Sa Pa and a very big mountain….
My first train journey of the trip: it’s much easier to get onboard one here than in India. I’ve chosen hard sleeper class (well actually this is all that was available) for the overnight journey to Lao Cai next to the Chinese border: the jumping off point for Sa Pa.
The journey is fine, I’m so exhausted from lack of sleep from the past 5 nights, that I sleep for almost all of the twelve hours on my straw mat-on-metal-shelf bed. It’s like an oven in the carriage until we start moving: that’s why the windows have been replaced by metal bars!
Lao Cai station is more chaotic than Hanoi, and as usual the “transport connections”, or local bus, people find you. 90 minutes of hair raising driving and switchbacks, through beautiful scenery we’re in Sa Pa. It’s reminiscent of Indian hill stations. Even though it’s sunny, it’s noticeably cooler than near the coast and much less humid. It’s a small town, more a holiday resort. There’s a lake, a few streets of shops and cafe’s and a lively market. The town is surrounded by paddy fields, and the mountain range I hope to climb. Cat Cat village, Dao minority, is nearby and many of it residents in traditional dress are buying and selling in the streets of town. It appears mandatory that you buy a woven wristband from one of the girls before you leave!
Still exhausted, I go for an afternoon nap, and 18 hours later I wake up. At 9am I go to find someone who’s running a trek up Fan Si Pan, and by 10.30am I’m on my way. Fast moving for me!
Fan Si Pan is in the Hoang Lien range, and at 3143m high is apparently the highest mountain on mainland Indochina.
The top is frequently shrouded in mist, and on our second day we hope we’ll beat the clouds to get a view out across Vietnam, Laos and China. There are three of us doing the trek (though I wouldn’t say we hit it off), along with a guide and a cook/porter. The first day is easy going, a short three hour trek through forest and jungle to 2400m where there is a permanent tent-thing with bamboo platforms to sleep in. It’s surprisingly tiring, and we nap before dinner, during a torrential rainstorm.
The day of the summit attempt is fairly clear (the best views of the peak from camp are strangely from next to the smelly drop toilet), and as we leave, we see the clouds in the valleys below. For 5 hours we climb up, up, up through bamboo and trees. Then at 2900m, we start to go down! It’s up, down for a bit, before we pass the tree line. Unfortunately as we reach the top exhausted, we are already in the clouds…
However, as the guide prepares lunch on the small rocky peak, the clouds clear, to give us views down into the valley where Sa Pa is, and across into Laos. China remains cloudy however.
As it’s a long, slippery walk down, and we have to beat the sunset, we only get an hour to rest. The 4 hour journey down is just as hard as going up, and a lot of it is spent in the clouds. Just before reaching the camp, the sky clears and it’s sunny.
Already aching, we sleep like logs.
Until early afternoon, we had been the only people on the mountain, which made us feel even more adventurous. The final day is a short walk in baking hot sun (thankfully it wasn’t like this yesterday) back to the National Park office, and for our ride back down to town. Another mountain to tick off the list!
As I don’t plan to move anywhere, I treat myself to a room with a balcony and views across the valley, and spend the next day there. Needing to relieve my aching muscles, I take a stroll down to Cat Cat village, but that’s about all I manage.
The return ticket to Hanoi is a little more complicated. Despite having booked it 4 days earlier, the place we picked them up from in Lao Cai doesn’t have it. In other words, he sold it to one of his mates. I am really, really annoyed, this is the first time I got ripped off, and the guy doesn’t care. All he gives me is a ticket back from a station 40km away, which he has to bribe the conductor to let me on the train with. Still we have a better class of train, and hard sleeper here comes with a mattress and AC. Mustn’t grumble.
Tags: Travel
Nick