Northwest and Ba Be Lake highlights
Written by Glory and Jane (gloryhanoi@gmail.com)
Sunday, 20 December 2007
The day started in the centre of Hanoi. Minh (the guide) when I met up with Mr. Chinh our driver of the old short wheelbase Toyota Landcruiser at 8am. Chinh was around 55 years old and had been a tank commander in the Vietnamese army during the war in Cambodia against Pol Pot. I just hoped he didn’t think he was indestructible. Any worries I had were misplaced as he was the best and safest driver I had come across since being in Vietnam.
The first 90 minute leg of our journey was to Hoa Binh, a large town which has the second largest hydro power station in the country.
We did not stay around too long and soon headed of to Mai Chau via a mountain pass which gave great views of the surrounding country. We arrived there at around 11.30am and went straight to the White H’Mong village set in the rice fields. These ethnic people live in stilt houses and offer great home stay accommodation. We met Ms Mach and her family from homestay house No.19. She gave us a warm welcome and showed us around the facilities available to guests. Once we were satisfied with the accommodation and had negotiated a very cheap overnight rate (for future clients) we enjoyed one of her lunches which was well above my expectations. These homestay houses are exceptionally clean and the top floor offers mattress on the floor style beds with areas partitioned off by cloth screens. The toilet and shower block below were very clean and presentable.
After lunch we continued the long drive to Son La where we had yet to organise overnight accommodation. The mountain scenery along the way was spectacular. We passed through tea plantations, hillside farming of small fruit, apiaries, corn and other vegetable crops. Villages were predominantly ethnic but every now and then was a substantial town inhabited by Vietnamese (Kinh people) alongside White H’Mong, Black H’Mong, White Thai, Black Thai and Tay peoples.
Arriving in Son La we inspected two hotels, obtained prices and judged their hospitality and facilities and made our decision. It was the Union Hotel. The Directors made us most welcome and invited us to join them for dinner and drinks which included the inevitable tossing back of shooters of local rice wine accompanied by many “cheers”. The rooms were very clean and comfortable. The staff provided evening entertainment with traditional dancing and singing.
Breakfast was buffet style and provided a good selection of local dishes plus the usual western offerings. Leaving Son La we headed off to the new Lai Chao. The old Lai Chau used to be north of Dien Bien Phu but the provincial government have decided to move it further north and develop a more suitable location for their capital. A new more direct road was being constructed and parts necessitated slow travelling. Nonetheless we made good average speed through beautiful mountain scenery interspersed with ethnic villages and markets.
We stopped for lunch at a small town, Than Nyen. There we were treated to a delicious hot pot meal in the kitchen behind the motorbike shop owned by Vinh’s relations. It was also a new experience to taste the wild apple wine made by the H’Mong people living in the mountains. Probably the best Vietnamese wine I have tasted. After lunch we pressed on to Lai Chau. The beautiful mountain and rural scenery mixed with absorbing village life made a long journey very short.
We arrived at a very impressive hotel in Lai Chau and were again given a warm welcome by management. The hotel has many facilities including tennis courts, indoor game facilities and swimming pool. The rooms were extremely comfortable and well priced. For the second night we enjoyed dinner with hotel management.
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 one can hear from this point 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 comforting 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 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 ……….. 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. 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 to Ba Be lake. The first short leg was to Lao Cai where tourists arrive at around 5-5.30am after the night train from Hanoi. As we were descending to 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 at Ba Be. The scenery was varying. Through limestone mountain country, ethnic villages, river flats and rice paddies. Not an uninteresting moment in the whole day. We lodged down for the night in Ra Market town just short of Ba Be.
We left Ra Market Town early and arrived at Ba Be around 9am. Being a National Park it is run by the Government. This alone is a huge handicap to it’s successful management and operation. The Park’s sleepy Sales Manager gave us a an impromtu demonstration of how to pick your teeth while trying to give his sales pitch and explain the Park. Being Government run, the comfort and priorities (in ranking order) of those involved are as follows:
1. Management staff
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. My discussions were translated. All brochures are printed in Vietnamese for the convenience of the above. Foreign visitors get nothing except a brochure with pictures and Vietnamese writings.
Part of the accommodation in the park was so called ECO chalets. Nice chalets which were comfortable and of good quality but no satellite TV with English/French speaking programmes. Foreign tourists need some alternative night entertainment should they not wish to participate in the popular Vietnamese pastime of Karaoke. Vietnamese channels are of course available. 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 tired and worn out with little to recommend it. It has satellite TV which is a small bonus. Rooms and building surrounds were tired and of poor quality. 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 had 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 I suspect it has been cleaned out of fauna.
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 boat cruises in the lake in small local boats and the cruise lasts for about 3-4 hours.
The price 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 greedy price based on a captive market.
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 my 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 way to go 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 its charming and hospitable people.