Vietnam Part 3: Real Miracles
Before I take off for any trip, my final stop is my grandma’s house. Usually after Target, my hair appointment and an occasional kinkos run to print a visa, I make sure I get that good-grandma-prayer in before the airport. Sure, that’s sweet - until Grandma’s prayer is the only thing I can recall, say out loud or think about when it’s about to “not be okay.”
There are 2 popular ways to reach Sapa when leaving Hanoi - the overnight bus and the train. Because we only had 2 nights, we opted to arrive as early as possible to jump straight into our motorbike tour the next morning. While in Hanoi we got to experience Train Street from the outside of the tracks, like every other tourist, but the very next day we found ourselves on the inside of the luxury VicSapa train, waving to the iphones from inside of our cabin. Walking into the train, there is no other millennial comparison other than the Hogwarts Express - magic included. Walking down the corridor of dark stained and lacquered wood, we were delighted to find refreshments, comfy bedding, stunning interior, and wifi in our 2-person cabin. Once settled, of course, a trolley full of snacks strolled past offering coffees, tea and wine.
In the planning stages of this trip, Molly expertly mapped out a spreadsheet of every touchpoint’s number of days, cost, and links to every mode of transportation and accommodation. One day, she sent me a message asking if I would be “cool with” the cost for our 1-night in Sapa to be damn near equivalent to 4-nights in Hoi An - $157.
“I think you’re going to really like it” she hinted, and asked if I wanted to be surprised.
I’ve spent more than $157 at a Cambria hotel in the US (no shade), and for it to be a surprise?!, I knew it had to be something special. In the Excel she left a link under “accommodations”, but it was a Youtube to Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up to ensure I would only be PRANKED if I tried to guess or peek. Classic! And I was psyched.
FAIL 1: Exiting the 6am train, slow moving people didn’t understand we had a 8am motorbike tour to get to. I’m working on patience, but this was not the time. I was in turbo mode, and we were rolling 50lb bags down what I can now confirm were bricks. My wheel caught a brick, and my whole turbo-moving-body flew face first on the ground. Unable to catch myself, it looked like I was trying to body slam my luggage, landing perfectly on the side of my face which would soon-and-very-soon turn into a black eye. I popped up quickly, yet clumsily, to which an embarrassed-for-me passenger asked “are you okay?!” all loud - like he didn’t just see me fall like a Looney Tune. I was just silent and pointed my arm forward like “keeeep it moving”, after all, time waits on no fail.
We bought tickets to a random shuttle the night before on the train, but by the time we found the pickup location, we soon learned EVERYone on the train bought tickets to the same shuttle. It was already full with hiking backpacks and seated passengers, looking at us and our 100 pounds of combined luggage like, sorry for ya sis! We said forget it, and found a taxi who understood the assignment of getting us to our hotel in 60 minutes flat. Amazing Race style, Molly and I silently cheered as we passed the shuttle up the winding roads, zooming with my seat-belted bag in the front seat.
FORTUNE: Once we reached the town of Sapa, Molly looked at me and pointed to a grand yellow train station visible in the distance. “That’s it..” she smirked, completely satisfied with my dropped jaw and wide eyes. We pulled up to the five-star Hotel Le Coupole, Sapa - the town’s refurbished train station designed to pay homage to Sapa during the 1920s and ‘30s French-Indochine era, with an emphasis on the fashion.
We were able to stash our bags, as check-in wouldn’t be until noon, so we had about 30 minutes to get breakfast in the most grand dining room I have ever seen. After a quick coffee and smoothie (energy!), our driver Mai was waiting for us in the Lobby for what would be an 8 hour drive and tour of the mountains and rice fields.
March is planting season in Sapa, but the rice fields are defined and sprawling for as far as the eye can see. We learned that the best time to see the rice fields blossoming to colorful greens and yellows would be closer to June and July. We made stops along the way at waterfalls, (Molly) hiked a boulder, and we got to experience various ethnic villages, including the Red Hmong, which was Mai’s village, where we met her family and had lunch.
