The
Queen of the Mountains, Sapa sits regally overlooking a beautiful
valley, lofty mountains towering over the town on all sides. Welcome
to the destination in northwest Vietnam, gateway to another world of
mysterious minority cultures and luscious landscapes. The
spectacular scenery that surrounds Sapa includes cascading rice
terraces that spill down the mountains like a patchwork quilt. The
four springs clouded town, the prototype of many paintings has won
international awards. Beyond the terraced fields is the golden
harvest;on the left, Ban Ho as a mirror of the sun, dark red in the
noon.
Located in Vietnam’s remote North West Mountains, Sapa is famous for
both its fine, rugged scenery and also its rich cultural diversity.
Its lush, deep river valleys, in the shadows of Vietnam’s tallest
peak Mount Fansipan, are home to Blue H’mong and Red Dao
communities, who continue to maintain their strong traditions and
warmly welcome visitors to their homes.
Despite its commercialization during the last seven years, Sapa is still
a must-see on any northern Vietnam itinerary. On a clear day you will
treated to views of steeply terraced rice fields, towering verdant
ridgelines, primitive mud-thatched villages, raging rivers and astounding
waterfalls.
The climate of Hoang Lien Nature Reserve is unique to Vietnam. It is
highly seasonal, with a subtropical climate in the summer and a temperate
climate during the winter. Mean annual temperature for Sa Pa town is 15.4°C,
with a maximum of 29.4°C and a minimum of 1°C. The warmest months are July
and August, and the coldest months are December and January. Snow falls in
some years on the highest peaks.
In common with the rest of northern Vietnam, Hoang Lien Nature Reserve
experiences a marked wet season from May to September, with the heaviest
rainfall occurring in July and August. Mean annual rainfall is 2,763 mm,
with a high of 4,023mm and a low of 2,064mm. Humidity ranges from 75 to 91
percent with a yearly mean of 86 percent.
Climate varies considerably within the nature reserve. The prevalent wind
direction for most of the year is west to east, leading to cloud formation
on the upper slopes of the Fansipan massif. These high-altitude areas are
covered by cloud most days of the year and have very high humidity. Cloud
also penetrates into the valleys but these areas are usually less humid than
the mountain slopes. In the extreme east of the nature reserve, around Ban
Ho village, mean temperatures are considerably higher due to the lower
altitude of these areas.
The
Hoang Lien Mountains lie at the southeastern extent of the Himalayan chain.
The nature reserve is located on the northeast flank of these mountains and
includes Vietnam’s highest peak, Fansipan, at 3,143 m (see map). The lowest
point is 380 m but most of the nature reserve lies above 1,000 m. The flanks
of the mountains are very steep and many areas are almost inaccessible on
foot. Between Fansipan Mountain and Sa Pa town, lies the Muong Hoa valley,
which has been terraced for wet rice agriculture. This valley becomes wider
towards the east of the nature reserve.
Nestled high in the Tonkinese Alps near the Chinese border, Sapa was built
as a hill station during French colonial days, to serve as a respite from
stifling Hanoi summers. These days, weekends are still the biggest draw in
this crumbling hill-tribe center. Visitors from the capital flock to Sapa
for a glimpse of the famed “Love Market,” a trek to local hill tribe
villages, or an ascent of Vietnam’s highest peak, Fan Si Pan.
