千里之行 始于足下

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Fine

Distance covered today: 285km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 1,814km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,290km

Fact of the day: Dien Bien Phu was the site of the famous battle during the First Indochina War in 1954.

It was New Year’s Day but nothing changed. I still had to wake up early to catch my bus. I was asked to arrive by 7.00am at the travel agency for the scheduled departure of 7.30am. Like everywhere else in this part of the world, the minibus arrived late and I was shoved inside it which was already packed with passengers.

Our route for the day

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It turned out that about half of the passengers on board were locals and the rest tourists. French seemed to be the predominant nationality among the tourists and we picked up two Thai guys on the way out of Sapa. It was a tight squeeze; seats meant for three had to accommodate four. Vietnamese safety standards are clearly not quite the same as back home. There was a guy who acted as an assistant to the driver. He would got everyone sorted and seated in the correct position. He wanted me to move behind to squeeze with three other tourists in the last row and I claimed that it was impossible. Luckily he didn’t insist and my row only sat three persons throughout the trip.

The road out of Sapa definitely wasn’t one of the best that I traveled on.

Although I can’t deny that the scenery was spectacular.

We stopped at a roadside restaurant about 2.5 hours after Sapa. It was a little too early for lunch but I got some pho in anticipation of the long journey ahead. After lunch, our driver would yet pick up another passenger on the cramped minivan. The assistant kept hitting on the new lady passenger (which irritated the hell out of me) which finally stopped when she got car-sick and didn’t want to talk anymore.

I observed that the locals are more susceptible to car-sickness compared to foreign travelers in mountainous areas. My little hypothesis (perhaps someone can prove it please) is that despite living in regions with curvy roads, the locals didn’t travel on motor vehicles much. Most of their rides are short ones and they only travel out of necessity. Meanwhile the foreigners are often hardened travelers who have more than their fair share of bumpy roads and thus less likely to get car-sick. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

At about 2.30pm, a roadblock (KM unknown) prevented us from continuing our journey. Prior to that the roads weren’t too bad and the vehicle was burning the distances at pretty good speed.

Apparently a rock had fallen from the cliff and killed someone. The police officers closed the road for investigations and only motorcycles could pass through the affected sector.

During the stop I chatted with some of the other travelers. Like me, they were all going to cross over to Laos the next day. I guess one really had to be patient traveling in this part of the world; nothing really runs on schedule and roadblocks like this happen all the time.

There was a dam construction project right beside where the accident took place.

While a new dam would bring economic benefits, dam construction and tunnel-building were known to cause soil erosion and landslides. Was the dam to be blamed for the unfortunate event? I had heard all about how the dam projects affect the ecosystem in Sikkim. The location might have change but the impacts were eerily similar.

Finally our vehicle got going after almost two hours. I was puzzled why the police officers couldn’t open the road earlier but I shouldn’t criticize things that I didn’t understand.

Something interesting en route:

The lost hours would cause us to arrive at Dien Bien Phu (KM 1,814) after sunset.

The Thai guys were able to communicate with some of the people at bus station in Thai/Lao and through them we knew about the connecting bus to Laos the next day. After registering and paying for the ticket (88,000 VND), getting accommodation was next on the agenda.

Fortunately I had made use of the unsecured Wifi in Sapa to research on Travelfish. It is a really comprehensive online portal for backpacking visitors to Southeast Asia and it is highly recommended for anyone going to the region.

I ended up with Viet Hoang Guest House, located diagonally across the bus station. I shared the room (Twin, 150,000 VND per room) with a British backpacker from the bus. I’m sorry that I forgot his name and let’s just call him BP.

We had a rather expensive dinner at a eating place two shopfronts away from the guest house and managed to trade some travel stories. He was on a two month trip to Southeast Asia and was going back to Thailand after seeing Laos. There didn’t seem to have much going on at DBP in the evening and both of us turned in early. BP was especially tired since he had a late night on NYE in Sapa while I wasn’t looking forward to yet another early start the following morning.

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Clear in the morning but misty from afternoon onwards

Distance covered today: 328km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 1,529km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,575km

I woke up bleary-eyed when my train (SP1, dep Hanoi 21:15) pulled into Lao Cai Station (KM 1495) at 5.30am. Mr Manh asked me whether I wanted to follow them and his offer was eagerly accepted. We were whisked to a minivan for Sapa (30,000 VND) which lies around an hour away.

Reaching Sapa (KM 1529), Mr Manh made me another offer which I couldn’t refuse: I would share a room with him and his wife for the night. The room had two beds and I got my own. Mr Manh also asked me whether I wanted to follow them on a tour to the surrounding villages. I had to decline their kind offer as I wanted to catch some more shut-eye and most probably I would not understand the Vietnamese-speaking guide.

Sleeping in the cold weather was nice but my hunger woke me up. I was out into the town on mid-morning in search for some food and a little sightseeing.

I was pretty lucky to enjoy good weather in my only day in Sapa.

Sapa is touristy. I think that the town exists almost solely for the purpose of tourism. Most of the shops there are one way or another related to the industry. Tourists most probably outnumbered the locals when I was there. As described in guidebooks, there were many ethnic minority women (I think most are Hmongs) dressing in their traditional costumes and went around the town selling trinkets to tourists. I was accosted as well and I somehow managed to reject their offers politely.

After lunch, I consulted the guide uploaded to my iPod. Obviously most visitors to Sapa would at least do some trekking and the easiest one was to Cat Cat village, 3km downhill from Sapa town square.

It cost 20,000 VND to enter Cat Cat Village. Judging from the footpaths laid for the tourists, the money were being spent in the right area.

Some of the my co-users on the footpath:

The waterfall was kinda underwhelming but I didn’t expect much in the first place. Instead of taking the route which I came from, I followed the trail which led me to the other exit of the village.

It was a uphill walk back to Sapa town and I decided to reward myself with some desserts.

What do I like about touristy places? It has to be the presence of WiFi. There were many unsecured connections around the town which I could tap on for free.

I sorted out my transportation to Dien Bien Phu (US$12 or 216,000 VND) at one of the numerous travel agencies before taking a rest back at the guesthouse.

I ventured out in the evening again for dinner.

After dinner I went to a cafe to take advantage of the WiFi. I would go back early (around 9 pm) because I had quite a long day and there would be another one coming up the following day. How exciting for NYE.

Fog was really bad by then.

I chatted with Mr Manh when I got back to the guesthouse. It was really interesting hearing about his story. He is 72 years old and used to study in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to the fall of the South Vietnamese government, he worked in the navy and had to became a driver after liberation of Saigon. He has a son who left Vietnam on a boat in 1980 and lives in United States now.

Reading or watching movies on history was one thing but talking to real people who been through those times was another experience. Meeting interesting people is what makes traveling amazing, isn’t it?