SaPa Day One

One thing to be said for sleep apnea.  At least it wakes the snorer up – giving the three mates in the 4-bunk room on the overnight train to Lao Cai a brief respite from the tortured noises emanating from his mouth.   The photo below is our berth - my bunk on top - with our guide Bingh sitting in his bunk. 

The train ride itself was actually fine – we got on board a bit before 9pm, and the train arrived at the Lao Cai, on the Chinese border, at 6am.  Each time the train stopped (while I was awake) it felt like it hit something. Nonetheless, I fell asleep quickly, and was only up for a two hour stretch from 1 o’clock or so.  It was nice to have the Ipod – I listened at a Terry Gross (Fresh Air, NPR) interview with Quentin Tarantino from when Inglorious Basterds was released – making me feel even more foolish for poor timing (I watched all but the final 10 minutes or so of the movie on the trans-Pacific flight coming here.)  I also got to listen to a 2006 interview with Ted Kennedy – boy could we use his leadership now.

We sped out of Lao Cai quickly – our guide told us that this town as well as the mountain-top town of SaPa, were both destroyed by the Chinese during their 1979 two-week invasion.  Now, the town is rebuilt and serves  as the only open border crossing with China in this area.    The hotel itself is beautiful – I’m told they even have a “murky” swimming pool, although I haven’t ventured there myself.  We had a huge buffet (omelet station and all) – with great tropical fruit selections.   There is a colorful market 2 blocks away – full of beautiful vegetables, spices, nostrums like a liqueur with a crab and a snake inside the bottle, and spices.

We finally got on the bikes at around 9:45 this morning – my pedals went on easily, and the new cleats fit well.  The ride started auspiciously, with two flat tires in the first 1 kilometers.   One tube went in easy; for the other, our guide called the driver who delivered a replacement wheel from the spare bike.

 Riding a mountain bike takes some getting used to – the Trek 4500s are beasts – they are heavy, and they have tires that could come from “monster trucks.”  I learned why, as we rode the pitted paths to the Red Zhou tribal area.  The roads here make the ill-kept roads I’m familiar with riding in eastern Massachusetts (pre-stimulus paving last summer) feel like superhighways. There is also huge altitude – we had 12% grades back and forth multiple times.  

The ride was through Black Hmong and Red Zhou tribal areas  - the tribes are named for the color of their dress or headscarves.  We had lunch in the Red Zhou village – and toured a home of a family of 8.  They have multiple hearths without ventilation, and there is electricity – but precious few lights.  The headroom is large – the loft is used to store food but can sleep the family during the cold winter.  We had a simple noodle meal in the ersatz restaurant here (we were the only patrons, and their were Red Zhou women peddling their wares pretty much the whole time we were there).   The beef was tough enough that there were jokes about it being water buffalo that had expired – another day I’m happy to be a non-meat-eater.

The post-ride shower felt good – it’s a bit worrisome how out of breath I was from a mere 15-20 mile ride – but I have another day in this area to acclimate before the riding gets tougher.  We’re at about 3000 feet now –a mountain pass on the third day of riding is 6000 feet.

I’ll attach a few photos – and I’m planning to finish a book this afternoon before dinner.   To my east coast friends, Good morning (from) Vietnam.

Red Zhou women

Fruits at the market

I wanted to give you a sense of the topography and the terracing of rice fields. This is Rick starting a downhill