Sa Pa

As 2023 neared its end, we travelled onwards on our quest to Mordor. Our next stop: the misty mountains of Sapa. It is much colder here than it was in Hanoi but the gods where smiling at us and gave us two days of bright sunlight, much in contrast to the thick mist that hung over the region the previous days.

Our loging was a nice homestay at the outskirts of the city Sapa, where we had a nice room to ourselves. The upside of coming to Sapa in December is that there are probably fewer tourists, on the downside the temperatures drop to temperatures known at the Wall in Westeros. Similar to castle black, our homestay (and most other accommodations in Sapa) don't have heating. In contrast to castle Black, there are no fire places in the room, instead there are heated mattresses. These are a bliss, I have never in my life wanted to leave my bed less than these mornings in Sapa.

On our first day in Sapa we wandered to the Cat Cat village. A mystical ethnic village surrounded by steep, forest covered mountains. Taking the many steps up and down the village we past a rose garden, a waterfall, and some magnificent bridges.

For lunch we climbed back up to the city of Sapa for some fried rice before we went on a quest to find a dragon. According to legend there once lived multiple dragons in this area (the number varies depending on which legend you read). One of them turned to stone thousands of years ago and is now known as Ham Rong. This is where we started our quest, as we were convinced that there is no way there are no live dragons anymore in this area. On our way we were guided by the twelve chinese zodiac signs. Some of them had uncanny resemblance to certain comic figures, but we leave you to be the judge of that. We fought ourselves through bushes and climbed rocks past caves and dangerous beasts until we reached the gate of heaven. In heaven with the view over (nearly) the whole world we rested on swings. Whether we found dragons eventually, we cannot tell you, as that is forbidden according to the International Statute of Secrecy. Our day ended back in our comfortably warm bed with some tea and the news.

New day, new adventure. This time a cave adventure, or rather a long way to and back from the cave and a short cave adventure. We set out in the misty morning to find the Ta phin cave. The way offered breathtaking views over rice fields and the surrounding mountains (as soon as the mist cleared). Of course there was a wild assortment of beasts and beings that we met along the way. Among others a weird mix between a nice dog and a tick on two legs. These creatures are a reaccuring sight in Vietnam and we still have to name them. They are the distant cousins of the seagulls we found in the stans, yet much more intelligent and nicer. After a four hour trek, we found the entrance to the dark cave. As the proper cave explorers we are (this is already the second cave we are visiting this trip, so we are basically experts) we turned down the offers of multiple dog/tick mixes for guidance and headtorches. There was also no entrance fee, we just payed a random guy a couple thousand dons to turn on the light. Directions: just follow the lights for 300 meters and then come back. Sounds easy. Well, dear reader, the security guidelines in Vietnam are slightly different than the European ones. Following the lights is definitely doable for anyone who has healthy knees, doesn’t mind a bit of dirt, can crouch low and climb some rocks. Easypeasy, just look out for some holes in the ground, some slippery surfaces and some sudden low ceilings. It does help being a short person by the way. However this might sound, this adventure was still really enjoyable, we are as mentioned experts when it comes to caves. The lack of a cave troll also helped to keep our spirits up. Out of the cave and a jae later, we ventured back across rice terraces towards Sa Pa with our Sid playlist and later some powermetal to bring up our motivation. Overall we walked some 25-30 kilometres that day and a couple hundred meters in altitude.