Vietnam Trip - Memorable Journey to Sapa :D

Memorable journey to Sapa :D (Photo source: Google.com)

I never thought that my journey to Sapa would be the unforgettable moment of my traveling life. When on our first day Jacky told us to be our emergency contact, whenever and wherever we needed, I never thought that I would need the service so badly. Here was the story.

We were fetched by our driver at 7am in the morning. We left early because it took around 6 hours to reach Sapa from Hanoi. Aileen and I had filled our stomach full with breakfast provided by our hotel. Since it was a long journey, I made sure I had enough food until reaching there in the afternoon.

The van was slowly leaving Hanoi. My phone network started becoming so weak when we entered the highway. I could not browse the internet. Suddenly, I felt my stomach wanting to pee. That was one thing I most afraid of when traveling on road, toilet break. I told myself not think about it, and tried to sleep instead. Sometimes it worked.

I closed my eyes and breathed, trying to catch some sleep. However, instead of reducing the urge for peeing, the reaction changed to a bigger feeling. I wanted to go for big business instead. The wind and various feelings stirred inside my stomach. Oh my God!!! 

I breathed in deeply, concentrated not to make it worse. I looked outside the van's window. It was highway, and only highway. We just left in less than an hour from Hanoi. It would be impossible for the van to go to resting area so soon, that too, if it was available. I started to panic.

I told Aileen who was seated next to me, "Leen, could you inform the driver that I wanted to go to toilet?" She said she did not know how to say as our driver knew only Vietnamese language (usually the driver did not know any English. Their duty was just to send us from hotel to the destination and stopped at resting area sometimes. They used finger to tell us how long we would stop before continuing the journey again.

I opened the Google translation apps on my mobile, trying to translate toilet to Vietnamese language. But as my phone could not catch the network, I was helpless. Aileen also used the same SIM card (I purchased both SIM card together from Singapore), but luckily her network was working. So maybe the problem lies with my three-year-old mobile phone. 

We were seated on third row inside the van. So I had to force Aileen to translate the word fast and inform the driver fast too. She immediately translated the word and went to the driver, showed him the word to him. I saw him nodding, and continued the journey.

The problem was, the speed was the same. I kept looking on my left and right. There was no lane for car to stop. Even if it was there, there was no toilet available. No place to hide as well. All was plain and open space, with some buildings at the side.

Oh my God!!! This would not work!!! My stomach was squeezing and squeezing. I was holding on, trying to endure as much as I could. "Aileen, could you call Jacky please??? Ask him to call the driver, telling him to stop for toilet. It is really bad. I can not hold it so long now," pleaded me. 

She dialed Jacky's number (the emergency number he gave us) and told him about my situation. After calling him, it took a while until the driver received the call from Jacky. When his phone rang, I was relieved. They were talking for a while. The driver looked at me from the rearview mirror. I also looked at his eyes, showing my pale face, pleading face, with no word, trying to tell him to help me as fast as he could!

Once he finished the phone call, he started racing. Hahahahahaha..... I was not kidding. He was really racing on the highway. He kept honking the horn and cutting out lanes, just like the ambulance bringing the patient who was in emergency situation. Wahhh.... when he drove like that, I was really feeling relieved. I thanked my emergency messenger - both Aileen and Jacky - deep inside my heart, for helping me in such situation.

Later on, Aileen received message from Jacky, saying that the driver would drop me to the Airport, and asking me to go to the toilet there. The van was racing with time. I told the rest of the passenger, "Sorry everyone, I am in emergency for going to toilet," because I did not want them to complain about it to the van company and thought of the driver to be reckless unnecessarily. 

I was enduring as much as I could. When I saw the airport signage coming up, I was praying that the distance to there would not be far, hoping that there would not be traffic jam, the stopping area would not be crowded with cars, and toilet would not be far and crowded with people.

Thank Buddha, Buddha heard it all!!! The distance was not far, it was not crowded at all, no traffic with other vehicles, the toilet was not far from the place where the van stopped, and it was empty whenever I reached there, as if the toilet was waiting for me and the rest of situation was really advantaging my situation.

Once the van stopped, I opened the van door, and ran as fast as I could. As I entered, my eyes looked frantically for the toilet sign. When I saw, I immediately ran towards it and went into the first empty cubicle I saw and released!!!! Hahahahahahaha........

Oh myyy..... it was really an embarrassing moment for me to experience!!! I released whatever things that wanted to go out from my stomach. Aileen accompanied me to toilet as well. When I went out from the building, the driver was entering, wanting to go to the toilet. He saw me and smiled, he was asking me if I was ok using his two thumbs. I showed my two thumbs as well and thanked him for the ride!!! He was smiling sheepishly but happy at the same time because he managed helping me in such urgent situation. I was deeply grateful for him and his effort. Without it, I could not imagine what situation I would be inside the van.....

I thanked Jacky too for conveying my message to the driver afterwards (there was network connection in the area). When he was back, we continued the journey to Sapa.

On our way, Jacky told me to give the driver some money to cover the entrance fee to the airport. I told him not to worry about it. I would give even without him noticing me and when we stopped for first resting area, I handed in some money for him as I went down from the van and said "cảm ơn" to him (means "thank you").

The driver was surprised when saw me handing him the money and he immediately refused. I told him, for the parking fee earlier, and he waved his both hands, asking me not to give him anything but I insisted. I just left it at the basket filled with fruits next to him and went down. He was so good, wasn't he??? 

