Sapa

With an evening of mulled wine behind me, and a journey to Laos ahead, I realized I really should jot down what I've been up to these past few days.

First class tickets in the overnight train rushed us from Hanoi to Sapa* recently.

*Turns out 1 hours steep, windy, pot-holey drive from Sapa.

Mots, Morgan, Craig and I shared a cabin on the train and filled the time nicely with some vigorous 500. We were roused at 4:30AM for no reason in particular by a guard, which was nearly an hour before we needed to disembark the train to start the day. Perhaps an early warning call for those that take a while to wake.

Sapa is a mountainous town with beautiful views overlooking valleys of rice paddies. Or at least that's what I assume is out my window when the cloud hasn't settled in for winter. We/our mini-van was chased in to town by a dozen of the local village-touts; villagers dressed in traditional garb selling home made knitted things. Each seem to be identical in conversation, asking where you're from then enticing you to their village miles away for a lunch.

Our hotel, the White Lotus, is superb. Amazing value as the rooms are very nice and a delicious breakfast is included. We've had a few chats with the hotelier and it's just great to have a host who gets it. He knows guests want to relax, have fun in the local area, and be comfortable, all for a fair price. We have had to earn our keep though by fixing up the hotels excuse for a network (he had 2 DHCP servers, 1 mis-configured wifi-daisy-chain link, and a redundant router). He unfortunately repaid us with a number of shots of Moonshine, followed by a plastic bottle full of the stuff. He makes this himself, bootleg styles.

Yesterday was a bike-hiring day. We ended up motoring for maybe 3 or so hours over this massive hill and right down in to this far away valley. Amazing scenery. Utterly utterly amazing. So beautiful to be scootering along and seeing the edge of the road drop off in to this far away valley below. The road continued to alter between paved and not paved, with a few rather bumpy bits (Morgan nearly fell of Craig's bike at one point). We finished in a far away village that served amazingly tasty Pho. Then back on the bikes to repeat the experience, just with threateningly low fuel gauges this time.

Today was a walking day. Mots, who is still suffering from jetlag, was up around 6 or 7. He noticed that one of yesterdays touts had camped outside our hotel waiting to take us to her village. The walk was amazing, although could have benefited from some visibility. I still remember the moment the cloud cleared just a little to reveal the miles of rice paddies scarring the hills in every direction. The photos I have got cannot do it justice for even the fresh, cold misty air is necessary to make the scene complete. Really beautiful stuff. We ended up eating at ???s place (instant noodle, egg, and more rice than you can shake a stick at) then departed on our return journey. Maybe around 20+ kms walked total, a pretty solid effort.

This journey in to Sapa has been so good. Vietnam's a pretty full on place with the pace of every city being busy and constantly in your face, never letting you relax. This chilled out haven is the opposite of it all. Everyone is more relaxed. The roads are quiet. The people are friendly. People are growing up in villages and leading more wholesome lives. It's just a shame that so many other parts of Vietnam have lost touch with these pure beginnings.

Anyway, up at 6 to pack then head 300km to our last Vietnam town pre Laos. Better hit the hay.