Sapa, Vietnam #1

There are two ways to get to the untouched world, Sapa - (i) a 12 car ride on poor winding road which guarantees great views or (ii) an overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai (pronounce: Lao Gai) and by road to Sapa. We chose the latter because it's definitely less tiring ^^

Looking for our cart in the rain
The one on the right is the Choo Choo train that's taking us to Sapa

Our 5-star room on the train - soft bed & air conditioned
My cozy little corner in the room, 'the bed up there' and switches controller

Initially, I thought the noise from the choo choo train would keep me awake as I'm a light sleeper. Amazingly, I went to dreamland the moment my head hit the pillow!

After an 8 hour overnight train, we finally landed in Lai Cai. As soon as I stepped out from our train, instantly I felt alive and relaxed - the fresh smell of the countryside, lazy morning sun, gentle wind sweeping past and the hassle-free feeling of a small town. Peaceeee... (^V^)y

530am - Still a sleepy head

I made sure I stayed awake throughout the bus ride to Sapa so I could store every single beautiful view in my limited-spaced hard disk (i.e. my brain). I didn't wanna miss anything! I am glad I didn't fall asleep as the scenery grew more and more breathtaking for each kilometer we travelled! The bus went uphill and then downhill and then up up up into the clouds. In the distance, I saw clouds covering parts of the mountain and beneath the clouds, I saw farmers and buffaloes working hard in the rice terraces and paddy fields. That was a perfect oil painting!!

Then, on the narrow winding road where our bus travelled on, I saw minority people dressed in their traditional constumes walking. Some carrying babies on their backs, some carrying farm tools and some directing their buffaloes and ducks to one side of the road to avoid our bus. Life seems pretty simple and calm over here. I let my mind drifted away....... Is there anything else that they expect in life? Do they ever want more? Do they ever stare into their beautiful heavenly scenery and wonder what the purpose of life is and if there should be more? Are they ever lost? Not in the jungle but in life...? So many thoughts but none with answers.....




After an hour of deep thoughts, we finally landed in heavenly Sapa. It's a little French town surrounded by mountains, fogs, rice terraces and paddy fields. It is serene.




Our bus stopped in a narrow lane with French looking buildings on both sides.



What excited me the most was the bakery & restaurant nearby. It is so French looking! It reminds me of the bakery in one of my favourite 宫崎骏's cartoons called 小魔女宅急便. Did the famous Japanese cartoonist get his inspiration from Sapa I wonder?




I almost rushed down from the bus into this place so I could have a taste of the freshly made breads, buns and cakes! Probably that's how they taste like in the cartoon too.... That will be my 1st mission after returning from jungle trekking!! I promised myself that!

The hotel where we would be staying the next day is situated on a hillside overlooking the mountain and rice paddy fields and terraces. We could have our breakfast and admire the incredible scenery at the same time. This is what I called LIFE! And one of the best things about this hotel is the buffet breakfast. After such a long night, my tummy was already growling with hunger! Everything was so fresh here! Even the bacon! And the locally grown rice is big, round, fat and juicy that I couldn't help gobbled down a few plates! *Burp*

Yummm.....

After breakfast, we met up with our jungle trekking guide, Ky who would be our eye opener for the next 3 days in Sapa. We would take off to Lao Chai Village on foot where the Black H'mong tribe lives in a few minutes time.

Excuse me for a second, Jenn wants to sit at the balcony to enjoy the heavenly scenery of Sapa now....

To be continue.........

On & On i go about Sapa, Vietnam

Here. My last post on my Vietnam trip.

VERY outdated I know hehe.... Still, I must talk about it. Just to give my Vietnam trip a proper closing. My previous posts about Sapa can be revisited here and here....


Tan Van - Ze Zhao - Sapa Town

I woke up just in time to see the sun burning a hole in the sky. The day of the farmers and buffaloes had already started and were already working hard in the paddy fields. As it was still hours from our breakfast, we took a stroll to the morning 'market' which is a few kilometres away from our cottage. We stopped by a grocery store (aka someone's living room) where we bought Vietnamese popcorns (plain and chewy), rice bubbles (sweet & crunchy) and 10 farm chicken eggs (fresh & energy booster) . All were great!

6am - An older Brother lovingly taking care of his younger brother

Older brother left crying brother behind...
He did come back for him & gently wrapping his crying brother's hand in his

After our pancakes with bananas breakfast and our free range chicken eggs, we left our cottage to the Village of Red Zhao tribe.