With a rescued driver who brought us to Sapa 

We reached Sapa town at around 1.15pm. Our local guide, Dinh, was waiting for us when we reached. After collected our luggage, suddenly our driver talked to her, asking us to take photo with him. I was wondering why he suddenly wanted to take photo with us (not to any other passenger there). That too, he was requesting to take with my mobile phone and not his. 

Anyway, we still took the photo. Later on, the driver talked to Dinh again, asking her to tell us that he would be around Sapa tonight and in case we wanted accompany for drink, could ask her to contact him. Lol....

We had lunch first at Red Dzao House before checking in to our hotel - La Casa Sapa Hotel. We put our luggage inside the room and refreshed for a while. When readied, we headed to Cat Cat Village - the first destination stated in our itinerary.

On our walking path towards Cat Cat Village

We took car to the entrance. It took us only about 10 minutes time. We walked down through the staircases. There were shops on our left and right selling mostly souvenirs (traditional clothes, accessories, traditional dry herbs, and so on).

Throughout walking path towards Cat Cat Village - Sapa, Vietnam

You could rent their local dress and wear it there. We spotted many local Vietnamese renting the dress and took photos with beautiful scenery. It was too troublesome to wear the cloths for me, so I skipped it. While walking we asked many questions to our guide about anything we wanted to know. She told us many about her and her family condition, her situation due to Covid, and so on.

Sapa is famous for its magnificent view of sloping rice terraces. You could spot the view while walking too. It was greenish and yellowish as the season was in September. It was located in the hill, therefore, the weather was cooling.

Waterfalls in Cat Cat Village - Sapa, Vietnam

Soon we reached the Cat Cat Village and welcomed with beautiful waterfalls. We were given free time to enjoy the scenery and watch performance shown by local minority who stayed in the area.  

Traditional performance by Hmong minority - Sapa, Vietnam

We took photo with Dinh at the picture above. She was wearing her traditional cloth and her handmade weaving bag. She said she waived a lot during Covid-19 period as she did not have guiding job to do. She made many handcrafts so that she could sell now to her guests. I requested her to bring some of her handmade produces the day after as my friend was interested to get one.

Photo taking set on the left side with people wearing the rented traditional clothes

The place was beautiful, but very touristic. Many manmade items were made to cater tourists, especially photo taking place set next to the river. I did not really like it. I preferred natural beauty over manmade stuffs. But many were enjoying though, especially when wearing the rented traditional clothes. We saw many couples wearing it together. Some, only ladies were wearing and the guy took their beautiful photos.

View of the traditional house in Cat Cat Vilage - Sapa, Vietnam

There was traditional house for viewing as well, showing the internal and external side. So the visitor could have an idea how they lived.

Notre Dame Cathedral in Sapa Town, Vietnam

After visiting it, we headed back to Sapa town. We went to visit the Notre Dame Cathedral located very near from the Sapa center. While Aileen went inside for prayer, I was sitting down outside with Dinh and had a chit chat. Notre Dame Cathedral was built by the French in 1895. This stone church featured a bell tower and Roman Gothic architecture. It was beautiful.

Medicine bag foot bath and body massage in Sapa, Vietnam

Once done, Dinh went home to cook for her family. The traditional medicine herbs for foot and body bath was famous there. We decided to give a try, but foot only (VND50,000). At the same time, we had a 60-minute head, shoulder and foot massage (VND250,000).

They soaked my foot for so long. The water from hot until became cold. The lady was doing massage while my legs were inside the pail. I think it was soaked for too long and when it was over, I did not feel well. My body was shivering from the cold weather, and the cold feet ( I was wearing slipper instead of shoes).

Preparation for Full Moon festival in Sapa Center - Sapa, Vietnam

We passed by the Sapa Center when walking to the Moment Romantic Restaurant to have our Vietnamese style fish soup dinner. The places started to get crowded. It happened to be Full Moon Festival on that day. What a lucky occasion for us to be there!!! Weren't we??? They were preparing their car (full of light and decoration) for the upcoming night.

Salmon Hotpot - Must try food in Sapa, Vietnam

We were hungry and I was not feeling well. So we decided to have dinner first and go back to hotel afterwards for taking a rest. Jacky asked us to try the local salmon hotpot while we stayed in Sapa. So I browsed internet looking for the nice salmon hotpot in the area. This restaurant seemed to have good review and the location was not far from where we stayed. So we chose it.

We ordered one pot for 2 person. Rice and noodle were included. With tea for 2 pax, it cost us VND580,000. It was not cheap but we enjoyed it very much as the ingredients suited my condition very well. I needed proper food (too many snacks the day before), and hot soup was really good for such a cold weather. We both ate in gusto and the portion was just nice.

We both went back to hotel. I took bath and Aileen helped me 'gua sha' (scratch my back using oil) to let the air coming out from my body, and I took a rest inside the room. She went alone back to Sapa town to watch the Full Moon parade and night scenery over the lake near there. It was too bad that I could not enjoy them, but rest was all I needed so that I could recover fast and go on with my journey.

Overall I had a good day there, but too bad we could not visit the rice terrace as we needed separate tour for trekking or hiking there, which I did not know. So if you wanted to visit it, you should arrange beforehand, and make sure you have enough time. That was all for now. Will continue again...