Hiring scooters around Vietnam has been a very easy experience so far but Sapa has a bit more of a “let’s get as much money from the tourists” feel about it. So far we had had to pay more for a room with a bathroom and had been told we had to pay more for coffee with our free breakfast, again a world wide first. Couple this with everywhere you moved someone was trying to sell you something we were feeling a little worn down. Lucky it’s such a beautiful area.
Anyway back to the scooters. We had again asked for two and the seat was broken on mine so we put all of our stuff in Sarah’s and shut it. Unfortunately the bike then ended up in full lock down mode. We couldn’t get our stuff out and had to hang around for half an hour or so until someone managed to jiggle the key in the right way and get it open.
We were offered one replacement bike and so set off to fill them up with petrol, again the lady tried to con me out of my change but we got there in the end but only a few hundred meters down the road we found out that my bike couldn’t idle and so would switch off every time we went down hill. I wasn’t confident about taking it around the hills so back we went to see about another scooter.
The lady was very annoyed with us by the time we got back and to be fair the feeling was fairly mutual. She gave me another bike which wouldn’t start and while some would think she would get me another, no, she eventually got it started and gave it to me!! Getting a bit sick and tired of being taken for a ride I asked for my money back for the petrol we had put in the previous scooter. We told her we had filled it up with a 1.5 liter bottle and she obligingly funneled the petrol out of the tank into a suspiciously smaller bottle which even though it was clearly marked with 800ml on the side she assured us was actually 1.5lt!
Oh well we had wasted enough time by this stage and were keen to get out exploring and the valley was certainly spectacularly beautiful! The only thing which brought a bigger smile to our faces than the views was the state of the roads we were driving on!! They were incredibly bad and we were weaving between rocks and pot holes, traversing through muddy areas and even at one stage we had to stop while a digger was repairing the road!! It was actually exhausting driving around but we stopped regularly to enjoy some fantastic views.
Every time we stopped I would have to restart my scooter much to the amusement of all those watching (including Sarah!) but by the end of the day I got quite adept at getting it going and would even get the occasional cheer from those watching!
As we drove around marveling at the terraces cut into the sides of the mountains we were firstly amazed by the beauty of the place but as we looked longer we noticed the people working the land more and more. They did everything by hand and it looked like an incredibly hard life. It was harvest time so we were watching them cut the rice by hand before putting it in baskets and then carrying those baskets off for the next stage of the process. We could see why so many guest houses had been built as getting money from tourists has to be easier and certainly must provide more income.
We wanted to take the bikes further afield but a combination of a late start, terrible roads and the fact that it looked like a storm was fast approaching meant that we had to cut the trip short. Still we couldn’t complain as the valley in which we were staying was exactly what we expected to see in Sapa and was certainly a beautiful experience. T
The local petrol station where you fill up using 1.5lt water bottles.
Having fun on the scooters.
All sorts of fun on the roads.
The views we got of the rice paddies and the villages were breathtaking.
The locals working the fields…not a machine in sight apart from some water buffalo and scooters.
The valley below Sa Pa was just amazingly beautiful.
Sarah sporting the very stylish local rain jacket.
Me cruising through the rice paddies.
Some last shots of the area.
