Joel From Afar: Sapa

"Midnight train to Sapa"

This weekend four of us traveled to Sapa an area in central northern Vietnam. In the past this location was used as a mountainous retreat for the French. It was later mostly destroyed during war time and later rebuilt as a tourist destination in the 90's. We traveled by over night train which left at 8pm and arrived at 5 am. From the station we were meet by our guide Co Pra (sounds like Cobram bad ass I know) and made the final hour leg of the journey by bus. Needless to say the area was beautiful. In Sapa one can look upon the tallest mountain in Vietnam and although there was a lot of mist you it is possible to feel just how big it is. Sapa and the surrounding region is home to two of the many ethnic minorities of Vietnam. In Sapa they set up a market to sell hand made goods to tourists as well as to each other. From the second I stepped out of our car until the moment we left we were constantly accosted by these people to "buy from me." At first this was very hard to deal with but once we grew accustom to this we rather enjoyed interacting with the locals. After arriving we were feed a quick breakfast and then we lead up to Dragon Mouth Mountain. It was a small mountain that over looked the bigger ranges in the area. The hike up the mountain was easy and along the way there were orchard gardens you could stop and look at. At the top we were treated to a 360 view of Sapa and the surrounding area. Funny thing though, we were told that it would be about 40 F the whole time so we all packed for cold but instead it was warm, sunny and 70 so we were very hot by the top, I suppose that is what you get for not doing your own research.

That afternoon we were driven to Lau Chi Valley. This valley is home to the Mung people. Again the second we exited our van we were greated by people eager to sell us their goods. By now we were used to this and enjoyed their company through out our two hour walk through the village. As we descended down the path into the valley we passed by terrace after terrace cut into the mountain for rice farming. As a stark contrast from rural South Africa these people had running water and could grow much more of their own food. Still the conditions that these people are living in is less than ideal. It was also much more dificult to interact with the people since we can't speak Vietnamese. Within the village we observed a clinic and being good IHP students we inquired about the levels of care that were accessible to the Mung people. Basic care is available to these people but if anything serious should occur they must travel to Sapa which is about 10 K away (6 miles for those reading this from the West). We also found that like in BBR many people seek traditional methods of health care although as of 2009 ethnic minorities are covered under the health insurance policies of the government, making more treatments available then were previously affordable. As we continued to walk through the village we came across small shops that were selling very nice items for very cheap prices. Spoiler alert!! (I may or may not have acquired some very nice gifts from some people at home).

We learned a great deal about the lives of people from rural Vietnam on this journey to their village, the more I learn though the harder it becomes to accept the levels of poverty that these people live in when there are so many basic necessities that are presently unavailable for no other reason than it may not be cost effective... The more we learn the more I realize has to be done everywhere to bring better health care to people in need, but this is a conversation for another time.

Upon our return to Sapa we found that there was no running water in the entire city. This was fine for us, but as you can imagine some of the older tourists were quite unhappy that they could not shower. We were assured that the water would return but alas it never did so we had to go another day and a half with out a shower, so basically a day in the life of a college kid, especially and IHP college kid.

The next day we went to another village and observed more rural life, with beautiful scenery and water falls. That afternoon we were on our own to explore Eliza decided to get a massage and get cupped. I had never heard of this but as her back would later show it consists of creating suction on ones back with a cup leaving circular bruises from her shoulders to her back, basically one can now play twister on her back with all the bruises. As we were about to depart to the train station the company whom we were supposed to pay decided to inform us that the price we were originally told for the trip was actually less than we owed. After about an hour of argument through a translator we avoided this hidden fee. It was not the best way to end our stay in Sapa since we left feeling like we had almost been cheated. All in all the weekend was great and the experience valuable. As the saying of the weekend went it was "Sapa cool."

The view of the Mountains from our room...

Xander, a local seamstress and myself, he bought the shirt I didn't.