Day 83

Big Hike

Even if I couldn't do Fansipan without paying, I knew I wanted to do a big hike that went through some local villages as well as up some mountains. Luckily, AllTrails seemed to have exactly what I wanted. 2 separate hikes, 1 that went out to a neighbouring village called Ta Van, and one that came back on the other side of the valley. I could combine these for a fairly big single day hike.

The first half was quite relaxed, it was about 11km in total, mostly downhill to drop into the valley with a little bit of elevation towards the end. It was nice and sunny and I got some gorgeous views of the rice fields as I passed through the "Black H'mong" villages, seeing lots of livestock too. Unfortunately some people did try and sell me stuff, though they were mainly kids and you're not supposed to buy anything from them as it encourages them to drop out of school.

There were a couple bigger villages too, Lao Chai and Ta Van which were both towards the end. These evidently were super touristy too as the vibe was super different from the other ones I had passed through. I grabbed a smoothie at Lao Cai before heading over to Ta Van for some lunch. I ordered a Banh Mi, but to my surprise I got an even smaller portion of chips than I did yesterday, and it was in "normal" square slices of bread instead of the classic baguette. I knew the 2nd half would take a bit longer as it had some more elevation out of the valley, and it was getting to the hottest part of the day so I didn't stay long.

After foolishly trying to take a shortcut and ending up having to sneak through a farm in order to get back on the main track, I found myself sweating and breathing heavy as I tried to push my way up the valley. Luckily, once I had actually gotten onto the path, it was fairly linear and I didn't have to think much, which caused me to apparently miss the route I was meant to follow and end up a bit further down the road than I was meant to. But hey, I'm never one to complain about extra kilometers as all that meant was more adventure.

I had noticed that the route on AllTrails went around a mountain but there was a perfectly good trail that went directly towards Sapa with only 500m more elevation, plus I'd get to summit a mountain which would be quite cool. I stopped at a homestay on the way to get some more drinks as I was getting low on water then kept powering on. The trail up the mountain was actually pretty good, although there were alot of diverging paths but I assume they all went the same way so I wasn't too worried. Plus, I had my GPS to keep me on route. As I climbed further up, I got an even better view on the whole valley below which was nice. I passed some locals, and some horses and before I knew it I was on the summit of Mount Ham Rong. Well, maybe. As there wasn't a summit marked and the path went straight up and over, I bushwacked to the summit as per my GPS and called it mission complete.

I could see Sapa for most of the descent and knew I had a while left of sunlight so I wasn't in a big rush on the way down, so I took it fairly slow, watching the sunset behind Fansipan. As I made my way down, it passed through a little tourist attraction where there were some nice statues, gardens, and walkways. Plus, to cement the fact that Sapa felt like a D tier Disney, there was even a knock off Mickey Mouse statue. As I made my back into town, I had completed my 20 something kilometer hike with 1300 something meters of elevation - all to avoid a less than 3 pounds entry fee into the Ham Rong Park thingy right at the end. I knew I was a cheapskate but I didn't know by this much.

I was now perfectly hyped to go to the Alps in just over a month, and perfectly craving an ice crea, some cookies, and a drink, so I went to a shop and splurged before eating till my heart was content.

Unfortunately, as my homestay was full tonight, I had to move for a 3rd time in 4 nights in Sapa to another homestay on the other side of town. Luckily though this was the last time as I had booked my bus ticket to Laos for tomorrow evening. After checking in and showering, I went to a restaurant across the street and enjoyed a much wanted final dinner in Vietnam.Read more