Day 5 - Sin Ho to Sa Pa

13^th April 2011, Wednesday

693-820 km

Motorbike repair, gas, and air ... you'll find this service almost everywhere in Vietnam

Driving out of Sin Ho heading north

 

We started our downward journey on the other side of the Sin Ho mountains heading North by Northeast. The weather was definitely an improvement on yesterday. The road was one of the most interesting ones we have travelled so far. There was very little traffic on the narrow winding road down the mountains and it was leading us past primeval rainforests with lots of chirping birds and large butterflies flying around. It gave us an idea of how this whole area must have looked like, even a few decades ago, before the large scale logging and clearing had started.

No terraces here yet ...

"All the people actively participate in forest protection and forest fire prevention"

The first glimpses of the Lai Chau plain

The plain of Lai Chau

After 43 km and only two buses, one truck and a handful of motorbikes we emerged from the mountains unto the Lai Chau plain. Lai Chau City, the capital of Lai Chau province, used to be called Tam Duong (remember Muong Lay which we passed through earlier and which used to be called Lai Chau?). From above, it looked lovely, nestled between mountains and karst hills. But the moment we entered the urban area the road conditions became abysmal. After winding our way though a narrow mud track, between houses, shops, bikes and so on we drove down a curb and suddenly found ourselves on a huge new highway – I guess if we had took the tour the other way round (counter clockwise) we would never have found this exit leading up to Sin Ho!

Tam Duong didn’t just change its name to Lai Chau when it became the provincial capital, it also started to grow, or at least that’s the plan – and that’s what the highway is for. The three lane road passes through the valley for several kilometres, with some buildings scattered around it and on the mountain slopes, but nothing that would justify the size of the whole thing. Keeping in mind that it does take some time to get to this area from anywhere by car, we enjoy our smooth drive over the level tarmac. There are large billboards announcing future apartment blocks and administrative buildings. There are large but not yet operable gas stations along the road, same with traffic lights. It kind of gives you the suburban feeling and the expectation of a McDrive just being around the corner. There was some kind of street festival going on (celebrating Hung Kings holiday) and we saw a booth selling dark German draft beer – German flag and all…..

Beer black draft German

The highway through Tam Duong...eh... Phong Tho... no.. Lai Chau... whatever...

Prime real estate in the Northwest

???

The End

After Lai Chau we passed a town called Tam Duong (confused!?) where we stocked up on bananas and I got me a ‘slash and burn’ machete knife. Leaving the town we had our first view of Mount Fansipan, Vietnam’s and Indochina’s highest peak at 3,143 meters. 

Along the foothills of Mt. Fansipan

Starting the accent of the pass

 

Mt. Fansipan ... hiding behind clouds. A favourite pastime of high mountains the world over

We've come a long way

We were hoping that we would see it without cloud cover in the coming days. Passing the junction with road 32 (we will be coming back here in two days) we started up the road on the northern slope of Mount Fansipan and over the Tram Ton Pass. This was the worst road of our whole trip. Took us almost an hour to cover 23 kilometres. Fortunately, about halfway up the pass, the road condition began to improve markedly – seems to be the farthest point to where tourists are driven out of Sa Pa for day trips. And the scenery became awesome. We began to meet more travellers on the “photo opportunity rest stops” – Sa Pa, an overcrowded tourist spot, is surely getting closer. After driving over the pass we stop at one of the look-out points. The caretaker wants a fee of 30,000 Dong per person for climbing up a hill and having a look around. In Dien Bien Phu or Son La we only always paid 5,000 Dong for any entrance fee – Sa Pa must be very close indeed.

We made a short stop at the Silver Waterfalls just North of Sa Pa but decided against climbing up – everything is becoming very touristy around here. We passed the restaurant of a Vietnamese acquaintance, specializing in sturgeon and salmon (no not from Norway or Russia, they actually breed these fish up here). So if you ever find yourself in these parts you should try out Thac Bac Restaurant.

It's actually the one behind the traffic sign

After crossing the pass we get a first hand experience of one of Vietnams most noted meteorological divides. Whereas we had bright sunshine during our drive up on the Lai Chau side of the pass, the moment we crossed into Lao Cai province on the other side the weather became cooler and foggy. Lai Chau is one of the hottest provinces of Vietnam and the western mountains of Lao Cai (around Sa Pa) one of the coldest. It’s one of the few places in Vietnam where it actually snows, as it did this year in March.

Forests on the cooler side of the weather divide/pass

Blooming frangipani trees

We entered Sa Pa from the Northwest. The town was completely engulfed by clouds with a visibility of just a few meters. As always, its narrow and steep roads were teeming with tourists and locals despite the clammy weather. After a long and tedious search we finally found a decent hotel: the Bamboo Hotel. We came to Sa Pa to enjoy a little more comfort and variety in the hotel and restaurant area. So even though there were enough accommodation options which we would have gladly accepted in other more remote parts, we were pickier here. Bamboo Hotel was a decent middle class place, with car parking and a great mountain view – barring the clouds of course!

In the evening we went out looking for a restaurant, the weather was still pretty cold (around 12° C), clammy and foggy – the whole town had a kind of “Fu Manchu feeling” to it. You could almost feel sorry for all the tourists who came here for a few days imaging a warm climate, walking around in their shorts and flip-flops. Had dinner at an Italian restaurant (the Delta). What a luxury out here in the province: Italian wine, pasta, olive oil….. The up side of being at a major tourist location.