Mac n Chi's

It’s pitch black. The train stops short. Sleeping underneath a thin blanket, momentum rolls my body and *smack I slam into a wall. I start laughing.

Sapa Vietnam, via TripAdvisor

People want to see Sapa so badly; we endure a lot to get there. An overnight 9-hour sleeper train is just the start. Most cabins have 4 beds, some have 6. Sleeping in a box with 5 strangers are accommodations most of us softies just aren’t used to.

In fact it can get pretty comical. No food on the overnight train means you bring your own stash. Solids as well as liquids. Some immediately dash to the bathroom to rate its cleanliness.. Other’s check whether the light bulbs in their cabin work. The stops along the way are faaaaar from soft landings, but screeching halts – a subtlety that had me laughing at the perfect metaphor: Vietnam as a machine has endured so much, now it’s fully immersed in developing as an economic engine. It’s all sex, no foreplay – make money, finesse is a luxury. If the train needs to stop.. just slam on the brakes.

The train rolls into a town called Lo Cai somewhere after 4 in the morning. Moving like zombies, everyone is awake as the conductor has spent the last 25 minutes walking down the halls and slamming on the cabin walls as a prison guard drags his baton across the prison bars to make noise. Lo Cai might be okay, but it’s about an hour from Sapa, so as I approach the exit of the train station I look for the shuttle bus counter. On the right side of the bottleneck of backpacks and pulled luggage, I find the desk my friend told me to look for.. $3, not too shabby compared with the other prices I was quoted.

$3 and an hour later, the shuttle pulls up into a driveway and we all come pouring out. Sapa is an isolated town that sits in northwest Vietnam, bordering China. Known for its stunning scenery

Sapa, Vietnam

(infinity rice fields) and its ethnic diversity of hill tribes.. my first impression was “they’re out here already?!”  It’s 5 in the morning for chrissakes. As I wander around town without a hotel reservation but with a crude map I’ve lifted. I start getting the questions “Hellooooo, where you from?” “You go on trek? I take you on trek,” “You want buy things? You buy from me?”

In the back of my mind, a whisper as I take long strides on the muddy road – what if all the hotels are booked?! If it’s some local holiday? If, for instance, the tribecca film festival is being held here this week?! Is anyone going to be working at this hour or am I going to have to answer all these questions all morning long?! F*@% this solo traveling crap! I should have just booked that $60/night room I saw on-line!

“You need a room?!” booms a voice as I meander in my own type-a panic. The guy’s eyes remind me of the gypsy cab drivers inside the arrivals terminal at JFK. I brush him off as quickly as possible by fudging, “No thanks, am already booked at Cat Cat.” He replies with a very stern look, “oooh, Cat Cat hotel very far!” I walk past him. 90 seconds later, I am standing the lobby of Cat Cat hotel. I negotiate a room with a fireplace for $20/night.  Solo traveling is suddenly cool again. 😉

my 'victorious' view from Cat Cat hotel

The Hmong and Dao ethnic tribes that live near Sapa are known for their fabrics that they produce clothing and blankets that they sell to you. I don’t like crowds (New Yorker) and I don’t like negotiating (American). But having spent some time out here I’ve begun to realize it’s a cultural hurdle for me to overcome. I’m not an artist at it, but I can keep it exciting.

trekking thru Sapa

Shopping aside, other tourists seem to be preoccupied with taking pictures of every single tribesman they see.. including the snot-nosed kids. But the main events in Sapa are the treks you can take to soak in the scenery. The closest village is Cat Cat (thus the name of my hotel). And the first thing I notice is that some of the rice fields have been left unattended, the second thing I notice is the gauntlet of retail vendors you walk thru as you first enter the village.. stall after stall after frikin stall selling the very same merchandise! Perhaps hoping you’ll have changed your mind after walking 10 meters but are too lazy to return.

The result of these two observations should be alarming for the leaders of Sapa. The economy there has converted into money becoming the “drug of choice” as some called it. The tribes are leaving their farming traditions to compete is selling identical merchandise which means who can hook into a tourist better wins/sells. It also undermines their bargaining power when the person next to them may be hungrier and willing to undercut their price.  If this continues, they will be saps for ruining precisely what it is that tourists have come to see.

muddy trek outside Sapa

Nonetheless, for now, there is still enough of Sapa there that makes the journey worthwhile. And I sign up for a longer trek with a guide to try to get further out of town to see it.

Chao, a guide in Sapa

Chao is a boppy 18 year old who could pass for 12. She’s considered a veteran as children in Sapa start working when they’re just 5 years old. She’s considered an independent woman as they usually start marrying at the over-the-hill age of 15. “I don’t want to get married!” she chirps, “if you get married have to have children and take care of husband.. too much work!!”

The trek is an adventure that begins with a posse of tribeswoman who follows you and tries to befriend you. “where you from?” is their gateway conversation. I don’t take the bait, I don’t want to be bothered and I just know you’re up to something. I think to myself: You didn’t get up at 3 this morning and hike 2 hours into town to learn more about my New Yorker ass. “I’m from Sapa” I say with a brisk tone, they leave me alone.

Our trek thru Lao Chai and Ta Van is at times steep treacherous and muddy.. feeling very smart about the .50-cent bamboo stick I bought, I am able to avoid the posse tribes ladies’ motive – to help you on the mudslide portions of the trek so you have to tip them later. Big travelers tip here: ret the gumboots!

how would my sneakers have fared?!

The view from the trek is stunning. The rice fields go on seemingly forever. I reminisce of the fields in Bali.

Sapa, Vietnam

“Home stay” is a term that was new to me before this trip. That is, staying with a local family. And while I’ve known people who travel that way, I’ve never seen it as advertised as it was in Sapa. In the town of Ta Van, Chao tells me there are 40 home stays. Each of them houses up to 20 people, and as I glance at the western style bathrooms, I begin to realize they’re essentially hostels. I may grumble a bit, but part of me was envious of the couple from the UK/Spain we left behind – their home stay even had a pool table! Another travelers tip, the home stays begin your dinner with a big bottle of rice moonshine, if you’re going to partake, bring alleve for the morning after.

Street vendors in Sapa, Vietnam

Back in town, for food there is really just one street, Cau May. Red Gecko is one favorably reviewed that suffers the same affliction as the others. Sapa is so poor, restaurants get by on just a handful of customers a day. Viet Emotion had 2 things going for it, a Huntsman meal that was served with sticky rice stuffed in a bamboo shoot.. and a Dai Viet dark lager – which I subsequently could not find anywhere else. My pals from Lichtenstein favored a place (on the same stretch, of course) that had a happy hour where they served a piping hot gluvine for free – we had just a few before I hoped into a packed suv for the hour trek to the overnight train back into Hanoi.

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