After an early breakfast we hit the road for Sa Pa. Not far along the way we came to a wide river which we crossed by a vehicle punt driven by a small tug boat. After this crossing we proceed to climb the Hoang Lien Son mountain range. This part of the journey could only be described as spectacularly beautiful as we just kept on going up and up and the valley below just kept disappearing.
We reached a scenic point which they refer to as Heaven’s Gate where one can take in the breathtaking views below and look even higher to see the peak of Fansipan Mountain 3143metres above sea level. It is the highest peak in Indo-China. They say that from this point one can hear the morning mountain roosters crowing in far off Lao and Cambodia.
Dropping down the other side we encountered significant road works which slowed us down however we were able to reach Sa Pa by noon.
Sa Pa is reasonably well known to tourists and can be researched easily on the net. We stayed in the very well presented Lotus Hotel which was very clean and comfortable and very reasonably priced at US$10/night/room. There are many similar priced hotels in the town along with others which service the more demanding needs of some visitors (spas, saunas, massages etc.). Room heaters in winter usually attract an addition charge of a few dollars. The village is well catered for with many restaurants for foreign tourists. The food is pretty much standard tourist fare and gives the choice of western or Vietnamese dishes. For some reason Italian food seems to be well provided for.
From our experience we can recommend the ambience and food of The Nature Bar and Grill or should you feel a little more adventurous you can sample the excellence traditional Tay cooking at the Green Sapa Restaurant, which is not hard to find in Muong Hoa Road. Up the stairs and you will find the most delightful gentleman, Mr. Thinh and his wife who does the cooking. If you fancy yourself as chess player be warned. Mr. Thinh is a formidable opponent who loves a game and good company. He is not so good with English but he is an absolute delight as a host. He has some excellent homemade fruit wines.
At 6am next morning we left Sa Pa for the long haul east to Ba Be lake. The first short leg was to Lao Cai the rail head where tourists arrive at around 5-5.30am after the night train from Hanoi. As we were descending into Lao Cai these tourists were heading up the mountain in small buses to enjoy the experience of Sa Pa. The long journey to Ba Be took over 12 hours covering in excess of 500km. We passed through the towns of Bac Quang, Dong Hy, Thai Ngyen and Bac Kan before arriving near Ba Be. The scenery was varying through limestone mountain country, ethnic villages, river flats and rice paddies. Not an uninteresting moment in the whole long day. We lodged down for the night in Ra Market Village just short of Ba Be.
We left Ra Market Village early and arrived at Ba Be around 9am. Being a National Park it is run by the Government. This is a huge handicap to its successful management and operation. We were greeted by an indolent Sales Manager who gave us an impromptu demonstration of how to pick your teeth while trying to explain the facilities and attractions of the Park. Being Government run it was apparent that the comfort and priorities of those involved ranked as follows:
1. Management
2. Employees
3. Vietnamese tourists
4. Service providers such as boat operators.
5. Foreign tourists.
As a consequence there are no staff in the Park who can speak English. Any discussions I had were translated. All but one of the brochures are printed in Vietnamese for the convenience of the above. Foreign visitors get nothing except a brochure with pictures and Vietnamese written descriptions and a map with a little token English commentary.
The accommodation units in the park were fashionably named “ECO Chalets”. I could not find out what was “eco” about them. They were nice bungalows, very comfortable and of good quality but had no satellite TV or English/French speaking channels, only Vietnamese programmes. There was no understanding that foreign tourists need some alternative night entertainment should they not wish to join the Vietnamese in the ever popular Karaoke sessions. These chalets were quite expensive. With some luck you might get to see some traditional dancing but experience says this will not be organised unless Vietnamese tourists make the request.
They also ran a large guest house. Somewhat untidy and the worse for wear with little to recommend it. It has satellite TV which is a small compensation. Rooms and building surrounds were tired and reflective of the lax feel about the whole place. The rooms were quite expensive. Paint seems in short supply.
Interestingly there was an animal rehab caged area which had not seen an animal for many years and had become derelict and ultimately ended up as a motorbike lockup. In fact the claims of wildlife seem exactly that; claims only. The visitors I spoke with didn't get to see anything in the forest that moved except for the leaves on the trees. Remember the park is inhabited by the Tay ethnic people who hunt in the forest for food. The Vietnamese eat anything so draw your own conclusion.
The lake itself is beautiful as are the surrounds. At one end is a Tay village where they have excellent homestay facilities at around AUD$4/night, plus food and drinks. The people are wonderful hosts and I am confident any visitor would come away very happy. There are cruises on the lake in small local boats and the cruise lasts for about 3-4 hours.
The price for this boat ride is way over the top at 400,000VND/person. Outrageous when compared to the cost of Halong Bay cruises and considering one good boatload would just about pay for the cost of the small boat. An example of a captive market being taken advantage of.
Going to the Tay village and homestay you have to survive a torturous car trip along a cliff edge track. In fact at the time of our visit there were two places where the track had given way making it difficult and potentially dangerous to traverse. A driver error or further road collapse would see passengers and car disappear down the vertical 500 ft drop to the lake.
In summary, while Ba Be is very beautiful in itself it is a long trip to get there, even direct from Hanoi. The Park is a big disappointment in terms of service and facilities. There are better places to visit to see forests, lake scenery and ethnic villages.
Directors and Management should realise that the Park is there for all tourists and if they wish to encourage more foreign visitors they should make a better effort than they do at present to provide acceptable services. Given that the Park receives significant contributions from foreign embassies they should give something back to foreign tourists.
We left the park mid morning and started the long trip back to Hanoi. Country ethnic villages did not take long to give way to larger Vietnamese towns. We stopped for lunch at the equivalent of a large truck/bus stop. The food was assessed as excellent by Vinh and Chinh. In fact Vinh explained that years ago the food in these establishments was referred to as “prison food”. The reason being that these eating places were infrequent along the highway and bus drivers would bring their buses to them in return for a free feed. Thus the passengers were “locked in” so to speak to what was relatively high priced food.
We arrived back in Hanoi at 6pm tired and road weary but much more knowledgeable about the north-west of Vietnam and the culture of its charming and hospitable people.
Written by Jane DannockAn inpsection trip on 17 November 2007
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