Diary of an Internet Addict

Day 2 began with Chapa Express chugging away on the tracks, enroute to Sapa. It was a somewhat comfortable ride, and a dreamless sleep. But towards the morning, my body began to complain. It was still dark outside when I woke up, but it quickly began to lighten as we passed through the vegetation.

Soon, the sun rose gently veiled in white as mist covered the far away mountains and hung heavy and low. At around 6am, we pulled into Lao Cai.

Navigating through the tracks made me realise that a luggage was not the optimal way in Sapa. It was pretty rocky all in all, and definitely not fun. We made our way to the station, around 3 minutes’ walk, but felt like forever. Chapa Express had already provided us with complimentary transfer to our hotel, which was around 1 hr away. The driver waited for everyone to be there, before guiding us to a carpark right in front, where there were many mini-buses (9-seaters, perhaps?) parked.

In the hour or so ride, it made a couple of stops to squeeze and drop off some locals. It looked to be a primary sort of transport around.

 

 

 

 

 

We were too early for check-in. I had actually dropped the hotel a couple of messages – once to ask how to get to the hotel from the Lao Cai Station, and another to say that we were coming early in the morning, and if it was possible to check-in early. Both messages went unanswered, I’m not sure what gives.

Anyway, back to the hotel, we reached early. After some confusion and miscommunication, we were placed at a triple room first until noon, while our room was cleaned. We paid extra for the early check-in, to be precise, 50% of the room we were put in.

This specific room is not listed in any of the booking sites we went to, so we were quite surprised at its existence. It was definitely much cheaper than the room we booked. But no matter. We went up to the room to put our things and refresh ourselves. The toilet had some odd stones around it, and there were random noises from the ceiling which kind of freaked us out.

Sa Pa has views of the mountains every hotel, so everywhere is pretty awesome. But this room was town-facing, so there was absolutely no view.

I was thinking…”uh oh” would our actual room be terrible?

Back to our day, usually tourists would immediately go for trekking, but nah…We explored the town instead.

For starters, we had breakfast overlooking the road and the mountains. There were a lot of bugs around the place, but thankfully, none in our food.

 

 

 

 

I tried the egg coffee, but wasn’t sure how to describe it. There was a strong taste that was fairly close to rum and raisin ice-cream though. Other than that, it tasted like coffee. Couldn’t taste the egg in it…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We came back for a swim at the pool, and then, the transfer to our actual room – that family suite looking out to the mountains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch was at Hotel Aira, located on the outskirts of Sa Pa. I didn’t have the pho, but my fellow travellers said that it’s the best they have ever eaten. The hotel overlooks the valley below, and we could see the tram passing by.

The weather at this time is still bearable, so walking around town in shirt and jeans is possible. There is really a lot of hotels, and hostels. Massage parlours, bars and trinket shops line the streets. Tourists and street peddlers thronged the streets. Compared to Singapore’s clear demarcation demarcation, traffic seemed chaotic with opposing directions sharing a single lane.

 

 

 

 

Night eased in with a sort of quietness.

From the balcony of our hotel, we could the sky blanketed in stars and our neighbour planets. Unseen by the naked eye, the milky way danced.

 

 

 

Tip: Be prepared to pay more to check-in earlier.