Ba Be and Sapa March 27-April 1
Ba Be:
In Vietnam, most backpackers follow the exact same route
(North to South or vice-sersa). Starting in the North: Hanoi – Ha Long Bay –
Sapa – Hue and/or Hoi An –Nha Trang – Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon and the Mekong
Delta tour from HCMC. I was planning to go to most of these places, but I
decided I wanted to go somewhere off the beaten track. So I chose Ba Be
National Park – a park in Northern Vietnam, not far from the Chinese border. I
found a tour that went up that way, and decided to go for it.
I was picked up in the morning of the 27th by our
tour guide and owner of the company, Linh. We gathered the rest of the group
and headed north. There was an Australian couple, a British couple living in
Cyprus, and a Swiss woman. The drive north was an experience on its own.
Vietnam is much less developed than Thailand and you definitely notice a
difference once you leave the cities. I saw several horse drawn carts on the
way. We made a couple stops – a temple on a mountain side, ruins that used to
be a prison, and lunch. For lunch, we stopped in a local restaurant – not
visited by many foreign tourists. I had the best meal of my time in Vietnam
there: a beef stir fry on rice noodles with pepper, garlic, tomatoes, onions
and other delicious things. It was SO GOOD. Mmmm
The drive took about 6 hours, so we arrived at Ba Be town in
the afternoon. We were staying in Linh’s house/homestay. The entire town had
maybe 20 little houses in it and is right on the shore of the massive Ba Be
Lake. It was lovely – quiet and picturesque. We wandered around the town and up
the road before dinner. Saw the classic “pig tied to the back of a motorcycle”,
as well as the local school. The lake has various small towns scattered around,
and many of the children go to this school. Most people are part of the Tay
ethnic group.
Dinner was cooked by Linh’s wife and mother – and it was
also delicious. We also sample the local speciality alcohol, corn wine. It
takes more like whiskey, and it was VILE. I was chasing my shots with beer.
Shudder...
The next day, Linh took us on a boat tour of the river. Our
first stop was a small hike to a lookout tower. Linh warned us that there were
many poisonous snakes in the area, especially a small green one that could kill
you in a matter of minutes. While we were walking, he picked up a large walking
stick, and when we asked what it was for, he simply responded, “Snakes”. Only a
little terrifying haha. After the look out, we visisted another village farther
down the lake. This was also a Tay village, and was the location of many rice
farms. It was gorgeous walking though the rice paddies. A couple kids ran up to
us, and wanted their pictures taken. Eeeee
The next place we stopped was this really cool cave.
Basically, a river had worked its way through a mountain, so the cave was more
like a massive tunnel. It was pretty spectacular. Like most of South East Asia,
much of the rock is limestone, making for some pretty neat peaks, cliffs, and
caves. After the cave, we had lunch in another small town. Next, we visited a
neat waterfall. By this time, it was getting late in the afternoon, so we went
back to our village. Some of us went out in the boat again to go for a swim.
Was lovely and refreshing – not too cold either! Once again, we had dinner made
by Linh’s family. And more corn wine. Made for a good night.
On the 28th, we drove back to Hanoi. On our way,
we stopped in a local market in one of the bigger towns in the park. It was
neat to walk around and see some people in traditional costumes. We drove on a
gorgeous road through mountains and rice fields. About an hour away from Hanoi,
we stopped in the Ethnic Groups Museum. Was nice enough, but I was pretty tired
at this point. I was also anxious to get back to Hanoi, as I was catching the
night train to Sapa. The roads in Vietnam are quite slow especially in the
north. There aren’t any real highways, and most roads go through towns and
cities. Also, the roads in the mountains are windy and not the greatest. So it
takes forever to get places. But we made it back to Hanoi on time and I was
able to catch my train.
Sapa:
Sapa is another town in Vietnam, but more North-West from
Hanoi than Ba Be (which is pretty much due North). Sapa is in the area of the
country with the most and highest mountains, and also boasts rice fields and
small ethnic minority towns. The best way to get there is the overnight sleeper
train, which is what I took. It was my first time on an actual sleeper train,
with beds and whatnot. The ride was quite comfortable, except the train kept
rocking back and forth. At one point, we stopped so suddenly, I was sure we hit
something. But we just kept going. Needless to say, I didn’t get the greatest
sleep.
The train takes you as far as a town called Lao Cai, where
you take a 45 minute mini-van ride to Sapa. This was another gorgeous road, but
the weather at the time was quite cloudy. It was still quite early when I
arrived in Sapa, and I had to wait for the other people from the tour to
arrive. So I wandered around the town a little. At this point, was in the
middle of a cloud. I went to the market at the town centre, where many ladies
from the ethnic minority villages were selling bracelets, purses, jewelry and
other bits. The one annoying thing about Sapa is these women will literally
follow you around, trying to get you to buy from them. When we left our hotel
for our hike, there were more of these ladies following us than people in the
tour group!
That day, the plan was to walk through the valleys to the
town our home-stay was located in. For a while, we were talking through clouds.
But after an hour or so, it cleared up and we got lovely views of the ride
paddies built into the sides of the mountains, and the mountains themselves. It
was spectacular. I’ll just let my pictures do the talking.
We arrived at the home-stay late in the afternoon. We then
sat outside, watched water buffalo wander by, and the occasional cock-fight.
There were also these ADORABLE puppies – it was unreal how cute they were. A
few of us helped prepare dinner for a little while, which was interesting.
Dinner was very tasty, and in the evening, we sat around and drank beer – there
was nothing else to do!
The next day, we were supposed to hike back to town. Unfortunately,
when we got up it was quite rainy and misty. I was still having fun but I’m
used to hiking in all conditions. Some of the people in the group were not too
impressed – also because the trail was very muddy and slippery. At a few
points, there were some very steep descents. Many people slipped and slid down
parts on their butts or fronts. I thought it was fun and an adventure... others
did not. Around 12:00 pm, we stopped for lunch. The weather was still rainy and
cold at this point, so our guide decided to have a van come pick us up.
Unfortunately the soonest the van could arrive was in a couple hours. So we sat
around the restaurant and waited. There was a bulldozer trying to dig a large
rock out of where they wanted to build a road, so that kept us entertained.
Many of the villagers were also watching. Fun times.
We were eventually picked up, and taken back to a hotel in
Sapa. There we ate dinner, and were then taken to the train station to go back
to Hanoi. All in all, Sapa was a lovely place. Although the people following
you around can get annoying, you just have to try to not let it bother you. The
scenery and mountains were wonderful enough that you can forget about these
small annoyances.
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