sorry, only google translate 🙁
The night train from Hanoi to Sa Pa is surprisingly pleasant and recommendable (as long as one is not above 1.80m). You sleep in a 4 person compartment – which we shared with two nice Australians – and the mattresses are thin, but for Southeast Asian conditions but quite ok (no comparison to the giddy night train from Budapest to Munich, but let’s leave). In addition, the arrival time at 6:30 is also very humane and there is even hot water, so you should have instant coffee (or according to the taste also noodles for breakfast :-)).
Even at the station in La Cai, however, it became clear to us that Sa Pa is also a tourist high-rise in the rainy season. So many buses and mini-vans waited to transport the human masses from 4 (!!!) night trains to the Sa Pa about 40 minutes away. Sa Pa itself has no connection to the railway.
Arrived in Sa Pa, however, a little disappointment broke out. The place itself swells in front of hotels, guest houses and hostels – which was obvious to the masses of course – but the place is in no way. Everywhere dirt, construction sites and pushy locals from the surrounding villages. No really relaxing atmosphere and we were quite glad we had booked only one night in Sa Pa and had not let us in on one of the so popular Homestays had.
For the typical tourist program is as follows: one rides a guide through the rice fields and mountains in one of the surrounding villages populated by “ethnic minorities”, there for a certain time, the locals look over the shoulder and possibly Day hikes. Sounds very idyllic once, although this description in us once again evoke the image of a human figure. The reality, however, is actually different (as we have learned from the observation and stories of other travelers). The idyllic hike to the village actually takes 7-12km along a road, which is the only driveway to the villages – to stay fair, here it is actually through travel fields. This means, however, that all sorts of vehicles on the “hikers” roll over from a motorcycle to a truck on a badly untroubled road. Accordingly, dust is covered from top to bottom after a short time. The following homestay is in the house with some bedrooms, which is rented to travelers, of family bond can not be mentioned here. Accordingly, this “experience” is rather expensive but bad hotel. Positive, of course, one has to say that the villages have a source of income, whether this money for such municipalities harms more than useful is times set. But well, we do not want to condemn anyone who booked such a tour, but our thing was not.
That is why we did it as always (yes, slowly it’s boring :-)), we rented a scooter and went on our own through the area. We saw two waterfalls (which, of course, cost entrance) and we drove exactly the same street where the travelers run to their Homestay’s. We saw the rice fields and Reisterrassen for which Sa Pa is so famous and you have to say, they are really impressive. Unfortunately, the so weak rainy season had messed up the timing, which is why most of the fields have already been harvested, and thus no longer green, but yellow and partly brown. Still a bombastic sight, especially in the warm afternoon sun, where the terraces glittered gold and bronze. Unfortunately, the farmers had already partially started to light the remains of the rice fields, so the whole valley was wrapped in smoke, but this also creates a special atmosphere. All in all a perfectly successful excursion.
On the second day we really wanted to conquer the highest mountain of Indochina (ok, we wanted to take the gondola, because the hike to the summit takes three days ;-)), but unfortunately the weather made – to be exact a continuous rain – a dash By the bill, which is why we spent the day until the departure by train with a small city visit, drink coffee and shop. In Vietnam, “The North Face” is produced, which is why there are tons of fake and b-goods to buy at incredible prices. After many back and forth we left it with a backpack for just 25 €, which in Germany the 4-5 times. Let’s see if he can handle something.
In the evening we went back to Lao Cai to the train and took the night train back to Hanoi, where the bus to Cat Ba waited for us. But that’s another story …