Sapa, the City in the Fog

I did not make up that title; it is on a monument in the town square. We have had pretty decent weather, but we have seen the fog.

Phillip and I took an overnight train from Hanoi to get here. The bed was surprisingly comfortable, but the clanking and clattering of the train on the track was indeed as noisy as reviewers said it would be. 

Phillip slept well enough that he was not tired when we disembarked the train in Lao Cai. Sapa was still an hour away, so I had arranged for a car shuttle. Our driver took a slight detour for us because the Vietnam/China border was just a mile from the train station. This is the border crossing into China, the closest we’ve been to that country.

Our car shuttle was early in the day, around 6:30 am when we left Lao Cai, so we drove in and out of clouds that had not burned off yet as the car went up and down the mountains.

We arrived too early to check in at our hotel, so we walked around Sapa for a bit. We found that town square with a round-a-about whose rules we could not discern other than “if you see an opportunity, take it.” We walked around a lake that could have used a few more benches, but it did have lovely views of the surrounding mountains. 

When we could check into our room, we were pleasantly surprised that we had been given a free upgrade. I booked a standard room, but they gave us a suite!

I’m sitting at that huge desk working on this blog while Phillip sits on the couch. The bedroom also has a wall of windows with a wonderful mountain view. 

We had a cooking class that evening, making bun cha.

The instructors were fine, but I didn’t ask for the recipe as I was not a fan of the flavor of this bun cha, too much fish sauce in the liquid and not enough spice in the meat. We still ate what we made, as it was good, just not great.

Yesterday (Saturday), we went on a full-day motor scooter ride into the mountains and thru several villages, about 60-80 km of motor scooter riding. As has happened frequently on this trip, I did not book a private tour, but because this is the shoulder season here, we were the only people for the tour. Phillip drove and I rode on the back of a 125cc scooter. Our guide, Tao, had his own scooter and went at our pace since it was just us. He took us to mountain overlooks with great views.

We visited two majestic waterfalls, the Silver Waterfall and the Love Waterfall. My favorite part of the Silver Waterfall was that we walked up the stairs to see the falls. Not the actual stairs, just that they were in the beginning of the trek.

The color of the water on the rocks is what caused the locals to call it the Silver Waterfall.

Tao pointed out that the locals were drawn here because cardamom grows wild in the area. These red berries are black cardamom, used in pho and meat dishes. It is different from green cardamom, originating in India, which is used in desserts and curries.

Our second waterfall to visit, the Love Waterfall, was a short ride away.

At this waterfall, we walked down steps, thru a valley, over and along a stream. Steps seem steeper when they are at the end of an activity!

The valley walk near the stream was very well done. Flat stones were very stable to walk on.

The air was moist and the rocks were wet, but I did not feel unstable walking at all.

And we were rewarded by the Love Waterfall, even if we did have to go back up steps after seeing it. 

More overlook stops for pictures

At this one, I got off the motor scooter and waited while Tao and Phillip (grey shirt, red scooter) drove to the middle of this narrow bridge for pictures. Too high and too narrow for me!

We drove thru the Muong Hoa Valley and saw many terraced fields. These are dedicated entirely to rice production.

Others used terracing for production of corn and other vegetables. 

We had a traditional lunch at one of the villages, with lots of food, more than we could eat. 

Phillip and I were tired by the end of the tour, but it had been a really good one, even if many of the roads we drove on were in disrepair. We drove thru that Sapa roundabout twice! We just followed Tao and hoped that other drivers could see that we weren’t locals. 

Tomorrow, we are moving to a homestay in a village for two nights. We will still be in Sapa, but our accommodation will be quite different from this hotel suite!