Homesick For Sapa

I don’t know about you but I get restless if a couple of months go by and I’m not on a plane going somewhere I’ve never been. It’s been almost 3 months since I’ve had to use my passport and the urge to roam is building. But I’ve a couple of big deadlines and so have grounded myself till the summer–if I can’t reach a destination by car I’m not allowed to go there. And the whole being sickly thing since January makes the idea of 10+ hours on a plane not terribly attractive right about now.

So how to fight this very bad case of roaminitis? Well, I review the tons of travel pics on my computer. I’m also in the process of archiving my travel destinations here at this blog in case the data can be an useful reference tool for any of you readers. While doing this, I came across photos of the Topas Ecolodge I stayed at in Sapa, Vietnam. I’d started talking about it in this blog entry and for some reason (well, we all know it’s my A.D.D. acting up) I didn’t continue the story. Or if I did, I can’t seem to find that entry. So today, let’s pick up where I left off…

I did cross the threshold and followed the men carrying my luggage on their shoulders. The entire mountainside was swallowed in mist, and just as you would inhale then exhale a ring of smoke when you step out into the cold anywhere, Sapa did the same with me. It sucked me into its untamed beauty then spat me back out into a bitter cold reality of haze and fog…

If I had wanted to see what isolation was like, I found it here. The grounds had been respectfully built onto the mountainside in a way that Frank Lloyd Wright would have appreciated, and the cabanas were sturdily constructed in every way with green technology…made me wonder how many men and women it took to even build the stone paths by hand.

By dinnertime, the path to the main clubhouse would only be lit by the moon on a clear night and a few random lanterns most nights. The food was beyond exemplary and I looked forward to each meal. I don’t recall if the weather and elevation had anything to do with my appetite. Maybe it was the stunning view, and maybe it was because the dining hall was really the only place where I saw other signs of human life besides, once, at this picnic table where some hardy souls dared to share wine al fresco.

The resort was quite empty during my stay, but it was a nice juxtaposition to my previous days in a crowded Hanoi.

I was born in Saigon, a big and noisy city in the south, and now consider myself an LA girl. But my heart is so homesick for Sapa.

April 1, 2010