14th April 2011, Thursday
820-952 km
We started this day looking for a mechanic to fix three tires which had screws or nails in them. I guess we made a Sa Pa mechanic real happy that day: 300.000 Dong well-earned.
After that we drove down to Lao Cai City (the provincial capital of Lao Cai Province). The road down from Sa Pa is very picturesque with pine trees and rice paddies – but the ever present fog/clouds.
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| Business and private space are often one in Vietnam |
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| One finds these " Lam Lop" (tire) garages all over Vietnam |
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| Two native Sa Pa ladies |
After that we drove down to Lao Cai City (the provincial capital of Lao Cai Province). The road down from Sa Pa is very picturesque with pine trees and rice paddies – but the ever present fog/clouds.
Lao Cai is an astonishingly picturesque town along the first stretch of the Red River in Vietnam. It crosses the border with China where it is known by the name Yuan. The railroad which brings the tourists up from Hanoi, and who then continue by bus to Sa Pa, used to go all the way into China until Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.
We decide to drive up North along the river/border into Bat Xat district. At first we got lost and ended up in a restricted development area close to the border – turned around quickly and took the much smaller road north leading to Bat Xat. A nice stretch passing through the typical scenery of rice paddies and karst hills. At a place called Ban Vuong we took a left in the direction of Muong Hum. We heard about a colourful market happening at that place, frequented among others by the Phu La people, whose language is related to Burmese – a language family which we haven’t encountered yet during our travels. To bad the road – or rather path – was in a very bad condition. The scenery was very promising (rainforest and quaint little farmhouses) but we decided to turn back after about 20 minutes and 5 km. At Ban Vuong junction we tried to drive further north but also decided to return before getting stuck in the mud – our car doesn’t have 4WD, and besides, the destinations would have been dead ends and not really that exciting.
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| Hekou, Yunnan Province, The Peoples Republic of China |
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| The Red River as a border |
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| China is called "Trung Quoc" in Vietnamese: "Middle Kingdom" |
We decide to drive up North along the river/border into Bat Xat district. At first we got lost and ended up in a restricted development area close to the border – turned around quickly and took the much smaller road north leading to Bat Xat. A nice stretch passing through the typical scenery of rice paddies and karst hills. At a place called Ban Vuong we took a left in the direction of Muong Hum. We heard about a colourful market happening at that place, frequented among others by the Phu La people, whose language is related to Burmese – a language family which we haven’t encountered yet during our travels. To bad the road – or rather path – was in a very bad condition. The scenery was very promising (rainforest and quaint little farmhouses) but we decided to turn back after about 20 minutes and 5 km. At Ban Vuong junction we tried to drive further north but also decided to return before getting stuck in the mud – our car doesn’t have 4WD, and besides, the destinations would have been dead ends and not really that exciting.
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| The somewhat rougher country north of Lao Cai |
We decided to turn back and do a more thorough exploration of Lao Cai City. We stopped near the border crossing, two large buildings on the opposite sides of a bridge spanning the River. How cool would it be to just be able to driver over into China and continue our tour in Yunnan province – alas no Visa and no permit for the car. We had some drinks at a café directly on the river esplanade overlooking the border bridge. Didn’t get the name of the café but would suggest “Smuggler's Café” or something… You could see people in the no-mans area crawling under the bridge, with a hand cart pulled behind, and passing on wrapped up boxes over a fence to others waiting on the Vietnamese sides, who would then load their motorbikes and drive off into town. We stayed at the café for over an hour and observed this recurring spectacle during the whole time – did I mention it was midday? This city is definitely enjoying a booming trade, both legal and in the ‘shadows’.
