22 AUG - 26 AUG 2017 /
Finally, another trip with Sis after two years (ever since our Bali trip) and this time, we covered Hanoi and Sapa in northern Vietnam before taking a domestic flight down south to Mui Ne and Saigon (personal preference to use Saigon instead of Ho Chi Minh City Idk why) and I think Im more inclined to travel to regional countries in recent years, as opposed to my fascination with far flung destinations in the past - like I just wanna do more honest travelling and see a place for what it really is and not get too caught up in ticking off dream destinations after dream destinations.
One day I'll walk your soil
One day I'll finally know my soul
One day I'll come to you
To say hello Vietnam
To say xin chào Vietnam
We two landed at Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi but have no intention to really explore the capital of Vietnam since we would be taking an overnight bus to Sapa from Hanoi Old Quarter. Without a place to deposit our luggage, we basically just hang around their Design Center for a bit (great if you are into crafts culture like ceramics, baskets etc) and took up space at this Japanese-Western fusion cafe before heading for our bus pick-up point and had the best pho in Hanoi there! Anw the Dong currency confused me so much at first but a very kind lady whom I bought mineral water from tried to enlighten me on the correct usage of notes, otherwise I would have paid six dollars for a sixty cents mineral water - so many zeros omg
^ Sapa Express - we took the Luxury 32 Soft Beds bus which set us back 13USD per pax (reasonable price considering it's a prolly five and a half hours journey from Hanoi to Sapa) The private cars we booked on two occasions cost at least 170USD per trip, so it would have been nicer if there were alternatives like these buses! I mean, I could have slept comfortably anywhere so of course I would have preferred a cheaper option BUT TIME CONSTRAINTS YO (we had only five days and alot of time had alr been spent travelling on the road)
It was 330am by the time we got off the bus, and luckily for us the drop-off point was actually walking distance from most Sapa hotels (prolly a seven mins walk) and unluckily for us there was not much street lights in our path and stray dogs seemed to be right behind our tracks, it totally made for the perfect horror scene. But the night sky was so clear I saw this wide expanse of stars like I have never seen them before - faint twinkles but still beautiful I didn't even bother to take a picture with my phone (knowing full well that the photo turn-out would not do those stars justice) so yes, everything's just different up in the mountains (:
^ Breakfast with a view at Sapa Lodge Hotel
We signed up for this six hours trek (from 9am to 3pm) the next day which cost 17USD per pax and though we two were all smiles and sunshine in the pictures below, it was plain agony trying to catch up with our group (consisting mainly of ang-mohs and a few Koreans) THEY WERE SO FAST AND WE WERE SO SLOW hahaha and you never know what kind of terrain would welcome you in the next moment - it could be a levelled surface, or muddy soil steps which either led to a descent down the valleys or an ascent up again (which at times were really slippery and steep), or stone steps in the middle of rushing waters, and navigating around tree roots and Idk which animal dung - the journey was really arduous what with almost non-stop walking and climbing and slipping but it proved to be one of the most memorable part of the trip. And we two couldn't have done it without the hill tribes locals literally giving us a helping hand!
Anw by the last hour it was starting to pour real heavy and all and at one point of time during the last stretch of the trek we two thought we lost our group (or the other way round depending on whose pov) WE WERE ALR SO FREAKIN TIRED LIKE WHY DID IT HAVE TO RAIN and then I got so stoned upon reaching our hotel (power outage until 4pm due to the rain) I was shivering on the chair, unable and refusing to do anything else and thinking to myself I trekked my way to a fever on my second day of the trip and feeling weak and wtf until I came to my senses a good two hours later and stepped into the toilet for a hot shower (which was the best thing to do to stop the shivering) Did I mention my pants split wide open at the back and I didn't even know when it happened ????? And worse, I don't even know who saw ?????
So yes, I left my pants and my Bata shoes behind (and resorted to my fugly slippers for the rest of the trip) but I still think I do love trekking / hiking trips like this coz the payoff (ie. beautiful sceneries) is always the sweetest when real effort has been put in. It's always about the journey, they say. In fact, Im gonna climb Mt. Fansipan (the highest mountain in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; the "Roof of IndoChina") one day (: Will write about Mui Ne and Saigon in the next post!
xx