Sapa made me Cheat on my Island

After Halong Bay, we didn't want to waste any time in Hanoi before heading straight to the former hill station town of Sapa, which is located in Northern Vietnam (extremely close to the Chinese border). Like the rest of Vietnam, Sapa was under the control of the French for quite a long time and the buildings in the town of Sapa are very French in style. Combine this with the looming mountains that surround the town and the vast sheet of impenetrable fog that rolls in at around noon every day, and you can almost make yourself believe that you aren't in Vietnam at all, but have instead stumbled into some European fairy tale town in the Alps. Needless to say, I enjoyed Sapa immensely.

From Hanoi we took a night bus that would drop us off in the town of Lao Cai early in the morning. From Lao Cai it is a climbing, one lane, winding and very scary 30 kilometres to the top of the mountain and the town of Sapa. The bus was very comfortable- air conditioned, fully reclining seats, blankets and a pillow provided- but it was almost impossible for anyone to sleep because of the booming Vietnamese pop music that the driver refused to turn down for more than five minutes at a time. Not a huge deal for me, I took half a xanax and managed some shut eye. My friends and Patrick were not so lucky, and as soon as we arrived in Sapa we made for the cheapest and most comfortable beds to be found and didn't get up til noon.

The cheapest beds in town, it would turn out, were great value for the price we paid! I'm beginning to see in Vietnam that, as far as guesthouses go, you pay for exactly what you get. For 8 US dollars a night, Patrick and I got a cozy double room with the hottest shower yet (the fog chills you right to the bone in Sapa, making very hot showers necessary), a TV with cable and an amazing view of the terraced fields that line the valleys below. It was wonderful.

At lunchtime we met up with Gen and Scott, famished as we were. Scott wanted to try some special Sapa pho which is just a spiced up chili version of regular pho (Vietnamese noodle soup). We made our way through the market, past the dead carcasses of former animals, past the screamingly fresh produce and with two small hilltribe girls following us the whole way. They weren't annoying. Actually, they were well spoken and quite witty, for the little English their mother's taught them in order to sell trinkets.

"You buy something?", one would ask.

Gen and I would shake our heads and smile at them.

The little girls would smile back brilliantly and give a little laugh, knowing full well that they were already wrapped around our little fingers. It was only a matter of time before Gen or I would break down and buy one of their little silver bracelets.

They took their time, didn't rush us, but never strayed too far away. Whenever we would see them, watching us from afar, we would laugh and they would smile at us and give a knowing little wave.

We made our way to the eating area of the market, saw that all of the stalls sold the same thing, picked one at random and got some pho and fried rice for lunch. The pork was fresh and, like the other pork we would see, the skin was a bright red from whatever spices they cure it with. The woman at our stall made the best pho I have ever tasted. The cilantro was fresh and not overpowering, the rice noodles were perfectly cooked and the pork was all meat- no grit or bones top be found. The rice was delicious as well, with a sprinkling of lime juice and a garnish of cilantro. When the woman handed us the chili sauce that one gets with every Vietnamese meal, however, I misjudged the power of her homemade concoction since I'm used to putting tabasco on everything and use chili sauce instead of ketchup. I put the same amount of her chili sauce that I would normally use with regular bottled chili sauce and ended up breathing fire. But it was all good.

Of course, the little girls were waiting for us while we ate and I finally broke down, buying one bracelet from each little girl, giving them one American dollar each. No problem, since Patrick has two small neices that the bracelets will fit perfectly. The little girls were very grateful and gave Gen and I two little homemade bracelets that look like the friendship bracelets I would make as a kid. I've been wearing mine around my ankle ever since. I don't usually give in to the pressures of street vendors, but these kids were completely professional and it broke my heart a little.

