout our stay.
We headed out and after an overexcited three bahn mis at Bahn Mi Chai Vegan we headed to the Women's museum where we learnt about the role and perception of women in Vietnamese marriage traditions, matriarchal societies, women's fashion and women in the Civil War. It was so refreshing to have a different focal point in an anthropological museum and further proved the truth of just how male centric these museums or history books can otherwise be. Not to cheapen the experience but based on the visitors, I also learnt that it would be a very good place for singles to meet women and that male bathroom's in women's museum are amongst some of the finest in the land.
Whilst having a drink on Train Street that evening we bumped into Lauren & Greg from our Tao boat trip again! We all loved Train Street. With bars and restaurants either side of a train track where the trains literally whizz past a metre away from your face, it was a really cool experience. We had a lovely evening catching up and checked out a local speakeasy having cocktails into the evening. This time we managed to get a bit deeper with both of them and learnt some saddening and shocking stories which have shaped and defined their relationship and outlook on life, which made us admire them even more. Everyone has a story if you take the time to listen.
Train coming through on Train St
For Japan we thought it best to get a tourist rail pass to travel around. Unfortunately you have to get the voucher sent to you before you enter the country so just like us, our passes had been doing a tour of Vietnam. We finally tracked them down from the FedEx offices in Hanoi which was a great relief!
Next up the Temple of Literature. It was the first university in Vietnam and the placed seemed like a shrine to Confucius and education itself. We marvelled at the incredible architecture and tiny desks upon which the students learned and took exams respectively.
One of my highlights of Hanoi was going to this random vegan restaurant called Katze Vegan & Vegetarian. It seemed like some families home kitchen and the queues were out the door. It had an interesting concept where you effectively got free unlimited rice, tomato tofu and vegetables. You could then order mains from a menu including various forms of asian dishes made with mock meat. We ordered a 'crab' dish and some salads, which were all tiny portions and honestly not that great. In the end the free unlimited dishes were by far the best things we ate, making me think that perhaps the business model was a genius way to ensure customers always left happy and well fed whilst also having a diverse menu. It allowed them to get economies of scale making stock quantities of the staples. Another concept to perhaps bring back to London.
We headed out to 'Beer Street' for the evening which was carnage. Immediately you were accosted by barmen guiding you to their respective outdoor seats for their 'unique deals' at happy hour. With some quick mental maths we discovered 'BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!' at VND 60k is the same as 'CHEAPEST BEERS ON BEER STREET!' at VND 30k. We sat down at one and it wasn't 10 mins in to in when we saw our bar owner and another lady getting into physical fight, slippers taken off and in her hand. Afterwards our bar owners husband came out with some raised hands and started getting super aggressive to his own wife. That's when I decided to get involved. It wasn't until I stood up that I realised just how much bigger than all of them I was, both in height and in width. I pushed all parties aside, like a teacher breaking up a year 7 school fight, and I tried to prevent them all from hitting each other. This was all with considerable ease and left me with a sense of power that I felt I could easily get addicted to.
Katze Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurant
Halong Bay
We met up with Domi and Guillermo the following day for the Peony Cruise in Halong Bay. After a comfortable ride to the port and some port logistics we were all aboard our seriously luxurious cruise ship. We were initially greeted by our captain. He was a young well dressed, sweet yet serious Vietnamese man named Tom. He spoke as if he'd been taught public speaking with vocal intonations and hand gestures fit for a Ted talk. It almost felt a bit robotic when he made a joke referring to himself as Tom Cruise. Having been on a budget Halong Bay 'party cruise' 7 years prior it felt like I'd jumped a few a few rungs on the ladder of a life as we boarded the vessel. It looked straight out of an Agatha Christie film adaptation. The staff were waving us on and greeted us with welcome drinks on arrival. Our sleeping quarters (which feels more appropriate to say than bedroom) was nicer than most of the hotel rooms we've stayed in, equipped with a balcony and white pebbled bathtub.
As we had lunch we saw the steep priced alcohol on the menu. Locals must have been clued up on this and boats filled with booze and other supplies circled the cruise ship hopeful that some tourists would buy some off them. Domi and Guillermo immediately took the initiative and the transaction perhaps resembled a drug deal on international waters. It involved the local lady on the boat to keep rowing and expertly attach her raft on to the cruise ship whilst exchanging the money for some beers. After seeing the slick deal that Domi and Guillermo pulled off, we also gave it a shot. It was a success, bus sadly the wine we bought was terrible and not worth the £10 we paid for it.
Floating newsagents in Halong Bay
The rest of the day was spent kayaking and swimming in the beautiful bay, followed by sipping cocktails in the hot tub on the upper deck. The life! The staff had put some real effort in with dinner which we enjoyed and after some more cocktails and lovely chats we called it a night.
As the early riser in our group of 4, I did Tai Chi on the upper deck during morning "sunrise" led by Tom 'Cruise'. It was my first Tai Chi class and was exactly how I imagined it. I found it serene drifting through the bay with peaceful music and amazingly beneficial for my creaky legs but if you told me to try and fake doing Tai Chi for 20 mins I would have probably replicated the same moves. It was basically the wax on wax off type exercises set by Mr Miyagi to the frustrated Karate Kid longing for actual combat.
That day we went on an tour of Cat Ba Island including a beautiful bike ride taking us from the marina to the the main village where the scenery looked like Jurassic Park (or Hampi..). We got a bit carried away on the bikes and our group had emerged as the fastest peloton. Domi, who is a great cyclist was cruising ahead taking the brunt of the headwind so that the remaining of us could ride in her slip stream. Upon arrival in the village we were greeted with a history lesson and discovered Cat Ba or 'Women's Island' is named after the wives of fisherman who eagerly awaited their unknown arrival as they set out to sea. Also that Ha Long means descending dragon which I postulated could be to do with the islands looking like the curves of a submerged dragons body although after a quick google found out was incorrect. The google answer still remains unclear.
After the talk we had about 20 mins to cruise round the island where we stopped off at a fish massage place and got our dead skin eaten. Travel really does mess up your feet. Just like the your white clothes never retain that colour of white, your feet are never 100% clean. Complete with permanently imprinted dirt, dead skin and callouses from all the bare foot living. The fish had a field day. We were all left rubbing our feet together enjoying the smoothness. After another swim and kayak we closed out with some more dinner and cocktails and got into some deep conversations with Domi and Guillermo, and as is customary for Londoners away from London, the London housing market was vehemently discussed.
Last stop on the Halong Bay tour was Trung Trang Cave. Formed millions of years ago with impressive stalagmites and stalactites, it used to be called Bat Cave for obvious reasons and interestingly was also used by Vietnam's Navy of Information and Communication as a radio base during the Vietnam War.
We then headed back to Hanoi where we our final day was spent getting another terrible one handed phone massage, more fake mountainware shopping and having a farewell lunch with Domi & Guillermo, whom it has been an absolute pleasure to travel with and we'll miss their company. Next up.. Japan!
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