The Waterfall

After lunch and a short rest we got in the car to drive to a large waterfall about 10k from the town of Sapa, which is very close to the Chinese border. The road was pretty rough and narrow plus it was rainy and wet so it was a somewhat harrowing ride. These are the Hoang Lien Mountains which are the tallest mountains in Viet Nam.

"Tram Ton Pass is five-kilometers west of the Silver Waterfall or 15-kilometers from Sapa. The Tram Ton Pass which cleaves the weather of Sapa from the more arid weather patterns of Lai Chau Province as if a giant meat cleaver had sliced them apart. There are some great views of the dividing point from the hotter, dryer weather systems which dominate Lai Chau Province below from the cooler weather systems which dominate Sapa." We were able to get a couple of glimpses of China thru the swirling fog of the pass, I think we were lucky to see anything at all.

At this mountainside perch overlooking China of course someone had set up a small rest stop and had a small fire going cooking eggs and meat on a skewer and sticky rice in bamboo, my new favorite dish(see pic). They cut a section of 1-2” diameter bamboo and leave the nodule on one end (the piece is about 8” long) and then split off some of the thickness of the bamboo leaving a neat “container” to be stuffed with cooked sticky rice. They have these piled by the side of the charcoal fire and when you order one they put it on the fire and heat it up. Before they hand it to you they strip off 75% of the bamboo leaving you with a hot plug of yummy rice. They then give you some ground peanuts and salt to dip it in. These are eaten by a lot of the trucker when they are out in the boondocks with nowhere to stop and get food, as they will last 3-4 days. The original food to go.

We then proceeded back to a magnificent waterfall called Silver Waterfall or Trac Bac in Vietnamese that plunges 100 meter nearly straight down. It is by far the largest, tallest waterfall I have ever seen and was thrilling for me. We were able to take a walk partly up one side of it and then cross over to the other side and back down to the base. It was very rainy and misty when we were there so I was not able to get any pictures. The nature elementals seemed very happy at the interaction of earth in all the vegetation around the sides of the waterfall and air and water. For me it was a high energy spot and seemed a place the Mother could renew Herself. Quyet was always a good sport about being out in the rain with two crazy Americans. It is so warm in Viet Nam and Thailand when it rains it is usually a relief to get wet.

After returning to Sa Pa and our hotel we packed and returned to Lo Cai where we boarded the train at 9:00 pm for our return to Hanoi, where we arrived at 4:30 am.

Another note here and that is about the size of furniture in Viet Nam. There are plastic chairs everywhere like the ones we have at home only they are kid sized. It is either that or these little plastic stools that are about 10” off the ground. Even the chairs that aren’t plastic are small, way to small for someone Greg’s size! He will not be sad to say good-bye to this furniture that leaves his knees up around this chin when he sits down. Either that or there is nowhere to put his legs as was the case at the water puppet show which I haven’t talked about yet. Viet Nam and Thailand are neither of them great places to be tall. The Vietnamese are even smaller than the Thais. I am sure Aaron could tell you more places that it is no fun to be tall.

Another thing that drove Greg nuts especially in Hanoi was that Kenny G seems to be the only musician they have ever heard of. Even in Sa Pa you would hear him, and it was usually some christmas carol they were playing, it was a scream!!

I really enjoyed this part of our trip, Vietnam is such a beautiful country. It was nice to be away from the oppressive heat and humidity of the lower lands we had been in since we had left OZ.