1.3 - 3.3.18 Sapa

Actually, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Sapa, but I'm having a total writer's block right now. I can hardly come up with a decent sentence. My memories and pictures are rushing, yet my mind is empty. I'll just start now and see how far I can get.

Basically, Sapa is very touristy and the city itself doesn't offer much beauty and attractions. But the surroundings are stunning and highly recommended. If you want to do everything right, you should visit Sapa from September to November. Because that's when the rice terraces are ready for harvest and can be seen in a lush green.

We arrived in Sapa on Thursday morning at 3:30 am. We were offered to 'sleep in' on the night bus until 6:00 am, but we politely declined. The thought of a comfortable bed in a hotel room was too tempting. We strapped our luggage to our backs and trudged up the steep streets to the hotel. Since we had announced our arrival in advance, we were greeted at the reception by a sleepy but very friendly young man. The paperwork was quickly sorted out. We all wanted to go back to bed and go back to sleep. And that's exactly what we did.

When we woke up again at 9:00 am, the sun was shining into the room. We only noticed the beautiful view of the mountains and the rice fields when we stepped out onto the balcony. It was indescribable and we were glad we had chosen Sapa and not Halong Bay. According to the weather forecast, there was fog and bad weather down there. So bathing would have been nothing but expenses. After breakfast, the hotel organized a motorcycle for us and we set off around noon. Just follow our noses. After about 20 minutes, we saw from the mountain road that there was a festival happening in the valley below. We decided to mingle with the crowd and drove down to the small village. Tug of war was the order of the day. People pulled, sweated, laughed, whistled, and discussed. Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out if different clubs were competing against each other or if they were different ethnic groups. In any case, everyone had a blast. We watched this hustle and bustle for about half an hour and then continued on our way. We were fascinated by the landscape and had to stop again and again to take photos. The day flew by and when the sun said goodbye to the day, we were already back in bed. The missed sleep from the previous night had to be made up for.

On Friday, we went up high. With the second longest cable car in the world (6282 meters), we reached the roof of Indochina in 20 minutes. Once we arrived at the top, we took a 15-minute break to acclimate our bodies to the altitude. My head played along well, so we then went up the last stretch to 3143 meters above sea level with the cogwheel train. We were lucky and the platform wasn't crowded with tourists. The view was indescribable. If it hadn't been so windy and if I hadn't started freezing, I could have stayed up there for a long time. We had to walk down to the cable car as the cogwheel train only takes guests up. This trip was a real experience and I'm glad Chris and I could experience it together.

On Saturday, we took the local bus down to Lao Cai at noon and from there we took the night train to Hanoi. But that's another story...