We did a little hike to the top of the hill, then went back for a rest and a hot shower followed by some BBC Newsworld. We met for dinner and, just as we sat down, the power went out. We ate by candlelight and had a yummy meal of "Sapa soup" (beef and cilantro), fresh spring rolls, fried spring rolls with shrimp and apple (delicious), and, of course, a cheeseburger and fries. Gluttons or what?

The next day we woke up bright and early. Pat and I spent a fortune on train tickets to Hoi An for the next day, and Scott arranged for some scooter rentals. We spent the most amazing day driving for 35 kilometres in the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. In the heat of the moment, I even dared to say it was more beautiful than Cape Breton. That's the closest I have ever come to cheating on my island, but Sapa deserves the praise. It definitely rivaled the Cabot Trail, and we had the most awesome picnic with the most gorgeous scenery ever.

OK, Pat is hurrying me along as we have to catch a bus to Phnom Penh. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. Bye for now! Next is Hoi An.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Our first drink of shady vodka. Monkey Island, Halong Bay.

On a lovely bike ride in Cat Ba Island, Halong Bay.

Boy with cow. Cat Ba Island.

Napping woman. Halong Bay.

Their boats were like convenience stores!

Janine and Gen, slightly mysterious looking. Outside the "Amazing Cave".

The harbour in halong City.

Selling everything, everywhere, at any time.

The other side of the cliff: Monkey Island resort (not our beach).

Our own little cove: Monkey Island

Our beach huts: Monkey Island

Cat Ba Island.

Scott on a bike. Cat Ba Island.

Me on a bike. Cat Ba Island.

Halong Bay

Amazing Cave

Amazing Cave

Our junk, as seen from Amazing Cave

Seriously; convenience stores!

Enjoying the balcony on our boat.

Halong Bay

Our guardian dragon.

After about two days in Hanoi, we were definitely ready to head off to Halong Bay, the famous World Heritage site in Northern Vietnam where the limestone cliffs shoot straight up out of the sea and you can explore vast caves. The woman who sold us the tour made it sound really great: the first day spent in a fancy room on a traditional Junk, yummy seafood on the menu, a cave to explore, kayaking and swimming followed by dinner and then chilling out- the second day would be spent on Cat Ba Island, the largest island in the bay, where we would bike, then hike, and finally bike again to a ferry that would take us to "Monkey Island" (self explanatory name, right?). On Mokey Island we would stay in some fancy bamboo huts and we could go kayaking, fishing, swimming and do lots of other fun activities. The final day would be spent travelling back to Hanoi, with a nice lunch as a final farewell.

Sounds really great, right? We thought so too, and Lonely Planet said that, as far as Halong Bay was concerned, you pay for what you get. So we didn't mind forking over 30 bucks a day since we thought we'd be travelling in class and style.

This sounds ominous, doesn't it? The truth is, our trip was fun. We had a great time. But either the woman who sold us the trip, or the tour guide who took us around, lied about almost everything that was in the itinerary. Not that it was a big deal, and not that we're complaining, but that was our first taste of the common deceptiveness many Vietnamese show towards foreigners... and there would be much more to come, but that's for another post. Bottom line: we love Vietnam. This country is amazing and we've had an amazing time. But very few people have been honest with us, and many have outright stolen from us. Can't have a rose without a few thorns, though, right?

So, at around 8 AM, we were picked up at our hotel. The hotel management gave us an icy goodbye, clearly angry that we had not booked our trip through them, and we were greeted on our mini bus by our first surprise- all of our boatmates, save for a brother/sister duo from Germany, were Vietnamese! Nothing wrong with that, of course, as we had fun meeting them and swimming with them was quite humourous, but the woman had told us we would be with other foreigners. Oh well! Not a big disappointment as foreigers can often be the worst travel buddies.

We left Hanoi and drove for about 3.5 hours until we reached Halong City- our jumping off point. Everywhere we looked there were tourists! Foreign and Vietnamese, old and young, rich and poor... you get the idea. When we saw the vast amount of Junks in the harbour waiting for their passengers we got a little overwhelmed. Which one was ours?!

