Sapa
ByThe road climbed steadily through mist shrouded mountains, hairpins directing views to forests and valleys far below. Above, the grey sky lightened steadily through pale blue to a rich piercing blue of pure mountain air. The mountain peaks still high above us were suddenly bathed in warm sunlight as the rays of dawn surmounted the surrounding peaks. We were headed to Sapa, 1,600 metres above sea level and 40km from the Chinese border, in northern Vietnam.
We travelled from Hanoi in a rather nice two berth compartment on the Livitrans overnight train. Our warm welcome in Sapa was announced by a good breakfast and strong Vietnamese coffee with a hefty glob of condensed milk in the bottom. Sapa is surrounded by the 3,000 metre high Hoang Lien Son range, the highest mountains in Vietnam. From our hotel balcony the mountains marched magnificently to every horizon.
Starlight, brighter than we had ever seen mesmerized us on our first night. The cool crystal clear mountain air allowed the stars to gleam in their full splendour. Orion arched overhead with such clarity that even the nebulosity in the sword was clearly visible.
At the weekend the local ethnic minority peoples come in to the market wearing their colourful traditional costumes. They are incredibly friendly and inquisitive people and we soon struck up conversations with Tami, a 34 year old Red Dzao woman with two sons and a daughter, who was given to her by a friend. We also chatted to Gow, a twenty year old, Black H’mong woman carrying goods to the market.
It was clear from the shy glances exchanged between the brightly dressed girls and boys around the market that this was an opportunity to meet your significant other. Huddles of girls would follow the approach of a bunch of blokes then explode into serious conversation then peals of laughter.
Exploring the spectacular scenery around the town was essential. Many visitors came just to trek through the valleys and some to try to scale the peaks. We hired a Russian made jeep and a driver to follow the old supply road to Dien Bien Phu. This was built by the French in their abortive attempt to suppress the Vietnamese in the 1950s. We stopped at the highest point on the road, 2,000 metres above sea level, to take in the breathtaking view of the high mountains. We also visited other natural sights such as the 200 metre high silver waterfalls with Moon our delightful Vietnamese guide.
Since the population of the town is 70% Buddhist and 20% Taoist we asked Moon why the entire town was bedecked with Christmas trees, coloured lights, tinsel and fake snowmen. It’s all for the tourists she confided simply. Ah well deck the halls and turn up the jingle bells, its Christmas after all.
Despite the poor weather forecast for the area we had glorious sunshine for our week in Sapa. It was only when we were leaving and we drove down through the cloud layer at 1000 metres that we realised that Sapa and the surrounding mountain peaks had been above the clouds!
