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Other entries in Fan Si Pan

At last real travelling, no KFC or Starbucks.

There were three other people from the hostel on the tour with me so we all joined one of the members of staff that took us to the train station. It was a good job as it looked nothing like the train stations in China, even though it had a sign above the entrance, you would have still walked straight past it if you didn't know what you were looking for. There were no x-ray machines and huge crowds of people all trying to get on the train at once. But a quite building with barley any body boarding the train.

The train ride was an 8hr over night trip, but at least I wasn't the only westerner on the train as 90% were tourists. We were taken by bus from Lao Cai to Sapa, along some really twisty steep roads, with huge drops at the side. The hostel offered us a shower and some where to leave our excess bags for the trek. We had breakfast, which consisted of beef noodles and Vietnamese Green Tea. After being taken by bus past all the other trekkers, there are alot here, Sapa is a majour tourist town. The guide started our trek, over a bridge and through rice paddies, bamboo forests and villages that don't seem to have changed much for the last few hundred years. Apart from the addition of a few lights, satalite dishes and 'LG' flat screens, it was like going back in time.

The minority ethinc tribes of there area have very distinct looks about them, mainly the clothes they wear give away there tribe, Tay, Black H'Mong (wearing black waistcoats and caps) and Red Dzao (wearing red sacrfs and what looked like shaved heads(don't know what reason that was for), being the main ones that we passed.

The first day of the trip was 12km, we had lunch in Su Pan, which the guide had carried all the way from the drop off. We arrived in BanHo to stay with a Tay family. The sleeping area for the house share was on very noisey but strong bamboo construction with lots of holes in the roof to let the fresh air in and the local bats to check out the new arrivals. The thermal pools down by the river weren't as hot as in New Zealand but were very welcome after a long hot day walking. The view out of the family home was breath taking. Looking out over the Secondary School, Health Care Centre and Community Metting House in the distance and the local villagers and animals going about the daily lives.

Unfotunately, or fortunatley the whole area right up to the Tay family's home is going to be flooded when a Hydro-electric dam is built, so the road that was being built down in the valley, must just have been job creation.

We walked to Lavie waterfall the next moring but it wasn't that warm for a swim so decided no to go in, but would be very nice in the heat and humidity of the summer. I guess this will be underwater on inaccsesible when the dam is built. We walked back up the stupidly steep hill that we went down the evening before and headed off across the hills towards where the minibus was parked and ready to take us back to Sapa and the hostel.

Getting back into Sapa wasn't a very nice experience, the noise of trucks and scooters was such a contrast from the quite and tranquilty of the remote valley far below. The local children that try, and most of the time succed, in selling things to toursits, have learnt amazing English from just being on the street every day, even at 8 or 9 they are fluent and able to convince you that you should buy something from them. They hand out free wrist bands, that at first look hand made, but when you look more closely they are factory produced. They make you promise to buy something from them when you get back. The younger generations in this area have mastered the art of selling to tourists where as the older generation don't give a very convincing sales pitch as they grasp of English isn't that good. They make jokes with you and follow you on the first part of the trip, holding your hand and asking questions.

That evening I said goodbye to the rest of the tour group. After reading an article in a newspaper I had made an impluse descion to climb Fan Xi Pan, Indochina and Viet Nam's highest peak at 3,143m.

I met up with an American, Mitch who would be climbing the mountain with me, our Guide and Sherpa. We were taken by bus to the start of the walk at the higest mountain pass inViet Nam. The first day turned out to be very easy. The walk was only 4hours long and we stopped for lunch part way up the mountain. We arrived at the campsite for the trip to find that the boy that had the key for the sleeping hut had gone out hunting and wouldn't be back later. Thankfully later, he did arrive with the key, and a trouphy from the days hunt.

The guide and the sherpa prepared a buffet of meat, veg and noodles. After Mitch had gone to bed the boy that came back with his trophy started to prepare it. He carried it out alive and fashionably dressed in fur, and when it came back init wasn't quite so alive and shivvering. (I think that the basics of what happened) It would have fetched a high price in the resturants in Sapa as the Vietnamese consider it to be a delacasee. The Riu that came back with the boy or Bamboo rat, looks like a cross between a fat rat and a mole but with white flecks to its black coat. Everything was butcherd to go into the pot. It was lightly fried and then boiled with lots of chillies. The blood was mixed with 'Happy Water' (rice wine) and was said to give you extra energy. The rice wine tasted the same as it did with out the blood in it, 25%,and a different colour, and the meat wasn't anything speacial. It tasted of meat but had a lot of bones in it.

The trek up the mountain started early in the morning. We were told that it would be cold, but out of the wind on the way up it was very warm. The track was very muddy and slippery where the snow had melted a few days before and the top was cloudy, there were a few brakes from time to time which left for spectacular views of the sourrounding countryside and bamboo covered slopes. There used to be tigers and monkeys in the National Park but have all been eaten or scared away, the only things that seemed to be around were goats and tuneful birds in the under growth. We made the summit just before lunch and doing my bit for respinsible toursim started to clear up the rubbish that other people had left behind, 4 bags later and 15mins Mitch and the guide arrived as I had gone on ahead. (Mitch by the way, is 65years young and has travelled and trekked all over the world, if I am still that able at that age, may I lead a long a travelled life.)We stopped for lunch and photos before making the long trip back to the camp for another night on the mountain. Dinner was almost the same as the night before except for the addition of fish.

We made the short trip to the bus which was at a different village this time. Cat Cat village which was where the guide and sherpa lived. I had the afternoon in Sapa to walk around the town and look at the markets, before the train left that evening for Hanoi. Sapa isan amazing contrast from the bamboo huts and dirt floors less than a kilometer away. The area around the lake has expensive resturants and hotelsaround it with tennis courts and golf courses. Toursim seems to have an intresting effect on communities, good in some ways and bad in others.

I spent the next day walking around Hanoi with Line, Christina and Jan, that I had met in Halong Bay and were on the same train back from Sapa, until it was time to board the next train south to Hue.We walked around some very croweded markets selling everything you could want and then found some ice cream to eat in the afternoon heat by Hoan Kiem Lake in the old quater of Hanoi.

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