« Bac Ha Market (Katy) | Main | Sapa »
March 28, 2007
Fansipan (Katy)
While in Sapa we decided to climb Mount Fanispan. It's 3,143 metres high and the highest mountain in Indochina. We got a guide because it's really difficult to organise the trip without one and decided to take two days to climb the mountain.
The first day we met our guide and got in a Jeep to go to the national park. On the way we were stopped in a road block. It turned out to be road works, and apparently they frequently get stopped for an hour or so. We did as everyone else and went and sat down at one of the stalls that had appeared at the side of the road. Eventually we got to the a National Park and the start of our walk.
After about 20 mins of slow walking our guide decided we should stop for a while. We said we didn't need to rest but it turned out we were almost at our destination for the day. After another 10 mins walking, an hour stop for lunch and then a final 10 mins we arrived at our campsite. It wasn't much after 2 pm!!
We had a bit of an explore of the area. We were just walking back along a little path when a herd of water buffalo appeared coming towards us. They only went slowly but I got a bit scared when I saw one of them had a small calf. They just looked at us suspiciously and carried on.
Later on our guide, Joun, cooked us tea. It has to be one of the best meals we've had in ages. We had chips to start ( random!!), then home made spring rolls, then three different meat dishes, two different vegetable dishes and the biggest pot of rice ever - and all cooked on a camp fire. They also got out the rice wine!! - which tasted a bit like very bad Vodka
Next morning we had an early start. Breakfast at 6 am (Noodles)so we could start walking at 6.30am. As we had only walked 5 km the first day, we had to walk 19km the second day. 7km to the top then 12km back to the road. The walking was very steep in places but not continuously so we made good time. The mountains looked amazing with the mist coming and going. We reached the top in just under 3 hours. (They told us it would be at 4hours) and had lunch on the top. It was only about 9.30 am but Joun seemed adamant that it was lunch time. The mist came right in just as we reached the top and we couldn't see anything so after a few pictures and a quick sandwich we started to descend.
We reached our campsite again by about 1 pm and had a rest there before the final 5km. We reached the park entrance at about 3pm but our jeep didn't turn up until almost 5pm.
We had to catch the bus to the train station at 6.30 so we were starting to get a bit worried, but there's nothing you can do. You just have to sit back and get in to the Vietnmese way of thinking. We did just make it in the end, with yet another stop at the road works.
Posted by admins at March 28, 2007 8:52 AM