Up & UP & UP we climbed *puff*

Jenn, staring into the beautiful scenery

In Red Zhao's house. Grandma Red Zhao beside me

After 4 hours of climb, it was finally time for lunch! While waiting for our tour guide to cook for us, a Black H'mong gal kept asking me to buy something from her. I must have looked very friendly because everyone seemed to like to ask me to buy things! haha... Her persistence paid off. I bought a handmade belt at a very cheap price. So cheap that I almost felt guilty ;P She spent 3 months making it!

Gigantic Jenn, Littler Belt Maker & my new belt

Vietnamese noodle + fried egg. Simple yet satisfying

After another hour of climb, we finally arrived at the main road where we sped thru the winding road back to Sapa town in a jeep. It was hard to believe that our 2 days of jungle trekking = short 10 mins car ride! But then, it's worth every sweat to jungle trekked in the hot sun. It's the journey that makes everything interesting. The Chinese is right 读万卷书不如走千里路 (reading millions of books can't beat travelling thousand miles). One definitely learns more by seeing the world in person!

I'm a person who keep my words. After a fresh and relaxing shower in our hotel, we headed off to Highlands Bakery where I had a hard time choosing what to indulge in. Everything looked so bloody tasty, esp after such a long climb! So in the end, we decided that each of us should order something different so we could try as many varieties as we could. It was a heavenly feeling to finally realise my wants! :)

Just fresh out from the oven. The fragrance of baked bread - Heavenly!

Our very 'French' looking hotel

Cat Cat Village

It was drizzling on the our final (3rd day) day in Sapa. Despite the wetness, the scenery remained beautiful.

Beautiful Cat Cat Village

Waterfall in Cat Cat village

Local Family

Me waiting for my BBQ Potato. Hurry Up, I'm starving...

Crossing thru rice paddy terrace

Heaven Gate

Getting up there requires a lot of strength and it wasn't easy if you'd just done a 15 hours of intensive jungle trekking earlier on. If you miss this, you will regret. The place is simply heavenly, just like its name! It was so misty up there that I felt like I were a little fairy in heaven! Where are my wings?

This way to the Clouds... That way to Heaven...

The Gate to Heaven behind me!

At Cloud Yard. That's Sapa town behind me

I don't mind taking an 8 hour train ride + 1 hour of bus ride to Sapa again. It truly deserves all the effort :)

Back to Nature

I'm so excited! After months of consideration, Jenn has finally granted boss' approval to take leave! ^^ Yayeee... I'm going to Vietnam this coming June V(^V^)V


This time, I'm not going on a vacation right after my exam. That means two things - no stressing out over luggage-packing instead of my studies liao. No bringing a face full of break-outs to overseas liao 不需丢脸丢到外国去了 :p

This trip is not going to be as easy-breezy and luxurious as my previous Beijing trip. As we are only spending short 8 days in Hanoi, every minute every second will be very precious. When I told Jane about our itinerary, she said "wah, sounds like a hardship camp leh" haha... Hardship? Yalor, compared to our Bj trip, this one does sound very tiring but isn't that more suitable and interesting to young and energetic ppl like me? hehe...


3 days in Hanoi - just get lost in the city....




2 days of cruising, swimming & kayaking in HalongBay


3 days of mountain & jungle trekking in Sapa.
Getting to Sapa isn't easy. Need to sleep on choo choo train for 10 hours to get there. Oo, it will be a good experience! Need to trek 7 hours as soon as we arrive at 7am to villages. What's more interesting, we will be home-staying with a local family. We will trek another 6 hours to a different village on the next day and 4 hours on our final day in Sapa. Then it's 10 hours of train ride back to Hanoi. Have I lost anybody so far? haha...

Compared to Jane's VIP business trips, mine does sound a bit torturing but I kinda like it that way. It will be fun to mingle with the local people and also ppl from around the world... Sapa is a untouched place full of many different ethnic minorities & beautiful scenery. All I need to make sure is that I've enough SD cards to take postcard-like pictures :) Feel like packing my bags and going this instant! haha... But before that, I better make sure I have good stamina (& $$) to do what I hope to do :)

And I want to eat authentic Vietnamese Beef Noodles too but minus the beef as I don't eat beef ;p



"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

-Howard Thurman-

Sapa, Vietnam #2

Sapa is indeed very beautiful. It's not hard to take a good picture there because every angle of the place is a perfect water colour painting.

Our tour guide, Ky pointed to a dot on the map "this is where you will be spending the night." Ooooo... It didn't seem very far from Sapa town, like only 15cm away ;p If only it was that easy & straight forward.....

We made friends with a few friendly Black H'mong ladies dressed in their traditional costume outside our hotel. They offered to walk with us to their village. Cool! In contrast to the people in Hanoi, they speak very good English. Impressive considering that they don't go to schools. Hmmm... the fresh fragrant rice does make a difference huh? ;p

Me and my Black H'mong friend, Chi
I'm a giant in 'Smurf's Village'!

