Fansipan

The adventure that took us to the top of Vietnam's tallest peak began in Hanoi for us. We didn't have to catch our night train until 9pm so we had the day to kill. We used the time to orient ourselves with the city by wandering the streets and we had the chance to get our visa sorted out for our uncoming entry into Laos. When it was time to eat dinner we found an amazing street stall (perhaps our favorite to date), serving kabobs of all sorts. They'd grill 'em up for you there on the street and give you a plastic stool to sit on while enjoying them. Since we love BBQ and meat variety we had a little trouble deciding what to pick. After sampling skewers the likes of goat, shrimp, mushrooms, and pork, we all concluded that the bacon wrapped peppers were #1.

After our meal we headed back to our hotel (which had arranged our train to Lao Cai), at the instructed time of 7:oopm. Since our train left a 9pm and was merely a couple of kms from the hotel we thought it was a little early. We we arrived we found that dinner was included in the trip. So not wanting to be rude, we sat down to a huge spread of excellent Vietnamese food. We were so packed!

The surprises didn't stop there. When we got to the train station we found that the train had been overbooked. Oh no! Well, contrary to what you, (and us) might have thought was about to happen, we got bumped up, to first class. First class, or "soft-sleeper deluxe, meant 4 nice beds to a cabin instead of 6 crummy ones, and some really cool wood paneling on the walls. We were super happy with the upgrade, and it came as quite the surprise, since we've become quite accostumed to getting less, and not more, than what we've payed for. We all slept like babies.

can you read the note in the top left of our ticket?

After a quick trip from Lau Cai to Sapa, we had breakfast and we ready to start climbing. Our walk into the mountains began with grey skies and cool temperatures; perfect for keeping cool but not so good for views. After walking just a short time through the mossy trees and bamboo forest, Craig's trip started to go downhill faster than we were going up. We're still not sure whether it was something he'd eaten or what but he quickly got a severly upset stomach. Everything that he had in him came back out into the light. Common sense says that nausea, and dehydration, are not ideal conditions under which to tackle a multiday climb on a fairly big mountain. Craig, however thought different, and made the tough choice to stick it out and sleep in the cold on the first night and see how he felt the second day, rather than return to a warm bed in Sapa with a group that was headed off the mountain.

While sitting by a fire trying to keep warm at close to 2000m the skies cleared and we got to see an amazing sky full of stars before retiring for the night. The forcast was wrong and the clear skies held until morning, and Fansipan was under clear blue skies for the first time all week, and this was the day we were to summit. Craig was feeling a bit better and decided he'd give it a go...we knew he would!

After a breakfast of noodle soup, we made our way up the hard steep trail to the summit at 3143m. It was extremly windy and cold, but we had clear skies and views were amazing. I'll let the pictures say their thousand words and save me the trouble.

We returned to our base camp by late afternoon for the second night and were in bed by 8pm. With a long day of climbing in our tired legs and another amazing meal in our stomachs we slept for more than twelve hours despite the chilly temps. We woke to a very heavy mist that covered the entire mountain....we really had a perfect summit day. We had a really great time! It's always so refreshing and inspiring to enjoy a beautiful piece of creation!

We're back in misty Sapa. Although he's a bit better Craig continues to feel ill, so a prayer for him would be appreciated.