It was mind-blowingly beautiful and a feeling like nothing I have ever experienced. When we would stop to take pictures, I began to get frustrated because none of my snaps were translating how I felt. What was in front of me was bringing out something inside of me - beyond the beauty, it was never ending. As we climbed higher and higher, what I thought was a monumental mountaintop at one point, an hour later had become just a small piece of the overwhelming landscape. I’m not trying to be deep - it was deep like that.
We ended the day with giant hugs and were ready to see our room. There are 3-4 day options for this type of tour, but I’m glad we opted for the one day option for this trip (definitely next time). Coming from a train, to a face plant, to a full day of dirt roads, we were exhausted and decided to hit the pool. THE POOL! We lounged, swam and enjoyed pool-side snacks before retiring into our princess beds to dream the best dreams.
The next morning we were able to stash our bags for the entire day. Because the hotel was the active train station into Sapa, a quick left through the lobby and an escalator ride to the basement leads you to an over-ground trolley to the wildly popular attraction, Sun World. With VIP passes, the trolley led us to the Fansipan Cable Car which holds the Guinness Book of World Record for “The greatest elevation difference by a non-stop three-roped cable car at 1,410 meters”. Like whoa!
FAIL 2: Living in bliss the past few days, it only casually crossed my mind that it “might be a bit chiller at the top”. As we boarded the cable car, I got a second wave of nerves when more tourists filed into the car in full winter gear, gloves included.
With the doors opening to visible mountain peeks, my romper-and-sandal wearing ass was assaulted by the spirit of winter - freezer-cold-wind breath that said WELCOME, at least 20 degrees colder than 20 minutes before. I would not survive. We were escorted to an (indoor) lounge area where we were served pastries and coffee, which would have been lovely had I not been in the middle of an emergency.
FORTUNE: My already shaking hands typed “where is the gift shop?’ into my google translate and I bolted back up the stairs to find a hoodie or something! Turns out, the souvenir shop had seen this fumble before. Sure there were keychains, but there was also a wall of parkas, fleece lined pants, a barrel of socks and more. Like an episode of supermarket sweep, I just grabbed. One of each, please! Hat, sweater wrap, shirt, pants and socks! I was prepared to pay a Disney price of $500 to keep myself alive, but with great relief my total was under $50 US (!!!). I made a Broadway worthy costume change in the bathrooms and ran back to the VIP area right as Molly assumed I got lost (lol)! A buzzer beater that had me looking crazy, but WARM!
The winds were powerful, we were above the birds and still had another 1000 meters up to go. Another tram took us higher up, where we then climbed to the summit of the Fansipan at a whopping 3,134 meters - above every mountain peak that we stood in awe of the day before on the motorbikes - we were now above them.
We then began our 2-hour expedition through the park which is dotted with 8-10 meter high statues, buddhas and pagodas. You can’t really “go quickly” from this point on. It’s all stairs to reach each golden statue. But my goodness, being that high up, the perspective is different. What seems so far away, begins to appear as if it’s coming towards you as you walk towards it.
The sheer size had my knees buckling with vertigo. I’ve only experienced anything close at The Corcovado, Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. I felt okay with my knees giving way to a depiction of Christ, but I started to feel a way having my knees give way to golden gods. I decided to start praying “my God is greater” on repeat, which put the strength back in my legs. Strength I would certainly need to continue the miles worth of stairs up and down, through to the whole thing. But we did that!
We went to every temple, including the farthest reaching one, sitting on a finger of a mountain. It was impossible not to feel overwhelmed with gratitude and I teared up damn near every turn.
We made it back to the cable cars and trolley-ed back to Le Coupole to catch our overnight bus back to Hanoi. These buses come highly recommended, are very affordable and a popular option to travel within Vietnam. Since we already experienced the train, we opted to try the bus which (our tickets said) would be a 6hr journey back to Hanoi. We made it to the bus station ready for sleep after such an exciting day. Ah, sweet sleep!
