On The Roof of Indochina 3143 m
This is a story about overcoming obsticles. Because I have overcome a few these last couple of days.
To begin from the beginning.
The Trainride From Hell; wasn't really that bad. Mostly because I sat next to a very sweet Vietnamese girl. Well, that wasn't very surprising; since I was the only westerner in the carrage, but anyhow. She didn't speak one word of English, but we used sign language and she helped me to bargain with the saleswomen on the train; who would otherwise have charged me double the prize. The saleswomen; that is a very charming fact of local trains. They don't sell candy or soft drinks, they sell freshly boiled eggs (still smoking) and sticky rice, not to mention the small apples, sugarcanes, weird berries (my Vietnamese friend bought some and offered me one, it totally numbed my tounge for five minutes. She ate it with chili, I was impressed) and other nice, and to me exotic goods. In return for her favours I offered her one of my earphones for my i-pod and we listened to Nordman and Carla Bruni and she seemed to enjoy it. So, besides bruised buttocks, it was okej. The landscape was rather enjoyable too, although not as incredible as I had heard.
To get to Sapa from the trainstation in Lao Cai you have to take a minivan the 10 km or so into town. By sheer coincidence; who joins me in my totally over crammed bus? If not Andrew. It was rather nice to see a familiar face (and to actually speak to someone in English). We were both thinking about taking a trekk in Sapa. And we had the same one in mind: Climbing Fansipan, the tallest mountain in Indochina, with an altitude of 3143m. High that is. But we both also new it would be far too expensive.
We went into a travel agent to check the prizes though, no harm in asking, right? And as it turned out, a group was just about to leave and we could join them for as little as 950,000 dong (420kr, 45euro) for a three day trekk. All included. Not too much to consider, so we asked them to give us twenty minutes to run down to the hotel and get our gear and check out. Then we were on our way.
This would be obsticle number two. Not that it wasn't a nice trekk, and we had a lot of fun. But, Christ (excuse the language), it was hard. So hard. Well the first day wasn't very hard, just a three hour, rather easy, trekk and then we were in camp and had a nice dinner made by our porters (yes we had porters).
It was the second day; the day of the actual ascent that nearly killed us. The day begun with a rather steep 4,5 hour climp up to the top. A hard climb and it rendered us pleased, but exhausted at the top. The altitude really got to us too, eventhough it wasn't that high you could really feel the air getting thinner and we had to catch our breath more often. It gave me a slight headache aswell, but we joked it off, blaming eachother for using up all the oxigen. Haha.
The really tough part was the descent. 4,5 hours (yes it took the same time as the ascent, maybe that could give you an idea of how hard it was), climping, crawling, roping and jumping. I was absolutely knackered when we were halfway, and literally close to tears when we had a third to go. When we reached the camp I was actually too tired to notice. The last day was okej, a four hour descent that hurt our sore muscles but left us alive at the pick-up point for the bus back to Sapa.
Maybe, by the sound of this, you think the trekk wasn't good but we had a really nice time. Much due to the company. Our group consisted of eight people. Besides ourselves, the others were all Vietnamese. They spoke very good English though and we had a great time over dinners and campfires. Playing Vietnamese singing games and chatting cheerfully. Wonderfull people all of them! It was also a pleasure sleeping outdoors, well atleast the second night. The first night we almost froze to death in broken and old sleepingbags, but that improved dramatically.
Sapa is the coolest plase in Vietnam by the way, some trivia for you.
Tonight I'm going to treat myself to a nice dinner. I have deserved it! If there were any place to get a Thai massage around here I would be there right now. I can hardly walk for the ache in my muscles; it's massive.
I hope the spring is on it's way to all of you. I really miss you, I am a bit homesick today. It comes and goes, but you are in my mind always. Kisses to you all!
To begin from the beginning.
