Fan Si Pan is often dubbed  the Roof of Indochina. Sarah got a chance to climb this mountain and jumped at the chance. Well, I would assume she would jump, and perhaps not literally jumped - but she was excited to for the experience to come.

You don't here about exotic desitnations like this all the time on Adventura Company (we hope that will change), so we are excited about this article!

Here is Sarah's tale...

The highest peak in Vietnam, as well as all of Indochina, at 3,143meters, or 10,372 feet. It is located in northern Vietnam, near the border with China. The trail starts just outside a beautiful little mountain town called Sapa, originally a military outpost of some kind established by the French. In clear weather, it is absolutely breathtaking. Even in the fog and rain, it is still charming and beautiful.

Well, I am abandoning writing about safety to tell my most recent adventure story! 

First of all, a wilderness adventure in South East Asia involves so much more than just wilderness. The trip to the adventure is an adventure in and of itself. 

Getting to the trailhead in Sapa requires an 8 hour train ride from Ha Noi to the border town of Lau Cai (border with China). There is only a night train between Ha Noi and Lau Cai (xcept we found out later that there IS in fact a day train). If you haven’t traveled by train in South East Asia, all I can say is, “we’re not in Kansas anymore!” The train ride is followed by a 1 to 2 hour bus ride up to Sapa (1-2 hours depending on the amount of rain/mudslides/rockslides/accidents that have occurred during the night). You are bombarded from the moment you step off the train by people wanting to sell you this, that, and everything else. And of course, “Do you have hotel? Do you have reservation? I know a nice one. Please follow me!” And if you don’t follow: “Sorry, where are you going? Where is your hotel?” The people are actually very kind and friendly compared to other areas in South East Asia. They are only trying to make a decent living from you … before their competition can get to you. It can be a little shocking to Westerners being bombarded like that however.

 We eventually convinced 80% of the sellers, hawkers and whatever else they were, that we didn’t want anything, and then proceeded to try to find the trailhead. I think we asked 6 or 7 people where the trailhead was. And of course, we were sent in 6 or 7 different directions. We decided to cut our loses, go into a restaurant for breakfast, pull out all our maps, and figure it out ourselves. There are actually 2 main trails up Fan Si Pan. There is the usual way, taken by most tourists who hire a guide, and there is the more difficult and remote trail we wanted to take. We are geniuses I have concluded, for we did in fact find the right trailhead! And we even passed the government manned checkpoint without showing any papers! How we did this? We walked right past him! Sometimes I am amazed at what can and cannot be done in here!

And now starts … um continues … the adventure. Our first river crossing had a wonderful little bridge as there are little tourist hiking trails all over the valley floor, and our trail starts on one of those. The first couple of hours was actually fun, even if we were hiking in a continuous drizzle. It was just nice to be out of the concrete jungle and into a God-created natural one! And the scenery was excellent, even in the rain.

But the second river crossing … true adventure! I was terrified. We found only two small connecting bamboo bridges crossing a beautiful, swift, deep, rock bottom, crystal clear mountain river. We ran into some other Western tourists near the crossing. They helped us tremendously. But it still took 2 hours to get across. The pictures don’t really do it justice, but at least they give an idea of what we did.

We managed to get ourselves and our packs to the big rock in the middle of the river with our friends’ help. Then we scooted across on the second bridge, which seemed a bit sturdier than the first. I admitted that I was not strong enough to keep my balance and take my pack across, so my buddy made two trips. While he was carrying my pack, he rolled over on the bamboo, but somehow managed to hold on. I raced down to the edge of the water and managed to grab hold of the pack and hoist it on top of me, while he somehow shimmied the rest of the way to shore. It was a close call. I am thankful for his strength and quickness in saving my pack … oh! I mean, himself! ☺

After the crossing we had about two-or-three hundred yards or so of real, nasty jungle with nothing you could really call a trail. We have concluded this is where we got the leaches. Nasty little buggers. There are no dangerous diseases from leach bites (besides the risk of infection), but they still itch now and it’s been nearly 2 weeks since the climb. 

We made it through the jungle section and were back on the trail. But not like a trail you are thinking of. It was basically a mudslide cut through the underbrush, with 3 or 4 side trails every several hundred yards or so. I couldn’t get a good grip under my feet with all the mud, so I resorted to reaching out and grabbing whatever jungle my hands could find and hauling myself up the trail as best I could. I’m not gonna lie, it was miserable. But it did give me a deeper appreciation for all those old Vietnam war movies. (note: there were no American soldiers in this part of Vietnam during the war … the fighting took place in the southern part of the country.) Thankfully, I didn’t pull myself up by any poisonous plants, and I think all the snakes were in the tops of the trees, as they would’ve drowned if they were down where I was. I’m a bit sorry I don’t have pictures of that part of the adventure.

