Exploring ASEAN . 7 . Backpack Thru Sapa, Vietnam — Adventures
Finally, it was the last leg of our journey to Vietnam’s Sapa mountains. The biggest challenges here, were the two road-rides, with one 4.5-hour ride from Halong Bay to Hanoi, and followed thereafter with a nearly 12-hour overnight sleeper-bus-ride from Hanoi to Sapa.
This is surely going to be a very, very, very long ride!
Realising this is a backlog on my list that I really got to clear in 2019, after embarking on the trip just 6-years ago, this is my hasty-sort of effort to get it all sorted and done at one ago, and get this task checked off my To-Do-List.
Probably The Most Dizzying Sleeper Bus Ride Ever.
While the external of the bus looks like any other tourist bus charter, the insides laid a very practical and business-economical design that was a very first for me.
There laid three lanes of fixed reclined seater-beds on both a top and lower deck, all separated by two miniature corridors for walking.
I took one on the right-side, window-bed. It was particularly more cramped than the soft-sleeper-bunk on my previous train ride.
The pain point was more apparently as the bus eventually started winding along the curves of the mountain roads, halfway through our ride, for a good 1–3 hours straight.
Unprepared without taking any motion sickness pills, the rides was dizzyingly obnoxious.
I can’t believe I had to go through all of these once more on the return downhill trip!
We Started On A Crazy Scooter Journey.
As soon as we arrived and settled in and took a little nap at our pre-booked inn, we got up, prepared and asked the inn’s owner on the transportation options that were available to us on the mountains.
The scooter ride seemed to be the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to get around. Rental rate was affordable at USD 5.00 for the entire rental span, with gas / petrol prices at about USD 3.00 for a full tank (In 2013).
Learning how to ride the automatic-geared scooter probably took 5–10 minutes, and we took practice as we rode along the mountain roads.
And off we went, riding around the city streets, topping up the scooter tank, and having lunch at a make-shift-mountain-road-side-stall, selling quail meat, eggs, quail meat satays, roasted sweet potatoes and bamboo glutinous rice.
Each tasted so good, especially in the cloudy, windy and cold climate in the mountains!
After our quick meal, we browsed on Google Maps, picked a few local point-of-interests, and went off scootering care-freely, as we ventured further into the mountain sights and villages.
Never Put Your Foot Into Deep Mud.
Day 2 started on a cloudy day, but rolled onto a mid-day of serious jokes and laughters featuring our very own Jason!
The hilarious moment when Jason got itchy feet and walked into the open Padi Fields, his one mis-step got him way deep into the padi field, Jason lost one of his slippers in the mud, and we all laughed so hard because he ended up walking into the nearby stream to wash off the mud that got onto his shorts, because it was That Deep!
Thanks for your silliness Jason!
“These padi mountain fields were majestic and great, but so are their bumpy hills, huge pothole roads and unmaintained road words that extended beyond the steep, curvy, mountainous country roads.”
Exploitation Is Real.
I was probably taken aback by the first sight of this very old man, who was directly this very young, carefree village kids, either moving along the edge of an extremely dangerous rock ledge, or even directing these kids to peel of their clothes in the coldness of the mountains.
It was more obvious that this old man was just shooting them for a sort of “profit”, as after a few directed, posed shots were taken, he quickly disappeared and left the kids as they were.
Though I may view these actions as unethical, I guess, ultimately to all these village kids, it was all a sort of innocent fun and interaction as they do not often see large gears like a DSLR camera, nor were informed on how to avoid “creepy old people” taking their photos without consent.
When Mountainous Weather Change On A Dime.
“It was Cloudy. No.. Drizzling. No.. Raining. No.. Crazy Downpour. Wait. Suddenly-Clear? And I can see the Sunset?” — The weather’s just too erratic here up in the mountain range.
It All Started With A Light Drizzle.
There was a pretty large bunch of us who gathered to visit the mountainous tribes. We parked our scooters in a designated holding area, also hoping that they won’t get stolen as we head unknowingly into the mountains.
“Dark clouds gathered. A few droplets of raindrops fell. It didn’t felt much at first. Then the roads became mud-ways.
My shoes start to get stuck in this freshly, sticky brown mud. Trekking shoes was probably a bad idea here today.”
Wet. Wetter. Fully Drenched Through.
“I remembered thinking why are we stuck in the mud in the middle of nowhere and why we had wanted to come to the village in the first place… Probably I wasn’t prepared to get this wet and this deep-stuck-in-mud, in the middle of the mountains that made me feeling so gloomy. My shoes actually gave way and they are not made for this weather and climate. All Thanks to my peers who made it through with me and made it not as bad as it looked.”
“Eventually led us to their village where a frenzy of pitched sales start to happen… It was pretty scary as we did not expect such an experience but still appreciated that we caught a glimpse of their lifestyle despite the heavy downpour.”
The Most Fearful Bike Ride Uphill.
Sadly, it was the only route as the fastest way out of the village, which was logged by ankle-deep thick mud and near 45-degree slopes.
It was all thanks to the locally-paid villages, who were willing to take a fee and bring us back uphill, for a good 20-odd minutes and back to where we had previously parked our scooter rides.
Indeed… What a ride!
Our Last Goodbye To Our Ladies.
It was time to part ways with our travel ladies, as the guys have came to the end of our journey, while the ladies will continue on into a small part of China.
Definitely we had our ups and downs, laughters and sometimes disagreements, but we were all Thankful that we had all came together to make this trip happen, despite being mostly strangers on Day 1.
Here’s a gathering of beers to celebrate and appreciate our last moments together.
That Long Sleep-On-Bus Ride Again.
It was pretty dreadful. Just brutal. Thankfully I was smarter this time, where I got myself a center bed, so as to minimise the dizziness-effects, and dropped some motion-sickness pills before forcing myself into a deep sleep when the ride started.
Perfect plan. *wink
Some Last-Min Sight-Seeing. Rushed Shopping. Cramped Packing.
Last-day seem to always be a rush to get gifts for friends and family, attempts to squeeze everything within the luggage and airline weight limits, as well as drop-by any points-of-interests we may have missed on prior trips.
It was a fruitful yet lunatic experience! And it happens Every Single Time! ;)
We Were All Tanned & All Filled Up.
Bromance. Full Of Silly Jokes. A Great Time Well Spent Together! Enough Said.
Till Our Next Adventure Together!
Read up my other Backpack Thru ASEAN Stories in the following timeline → 1: Siem Reap, Cambodia | 2: Phnom Penh, Cambodia | 3: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | 4: Hoi An, Vietnam | 5: Hanoi, Vietnam | 6: Halong Bay, Vietnam | 7: Sapa, Vietnam
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