Indochina Express - Day 7 (Lao Cai to Sa Pa)

March 9

We arrive in Lao Cai, which is in the northwestern corner of Vietnam. Luke tells us that we are very close to the Chinese border, so once we get the door open to the van (which takes two guys about 5 minutes), we take a small detour to go see the border crossing:

This side of the Red River is Vietnam. Cross the bridge and you are in China. There are immigration buildings on each side. Luke tells us that people often go back and forth. In fact, there are Vietnamese people who work in China, and it is common for people in both countries to shop for things on the other side of the river for things that are harder to find, or more expensive, in their country. There are also a couple of shrines nearby:

The shrine on the right has elements of Hindi, Buddhist, Catholicism and several of the Vietnamese folk religions - kind of a religious smorgasbord so that someone will feel comfortable walking in no matter which religion they follow. But Luke tells us that only about 30% of the population follows any religion. The rest would go to a shrine just to honor their ancestors who followed a religion. 

Back in the van for the 1 hr 45-minute ride to our resort. It was good for Beth that it was very foggy so that she didn't notice the tendency of the driver to pass slower traffic on blind curves by moving into the oncoming lane and the multi-hundred-foot drop-offs on one side of the road.  We passed one section of road where the recent typhoon had caused a mudslide and taken out most of the road. The road was being repaired, but we had to go kind of off-road to get through that section.

We pass through the village of Sa Pa. Twenty years ago this was a quiet place that catered primarily to European backpackers who wanted to hike the mountains and visit the villages of the ethnic minority groups in the area. Before that, it was a place where the French people running Vietnam would come in the summer to get away from the oppressive heat of Hanoi. Now, it has been transformed into a place that seems to consist entirely of hotels and restaurants. The only location of note in the village is a cable car that takes you up to the highest point in Indochina. We'll be back to do that in a couple of days.

Finally, we arrive at the Topas Ecolodge. This lodge was built in the mid-1990's by a Danish group that started out leading guided hikes in this area in the 1970's and consists of about 50 bungalows. Ours has a great view of the nearby valley:

Not very impressive, but here is what it should look like if the weather were a little better:

It really is beautiful and quiet! The goal of the people who built the lodge was to create an ecologically sustainable project in a beautiful place that would also support the ethnic minorities that live in the area. Since our train arrived in Lao Cai before 6 AM, we get to Topas in time to have breakfast. All of the food is grown locally using organic methods (i.e. no fertilizers) and almost all of the people who work here are also local villagers. After breakfast and unpacking, I decide to lay down while Beth goes with Mark and Chris to check out the property. We meet back up in time for lunch and I take a few more pictures:

Chris is interested in going to the infinity pool for a while, so we join her. It is called an infinity pool because the edge of the pool looks like it merges right into the distance. The top level is for families while the lower level is for adults only. The top level was a little on the cool side, so Chris went scouting to see if the lower level, which has hot tub jets, was warmer. She came back in a few minutes and reported that it was warmer, so we migrated there. While we were soaking in the heat and the views, a group of Korean women joined us. This must have been a group on Tik-Tok because one was the "star" while the other two took pictures (or videos) and directed the first woman. All I could think was "who the hell cares what you do?" But what do I know? I'm clearly not in the right demographic for this.

After we reached the terminal level of pruning, we wander back to our bungalows for a little rest and to get ready for dinner. We had a choice of a western style steak place and a traditional place. I am sure that you can guess where we went. The food was really good. The only disappointment was that they were out of mango sticky rice!