FAIL 3: These overnight buses are quite comfortable and instead of seats, they are more like tour buses with assigned bunks. We were excited to be assigned to the bottom bunks, which would surely would make for more restful sleep. After a few giddy photos, I put on my earbuds and listened to my audiobook like a bedtime story and fell into deep sleep. About 3 hours later, Molly opened my curtain to let me know we had to get off - we were crazy early! Thank God she woke up to glance at the google map, just in time to see we had passed our stop. How? The train took the full 6 hours so how could a bus beat that time in half? With no intention of saying “next stop, Hanoi” at that? It’s still unresolved. The bus pulled over to the side of a road where one magical taxi was waiting for - something? US!
Again, we had no time for these types of fails - we had a 8am shuttle to catch for our cruise to HaLong Bay and now we were HERE, a full 5 hours early instead of the planned 2. I rolled out the bunk, got in the cab and the bus continued on.
We arrived at our Hanoi homebase hotel and woke up the solo worker, working the night shift sleeping soundly in the lobby. We apologized and explained we anticipated leaving our bags to just get on the shuttle, but were interested in a room to crash for 5 hours. No vacancy. He recommended the hotel across the street, so we hauled our luggage around the corner and down the block to another hotel that was able to get us a room for the next few hours. The kind man helped us with our luggage to the elevators and it wasn’t until the ding of the 5th floor I even had the thought to reach for my cell phone.
I hadn’t touched it since I turned on my audiobook and I hadn't reached for a single zipper all morning. A wash of dread fell over me - but instead of screaming in the elevator, we made it to our room where I immediately emptied my bag, only to find NO phone.
Now, in a waking nightmare, I calmly confessed to Molly that I had left my phone on the bus. Without skipping a beat, she pulled out a pamphlet for the bus company, and I ran back to the lobby.
3:45am, the same gracious man was there and still awake. I again confessed, “I left my phone on the bus. Is there any way we can call the company?”
His face was forgiving.
“Do you have the driver’s number?”
Of course not. So I gave him the number I had and he attempted to call the hotline number.
No answer.
He said he would try again in the morning, and his face was encouraging, rather than sympathetic.
I took that look - needed it.
I can’t explain why, but my spirit immediately started speaking to me. “He would not forsake you”. But this was MY bad - I was careless and this was something I would have to pay for. Surely there would be consequences - “he would not forsake you”. So I prayed silently that I needed a miracle. The worst case scenario of leaving the country in 2 days with no phone for a flight to Mexico City, was far beyond anything I could fathom. Like most remote workers, I need the authenticator on my phone to log in for work, which would be the following Monday morning. But my mind wouldn’t let me catastrophize the worst case scenario (aka the current reality). I had no other option than a supernatural force to bring it back - FROM A BUS!
GREAT FORTUNE: 7am, I woke up after a dream of running around a foreign city looking for my phone, and it being returned. So when Molly woke me up, I ran back to the desk confident someone would answer the phone - and they did. They asked for my seat number and said they would contact the driver. By 7:30am we were packed and about to get on the shuttle for our cruise when the hotel attendant came back up to our room letting me know the driver had my phone and would return it to Hanoi, from God knows where, on Saturday when we returned from Ha Long Bay. The Saturday we returned my phone was waiting for me in a red envelope usually reserved for “lucky money”. I can only assume this was the driver's way of communicating just how lucky I was. Correct!! But it was also another answered prayer from the direct line of the Most High. Peace assured instantly before my brain could do its job to fill me with panic on what was supposed to be a relaxing 2 day cruise. But miraculously, I was chillin’.
HaLong Bay: We boarded the Genesis Cruise Ship and it was beyond the pictures. We had a tub and balcony in our double suite, and every meal was top-tier. We spent our days exploring the limestone mountains of Ha Long Bay, bicycling through the rice fields of La Hong Bay and enjoying the eerie fog of the slow moving cruise.
During down time, I took my off-the-grid status to start reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a course I planned to start after the trip. This is a straight up text book that outlines a twelve week course in pushing through resistance to start a creative journey. Who knows how long I would have procrastinated further in starting the book - I bought it in November 2023. But guess what - I started this blog. I broke resistance and began my creative journey. And what I feared was unconscious karma coming for me, turned into an incredible lesson of trusting God in all things. ALL things.
WHAT A TRIP!
[Special thank you to Molly for holding me down through all the fails and cheering during the triumphs! We are an unstoppable duo and I can’t wait for our next adventure, girl!]