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| The border gate on the Vietnamese side |
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| Den Mau - "Mother Temple" just near the border gate |
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| Personal Computers?? |
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| The railway bridge - the track goes all the way to Kunming, capital of Yunnan province |
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| Vegetable plots along the Nam Thi River |
We took a walk on the esplanade going east along the Nam Thi border river. Interestingly the promenade of the town of Hekou on the Chinese side wasn’t as developed as the one on the Vietnamese side, although the larger buildings and billboards on the Chinese side suggested increased overall economic development. We arrived at a complex of several pagodas and temples, the Thuong Temple. It was nice enough but looked like any typical Taoist temple in North Vietnam. But they had the largest banyan tree I ever saw. This was also one of the few temples we saw during our week-long trip. The reason being that many of the inhabitants of the Northwest are adherents of animistic and shamanistic believes. Apart from the larger cities there are not many Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians, or Christians in this region in contrast to the situation among the Vietnamese of the plains.
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| The hill upon which lies Thuong Temple |
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| Den Ong Thuong |
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| The large banyan |
On the road back to Sa Pa we had much better weather than in the morning, so Susanne could take at least some pictures.
Sa Pa also looked much more hospitable when the cloud cover lifted. We were followed by a woman on a motorbike who wanted to lure us to some hotel, but she didn’t linger long after she saw my face. In the afternoon I stayed at the hotel while Susanne ventured into town to have a look at the traditional ethnic minority market. This is one of the main tourist attractions in Sa Pa. We could have seen similar markets in all the towns we passed during our tour, and with the added benefit of being more authentic, unfortunately they are only held once a week, mostly on Sundays. The market at Sa Pa is different, they are open almost 24/7 – guess why?!
Sa Pa also looked much more hospitable when the cloud cover lifted. We were followed by a woman on a motorbike who wanted to lure us to some hotel, but she didn’t linger long after she saw my face. In the afternoon I stayed at the hotel while Susanne ventured into town to have a look at the traditional ethnic minority market. This is one of the main tourist attractions in Sa Pa. We could have seen similar markets in all the towns we passed during our tour, and with the added benefit of being more authentic, unfortunately they are only held once a week, mostly on Sundays. The market at Sa Pa is different, they are open almost 24/7 – guess why?!
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| "Cho Sa Pa" - Sapa Market |
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| She's a Red Dao (pr. Zao) |
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| ... and she is a Black Hmong |
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| The region is famous for its mushrooms |
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| Seafood is found all over Vietnam - even in the mountains |
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| Chillies are used but not as prevalent as in other SE Asian kitchens |
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| "Going to the market is not exclusively for shopping, but it is also an opportunity for the girls to show their happiness and beauty to others, especially to young men." Vietnam. Tourist Guidebook |
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| Susanne bought an embroidered duvet from this family |
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| Chicken ... |
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| ... and pork - normally slaughter is twice a day, so the meat is pretty fresh |
A short synopsis on Sa Pa: this region was originally settled by the Black Hmong, a people who arrived in northern Indochina from southern China in the last 200 years. They belong to a distinctive language family called Miao-Yao. Members of this group are spread all over southern China and northern Laos and Vietnam, and there are sizable communities in France and the US – this is mainly due to some groups of the Hmong siding with first the French and then the Americans in the two wars respectively. When the French ‘discovered’ Sa Pa at the turn of the last century, they started developing it into a health resort and a “summer capital” to flee the oppressing heat and humidity of the delta. In the 1920s and 30s the town grew to comprise around 200 French buildings – among them several luxury hotels, a summer residence for the Governor General of Indochina, holiday villas and a church. The French called the town Cha Pa and the surrounding mountains the “Tonkinese Alps”. Most of this was destroyed by the French themselves during the first Indochina War when they ordered the bombing of Cha Pa in 1952; the Vietminh had taken the town in 1949.
Some of the pictures we took during an eralier trip to Sa Pa in May 2010. We enjoyed perfect weather back then.
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| A view of Sa Pa from a park above the town |
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| One of the few stone houses left in town |
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| A Hmong boy on his "bike" |
Our search for a different place to have dinner turned out to be futile. Even though there is one restaurant next to the other with a lot of advertising and such, they all serve the same grub: Vietnamese food adapted for Western tastes, sandwiches, pasta, burgers, steak, pizza, breakfast; neither genuine nor delicious – almost no place dares to just stick to one cuisine and improving it. We ended up at one of the few brave ones: the Italian place Delta.
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