McKigney Travels

Picture Albums
Album 1 - Hanoi
Album 2 - Hanoi
Album 3 - Hanoi + Sapa

Hanoi Videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXjXfg0tUa8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrUHJ0O58-Y

Sunday was a relaxing day. Still in Sapa, we woke up to rain. Our train was scheduled to leave Lau Cai at 7:30 PM so we had nearly the entire day to spend in Sapa. The rain quickly passed and the day turned out to be beautiful – sunshine and a slight breeze. We mainly just chilled out around town, hopping from café to café playing cards, reading, eating and drinking.

We took a stroll to take in some more amazing views of Sapa and did some last-minute shopping. The Hmong women are very aggressive and persistent in their sales efforts. I decided to purchase blanket.and was checking out the one offered by one woman when I was immediately swarmed by 3 or 4 women all with very similar blankets. They only varied slightly – just different shades of blue and purple. My attempts to barter with them failed and as I walked away they continued to swarm and even grabbed me. One thing I can’t handle is being grabbed by the arm! I swatted them away and continued to barter more aggressively considering their aggressive state. I got one to agree to my price and purchased. And then was still followed with the women saying “buy two,” “buy from me.” They even reappeared after an hour or so continuing to harass me about purchasing from another woman! Lesson learned there I guess – be sure there’s only one person around!

After our shopping and wandering were complete we hopped in the bus for the long, jerky trip through the mountains back to the train.

I have a few more pictures of Sapa that I will post once I get back to the states!

Saturday was planned to be our day of trekking. The mountains in the area are unbelievably amazing so we planned to set out and see the views. First, we checked out of our hotel, Sapa Rooms ($25/night) and moved down the street to Cat Cat Hotel. I think Cat Cat is the name of the village just outside of Sapa. The room is much nicer, has a great view and only costs $15/night! So far so good.

As soon as we set out trekking, it started to rain and we realized the fog was incredibly thick. No sense in doing all sorts of walking if you can’t enjoy the view so we ducked into a café for our second breakfast and cards. Still raining we then moved on to another café for lunch and cards. Eventually the fog cleared, the rain stopped and we were on our way. We basically walked downhill the entire way, trying to keep in mind that we had to go all the way back up on the way home. We saw some amazing views though – mountains, low clouds, rice fields, farm animals, Hmong women, young kids, waterfalls, etc. It was amazing and, of course, my pictures don’t do it justice! We hiked along a river until we came to the part of the trail that required crossing the river. Considering it had just poured and it might rain again, we decided the water was too deep and fast to cross. So we turned around and started the long climb back up. My lesson here = stairs are way more difficult than just a plaved slope. The first part was stairs and I was just dying. Luckily it changed to pavement and we made it just fine.

Finally got some pictures posted -- here they are!

We arrived in Sapa around 6:45 AM and had to wait in the hotel lobby until nearly 7:30 for 1 room. Mar and I were exhausted so we took a nap while we waited for the second room. After a nap and a shower, we ventured out to check out the town of Sapa. It’s a mountain town with amazing views (I promise pictures soon. The internet connection is not that reliable). This is definitely the best scenery I’ve seen so far. Maybe the Great Wall beats it, but just barely!

There’s a Hmong minority group in the area. The women and children come to town to sell their embroidered goods in their special outfits (very beautiful). Everything’s very beautiful but they can be a bit aggressive. We were sitting outside at a coffee shop playing cards and a old woman came up to us and before I knew it she had tied a bracelet to my wrist! Then she moved on to Tyler and pulled the same trick. What do you do then? Reach for the wallet I guess. Marianne fell victim to a young boy with his baby brother on his back selling bracelets. She paid 10 VND and the aggressive lady sold Ty and me one for only 3 VND each (roughly 15 VND equals $1).

We mainly spent the day enjoying the perfect weather. Sapa is much, much cooler and much, much less humid than Hanoi. Here you can actually walk outside and feel chilly! I’ve never appreciated cool, cloudy weather more than when we arrived here! Our activities for the day included shopping, reading, playing cards (I taught them rummy 500 so that’s basically all we play), and eating. We had dinner at our hotel then moved on to some bars for a few drinks. We even played a game of pool (we all suck).

We weren’t that impressed with our hotel. It got good reviews on Trip Advisor but it was incredibly damp, the rooms were bare, and full of mold. So we found a place down the street for our 2nd night.

On Thursday we woke up sweating to no power. We quickly got out of the apartment and headed for some A/C and Internet access. It was nice to just relax a bit (not that I haven’t been doing a lot of that, but still nice to lay low). Also, I got to have a nice long conversation with Dana over Skype! Afterwards Tyler had a migraine and went back to rest. I opted to wander the city for a couple of hours. I did a little shopping, tried on the bridesmaid dress for their wedding, and just walked around the lake. I was thoroughly impressed with my ability to not get lost! I really have trouble in Hanoi – every street looks somewhat the same, but I made it all on my own (with only slight help from a map). It was a beautiful afternoon, but still not cool enough to sit around the apartment with no AC.

Tyler and I met up, went for lunch and then to a movie to enjoy some more AC and popcorn. We saw Iron Man – very good – and then headed home to pack for Sapa. The train left at 8:40 that night so we grabbed some KFC on the way to the train stations and we were off. We had a sleeper cabin – not bad, but still difficult to sleep. The train got in at 5:45 AM where we were picked up and taken on the long, windy, hilly road to Sapa.

I'm a bit behind in my postings, but trying to get some pictures posted, but I'm struggling. The internet here is a bit slow!