We took a wrong turn on a trail, and as is often the case when that happens, it discouraged me incredibly. It was now 4 in the afternoon with another 500 meters (about 1,500ft.)of vertical climb in front of us. Neither of us were willing to camp in the area we were in. The vegetation changes incredibly at about 1800m (5,400ft.) where our first camp should have been located, and we were only at about 1300m (3,900ft.). I realized that I could not physically make it to camp before dark, and we were certain we would not be able to find the trail once the light faded. It was an awful feeling, but we have concluded we made the right choice for the situation. We turned back.

But don’t think that turning back ended the adventure. We had to go back down all those muddy trails! And then re-cross the river, without the help of our friends from before. If the first river crossing was frightening, this one was downright scary!! We made it to the town side of the river just as light quit on us. We were using our headlamps as we hoisted our packs back on. I can honestly say I’ve never had a more satisfying river crossing in my life!

We got a bit lost again on the way back to the trailhead. We discovered later that there was a wonderful short-cut we could have taken that would have cut maybe and hour or hour-and-a-half off our hiking time. But that’s what happens when you don’t use a guide and your maps are second-hand. I love adventure!! (Don’t tell anybody, but that night I was swearing to myself that I would NEVER do this foolish stuff again! Haha … my resolve has not held. I’m already pining for my next adventure!). When we got to the trailhead, we ran into some rather happy, rather tipsy Vietnamese who wanted to give us a motorbike lift back up to Sapa. They couldn’t believe we would actually walk all the way back to town carrying our packs! If only they knew …

We eventually negotiated a price for the ride (only in South East Asia do you have to pay people to help you!). And what a ride! A slightly drunk driver carrying a Western girl who weighs at least as much as he does, with a pack on her back weighing another 60 or so pounds! Yippee!! I almost slid right off the back several times, until he grabbed my hands and wrapped them around his middle and said (I think) to hold on. I think he was getting as frightened as I was! I love adventure!

We stayed in a hotel that night and licked our wounds and did our best to dry our clothes. The next day we ran into our tourist friends that had helped us cross the river. We had a day hike adventure with them, that was really rather relaxing after our first day attempting Fan Si Pan.

Now, I tell the humiliating part of our story. No, turning back wasn’t humiliating. Regrettable, but not humiliating. This is it: We hired a guide. Me. A guide myself, having to hire a guide! Oh the blow to my pride. But I give this excuse: We had bitten off more than we could chew that first day, and we had a very limited time to stay in this part of the country. And, we really wanted that summit. So, along with our two tourist friends, one from Holland and one from Australia, a Vietnamese guide and two H’Mong porters, we set off on a 2 day climb up the “easy” trail of Fan Si Pan. (note: the H’Mong people are a native ethnic group in this part of the world, and very adept in the mountains.)

There are no more scary river crossings, leaches, or pulling on vines and undergrowth to make my way up an impossibly muddy trail after hiring a guide. It was still terrific fun though! We walked through little ethnic villages, crossed over huge tree roots, climbed trails so steep that they had bolted ladders to the trail! And we saw views. Views that are truly awe-inspiring. It was wonderful. 

We spent the night at the high camp (verses the more comfortable and better-equipped first camp). We learned about bamboo bombs and tasted rice wine. Wow, that is nasty stuff. I don’t drink much, but I couldn’t have forced down enough of that poison to even give me a buzz. The porters and guide said it helps you sleep better. Maybe they were hoping we would be poisoned from it so they wouldn’t have to climb the next day! ☺

And bamboo bombs are very simple: Only throw a whole piece of bamboo in the fire and then wait! The sections of the bamboo hold water, and when it gets steamed up enough, the whole thing explodes with a loud boom, and puts out your fire. I think we had three explode on us before we got annoyed. Every time it happened we had to rebuild our fire, and I didn’t think I would ever say it, but building … or rather rebuilding a fire can get a bit tedious. Somehow the cookfire that the porters made had only 2 or 3 bombs go off. They are natives and therefore experts, we concluded. And that lifted the shame we felt for our inability to make bombless fires.

Humor is an interesting experience when there are 5 cultures represented. There is no way to repeat it, so I won’t try here. But I just thought it was worth mentioning.

The next morning, after breakfast we had about an hour-and-a-half hike to the summit. It started out cloudy and we were disappointed. But as we approached the summit, the clouds cleared, and we were treated to a spectacular view from the “Rooftop of Indochina.” The pictures don’t do it justice, but I hope you enjoy them anyway!

The hike down was exhausting, as all return treks are. But we all definitely felt the thrill that can only come from accomplishing a difficult goal. It’s sort of an intoxicating feeling. Perhaps that is why I find myself out there again and again. 

Hope you all enjoyed the story! And hope you get a little inspiration for your next one!

---