12/9/23 Tues: Woke up at 7.30am this morning because our
breakfast would be served an hour later. We could order two mains and a drink
each, so I went for the chicken pho straightaway~ it’s like the number one
comfort food in Vietnam to me… doesn’t really go wrong haha. PY and I shared
the banana and chocolate crepe too~ very thin slice.
At 9am, we headed out with Chai to start our trek to Ham
Rong Mountain top. *Saw many lingzhis stacked on the grounds on the way up
to the ticketing office whoa~* We took a break next to a sort of nursery
shortly after climbing up a few flights of stairs. *Chai continued sewing her
traditional clothes whenever she took a break...*
Next, we passed by an area full of pretty flowers and
statues of Vietnamese’s 12 Zodiacs, which included the cat instead. We took
some photos there!
Also watched some traditional performances…
It was not a difficult trek up and soon I saw a plaque that
shared the “legend of Ham Rong Mountain” which talked about two Dragon brothers
in which the younger one remained on Earth and created this mountain.
Had to go through narrow walls between rocks to go up to
the highest peak we could go! Took some photos with our friends from Taiwan and
Chai as we talked. Also, the view up there was pretty at first but as soon as
the wind blew the dark clouds over, it turned foggy in no time!
Was drizzling as we walked back down at 11am. Was back at
our hotel at 11.30am and had lunch at 12.30pm. I liked their pumpkin soup. We
were also served hot plate chicken, seaweed pork and cabbage.
At 1.30pm, PY and I followed Chai to begin our trek to Cat
Cat (“waterfall” in French) Village. It was quite hot then. We paid VND10,000 per
person to visit a treehouse area, which had beautiful scenery around. *The
meditation pose is like PY’s signature pose in Sa Pa lol~*
Chai told us people in Sa Pa mainly practise Shamanism, but
there were also Christians and Catholics. But those incense sticks behind us
were made out of bamboo sticks and only for display purpose for tourists.
As we walked down to the waterfall area, it was all so
familiar to me because I’d walked the same path seven years ago too, albeit not
as tired this time haha. *Saw a chained eagle haiz.*
Saw down to have sugarcane juice with lime (VND 20,000) and
we treated Chai to one cup too.
Walked down to the familiar waterfall area, climbed up a
treehouse in the middle ot take some photos. “Daredevil” PY climbed up a
platform next to the waterfall to take a few shots before “tragedy striked”: the
pants her mum bought for her split open because it got caught by a nail when
she tried to come down LOL! *Luckily, she got her jacket to cover her
exposed butt cheek lol~*
It was time for us to climb up from the other side soon and
this was more tiring for me as there were steps and steep slopes. *During a
short break, I also finally took note of “golden rice fields”… in a season I thought I’d
see way more~*
We hopped onto a van at an open carpark and was back at the
hotel at 4.30pm. *Gave VND100,000 to Chai as tips for her service these few
days.* By then, it was pouring very heavily. Headed out to A Phu restaurant
at 5.45pm for dinner and I wanted to try Cap Nach (roasted pork) which they
seemed to be famous for, but they didn’t have it then.
We ended up ordered Thang Co (horse meat soup) to share
(VND500,000). It’s a soup from the Hmong ethnic minority group. The animal's
internal organs are removed once it has been killed and later, these pieces are
chopped up and fried in their own grease in a pan. They then add water to the
pan and cook the meat for several hours. It's produced using a mixture of diced-up
flesh, bones, and offal from horses. Vegetables such as cabbage, lemongrass,
chayote, chili leaves, and spicy fruits like "thao qua" and "dia
dien," are also included in the dish.
It was flavourful and peppery with the spices! I drank
quite a few bowls of the soup haha. Meat-wise, some parts were too tough and dry
to bite. There were lots of horse blood cubes though. Their pho kway teow went
very well with the soup.
At 7.15pm, we began our walk in the rain over to Sa Pa
night market. It was supposedly a 20-min walk but the time taken doubled
because of the pouring rain which got heavier in the night! *Our shoes were
so soaked haiz.* Most stalls were closed in the rain so we left very
quickly. Worse still, PY saw the Google map directions wrongly and we made a
wrong turn and walked one big round to where we left off from.
Was pek cek and tired from the walk back. We visited a
supermart for PY to get a pack of rice crackers (VND 19,000). Was close to 9pm by
the time we got back to our hotel.
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