Fansipan in fancy pants

I'm a little behind on my updates but I'll try and catch up. We've had an amazing time in Vietnam and I'm sad to say that this part of our journey is ending tomorrow when we go to Cambodia. Here is a little adventure story from our hike up Fansipan a couple weeks ago in northern Vietnam. . .

We left the traffic in Hanoi behind us as we boarded our overnight train to Sapa. The sleeper cabin was more than cozy and we felt especially pampered with the AC, flat screen and down comforters. By the time we arrived in Sapa it was early Monday morning but the mountain village was wide awake, welcoming us with smiling tribal woman and children hoping to sell us some of their goods.

We spent the morning relaxing on our hotel balcony that overlooked the rolling rice fields and steep mountains, trying to figure out which one we would be climbing up the following day.
The rest of the afternoon we gathered up some extra gear around town to prepare for the cold weather and possible rain on Fansipan. All for about $20 dollars we were able to round up a few good pairs of socks, long sleeve shirts, and matching Swiss Army pants. . . all in XXL Men's size (that would be Vietnamese men's size. Still, we all felt a little shot to the ego seeing a double XL on our tags). But we figured our new fancy pants would prepare us for anything that Fansipan could throw at us.

The following morning we drove a little farther up the mountain pass in a minivan full of us four girls, our guide Tony who we met the night before, and four porters who would carry all of our food and sleeping bags along the way. At about 11 am we were finally on our way. The first day of the trek was fairly easy. We walked through a few streams, stumbled over roots and climbed up and down the dirt paths through the jungle. Including an hour stop for lunch, we made it to base camp an hour before our estimated arrival time. We were beginning to feel like we talked up our "Big climb up FANSIPAN!!!" a little too much. Recognizing our anti-climactic mood, Tony took us on an additional hike for about an hour to "Buffalo Valley" before we headed back to camp.

The rest of the night we hung out with the other group, which consisted of 5 Vietnamese tour guides and 1 Aussie. As the temperature dropped we all hung around the camp fire, enjoyed a delicious meal huddled in our hut, then bundled up in our sleeping bags. Unfortunately our bamboo hut lacked even the slightest bit of comfort. We slept on wooden platforms and could hear rats squeeking below us throughout the night. I usually have the ability to sleep anywhere and everywhere but that night I struggled a bit.
Knowing our most challenging day lay ahead of us, the next morning we scarfed down as much breakfast as our bellies could handle and emerged from our hut, ready to face the unforgiving inclines of Fansipan. No time was wasted in our second leg of the trip. The uphill battle began within a few minutes of camp and was unyielding for most of the way to the top. For the next five hours we forged our way up the mountain, often making comments like "You gotta be kidding me." or "They should have prepared us for this." or "Why do I feel like I'm on the hardest level of the stairmaster for 8 hours straight? And I hate the stairmaster." Yes, the 5 months of not working out finally hit us. We began questioning why we would ever pay to put ourselves through such torcher.
However, the views made us feel like we were in an episode of "Lost" or one of the Lord of the Ring films. Absolutely stunning. We made our way up and down the rolling hills, through muddy paths lined with bamboo and eventually faced boulders stacked on top of eachother. If Tony wasn't leading the pack, I would assume the trail ended here and we shouldn't go any further. But we carried on and somehow managed to climb our way up and over the slippery rocks with our bamboo walking sticks in hand, often feeling like giant spiders crawling our way up. Eventually our sarcastic chit chat and complaints turned to silence as we each tried to find our own personal means of motivation. Inner thoughts like "Oh you better not give up. Take your diapers off and get up this freakin mountain!"
Tony continued to tell us "20 more minutes" about every half hour and we all began muttering "liar", realizing this was his ploy to get us to just keep moving. At one point we finally heard the other group ahead of us and we all glanced at eachother with hopeful looks that perhaps we finally made it to the end. Bridget forged ahead, mumbling some sort of inclination that she might puke if she stops. Georgie, J, Tony and I stuck close behind. As Bridget headed down the straight away and turned around the last corner I heard her staggering steps come to a halt as she barely got out, "Did I make it?" Cheers and claps erupted from the Vietnamese group as the rest of us turned to eachother, exhaling sighs of relief and forcing out as much of a smile as our exhausted bodies could manage. We trekked through the last leg of the trip and exploded in cheers when we cleared through the opening to highest point of Fansipan. We reached our destination!
We spent the next 30 minutes at the top soaking up our vicotry, eating lunch, taking pictures and enjoying a cat nap. We loved it when Tony told us there is usually one person in every group that doesn't make it to the top, but all 4 of us did it!

At one point we got a picture with both groups as one of the Vietnamese said, "Vietnam and America as friends. Not fighting anymore." Pretty awesome. The weather wasn't quite clear enough for us to see as far as China and Laos but we could make out the surrounding mountains. The cloud coverage below us validated our complaints about the steep hike and made for an unforgettable view.

Our trip back down to the second base camp was full of laughter and jokes, We made fun of ourselves at various parts of the trip, "Oh my gosh. I remember this part. I was dieing! I couldn't even talk!" Trekking downhill still required some energy that we were convinced we left on the way up, but our spirits were high so it didn't matter. Similar to the night before we ate fabulous food, piled into our sleeping bags early to warm up, heard the rats below us. And this time we slept on bamboo sticks (thought it might feel like a massage on our back. We thought wrong.)

The next morning we were on a one track mind. Get me to a shower and a real bed (yes, after only 3 days the "Bellevue girls" in us came out). After giant bowls of noodle soup we barreled our aching legs to the head of the trial and began our final decent. For much of the 6 hours down the mountain we laughed and shouted back and forth, "I don't remember this part on the way up!" We figured we blacked out some parts out of pure exhaustion. We took a few more pictures on the way down as we were able to enjoy the scenery a little more than on the way up. We allowed our gumby legs to lead the way as we scrambled back over the rock piles, up and over the rolling hills and through the bamboo trails.

Can you spot our guide Tony in this pic above?Tony stopped us about 30 minutes before our final destination to juice us up with a little more fruit since the last bit back was a bit steep. Finally, just over the top of the last hill we could see the building that we started from, signifying the end. We officially completed our Fansipan trek. Officially exhasuted and officially happy.

The rest of the day consisted of a much needed shower, much needed food, much needed bottle of wine, and a delicious cup of Vietnamese coffee to top. Later that evening we thanked the hotel staff who congratulated us on our victory and we boarded the night train back to Hanoi, full of smiles from our latest adventure!