Fansipan

Despite its almost 3,500km long coastline, Vietnam also has high mountains to offer. The Fansipan in the Yunnan mountains in the extreme northwest of the country is with 3.143m not only the highest mountain of Vietnam, but also Indochinas, as the three countries Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are called since the French colonial times. 

The starting point for the ascent of Fansipan is Sapa, which we reached after a 12-hour night bus ride. Formerly a small mountain village, Sapa is now an attraction for both local and foreign tourists to see Vietnam's mountainous countryside with rice terraces and the local population. It is one of the coldest places in Vietnam and the only one where snow falls in exceptional cases. 

In view of this mixture, there are some very bizarre things here. It started with the fact that we crawled out of the bus at 6:00 a.m. in the morning after the said ride in the fully packed night bus in the truest sense of the word "straightened" and a squadron of women immediately besieged us with the words: "Do you want to do a trekking tour? In view of our condition and the early morning hour in which we and also the twilight just made the first steps with difficulty, this seemed to us a little inappropriate. The whole scenery looked as if there was a hidden camera somewhere. 

Further curiosities of this place are for example an oversized shopping mall and hotel in the style of a castle or the snowfall, where visitors can get artificial snow on a distance of maximum 10m for a not insignificant fee, whereby a big Santa Claus watches them (also in the middle of March). Well, tourism produces strange things in many places, but the masses who come here on weekends with buses or big, fancy cars are thrilled. Besided that Sapa offers restaurants, hotels, souvenir and trekking shops... 

Nevertheless we spent some days in Sapa, because we had planned two things: a three-day motorcycle tour and the two-day ascent of Fansipan. For the fun of both activities, the weather is decisive and so we waited two days in Sapa after our arrival, because when it didn't rain in streams, it was so foggy that we literally couldn't see our hands in front of our eyes.

The motorcycle tour then led us into a completely different world: no tourists, small, but quite good roads, great scenery. In Vietnam's mountains live most people who belong to ethnic minorities, e.g. the Hmong. They come to the larger villages on the weekly markets to offer their goods and stock up with everything necessary. We were amazed how many of them, especially the women, still wear the traditional, colorful clothes, even though often the motorcycle helmet was added as a piece of clothing. 

And then, right after our return, came the Fansipan tour. Together with six others, the first day started with a steep ascent through dense forest. Although the way was better than expected, we had to overcome some places with ladders and the use of our hands. The sweat is pouring. 

Dorit: "Why are we doing this?" Holger: "I don't know". 

Already in the early afternoon we reach the hut, much too early, because there it is windy and cold and there is nothing to do. In several "rooms" separated by wooden boards, up to five people could sleep on wooden boards, if sleep were possible. Because here at 2800m it gets bitterly cold, it storms and the sleeping bags provided by the organizer remind us with their shape and filling of 70s camping. But judging by the smell, they could also have come entirely from the 70s. Definitely their efficiency in terms of warmth is close to zero and so we put on all available clothes (including hats and gloves) and tremble through the night until at 4:00 a.m. the redeeming wake-up call arrives. 

After a noodle soup breakfast, which doesn't really want to go through the oesophagus in this early stage of the day, it goes again one and a half hour steeply uphill. Just with the sunrise we reach the summit, which was covered in the past years with several constructions of temples, Buddha figures and a cable car. It is nevertheless beautiful, because the cable car does not go yet, it is only those up here who have made the way on foot. Thus we admire how the sun slowly illuminates the figures and the surrounding landscape becomes more and more visible. We would have liked to stay longer, but group tours are group tours. 

Soon we are on our way back again, not only noticing the frozen night, but also the countless steep steps and heels in our knees. Nice, the hotel has an elevator and a fantastic hot shower. 

"Why are we doing this to ourselves?", "Because we are just the way we are!"