More than Pad Thai: Sapa

We’ve been in Sapa the last few days - an area in northern Vietnam which is in the Tonkenese Alps, right along the China border. (According to Googlemaps, we are only 2.3 kilometers from China.) I would say Sapa is characterized by the following three things:

1) The geography: The town of Sapa is built on the edge of a big cliff, overlooking a huge valley with large mountains across the way. The valley is filled with fog much of the day - particularly in the morning and evening, but during the afternoon it seems to burn off for an hour or two, offering really cool views of the area. The valley itself is beautiful and extremely unique, as it is completely covered in terraced rice paddies and dotted with tiny villages that are ~200 years old. The hills are covered in water buffalo (random, but on every menu) and baby pigs (my personal favorite.) There is a natural water source coming from the mountains which irrigates all the paddies and also results in a fairly significant river running through the crevice of the valley, with several pretty waterfalls and (fairly scary) make-shift hanging bridges you use to cross it. The largest mountain here is Mount Fanxipan (”Fancy Pan”) which sits at about 10,500 feet. There are some treks you can do to the top, but most span 2 days (with a night in a village in between). Between not feeling very well (a note on that below) and not being equipped for an overnight, we nixed that idea and instead opted for some long day hikes.

baby pigs

2) The town: Sapa has a long history (200+ years) as a trading village for the local hilltribes, but was just recently (1990s) opened to tourism. The town is still pretty small, but is quickly becoming quite commercialized as it is a popular vacation destination for the Vietnamese. (We read that 70% of the tourists here are actually just folks from other areas of Vietnam.) There are a few main streets, all along a steep hill and covered in guest houses, cafes, restaurants and spas. (This makes it sound like a ritzier place than it is though... think very cheap versions of all the above.) Also, there are North Face stores everywhere! Literally you can buy North Face gear at probably 50 different locations here.... we haven’t quite yet figured out if it is all fake stuff or if it is actually just the North Face gear that is made in Vietnam but is flawed in some way so therefore becomes the “scraps” that North Face doesn’t actually sell. (It seems too expensive to actually all be fakes... and it seems like North Face would have put a stop to all of this if they were really all fake... but who knows.) We’ve had several great meals here - nothing fancy, just good and wholesome. Last night I ordered the “vegetarian set menu” which included pumpkin soup, garlic bread, veggie curry, steamed rice and apple cake - all for a whopping $4. We have all eaten a lot of soup and hot chocolate here (because it is freezing - more on that below) and it’s been pretty scrumptious. We also randomly found a café last night called “The Hill Station” that felt like it could have been in any US city... cozy atmosphere, Jack Johnson playing, menu of cheese plates and charcuterie - it felt oddly out of place in Northern Vietnam but hit the spot for us.

3) The “villagers”: This part of the town is just strange, and pretty annoying actually (in my opinion.) Every day, all day long, the town of Sapa is crawling with women who come into town from the villages, covered in colorful garb and carrying trinkets and textiles that they want you to buy. As soon as you walk out the door of your hotel they latch onto you, asking “Where you from??” and saying (repetitively) “you buy from me! you buy from me!” and “you go to my village! you go to my village!”. If you say “no thank you” or ignore them, they do not let up... instead they follow you, all around town, constantly insisting that you visit their village. Yesterday the 5 of us left our hotel around 9am and immediately had 3 of these women attached to us, insisting that they “be our guide” on our hike, despite the fact that we told them we knew where we were going, did not need a guide, and would not be spending any money. Ever persistent, however, they walked with us for a full 1.5 hours before they finally disappeared! In fact, Matt took one for the team and told them that the rest of us only spoke French, so that they would only harass him and not try to talk to us girls. (Apparently they know about 5 English phrases, but very little French.) This has been very different from any of our experiences with villagers in Thailand, Myanmar or Laos... everyone we have encountered in the past has been very chill and friendly, and mostly just interested in learning about Westerners.

We’ve had a good time here in Sapa, but several members of our group have been plagued by some nagging food poisoning so it hasn’t been our favorite stop overall. Also, it is quite cold here (40s and 50s) and pretty much none of the hotels or restaurants have heat, so we’ve been pretty much wearing all the warm clothes we have, 100% of the time! (I know we shouldn’t complain though - considering the crazy amount of snow it sounds like the Midwest has been getting! Stay warm, guys!)

Tonight we head back to Hanoi via overnight train again. Our train departs at 8:15pm and arrives in Hanoi at 4:55am... however we can’t check into our hotel until the afternoon, so I’m anticipating a morning full of lots of coffee as we stumble through the city a bit bleary-eyed.

A bit more pics from Sapa to end with: