Sunday, May 3, 2020

A Sapa Mountain Hike, Night Train From Hanoi and Begging in Vietnam




Arrived in Sapa in the mountains near the Chinese border via sleeper train. Not much sleeping was going on but it was an experience and reminded me of


all the sleeper trains mum and I took in the 70s on the Southern Aurora to visit my grandmother in Melbourne. Hard to believe it was cheaper than flying back then.  This is definitely a must when in the north of Vietnam and travelling to Sapa.
The town of Sapa and the mountains are stunning and very reminiscent of the Austrian Alps. I love the mountains so I am in my element. The highest mountain is over 3000m here so there is lots of snow in winter and even a cable car which we are going to ride today, but no skiing infrastructure. As I said the potential here is amazing. I haven't seen any MTB either, apparently, there is some here but it must be small scale as there is no evidence of it.
There's lots of hiking though, so we had a hike arranged by our guide. Luckily I did not know what was involved or I would not have gone. It's kind of like having a baby. The less you know the better otherwise you'd never do it. It was arduous and took us 6 hours to climb up and then down. There is no escape or being transported back down by motorbike, so once you were committed you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other until it was over. Of course, it was all worth it (again like having children) but whilst you are in pain and hating yourself walking up a very steep hill and then down the same, which uses a whole new set of muscles......it's hell. Anyway, the scenery was spectacular.
The hill tribes (whom the guide referred to as peasants) live on the mountain and they use every inch of land to grow rice, corn, hemp and so much else.
One eye-opener here is how the hill tribes use their kids, which is positively criminal, to make a bit of coin. Although there are little schools dotted over the mountain, lots of kids are running wild and not attending. Then at night, they come down to Sapa and you see little kids, smaller than the Littlest Beach House Brat, with babies tied to their backs, hassling tourists to buy trinkets.

One little girl looked exhausted and was rubbing her eyes and stumbling around with a heavy baby on her back. She stopped to look through the window of a shop as she was distracted by someone singing karaoke and a lady in hill tribe dress came along and had a go at her and presumably told her to get back to work. It was very very sad and really upset my little girl.

My God life is unfair. We gave her some money and then 5 other kids appeared from nowhere wanting money too, which of course we gave them, but I was thinking this is one nano step up from begging and we are just supporting it. Who knows they could even be from an orphanage and it was 10pm. They should be at home in bed in anticipation of school the next day. It's shameful and the government should not allow it. 10 years ago they used to grow opioids to produce heroin but that has been outlawed with execution as a penalty so they have to survive somehow I guess, but poverty is truly shit..






Sapa

Our Wonderful Hotel in Sapa

Sapa

Sapa

Sapa

Sapa

Sapa

Sapa

An Arduous Mountian Hike

Rice Paddies

Rice Paddies

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike

Sapa

Our Wonderful Hotel in Sapa

Sapa

An Arduous Mountian Hike

Hill Tribes Children who should be in school

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike
Hill Tribes Woman

Hill Tribes Women

An Arduous Mountian Hike

Lunch on the Mountain

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike

An Arduous Mountian Hike
For more travel stories go here.


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