Some eight ethnic groups inhabit Lao Cai province:Hmong, Dao, White
Thai, Giay, Tay, Muong, Hao and Xa Pho. The most prominent in town are the
Red Dao, easily identified by the coin-dangling red headdresses and
intricately embroidered waistcoats worn by the women, and the Hmong,
distinguished by their somewhat less elaborately embroidered royal blue
attire. Groups of ethnic Hmong youngsters and women can be seen hauling
impossibly heavy, awkward baskets of wood, stakes, bamboo, bricks, mud and
produce. Deep in the valleys surrounding Sapa, the Muong Hoa River sluices a
wild, jagged course among Giay, Red Dao and White Thai settlements, their
tiny dwellings poking out of the neon rice fields like diamonds on a putting
green. The Kinh (lowland Vietnamese) never originally colonised this highest
of Việt Nam’s valleys, which lies in the shadow of Phan-Xi-Pǎng (Fansipan,
3143 meters), the highest peak in the country.One- to four-day treks are
offered by a handful of outfitters. Guests sleep in tents or in the homes of
villagers, their gear hauled by Hmong porters. Be warned:Despite what the
local innkeepers will tell you, both the Hmong and the Dao really do not
enjoy having their photographs taken unless they’re paid for it. It’s a
certainty that any brochure you see of smiling, care-free ethnic hill people
was shot under a Screen Actors Guild contract.
It was only when the French debarked in highland Tonkin in the late 1880s
that Sa Pa, or Chapa as the French called it, began to appear on the
national map. In the following decade, the future site of Sa Pa town started
to see military parties as well as missionaries from the Société des
Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) visit. The French military marched from
the Red River Delta into the northern mountainous regions as part of
Tonkin’s ‘pacification’. In 1894-96 the border between China and Tonkin was
formally agreed upon and the Sa Pa area, just to the south of this frontier,
was placed under French authority. From 1891 the entire Lào Cai region,
including Sa Pa, came under direct colonial military administration so as to
curtail banditry and political resistance on the sensitive northern
frontier.
The
first permanent French civilian resident arrived in Sa Pa in 1909. With its
attractive continental climate, health authorities believed the site had
potential. By 1912 a military sanatorium for ailing officers had been
erected along with a fully fledged military garrison. Then, from the 1920s
onwards, several wealthy professionals with enough financial capital also
had a number of private villas built in the vicinity.
Sa pa is famed for its “Love Market” – sort of a cross between a peacock
mating ritual, a Middle Eastern arms bazaar, an Amish square dance, a bad
Pavarotti concert and Bangkok’s Patpong (except here the people wear
clothes). On Saturday nights, Red Dao hill tribe youths of both sexes
congregate in a weekly courting rite, singing tribal versions of Loretta
Lynn love songs to woo the opposite sex. The songs are highly personalized
and boast of the composer’s physical attributes, domestic abilities and
strong work ethic. While Dao women are indeed highly industrious, the men,
it seems, prefer to spend most of their time drinking, smoking opium or
sleeping, only occasionally slapping the rump of a lethargic bovine moving
more slowly than they are. Few of their songs, though, are about drinking,
smoking opium, sleeping or slapping rumps.
Topping out at 3,143 meters, Fan Si Pan has become the Mount Everest of
Vietnam, with queues of yuppie trekkers in their latest TravelSmith
“totally-packable” rainwear forming mountaineering traffic jams at base
camps. Footprint Travel can arrange guided ascents.
Sapa
itself is a somewhat bedraggled village meshing crumbling, mildewed French
colonial architecture with the pencil-thin, brick-and-concrete mini-hotels
that have become so ubiquitous in recent years all across Vietnam. This
neglected, cultural mishmash would be an eyesore in any place less
spectacularly scenic than Sapa. Because of its Shangri-la-like setting, Sapa
actually seems quaint – a tranquil, restful village. Which is, of course,
what the French originally intended the place to be. Amenities are limited
unless you choose to stay at the Four Star Victoria Sapa, a sprawling alpine
campus nestled discreetly into a hillside in the center of town.
The best times of the year to visit Sapa are in the spring and fall.
Summers tend to be rainy and muddy, while winter temperatures can drop to
the freezing mark (Sapa ushered in 2000 with snow!). Weather really does
make a difference here, because the spectacular scenery is all but blotted
out when there is cloud cover and rain. Ignore the other Nikon-toting
tourists in the villages and get out into the countryside, where you just
may still catch a glimpse into hill-tribe life of a couple of centuries ago.