... in Sapa!
What a bloody ordeal ... this has got to be the most trying four days of our trip.
OK, OK ... Sapa IS beautiful. Nobody can deny this. And the people are lovely. But if anything could go wrong, it did for us.
We had booked a comfortable tour supposedly with first class sleepers on the twelve hour overnight train journey to Sapa. We turned up to find a complimentary DOWNGRADE to hard sleeper with 3mm mattresses and pillows to boot. We shared this pleasant trip with a couple of locals, one sinister companion decided to share his smoking habit in the tight confines of our six berth cabin. Suffice to say, not much sleep was observed on this trip.
We arrived bright and early and checked into the hotel. The views from our room were awe-inspiring, and we had a pleasurable breakfast taking them in. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the town of Sapa. Pretty much a typical alpine town, with its own minority groups in tradional dress. While Clare was admiring the scenery, she was taken out by a woman on a motorbike ... don't worry, this small tap on the shoulder wasn't too bad compared to what was to come (seriously ... no injury).
We decided to hike in the mountains for a couple of days and stay in a local village to experience traditional life. Our tour comprised one other traveller and a couple of local guides. Off we went, slipping, sliding, falling, slipping, falling, rolling and bouncing every step of the muddy way up and down these mountains of hell. The locals thought it was all very funny. Jon didn't. The scenery was worth the pain.
We arrived at our "home-stay" to a relaxing hot spring at the foot of these massive mountains. It was a good way to end the day. By the time we returned to the village, another group of travellers had turned up and we sat down to enjoy the local feast and rice-wine (petrol?). We settled to bed in a big bamboo hut which creaked at every footstep, and this is where the fun really begun!
At mid-night, something Clare had eaten that day decided to make itself known, and Clare was a pretty sick girl for the rest of the night. We were forced to move our bedding outside the hut so as to not disturb out travelling companions, and to be in very short proximity to the non-Western style hole in the ground, which Clare became extremely familiar with that night. The mystery for her is over.
So, we "slept" in the open air in the middle of the village, harassed by growling stray dogs, and eaten by mosquitos - the least of Clare's worries. We were in the middle of this remote village, in the foothills bordering China, with no medical amenities (and nothing on us), very little toilet paper left and no energy to face the next day of hiking. So the choice to make it back to Sapa prematurely was easily made. Being so remote, cars were not an option, so it was either foot or motorbike. We chose the latter and recruited a couple of local motorbike drivers to get us "as quickly as possible" to Sapa (over an hour journey).
The bumpy and windy roads up into the mountains did not assist Clare's condition, and one of the riders anxiously pulled over to let Clare throw up. Jon was travelling just ahead of Clare, and all up three motorbikes in a row were winding together on these hairpin roads with sheer drops down to nothingness. An over-eager local decided to try an overtake us on a bend only to collide with a motorbike rider head on, taking out Jon's bike in the process. Again, no injuries (for Jon anyway), we'll tell the story better on our return - sorry no photos.
OK, so we have now two motorbike incidents, Clare extremely sick, and in a hurry to get back to Sapa. After this hairy inciddent, we had to stop while the locals blasted quartz from the cliffs overhanging the road. No safety barriers, or control, massive boulders falling from the sky and left in the middle of the road etc etc, and Clare getting more and more distressed.
We got back to Sapa in one piece (a miracle). All we wanted to do was crawl into our room we had booked two days before with a great view, hot showers and a comfy bed. After an hour of waiting, we were advised by hotel staff that our booking had been overridden by the guests of the previous night and they offered to get us a room in the adjoining 4* hotel (after a further wait). Not being in a position to argue, and too tired and sick to care, we meekly followed the proprieter down to our replacement room. It was nice, but not the relaxing room we were after.
After some grumpy negotiation from Jon, and a couple of dollars extra, we ended up in a fantastic room with King bed and BATHTUB - WOW! Immediately Clare perked up, and we spent the next day and a half just relaxing and restoring calm to our lives. Suffice to say, Sapa has been an interesting experience, but we look forward to the remaining week of relaxation of our trip.
Back to Hanoi for a couple of days (this time hopefully with a better train sleeper) and then onto Singapore.
