Sapa - Goooooood Mooooorniiiing Viiiiietnaaam
Even if the movie was not made here... We are quite close to the chinese border, it is about 5.15 am, damn early. The nightrain wasn’t that good. Whoever had a nightride on a sleeper with 4 person knows how we feel right know. The trains are like straight from the 1960ies... After a while, some beers, earplugs and the steady movement we feelt into a light sleep. Even if you woke up any minute. At least it seemed like it.
In Loa Cai just 8 km away from China a Mercedes Benz Sprinter picked us and 12 other people up. Nadine saw us standing at the trainstation, because she had the Sammet Hotel in mind. Aour agency named that hotel as the one we were booked on. So ran Nadine towards the guy with the sign for the Sammet Hotel, niot looking for any other signs. Michael, still sleeping, just followed her. He awoke when Nadine started talking a little more loud to this poor guy who did not want to talk us to the hotel because we were not on his list...
On their way out Michael meant to have seen the busdriver from Hanoi so they went back into the trainstation. Luckily there was the vitnames mom and daughter whom we talked to before leaving Hanoi. They could remember us and called when we past. And there we found ourselfes standing infront if a sign with Nadine and Michael Zangerle on it.... So it went out well...
They droped us off at a hotel which we didn’t book. It looked better than the one we booked so we kept our mouthes shut. After checkin we could follow the sunrise over the montains. Before we had breakfast we sleept one hour to be fresh for the first trek. This first one was just about three hours and ended around noon.
We treked to a Mongh-village where we could hear some details about their lives. We were introduced into an old musicinstrument to get the attention of women who are willing to marry. The man kidnapped a woman and locked her for three days in his home. If she does not want to marry him her only way to get out of this is to commit suicide. If thgis ain’t romance???
There are differnt tribes of Mongh. They are also called cat people, because they don’t like water. Which means, they wash themselfe once a year. So don’t stay to close...
When we hit Sapa again we could run through the city. This is done within 30 minutes. We went early to bed to discover that we need a heater and a second blanket. It was so damn cold! The matrace was so hard as a table. It wasn’t a good night again.
Next morning we went on a 14 km trek. After a coffee which can wake up dead people we started trekking with a group of Mongh-women behind us. We went to a waterfall and further on to a village. Whenever we started more Mongh-women followed us. So we had double size groups... this women wanted to know about us,where we are from and so on. Of course they tried to sell some stuff but on a really friendly and shy way. Yopu said just once „No, thanks.“ And the did not bother you with selling anymore, they just followed and talk to us. They spoke a better english than most people in Hanoi!
The landscape was amazing, just marvelous. Nadine went back to her youth where she trekked the Alps with here family every sommer. She had a lot of songs for trekking in mind which did not fit here in Vietnam. If you crossed the bamboo and the ricefields out off your mind then theses montains could be anywhere. The peaks were deep in clouds. But we were lucky again. A couple of days ago there had been rain. Now it was fine. We very on the sunny side again.
This evening we left Sapa at 5 pm to go back to Hanoi. Another bad night, waiting for the next bus three hours later... No cafe had opened when we hit Hanoi at 5 am. We are heading for Halang Bay today. Let’s see what we do there. No plans yet.