Friday, July 31, 2009

Sapa July 09

Sapa

We arrived in Sapa on such a heavy rainy day and we finally found a very nice boutique hotel called Sapa Rooms Hotel. We put everything in there, took a quick shower and went out for breakfast and shopping. I suppose it sounds a bit crazy to go shopping in the rain but I quite enjoyed it and I wasn't the only one!

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The ethnic minority sellers speak English very well but they do tend to be a bit pushy but I understand why. They followed me for a long way until I bought something from them. I was trying to ignore them but they kept asking me about a million times so I had to talk to them for a while and finally bought some small things from each. This handmade stuff isn't expensive at all and very beautiful. I bought about 6 blankets, a few H'mong hats, wristbands and a necklace.... I hope the sellers were as happy with my purchases as I am.

Sapa BBQ

We had lunch at Mimosa restaurant in Cau May street. It is a very nice, cosy restaurant which I always go to whenever I am in Sapa. It's not very expensive but I love the atmosphere, which is casual and friendly. We ate quite a lot and I love the grilled venison, grilled pork, Sapa veggies and the sour broth. We only paid about 100,000 VND each, which is an amazing price for the amount of food we ate!

Sapa

My friends wanted to visit the temple in Sapa called Den Mau and we went there for a quick prayer. I hope my prayer for luck, good health and a bit of wealth will come true soon so I can afford many more holidays :)

Sapa

The next day was a really beautiful day in the afternoon in which we took a long walk down to Cat Cat village to take more photos and do a bit more shopping. After all the rain, it was great to see the blue sky against the white clouds, everything looking very clear and clean. I really appeciate this natural beauty. I think Sapa is a nice place to come for this purpose.

Sapa

We left later that afternoon and on the way down to the train station at Lao Cai, we saw a bus on fire with only the frame and ashes left. I was a bit worried as on the way up, as we got stuck for almost an hour due to the rain and crazy traffic. Our bus couldn't move as we were bogged in the clay and many people just tried to get around us which was a night mare. Luckily, this road is under construction and a man driving the road digging machine came over and helped us to solve the problem.

Tu - Tu - Thoai - Hien - Thanh - Trang

Anyway, we arrived at the station on time and had dinner before the journey back to Hanoi and the heat. I hope it's going to rain tomorrow. Thanks to the hotel staff and my friends for giving me a great time to discover Sapa once again.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice photos ,apart from the cold weather I've always thought I would really like the natural settings and tribal culture of Sapa but never made it.Thanks for sharing, thats great.

Diem

Anonymous said...

you mean you got ripped of in Sapa rooms hotel?did the aussie owner give you the spiel about helping the local minoritys?
love sapa but hate foreigners making money of minoritys backs as the viet have done for yrs in sapa.

Van Cong Tu said...

Hi Anonymous,
Thanks for commenting in my blog. I didn't even mention the price so I don't know why you assumed I got ripped off. I actually got a good price for our rooms. Thanks hotel owner and staff once again for great company.

Anonymous said...

I love these photos very much esppecially the pig photo. It seems you had a great time there.
Toan

pharmacy reviews said...

I have read some reviews about this places, and every people who went there well very pleases with everything, the place, prices, food, customer service and specially the environment.

Vietnam travel agency said...

I like Sapa, Sapa beautiful... Thank you!