Going to Sapa

I found the 2-day, 1-night Sapa tour on TripAdvisor for $105. A big selling point for me had the transport to and from Hanoi included with the trip.

After booking, I got an email within an hour asking for the hotel I would be staying at in old quarter Hanoi for pickup. After letting the booking agent know my hotel address, they responded with a message on WhatsApp telling me to be ready for pick up at 6:15 am.

I woke up around 5:00 am so I could drink a cup of coffee and get a quick picture of the city as it woke up. The van to pick me up arrived precisely at 6:15 am. After a short 15-minute drive, the driver told us to get out of the van so we could get transferred onto a sleeper bus.

Most tourists' herding to get people on the correct bus went well. The guys in charge of getting the right people on the correct bus would show you a phone with a list of names, then you would point to your name, and they would point to the bus you were to get on. There were no assigned seats on the bus, so it felt relatively simple.

Humans being the unpredictable creatures that we had, resulted in some tourists being told to wait for the next bus. Apparently, they didn't want to wait, and they jumped on the wrong bus. Once their bus arrived s, they had to find out who jumped on the wrong bus, the two people were having their names called, and they either didn't understand the accent of the bus driver or were intentionally ignoring their name. Either way, it resulted in a delay because they later questioned being taken off the bus. The bus driver, clearly frustrated at this point, was pointing toward the door and, without saying any words kept pointing his finger again when they asked questions. After they finally got off the bus, he stepped off to guide a group of Russians onto the bus. The very first woman to step onto the bus looks at the first three seats and turns around in a fit and claims. "The bus is full. We have a large group!" The bus driver is upset after the last couple, and now this group walks onto the bus and says, "The bus not full!" after a brief exchange of yes and no's between the two, the bus driver finally walks down the bus counting open seats to the woman. Now that the woman lost her excuse that the bus was full, the truth came out that she didn't like the look of the bus and was more interested in throwing a fit, she claims. "We want seats, not sleeper bus!“ To give you a little context in America, an average reply would be to apologize and either rebook them or let them know they have booked a sleeper bus and can rebook with another bus if they would like. This man looks at this woman and says, "This is the bus, sit!" She immediately shut up and climbed into her seat, and the rest of the group followed while only complaining under their breath.

Once underway, everyone settles into their seat, and I notice that my seat only reclines and will not sit up. I assume that is a better option than being stuck in the sitting-up position.

After getting out of the city and into the rural area, the countryside of Vietnam is quite amazing to see. Looking out the window reminds you that you are in a very tropical part of the world with a very green country and lots of vegetation. The morning was drizzling rain with a heavy overcast and fog.

Around 10:30, the fog was lifting, and it was just overcast skies. I have to say I have never seen the countryside quite this amazing. The few pictures I have gotten do not do the experience of being here any justice at all. Driving alongside rivers and around mountains is something else after growing up in Florida. With America's ability to build massive and efficient infrastructure systems, we would have blasted tunnels through mountains and built bridges over valleys. You would get to your destination hours faster, but it feels like the cost for this efficiency was the ability to enjoy the sights of the natural landscape.

Culturally the bus ride alone was a somewhat surprising experience. There was a family that got on the bus with a toddler. In America, a toddler on a 5+ hour bus ride would likely become a nightmare for others. This child was very well-behaved for the entire trip. Also, again as a shock to me, this kid was out of diapers already and could communicate to his mother when he had to pee. I learned this because his mother sat in front of me, and when he said he had to pee, she pulled his shorts down, put a bottle over his little manly hood, and let him pee into the bottle. So much of that would not happen in America. First, this kid would be in diapers; secondly, if the kid had to pee, the mother would tell him to pee in his diaper and then change his diaper.

The rest of the drive was relatively uneventful regarding things happening on the bus. While the scenery outside continued to get more remarkable by the minute. The bus stopped at two bus stops with nice food made by local Vietnamese people. Everything came at a price, including using the bathroom, which was 3000 dong. ($.13 USD)

Shortly after the second stop, the bus finally made it to Sa Pa, which meant we were finally in the mountains. This part of the drive is where the bus ride becomes an adventure. Hitting the mountain roads is like the videos on social media where the bus driver takes turns fast and passes other vehicles on blind corners with only a honk. I believe the idea is that if someone comes the other way, they will hear the honk and stop before a head-on collision. If you dare to look out the window during this drive through you will see some amazing sights during the back-and-forth twists and turns.

As the bus ride finally came to an end, we got to SaPa, where we were greeted by all of the locals trying to rush to sell us something or offer us a taxi ride as soon as we got off the bus.