(Take note of her jungle trekking footwear - cheap rubber shoes)

The 10cm distance means 7 hours of walking under the hot burning sun on muddy brown road, thru the jungle, up the mountains, over the valley, gliding down the steep slopes, across the gushing stream, along the narrow path of rice terraces. Certain places were dangerously steep. We held on to our dear lives by grabbing whatever we saw. Balancing is very important here because the lightest breeze could cause one to fall and die! Yup, it was that scary :) From time to time, Chi, my little Black H'mong friend lent me a hand. If it wasn't for her, I might have already ended up somewhere down there ;p

Green is good for the eyes

Winding road and river
This is the route Lao Chai Village

So hot! Luckily we were well-equipped

One wrong step, then it's goodbye....

See how the Black H'mong gals expertly glided down without much effort?

Believe it or not, the Black H'mong girls travelled like this to and from Sapa town every single day, with a pair of cheap rubber slippers! Mannn... now i wonder why we bother to spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of branded sports shoes haha... :)




The scenery along the way was magnificent. The further we trekked and the deeper we went into the jungle, the more beautiful the place became and the stronger was the smell of nature (& buffalo dung ;p). Standing on top of the mountain, I felt a sense of freedom. So, this is how it feels to be on top of the world? Even the air was different here! My exhaustion faded when I saw how beautiful the place was - mountains covered by clouds, angry river below, greenish paddies with little houses dotted here and there... hmm.. They all went so well together like butter and bread! Somebody once said, not all beautiful scenery is created by Mother Nature herself. Sometimes she needs a little bit of help from human beings. So true in this case. The place is heavenly! I felt as if I was IN an oil painting! The vast of greens made me feel so insignificant. The world is indeed huge!




After 3 or 4 hours of trekking, we finally reached Lao Chai Village. Yayeee... because that's where we replenished our energy - lunch! I was starving! Lunch was simple but it tasted so good. It did! Really! And the view from where we sat was awesome too :)

Our cafe is the one with blue shade

Chi's village

Greeted by Black H'mong people. Friendly people.
They all hoped we buy handicrafts from them
Sorry gals. I'm a tourist with limited resources

Simple Life, Simple lunch

After resting for about half an hour, we continued our journey. The village isn't very big - men, women and buffaloes working hard in the paddy fields, kids with (& without) pants running around. We spotted two men washing something in the stream... a closer look and explanation from Ky - they just killed a dog for dinner later. *goosebumps*

Men cleaning dog in the stream

A gathering for the kids only

Full moons Exposed!

Two little girls followed me all the way from the cafe to a resting place, all the while chanting "why you buy from her and don't buy from meeeee?" "buy from me, i sell you cheeeeeaap....". They recited the same phrases over and over again like a broken recorder for 30 mins! So patient, so persistant of them... and me ;p I gave in and bought a pouch from one of them. The other gal was hurt. I'm serious. She ran to stand in front of me, repeat her phrase with tears pouring out like waterfall! Oh dear.... only another purchase would stop that and it did! Thank goodness!

"I sell you cheaaap"

Gals waiting outside rest house

After another 4 hours of climb, we finally arrived at our home. It was a little cottage on top of the hill in Ta Van Village. We home-stayed with a small family of three - parents and a shy kid.

Our cottage

Colourful kiddy pants

Me in Ta Van

Our Homestay 'Dad', making dinner for us

Our beds were on the attic. hmmm.. the bed looked comfy. We even had mosquito nettings to prevent bugs from reaching us at night. OOoo... I loved the place! The blanket seemed a bit too thick though. After being in the hot sun and sweating profusely for 7 hours, I wondered if it was really necessarily to have a blanket meant for winter use. I wished I had aircond instead! haha...

Our bedroom up there

I thought we would be pooping in a hole full of worms but noooo, we had good bathroom facilities here! I know I'd said this many times but THE SCENERY WAS AWESOME here! The sun set pretty early over here too. We got to enjoy our delicious homemade dinner outdoor. What a great feeling that was!

Sunset in Sapa

Homemade yogurt with fresh mango
Tasty and good way to cool our over-heated bodies

After dinner, we helped to clean up. We shared the cottage with another group of tourists from Australia and Belgium. They were fun to hang out with :) Before we went to bed, I sneaked outside to feel the air. Breezy and dark. I tried to count the number of stars in the sky but I lost track halfway. The place was filled with music from the nature - crickets and frogs. So, this is how it felt to be living in the oil painting....

I was thankful to have a thick blanket. It was actually quite cold at night. So lucky of the locals to have free air cond to enjoy everynight! With the cool air and music all provided free by Mother Nature, I went to dreamland trouble-free.....


It was worth every effort to come here...