The Trainride From Hell; wasn't really that bad. Mostly because I sat next to a very sweet Vietnamese girl. Well, that wasn't very surprising; since I was the only westerner in the carrage, but anyhow. She didn't speak one word of English, but we used sign language and she helped me to bargain with the saleswomen on the train; who would otherwise have charged me double the prize. The saleswomen; that is a very charming fact of local trains. They don't sell candy or soft drinks, they sell freshly boiled eggs (still smoking) and sticky rice, not to mention the small apples, sugarcanes, weird berries (my Vietnamese friend bought some and offered me one, it totally numbed my tounge for five minutes. She ate it with chili, I was impressed) and other nice, and to me exotic goods. In return for her favours I offered her one of my earphones for my i-pod and we listened to Nordman and Carla Bruni and she seemed to enjoy it. So, besides bruised buttocks, it was okej. The landscape was rather enjoyable too, although not as incredible as I had heard.
To get to Sapa from the trainstation in Lao Cai you have to take a minivan the 10 km or so into town. By sheer coincidence; who joins me in my totally over crammed bus? If not Andrew. It was rather nice to see a familiar face (and to actually speak to someone in English). We were both thinking about taking a trekk in Sapa. And we had the same one in mind: Climbing Fansipan, the tallest mountain in Indochina, with an altitude of 3143m. High that is. But we both also new it would be far too expensive.
We went into a travel agent to check the prizes though, no harm in asking, right? And as it turned out, a group was just about to leave and we could join them for as little as 950,000 dong (420kr, 45euro) for a three day trekk. All included. Not too much to consider, so we asked them to give us twenty minutes to run down to the hotel and get our gear and check out. Then we were on our way.
This would be obsticle number two. Not that it wasn't a nice trekk, and we had a lot of fun. But, Christ (excuse the language), it was hard. So hard. Well the first day wasn't very hard, just a three hour, rather easy, trekk and then we were in camp and had a nice dinner made by our porters (yes we had porters).
It was the second day; the day of the actual ascent that nearly killed us. The day begun with a rather steep 4,5 hour climp up to the top. A hard climb and it rendered us pleased, but exhausted at the top. The altitude really got to us too, eventhough it wasn't that high you could really feel the air getting thinner and we had to catch our breath more often. It gave me a slight headache aswell, but we joked it off, blaming eachother for using up all the oxigen. Haha.
The really tough part was the descent. 4,5 hours (yes it took the same time as the ascent, maybe that could give you an idea of how hard it was), climping, crawling, roping and jumping. I was absolutely knackered when we were halfway, and literally close to tears when we had a third to go. When we reached the camp I was actually too tired to notice. The last day was okej, a four hour descent that hurt our sore muscles but left us alive at the pick-up point for the bus back to Sapa.
Maybe, by the sound of this, you think the trekk wasn't good but we had a really nice time. Much due to the company. Our group consisted of eight people. Besides ourselves, the others were all Vietnamese. They spoke very good English though and we had a great time over dinners and campfires. Playing Vietnamese singing games and chatting cheerfully. Wonderfull people all of them! It was also a pleasure sleeping outdoors, well atleast the second night. The first night we almost froze to death in broken and old sleepingbags, but that improved dramatically.
Sapa is the coolest plase in Vietnam by the way, some trivia for you.
Tonight I'm going to treat myself to a nice dinner. I have deserved it! If there were any place to get a Thai massage around here I would be there right now. I can hardly walk for the ache in my muscles; it's massive.
I hope the spring is on it's way to all of you. I really miss you, I am a bit homesick today. It comes and goes, but you are in my mind always. Kisses to you all!
Kommentarer
Postat av: NAOMI
Vad tufft det låter!
Postat av: Mor...
Aj, aj, aj... kanske läge att köpa lite tigerbalsam.
kramis mamma
Postat av: Fia
Bra jobbat!! Jag blir så taggad inför Kebnekaise i sommar! Jag antar att jobbigaste dagen i fjällen i somras inte var nånting i jämförelse? Det lät så! Åh, nu är jag jätteinspirerad! Jag vill iväg nu! :P Tjoho!
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