WaffleJungle

We stayed at perhaps the what was best room of Royal View Hotel, Sapa. Hotels here do not have air-conditioning. Being 1,500+m above sea level has its benefits. The weather is cool, sometimes cold and each room  has a heater, just in case. I loved sitting at the balcony, watching the clouds roll down the hill, towards us.

View from the Hotel Balcony (click for bigger image)

Cat Cat Village is a small village for the Black H’mong people just 2km from Sapa Town. A trek to and fro should be about 5km in total. (2km downslope, 3km up! Well one can always hire a motorbike ride is your legs fail you.) All visits to the villages require an inexpensive entrance fee. The money will go towards building and upgrading of facilities for the villagers and welfare.

Happy Cat Cat village children

The one tourist attraction in Cat Cat Village is its ‘famous’ Cat Cat Waterfall. Its not a huge one, but interesting enough. It rained once we got there though and so we rested in the shelter.

French Restaurant for lunch

After lunch, we went to the Ham Rong Mountain (Dragon Jaw). Its a huge park where there’s even an ostrich farm! There’s a really vantage viewpoint for you to view Sapa’s tallest peak, Fansipan. Also, there’s a place called Cloudy Bay where you can watch all the clouds at eye level. Amazing.

We got off the train, met up with our guide and headed for the weekly Bac Ha Market a short distance from Lao Cai. Our guide, named Viet is really good. So should anyone intend to plan a trip up Sapa, you can get his contact from me. Bac Ha and Sapa are really beautiful places with breath taking scenery and vast padi fields. It was unfortunate that we are visiting Sapa during its raining season, however, intermittent rainfall aside, we still had loads of fun and would certainly like to go back!

Bac Ha is the home of the Flower H’mong people. The differentiating element for the Ethnic tribes lies in their dressing. Flower H’mong got their name from the brightly colored garb they don. Flower H’mongs live in Bac Ha, whereas the Black H’mong resides at Sapa.

Once a week, the Flower H’mong make their way to Bac Ha market, some walking up to 2 days. Along the ride up the hill, we came across little girls herding their cattle to Bac Ha and groups of Flower H’mong carrying their crops to the market. The market place is bustling with people. There are 5 main sections of the market – Eating Area, Wet Market, Dry goods market, Arts & Crafts and Livestock.

Eating Area – Selling Pho, Horse Meat Stew, Homemade Rice Wine (50 – 55% Alcohol!)

Flower H'mong having a hearty lunch

Wet Market – Fresh Fish and Meat.

Dry Goods Market – Dried goods, Vegetables and fruits, Herbs etc.

Home-made Incense - ingredients include corn, sticky rice etc

Arts & Crafts Market – Craft materials like yarn, ribbons and cloth, and intricate crafts made by the Flower H’mong

Flower H'mong style soft-toys

Livestock – Trading of small farm animals like ducks, chickens, piglets to larger livestock like cows and horses.

Trading Horses and Ox

We walked around Bac Ha after lunch, visiting the old colonial government building, a nearby Bac Ha village and their village school before heading to Lao Cai, Border Gate and off to Sapa.

I’ve not taken a train in ages, much less spend a night in one of the sleeper cabins with two complete strangers. Nervous.

We’ll be taking King’s Express and the train will leave Hanoi at 8:30pm and after 7hours or so, arrive at Lao Cai where we will head to Bad Ha Market before Sapa. We shared a cabin with a local Viet man and a pretty Japanese lady who is traveling alone. I took the bottom bunk while N took the top.

The train started pulling out of Hanoi station and its tracks seemed to cut dangerously close to some apartments nearby, roads and motorcyclists. Excited, I waved at some pedestrians and motorcyclists from my window and am amused to see their surprised faces.

That night, I stayed up to finish my book while the rest dozed. The cabin’s air conditioning is cold and it fogged up some parts of the window. At some point in the night, the train came to a stop and curious, I peered out of the window. The scene that unfolded in front of my eyes seemed so surreal that it left quite a lasting impression on me.

From where the train is, perhaps just barely 3-4m away is a small, longish rest-house, barely just a rest stop. The rest-house is lighted with a light bulb suspended from the middle of the ceiling. Its light just barely enough to illuminate the occupants of its two small tables, placed side by side. Save the tables and its occupants, the rest of the place is empty. At the head of the table is a lady chef, cooking what looked like noodles or Pho, her ingredients spread out in front of her. Seated, or rather, squatting around the two tables are some of her patrons, eating and talking with each other. One was waving his hands and chopsticks animatedly while he ate, his listeners nodding at apt intervals. One of the train attendants got off the train, bought a bowl of noodles from the lady and took it back to the train. Once he got on, the train started moving off again.

I finished reading my book and slept around 1am. 3 more hours to Lao Cai. I dozed intermittently, watching the shadows thrown onto the cabin door as the train rushed on to our destination.