A couple weeks ago, I had booked a caving expedition tour in Vietnam. It turns out that the week I chose was cancelled due to low participants (aka, I was the only one). I had a choice to make. I could go a week before, 2 weeks later, or the next time I come to Vietnam. The third option was definitely out and the second would have me rebooking flights. I went with the first which lead me to the next choice. Do I go to Sapa or Hanoi/Ha Long Bay? I chose Sapa. I suppose I like mountains over beaches. Ironically, that was a question on Hinge I had difficulty answering. I like both! I should have just thought back to this day.

Another input for Sapa was because I had read how Ha Long Bay had become overrun with tourists. I know, I’m just adding to that mess, but Sapa wasn’t as popular of a tourist destination, so wanted to get there before it became overrun. Plus, there were so many different tour options in Ha Long Bay. It was like looking at a restaurant that didn’t know what to sell so some genius said “put everything on the menu!” I don’t like going to these types of restaurants. It gives me anxiety just thinking about it.

Sapa it was! I do not regret this decision at all, even though I’ve never gone to Ha Long Bay. The only way in 2017 to get to Sapa was via overnight bus. Once I flew into Hanoi from Singapore, I had a few hours to kill before catching this bus. I ate some food, walked around Old Quarter, luckily spoke to someone that said Sapa was cold, bought some long sleeves, a Northface puffy jacket (which I wear in LA like a pansy), ate a sweet potatoe roasted in a corn husk, then headed over to the bus station.

The bus ride was only 6 and a half hours. It departed at 9pm, which meant we got to Sapa at 3:30 in the morning. I slept most of the way and was fast asleep when we arrived. Apparently the bus driver does nothing to wake up passengers cause when I woke up, he was gone. The rest of us left on the bus tried to figure out how to open the bus door by pressing random buttons. It eventually opened and we got our luggage from the carriage and went our separate ways. Now, this doesn’t seem too bad, but Sapa is in the mountains and it was raining. Which means fog. Visibility was not great. And no one was on the street to direct us. There was a construction truck that looked like it was on, but there was no one there. A bit spooky…

But now that we have Google Maps, we can go anywhere. Whipped out my phone, looked up Sapa Centre, and off I went into the dark looking for this place.

I wrote down that it took me 30 minutes from getting off the bus to checking in. I’m going to say that I don’t think it took that long. Maybe 20 minutes or so. Anyways, I found it! And the door was locked. Sweet. I did the only thing I could think of, and that was to cry.

Just kidding. I knocked and some poor guy who was sleeping near the door waiting for me woke up to let me in. Man, how nice of him. We go to the hotel counter where I see the piece of paper below. How nice of them! This place got great ratings from me.