Hanoi to Sapa

Ho Chi Minh would not have envisioned Vietnam as it is today. Last night, to kill an hour before going to the train station to catch our overnight train to Sapa, we walked through a shopping mall in downtown Hanoi which puts the Eaton Centre to shame. Vuitton, Versace, Cartier, Prada, Rolex and all the other haut couture and designer names had shops. And how's this for juxtaposition - right across the street are large billboards with Ho Chi Minh on them with revolutionary slogans. The revolution is continuing here for sure but it ain't Marxist Leninist. 

Vietnamese coffee or ca phe is terrific as are the croissants - an enduring bit of French colonialism. We spent Thursday morning at the Vietnamese Ethnology Museum, built with aid from the French. It's the same sort of place as the former Canadian Museum of Civilization. We went there because Sapa, where we were heading next, is the home to many of the hill tribes still found in his country. Since we were going to visit them we wanted to familiarize ourselves beforehand. 

Afterwards we went to the century old Metrpole Hotel, where Jane Fonda and Joan Baez stayed when they came here to support the North Vietnamese cause. We went mostly in search of cheese and a baguette from their Marche, but also to see this amazingly beautiful Beaux-Art structure. It is truly an architectural beauty. 

The Train To Sapa 

It has been a tough week for Ms Cham. First the driver slept through his alarm and failed to pick us up for which she apologized profusely and made amends and now this. The train she booked us on tonight was cancelled due to mechanical problems. This happened while we were out and about and not reachable. So Ms Cham had to make a unilateral decision on how to get us to Sapa. We didn't know any of this until she and her husband, who was scheduled to pick us up at our hotel at 7:30pm, arrived bearing the news. Apologizing profusely, she explained the air conditioning system on the train was not working and we would now be going on the Victoria Express. No problem I'm thinking since the Victoria Express was my original choice of train to Sapa only all the 2 person cabins were booked for that night so we went with another train company instead. Following this news she began apologizing more profusely as she explained that because the train was so booked we would not have a private 2 berth cabin as planned but would have to share a 4 berth cabin. So so so sorry. Her sorrow in having to tell me this was visceral. And the train leaves at 10pm so Mr Cham will be back in a hour and a half to pick us up and take us to the train. That's why we went to the Mall. We would have gone for a drink but we were already drinking when she delivered the news.

We get to the 100 year old Ha Noi station and are taken through the station, down the train platform to the end of the train, across the tracks, literally, to the Victoria Express train Car #17 berths 71 and 73. The cabin has four berths, two lower and two upper as you can see here.

We had the two on the left. Our roommate, a middle aged Frenchman who was a retired engineer doing consulting work in northern Vietnam was already in bed in the lower berth on the right. Benita fearing falling out if her bunk at night took the lower left berth and I took the upper. We stowed our gear, had a few words with our roommate and settled in for the ride. With darkness out the window and a sleep aid kicking in, pretty soon we were lights out, lying in our beds listening to and feeling the train heading for Sapa. 

I slept well. A half hour before arriving in Sapa the Porter brought coffee around and we chatted with our roommate for a bit. The northern countryside going by was lush, green and mountainous with plunging river valleys whose slopes were terraced and filled with rice. We got off at Lo Cai, a border town where many people cross into China and vice versa. Here we were met by our driver and taken uphill, winding our way for 38km to Sapa, a mountain town at the base of Fanispan, at 3123 meters the tallest mountain in Indochina..

Sapa is a tourist town catering to trekkers. You come here to trek. It has a old west feel to it. Streets are lined with massage shops, bars and restaurants, shops selling North Face knock offs are everywhere. Hiking boot rentals shops not only sell boots but also buy, exchange and dry your wet boots overnight for you. Hill tribe people selling their fabrics gently accost you in the streets, their hawking techniques brilliantly honed. Some of their wares are beautiful. We will buy. 

At the hotel in Sapa we quickly have breakfast, get ready for trekking - Deet, sunscreen, water, hat, camera, extra battery. We meet Mou (moo) our guide and learned that we were off for a 6km hike to the village of Cat Cat. Three km downhill and three up. If we were so inclined we could take a motor cycle up she told us. Off we went all the while our hill tribe friends with their goods in tow chatting us up.