The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Lao Cai & Sapa

We got woken in the early hours of the morning by one of the Orient Express staff to find we were already in Lao Cai (the stop to get to Sapa). We had a quick rush to get all our gear together and get off the train. Unfortunately we could not use the bathrooms as the toilets on trains go straight through to the tracks... and they do not want the train stations smelling.... so they only open up the toilets once the train leaves the CBD.

We were approached on the train by a man from Lao Cai who was running a bus to Sapa. I'm afraid we got quite ripped off on this and ended up on a different bus... all in all we ended up getting to Sapa safely and relatively quickly. Any travelers be wary of the ones that come looking for you on the train... Cheaper to walk out the front and find your own bus.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful. We got given a business card of the hotel that runs the bus and decided to check it out. I cant even recall the name of it now but it had a beautiful view over the valley and quite clean rooms for the $10 it cost us. we were however lucky we were in the warm season as the room had no aircon/heater and it gets quite chilly in the mountains. As we got off the bus we were met by a number of girls form one of the local tribes all wearing bright patterned clothes and selling local crofts (but not pushy for once in Vietnam).

After a quiet morning we headed out for some brunch and ended up at a place called Baguettes and Chocolate. This was a nice french style cafe that served us a nice breakfast for about $3, including baguettes with Nutella, chocolate croissants, fruit salad and tea/coffee.

Just down the road from this cafe is a place we found called Sapa O'Chau, in the form of a little cafe slightly up the hill from the main street. We were greeted by a cheerful man who was volunteering at what turned out to be a profit for purpose community organisation that ran a school and various tourist treks and home stays, with all proceeds going back to the community. We had wanted to do a trek to see the local villages and decided to take Peter from Sapa O'Chau up on one of their overnight home-stay treks for the following day.

The morning of our second day we met Miss Shu from Sapa O'Chau who was our guide for the two days. We also had a 19 year old girl with us from another village who was learning to be a tour guide. We started off by descending n the valley to the Cat Cat village and viewing their wonderful waterfalls. This was only a few minutes walk from the township of Sapa, and was hence a very busy tourist location. On the way to the next village is when we started to feel the steep climbs and the heat of the day which must of been nearing 32 degrees by about 10am (and humid as it had rained all morning).

The first day of trekking consisted of 14km of varying degrees of trails, including many uphills climbs and downhill descents, mud, thin paths, rocks and climbing up a gully. Miss Shu was definitely taking us on the scenic route, which is what we were after (something not too touristy). Bec was constantly taking photos of the wildlife, which included geese, buffalo, cats, dogs, hens, rosters, ducks, ducklings and everything in between. The people of Sapa villages definitely live closely with a lot of animals.

We headed to a H'mong village for lunch at what appeared to be a way-station for travelers. While we were there a number of groups dropped by and used the kitchen facilities to cooks a nice meal. While there we were entertained by a small cat which was quite friendly but had very sharp claws! The walk from lunch got slightly more difficult, with numerous hills, but luckily less mud, and we arrived at our home stay in the Lao Chai at the residence of Mai at about 3 pm. We settled in for an afternoon with a few beers with some of the locals and a french couple who were spending the night at Mai's as well.

As night came, Mai and her children, our tour guides, and another man who lived at the house disappeared to prepare dinner... which ended up being a banquet with 11 different pork, beef, chicken and vege dishes. We didn't even get through half the food, which we washed it down some some local corn and rice wine (the term wine is used lightly. It was about 100 proof and tasted like tequila). We retired relatively early to rest or feet and get a good night sleep before the 12 km walk the following day.

The send day of trekking started about 9am after some amazing pancakes. We once again started to climb some steep slopes on our way to the Giay village (which was Miss Shu's town). The landscape on these walks were amazing. We saw many rice fields being rebuilt ready for the planting season (which apparently is May-June) and saw some of the immense irrigation works. It was amazing how much water flows around those mountains (one of which is technically a southern mountain of the Himalayas... where we technically have now been).

We arrived at Shu's house about midday and after receiving a phone call, Shu asked if we would like to attend her friends wedding with her which was about to be held. (we later found out that weddings are 3 events. Firstly they go to a church and exchange rings etc, then a few days later they have a big meal with the brides family... this is what we attended... and then after that they have a massive party at the grooms parents house, which is where the bride will move to. The amazing thing is that the parents can decide merely hours before when they want the wedding to be. This means that Shu did not know the wedding was one until hours before - a bit different to the way we do things with all the invitations!!). When we arrived at the wedding we were given chairs overlooking the valley and spoke to a young girl for some time (before we found out she was the bride!!) and had a chance to meet the groom who looked about 16. We sat down to a nice meal which included 3 pork dished and a beautiful roast chicken. I wanted to know what they cooked it with but it was nothing. Just the chicken cooked whole unlike our ones back home.... We even had one of the chicken feet on our table.

After the wedding we continues to hike fro another 2 hours before heading back to the road and being picked up by a minivan to go back to Sapa where we heading back to Sapa O'Chau for a much needed shower ready for out night train back to Hanoi. This time we were travelling with TSC rather than Orient Express. From my experience of the two, Orient had slightly longer beds but was not quite as clean. TSC was very clean and had a decent bathroom, but seemed more of a jerky ride. Definitely will go Orient again if i need a god nights sleep!