Sapa, Vietnam - a huge disappointment

Although Sapa is one of the most popular destinations in Vietnam, many travelers find visiting the old French hill station can be a huge disappointment. The problems arise in all aspects, from the journey shopping and other activities once they arrive.

There are four or five train every day from Hanoi to Sapa and back, but this doesn’t seem to be nearly enough to meet the demand, particularly at weekends. Travelers are wanted to book their tickets at least 10 days before departure, particularly of the journey falls on a weekend, and always get a return ticket at the same time. Often, even tour operators are little help.

On a recent trip to Sapa, one traveler was given a one-way ticket with a promise from a tour operator that its Sapa branch would provide the return ticket. It did, eventually; however, it was not a sleeper for nine-hour trip from Lao Cai to Hanoi, but a hard seat. The response to his complaint was that hard seat was all that was available.

Leaving the ticket issue aside, the train itself can be a cause of great frustration. The train (the LC8 from Lao Cai to Hanoi) was almost two hours late, without any explanation. Although there were a huge number of expat travelers, announcements were in Vietnamese only, leaving the foreigners in complete ignorance, entirely dependent on their tour guides if they had any. Responding to questions on when the train would actually depart, the staff at Lao Cai station could only reply “I don’t know”

When the train finally arrived, the carriages were not in simple numerical order. For people in the middle of the train, it was impossible to even define which direction to go in for their particular carriage. In sweltering 32C degree heat, both foreigners and local travelers were running with sweat, sprinting from one end of the train to the other to find their seat.

Utter Chaos greeted tourist at Lao Cai station. There was such a huge crowd of Xe Om drivers, bus conductors, hotel staff and tour operators at the barrier that even getting through them to the road outside was particularly impossible. One Sapa hotel employee told us that some hotel vehicles intentionally picked up the wrong guests and even took them to Bac Ha instead of Sapa, leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere.

There are more problems when you arrive in Sapa. Travelers are followed everywhere by ethnic people trying to sell their wares. If you do not know how to deal with them, it can almost feel like serious harassment.

Sapa is no shopping Mecca either. There are very few authentic items, including the fruit, is bought in from China. Buying anything can be another problem, since it requires great bargaining skill. We bought a belt for VND35,000 after it initially been offered at VND75,000.

Spread the Word

del.icio.us Digg Reddit Netscape StumbleUpon