It turns out, our was the super nice one that was anchored a little further away from the others. Sunchairs on the top deck, rooms on the bottom floor, dining room in the middle, and ladders going up the sides so you could just jump off the boat if you felt like a swim. We didn't really feel like swimming because it was drizzly and the climate up North was actually much chillier than we had been used to in the last few countries. It was a nice change from 35 degrees (or more) and sunny every day.

We lucked out even further when our guide told Me, Pat, Gen and Scott that our rooms were away from all the others, up on the same level as the dining room. When we got to our rooms we were very happy with what we saw: TV, mini fridge (for the booze and mix we were smuggling- way too expensive to buy drinks on the Junk!), nice big, comfy beds and lovely decor. Oh, and a nice bathroom with shampoo and soap and toothbrushes and hot water. Yay.

(Later we found out that the TV and fridge were just for show- indeed, Scott looked for his fridge's plug in and saw that it was non-existent- yet another little fib!)

We had a lovely lunch of fresh steamed prawns, cucmber salad, rice, meatballs and a nice seafood stirfry that was a bit spicy and featured cuttlefish. My fav.

Afterwards, we settled in on our communal balcony (only for us two couples, though- our rooms took up the back of the junk so, even though we got privacy to consume our illegal rice vodka, we also got the exhaust from the back of the boat's motor) and had a few drinks. Then we arrived at the cave (another point worth mentioning was that we passed by an island that we were supposed to visit but didn't. It looked fun, a bunch of Koreans were dancing and partying. When we asked our guide about why we didn't stop he said it wasn't on the itinerary. Liar!).

The cave was called "Amazing Cave". And actually, it was pretty cool. That being said, I never cared about seeing a cave and had very low expectations. But I think everyone thought it was pretty cool. Pat got some nice photos!

After the cave we went kayaking, although at this point it was raining pretty heavily and my glasses were wet and I couldn't see where we were going. It was still fun, though, and we weren't going to have another activity taken away from us! We passed by entire villages built on rafts. Puppies were tied on a short leash so they wouldn't fall in the bay and drown. Other dogs barked at us, and the locals stared us down as we glided past. We got up close to a few of the limestone islands and saw the grottos and small caves that are prevalent in the area. We had fun.

When we stopped kayaking, it had stopped raining. We were already wet, so we jumped off the boat into the bay. The guys jumped from the very top of the boat, while I was content with jumping off the first level. Poor Gen looked cold and didn't go in at all, but she got some pictures of us splashing around.

The next day, we were told that we could choose between biking and hiking. Woah... what? The woman told us we would be biking first, and then hiking, and then biking again. But our guide, as per usual, said that was "not part of the itinerary". We started to wonder why we booked a more expensive trip than other people. So we chose biking as we all had done our fair share of hiking already.

It was beautiful! I wish I had gotten a chance to spend more time on Cat Ba Island. It was eery; shrouded with mist, and very beautiful. The people in the village were quite friendly as well. It was a great bike ride along the vegetable fields and we all felt that we made the right decision, especially since, if we had hiked, we wouldn't be able to see anything by the time we made it to the top.

After our bike ride we made our way to Monkey Island, where we were promised a BBQ lunch on the beach. When we arrived, we saw a deserted (but nice) set of bamboo huts with a few poor souls holding up the fort. And no BBQ. But lunch was nice nonetheless- I REALLY like Vietnamese food! So, like I said, it was deserted. We were the only guests. Awesome! Our beach was isolated and only reached by boat, and it was a bit stormy when we arrived so we couldn't really do anything except drink some shady vodka we found at a street vendor (the boys drank first in case it made us go blind) and play cards. It was still pretty fun.

The next day we made it back to the mainland, had a really delicious lunch and went back to Hanoi. And that was the day we realized not to trust the average Vietnamese salesperson.

The End. (Next comes Sapa).