March 11
Today's outing is to the top of Fansipan Mountain - the highest point in Indochina at 3,143 meters (10,312 feet). The weather forecast says that it is going to be a balmy 5C (41F) at the summit, but Beth and I bring an extra layer (we already have 3 layers on) just in case. After breakfast, Luke picks us up for a ride down the mountain to Sa Pa. Sa Pa is at 1,600 meters (5,249 feet) so there is lot of vertical to cover to get to the top. As it has been for most of our stay in Vietnam, it is cloudy at the base, and we are not optimistic that we'll see the sun at the summit. It takes a combination of a cog railway, cable car and funicular to get to the top. Here are some pictures on the way up to the top of the cable car:
This cable car is built by Doppelmayr and is the longest 3 rope cable car and has the largest vertical rise in the world. We get a great view of the valley as the sun breaks through. There is a small shrine at the top of the cable car:
You can get an idea of the weather from the first two pictures. We ride the funicular up to the top. When we get there, we are ready for the temperature, but what we didn't factor in was the wind blowing at up to 50 mph - time for layer 4! Here is proof that we made it to the top:
The wind is blowing the mist around and soon we can't see and my camera lens has fogged up so we are eager to go down again. Rather than taking the funicular back down to the cable car station, we walk down. The steps are steep and slippery with low visibility, so we take it very slowly. But there are a bunch of shrines to see. Here are some pictures from the walk down:
The interior picture is from the inside of a huge Buddha shrine that we pass along the way. We couldn't see the top of the Buddha when we were standing directly in front of it, but here is a picture that Luke sent us of what we should have seen:
When we finally got to the bottom of the stairs, we waste no time in getting back on the cable car for the ride down. One the way down, the sun comes out and we realize that everywhere but on top of the mountain is at least partly sunny - the mountain is tall enough to make its own weather!
We have a buffet lunch in a restaurant in the cable car building. It was good to have some soup and other warm food to thaw out! Next to the cable car building is another shrine and a park with buildings built by the various ethnic minorities along with some of their handicrafts for sale. Here are a few of the pictures that I took:
The last picture is of bunches of incense to burn at the temple.
After walking around for a while (and two trips to the bathroom for me), we take the funicular back down to the base and get back in our van for the ride back down to the Topas Ecolodge. We've got a couple hours to pack before Luke picks us back up for the ride down the mountain to the Lao Cai train station. We don't have time for dinner, but Chris, Mark and Beth go to happy hour. I decide that adding anything to my digestive system before an eight-hour train ride is a bad idea, so I stay in the bungalow and work on the blog. A while later, Beth walks in carrying what looks like a huge hat box. Inside is a serving of mango sticky rice. I ask Beth about the size of the container, and she tells me that since the ecolodge doesn't use plastics, their choice of storage containers is limited.
Luke picks us up in the van and we head to Lao Cai. The ride from the ecolodge to Sa Pa is even more fun at night - especially the section where the road was washed out during the typhoon. We pass a lot of "party buses" going up and down the mountain since this is now the primary way of getting to Sa Pa. We've got about an hour to kill at the train station before our train boards. Once settled in our cabin, Beth has a glass of wine and then we attempt to sleep. My cold is finally going away so I'm able to sleep a little better than on the trip to Lao Cai and I am pleased that I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
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