The Indian Contractor visits Vietnam and China on a Shoestring

This was our last day at Sapa. Our train was scheduled to leave at 2015hrs that evening. So we packed our bags and completed the check out formalities. The lady agreed to look after our bags and we left for our last destination- Ta Phin Village.

During breakfast we contemplated walking to the village but decided against it when we saw the distances on the Lonely Planet Guide. The last thing we wanted was another Thac Bac disaster on the day of departure.

We went to the main square to look for a motorbike. They charged us VND80,000 for a two way trip per person and VND50,000 for a one way trip per person. We negotiated to 40,000 per person for the one way trip. It was waaayy above the market price. But we were none the wiser.

It was quite some distance to the village and the hairpin bends on the road were quite a challenge even for these seasoned bikers. And the actual village was a further few kilometres from the entrance. So we were lucky to have chosen the bike over our feet.

When we stopped at the village, a group of tribal women started rushing towards us. They asked the standard set of questions as to where we came from and how old were we etc etc. Then came the requests to visit houses and buy stuff from them. We were already loaded with stuff and China was still on the agenda so we politely refused. They were persistent and followed us as we trekked through the village. I felt sorry or them because they were trying really hard to get customers. The problem here was that too many people were selling the same goods hence the customers had to be coaxed into buying stuff instead of being given the freedom to walk freely and buy at their leisure.

So we walked on with the tribal bodyguards hot on our trail. The landscapes and terraces were beautiful as one can see from the pics.

At one of the locations I saw a group of photographers, taking pictures of a farmer girl working in the fields. They made her repeat some of the actions she did and it was like a movie shoot complete with the takes and director. There was one guy asking the lady to pose differently and about 4 photographers with really expensive equipment shooting like their life depended on it. Then they walked over and said hi. I returned the greeting. These guys were from different parts of the world and were doing some sort of publicity shoot for the government. But suddenly their objectives changed and they started shooting me. One of them, an american vietnamese, told me I had beautiful hair. Now, if a girl had said that I could have smiled for the rest of the day, but coming from a group of old men, it felt weird. Very Weird!

So they exhausted another 20 frames on me and thanked me before saying goodbye.

We then took a detour into one of the residential complexes of the village. It was a narrow path way branching off the main street. We saw some kids playing around a tree. They stopped and stared at me as I passed them and probably wondered which planet I came from. Not many Indians visit Vietnam and almost no Indian makes it this far north into Vietnam. The boys giggled at me and girls were just scared into silence. A few mothers also passed some remarks and had a good laugh. The kids were more than willing to have their picture taken. Its always nice to ask people before you take their pictures. My buddy was invited into one of the houses and offered some goods for sale. She bought a small purse from the owner of the house, a middle aged lady, who gave her a complimentary rice dumpling to go with the purse. They were genuinely friendly. The only problem was that capitalism and the need for money often brought them across as being friendly in a bussiness minded sense. On our way back to the main path we offered the rice to some of the kids who willingly grabbed it and started munching on the rice. They did not look malnourished but judging by the way they ate the rice, it seemed they had not eaten for the day. We got back on the main path and walked further till we came to a dead end.

A huge cave marked the end of the trekking path. We walked into it and found it to be very much cooler than the outside. It was a natural cave and we could'nt walk more than a few metres into it as there were no lights. Then a voice from behind beckoned, "15000 Dong, light". It was a little boy who tried to tell us that we were to pay VND15,000 to enter the cave. We thought about it for a while and decided to go inside. We had come this far, there was no point in skipping this place now. I handed over my last dirty US dollar and there was light.

Our "guide" was the little boy himself. Don't let his age and size fool you. This kid knew the cave inside out and was very apt in climbing the slippery walls and jumping across bottomless crevices. While we placed each step like it was going to be our last while the kid just hopped, skipped and jumped like it was a game of hopscotch.

It got more difficult as we went into the interiors as ground was more slippery and the walkways much narrower. However some of the formations like the stalagtites looked beautiful under the yellow bulb lights. The exposure times on the camera were too long so we could not make a proper picture of it. We reached the end of the cave just under an hour. I was disappointed, I expected some sort of an exit, something like light at the end of the tunnel. But it was not to be. We had to retrace our steps back to the entrance. But it was a nice cave, especially the combination of lighting and rock formations.

On the way back we took some pictures by the lights. I started feeling like a Hindi movie hero and climbed onto to one of the platforms that was seperated by a crevice. I had my picture taken, and I have attached for your viewing pleasure. The pleasure ended once the picture was taken. I had no idea how to come down from my high pedestal. Climbers beware, an easy climb does not mean an easy return. I looked down at the crevice I had crossed while climbing and realised that I could not see the bottom. I was seperated from my friends by a distance of 1 meter and a height of 2 meters. The bottomless crevice was inbetween us. With only one foothold I was to climb down and jump over the crevice with my body facing the other direction. Hopefully I would land on my feet and not slip on the slippery slope and plunge to the depths of the bottomless crevice! I got into position and realised that I had to use the power on my left leg to take off as there was no support for my right leg. I decided to formulate another plan. My buddy gave me directions and I tried her rescue plan but it did not seem to work either. She was actually asking me to retrace my steps back to where I started. I only realised this when she said it again and again. Lesson learnt guys: Fear is an impedance to thought!

I managed to manouver myself and rejoin my friends after a 15 minute ordeal that involved getting into some obscene and uncomfortable postures. I thanked my buddy and we crawled on.

When we walked out of the cave, we were fully satisfied with ourselves. The one dollar cave trip was definitely worth it. The entrance fee also included a water tap for wash up and we fully utilised it to wash our feet and my friends bruises.

We then walked back towards the entrance of the village. Once I heard my stomach growl, I waited for the first person to offer me a motorbike ride. And the offer came soon enough. This time though we made it back to sapa at almost half the price. It goes to show that one can never be sure when they get cheated. We payed only VND50,000 for the both of us together. We had lunch and I ate another roasted corn before waiting for our bus back to Lao Cai. The bus was scheduled to depart at 1700hrs but they asked us to board the bus at 4pm. I realised why a while later. They stopped the bus at the main square and started hunting down others who were going to Lao Cai too. After thre more people we were off. The journey back to Lao Cai was better than any other we had taken before because the sun lighted up the mountains and the bright greens and the rich blue sky made for some outstanding photo opportunities. The only regretful part was that I had run out of colour film. So I shot in black and white hoping to get some ansel adams landscapes. Hopefully something nice turns up from those pics.

We reached Lao Cai at around 6 pm. The restaurant they dropped us belonged to one of our hotel owners so we were allowed to keep our bags there and roam about. But we chose to dine there instead. After dinner we walked to the station. The station was full and people were frantically rushing for the train on the platform. It was the earlier train. We got onto the platform and once the train departed we found ourselves alone on the platform. The ticket checkers forgot to check our tickets. And we had the whole platform to ourselves. We exploited this and shot some pictures. An hour later our train came to the platform and thus began our second hoo haa with the vietnamese railway system.