Our overnight train to Sapa from Hanoi was expensive and mediocre. It cost $30 and took almost 9 hours. We were in a small cabin/room with two bunkbeds that we shared with a nice French couple. The AC wasn't working well and the beds were too small but it was better than a bus through the mountains.
At 5 AM, an hour before we arrived, they began blasting traditional Sapa music along with what sounded like communist propaganda. They came by and woke us up to the tune of "morning coffee" which sounded great, until they asked for 20,000 VND for the instant coffee they handed us. That price would be expensive anywhere in Vietnam for fresh drip coffee. Again, not impressed.
We exited the train and found a man holding a sign with my name on it. Each hotel would pay for and coordinate a pick up for their patrons. The train station was in a town called Lao Kai near the Chinese border and it was almost an hour from Sapa by minivan. We arrived around 7 AM at our fantastic and cheap hotel, Sapa Stunning View. We were greeted by the incredibly nice Mr. Kuan who we loved from the start. He was so accommodating, helpful and gave such great information without being pushy to book a tour through him or irritated at our slew of questioning. He really did everything he could to help us enjoy our stay and he went well above and beyond. He gave us an upgrade to a room on the top floor, and yes, the view of the mountains across the valley was absolutely stunning.
After dropping off our bags we set out for the market to get breakfast, explore the town and look for a guide for the following day. When booking a guide through a hotel, the hotel gets a majority of the money as a booking fee. We wanted the money to go directly to the guide (as well as to save some money). There were dozens of indigenous women walking the streets and hassling people to buy something and asking if people needed guides. As we exited our hotel, we met one of these such women named Mu. She seemed very nice and offered us a two day, 1 night trip where we would hike for 5 hours and stay in her home in her village. We liked what we heard and asked for her number. We said we would call her if we were interested in going with her. We continued our quest through the town, past the church and around the lake to the market.
The market was new and less than half full as it was recently relocated. Alex bought a beautiful necklace and I was tempted by all of the machetes. The food was slim pickings and we even walked past a dog carcass at a butchers stand. Gross. We found some bahn mi and headed back.
On our walk back we found another friendly indigenous woman, Suzie, who offered us a similar trek and homestay for $20 less. We confirmed the trek with her the following morning. That night we ate a delicious authentic Vietnamese dinner and upon returning to our hotel, found the staff playing guitar and singing on the porch. They invited us to join them and we immediately sat down and participated in singing the English songs they knew. I tried to play guitar and they seemed to appreciate our effort. The day ended on a very positive note, in which we were able to cross cultural barriers, as well as the proprietor vs. patron threshold.
The next day, on our way to meet Suzie, we ran into Mu. She was furious we didn't choose her for our guide and followed us 500 meters to our meeting place hassling us the whole way. She laid on a heavy guilt trip and we told her we were very clear that we would call if we were interested and we didn't call her.. She insisted we promised and called us liars. She even went as far as threatening to call her husband and have him come find us. When we got to Suzie, Mu began fighting with her as well. We tried to start our trek and repeatedly asked nicely for her to leave us alone. She was adamant so we apologized to Suzie and left the scene. We wouldn't be doing a guided trek to a homestay. It was very upsetting. Mu isn't necessarily a bad or mean person, but she is a product of what is happening in Sapa. It's way too touristy and the indigenous people are not getting their fair cut of the revenue. We now know why people advise not to get involved the way we did.
Back at our hotel, Mr. Kuan was very concerned about our experience and settled us down. We wanted to leave Sapa at this point and he was so helpful in changing our plans. He booked our bus the next day and found us a place to stay that night as his place was full.
At this point, things started turning around for us. A very kind French couple, Lora and Armand, who had overheard our difficulties, introduced themselves and invited us to join them on an independent hike through the valleys, which they had already mapped out and planned on leaving for shortly. We accepted their invitation and commenced a truly hot and grueling trek set on spectacular scenery. We weaved down through rice paddies to the river, where we crossed jumping from stone to stone. On our way up a hill we saw a bunch of boys swimming in a swimming hole in the river below. We turned around and found our way to a well timed break cooling off in the river.
In addition, Lora and Armand engaged us in great Spanish conversation, since they had been living in Barcelona for the past 16 years. Upon our return to the hotel, we decided to meet up with them again for dinner at a tasty and affordable restaurant, "Little Sapa" after we had changed rooms and taken a short siesta. It was a bad morning turned great day, and with that success it was time to leave Vietnam.
Next stop Laos!
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