SAPA - tourism area, north-west of Hanoi, Vietnam.

1:37am, 16-Feb 08 (Sat), Kuala Lumpur.

On the 4th day of my trip, I went to SAPA, a tourism area meant for village trekking and get to experience village-stay environment for couple of days. I went there for 2 days and a night trip. However, I chose not to stay in the village but in a hotel named Hotel Summit on the summit and that was a great decision made :-)! Read through....

I went to SAPA by train from Hanoi, the journey took 8 hours and hence we slept in the train with beds itself. Once we reached the railway station, Lao Cai, a van transferred us from there to SAPA together with other tourists from different countries like Canada, Australia, Brazil, Chili and Israel.

When we reached the summit, our vision could barely see anything due to mist and fogginess. Of course, the temperature is terribly not friendly, presumably around 5 Celsius with high humidity *ah-chiew* *sniff**sniff* :)!

Nothing special on the 1st day but 2nd, we went to the 2nd village even deeper down into the valley compared to the 1st day. No infrastructure, no protective grills along the tracks, slippery, steeply and muddy tracks emblazoned with aromatic buffalo's dung :p. Thus, a fish monger boots are a necessity for this trekking. The buffalo's dung are 5 by 5 inches big-sized, in other words, I would rather trip, slip or fell into a cavern rather than splat into these dung, yikes!

Before I went down, plenty of the villagers already awaiting impatiently outside the hotel just to give perhaps their tour guide services to the tourists. Service from them wasn't required as I had my own, also originates from the village it was part of the package. A good English speaker, she is.

While walking down, my lady tour guide went to toilet and I was being stranded on the road waited for 5 minutes and it was these 5 minutes wait, another villager (lets call her VA) approached me by saying,

VA:"Hello.....where....r....u....from?", muttered nonchalantly and intermittently English speaking.

I: "Malaysia", was my response.

VA:"Wen.....u....go...duwn....to...my..villige,...u....buy me......sumething....OK OK OK! (placing her hand into her bag to and fro repeatedly in gestural)! I....cuver.....you...OK OK OK", she added.

I:"Huh", was the only response from me, followed by, "No....buying....anything....no...promises", I uttered in the similar manner and I acted dumbly.

Thanks god, my tour guide came to my rescue and continued the journey with other tourists. The tough part came, from perspective view, the tracks that I was going into was very muddy, steeply and slippery. And out of sudden, a storm of kids rushed towards us, offering their bamboo walking sticks. Almost every tourists says no, therefore I followed their decision arrogantly by thinking that "I don't need that helping stick" :-).

The moment I went down..... the steep cliff, *swish...* *swosh...woohhhh*, very slippery indeed, I crawled back up to buy the bamboo heheheh :p! Each stick cost VND5,000 (RM1), I gave them VND10,000, hence expecting a change but poor kids unavailable! Every kids shoving their bamboos to me simultaneously once I bought from the kid. Don't really have any idea what to do, another kid exclaimed, "You bought from him and now buy one from me, pleaseeeee.....". Brilliant idea pop-up, "I will take another stick from you and you share the VND10k with your fellow friend, OK?" or maybe its their strategy of not having change, thus, I will unpremeditatedly purchase another :-)? I grabbed the additional stick.

You will only need a stick to smoothen the trekking, hence the extra, I gave it to my tour guide (let's call her TGA). Frankly speaking, she doesn't need it as she get used to walking at this uneven geographical terrain, anyway!

After an hour of trekking, to my surprise, I just realized the villager A (VA) was following my back all the while. Ahhhh!!! who cares, maybe she was just going back to her village, thus I ignored her but nightmare awaits me later. Another lady tour guide (pseudo TGB) touring the other tourists came to chit chat with me for quite some time till we reached another stop with a shelter.

Both lady tour guides, TGA and TGB out of sudden confronted me on a very small matter.

TGA: "Tell her (TGB), that you bought me this bamboo stick just now", she exclaimed.

I: "Yup, I bought her the stick due to insufficient change by the kid from top, an extra...", I responded banteringly as I am quite tired.

TGB: "You will buy me a stick right? We will help each other hehehe....together....just joking....hehe", interrupted.

I: "Alright alright....!", I replied without any sense of alarm and was distracted by the beautiful scenery.

I busied myself of snapping pictures.

The journey continued with my TGA.

I: " What do you (villagers) do everyday besides going to paddy field?", asked curiously, curious of their past times.

TGA: "We went up to SAPA town."

I: "Hmmm...do what? Any examples?"

TGA: "Oh! For youngster like us, we go up looking for partners. The lady can't choose the guys but the opposite."

I: "Oh! I see."

TGA: "Normally, a guy will buy the lady something as a confirmation of starting a relationship and the other lady can't intercept once given.", she explained.

I started to felt a ring of alarm fadedly, related to the bamboo I gave to her???

I: "What's the population in a family, averagely speaking?"

TGA: "Mine is 8"

I: "Wow! That's a lot!", astonished.

TGA: "Nope", replied firmly. "My neighbor has 15, mine consider small, I like more babies when I get married, 10 perhaps", she added.

I: "That's a lot, in a city center, normally somewhere around 1 to 3 kids due to living cost", I reinstated.

TGA: "No no no....actually, I love to have 2 kids only not 10", trying to be in sync with me!!!

That was where I started to awaken from my deep sleep! Very alarming...starting from the bamboo stick quarrel, the confrontation and the chit chat, all in all has their own hidden agenda! Holy crap and stupid me! VA also once a while whispered, "I love you, I love you" when she had the chance to talk with me. Yikes! Everything was getting down to my nerves. I'm petrified, what were they going to do with me especially in such a remote places? I know nobody and the roads back to hotel, shishhhh! Fortunately, I didn't opt for the overnight stay in the village package initially :p!

Immediately, I swarmed myself into the groups of other tourists throughout the whole trekking, we chit chat whatever under the sun just to kill the time and avoid unnecessary conversation with both TGA & TGB. Possibly like an octopus where I can squirt the blackish ink just to flee myself away when sensing a danger :p!

Eventually, I reached their village with a natural view of terrace paddy fields. Magnificent indeed.

There came VA demanded servicing money from me. VND50,000 (RM10).

VA: "Plis.....pay.....me...VND50 thousand....", demanded.

I: "Whut...whut?", perturbed.

VA: "I....cuver....you.....from up till down.....yes...cuver cuver..cuver..", explained.

I: "Whut cuver?", perplexed. "Oh! You meant cover up! I didn't request for any cover up!"

VA: "Pay...pay...pay..."

Knowing didn't ask for any such service, I had no choice but to ignore her. She was very persistence, finally, instead of asking to pay for services, she tried to sell me something. After a few bargaining, I bought a cylindrical flute cost VND20k (RM4). Off she goes back to her house. Another villager (pseudo VB) quietly followed my back as well, this time, I requested help from TGA to explain to her not to cover me up. Phew :)!

After 4 hours of trekking, time to return to the summit by a van. TGA jokingly said, "No need to go back up! Marry with the people over here". During this moment...just a split second..., a lady back in KL flashed via my unconscious mind inadvertently. "NO", escaped from my mouth firmly. Quickly, I regained my consciousness, "Oh! no no no, someone is waiting for me back in my hometown, I love her a lot", 1001 excuses flung out subtly and politely. Off I go back to the hotel.

Never travel alone. My sisters and mum were petrified and tired on the 1st day trekking trip, hence on the 2nd day, I trekked alone. Since, I had came thus far away from KL, I would really want to opportune this opportunistic 2nd day opportunity, hence traveled alone. What a journey, it was! Another sigh, "Phew :-)!".