Thoi & Bill’s Trekking Tour Of North Vietnam’s Hilltribe Region February/March 2009

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I’m Bill and my wife is Thoi and we went to Vietnam on Thursday the 26^th of February, 2009 to do an 11 day trekking tour in North Vietnam. 

We arrived in Saigon, Vietnam on Friday the 27^th of February.  Our flight, including layovers, took 21 hours and we were up for around 39 hours by then.  The time in Vietnam at this time of the year is 15 hours ahead of California time.  Vinh, our driver in Vietnam ever since 1995, picked us up at the airport in Saigon at 2pm and took us to his home where we stayed for several days before heading up to Hanoi to begin the hike.  Although Vinh has air conditioning in each of the bedrooms, just as we arrived the power had gone off, so it was really hot.  And since we had just been in air conditioning all the way on the airplane, in the airports, and in the car, the heat was quite a shock to our not yet adjusted systems. 

Just after arriving on Friday and well into the evening, Yen, Vinh’s wife, took Thoi and I to several fabric shops to locate the correct material and color to make shirts, pants and silk pajama’s, plus a couple of business suits for Thoi, and one suit for me.  This took quite a bit of effort as none of their fabrics are labeled as to what they’re made of and if you ask for something like Cotton, they don’t know what you’re talking about.  So we had to just go by the look and feel of the fabrics to try and get as close as possible to what we needed.    

We then took the material for my suit to a suit maker where they measured me for it.  During the next few days, Yen would also take the other material to various tailors to have the clothing made while we’re hiking. 

After dinner on Friday the 27^th, Vinh wanted to do Karaoke, so although we were dead tired, we managed to sing with him until 9pm when we just had to call it quits and go to bed.  We were up for about 46 hours by then. 

On Monday the 2nd of March we got up around 4:50am and had wonton soup for breakfast at Vinh’s house.  We then left for the Tan San Nhut (Saigon) airport and arrived there around 8:30am.  When we went to check in at the Vietnam Airlines counter, the agent told us that our flight to Hanoi, scheduled for a 10:30am takeoff, had been canceled, and that we would have to take the next flight at 11:30am.  

When we arrived at the Hanoi Airport and began waiting for our luggage to come out, a Vietnamese person began talking with us…in English.  It turned out that he is from San Francisco and since we were both going to the same part of Hanoi, he asked if we would like to share a taxi with him and his wife, who was from China.  So, although being a little bit wary, we finally decided to do so.  The fare would have been about 240,000 Dong, but since we split it, including tip, we only paid about 160,000 Dong, just a little less than $10. 

In Hanoi, we stayed at the Majestic Salute Hotel, which is very nice, but the pipes were really noisy whenever anybody ran the water. 

We were scheduled to meet with Jessica, a representative of Active Travel Vietnam (a travel agency) at 5pm that evening in the hotel lobby, to pay the remainder of the trekking tour that we had booked.  When she arrived she told us that due to the dry conditions and high winds in Sapa recently that we may have to do the homestay’s before doing Mt. Fansipan, which was opposite of the original plan.  What I’m talking about here is that we had booked an 11 day “Trekking Tour” where we would first do a 3 day backpacking hike up the highest peak in Indochina, Mt. Fansipan, at 3,143 meters (10,311 Ft.), followed by 5 days and 4 nights of trekking through several villages of the ethnic minority Hmong people (hill tribe people) and staying in their homes for the 4 nights.  The remaining days to make up 11 days also included one day to rest between the mountain and the homestays and train transportation to and from Hanoi. 

On Tuesday the 3^rd of March, we walked around Lake Hoan Kiem twice, and then walked further South in search of a market.  I don’t mean a grocery store; I mean an open-air vegetable market which are usually all over Vietnam.  We finally found an area where they were selling all different kinds of food (street vendors), but still no market to speak of. So we bought a baguette of bread and walked back to the hotel. 

The weather in Hanoi, ever since we arrived, has been cold with a heavy mist and fog, definitely not good photography weather.  In fact, because of this, everything is wet, just as if it had just rained. 

That evening we went downstairs to the lobby to checkout from the Majestic Salute hotel and waited to meet our tour guide who was going to take us to the train station.  Her name was Thi.  She arrived right on time, wearing something that looked like an Alaskan parka with the white furry hood and all.  We all took a cab to the train station.  From here on until we returned to Hanoi 11 days later, everything was already paid for in the cost of the tour. 

When we arrived at the train station, it looked like pure chaos.  It reminded me of scenes of the NY Stock Exchange trading floor.  Luckily Thi was there and got us our train tickets and walked us right onto the correct train and coach.  We had to walk across a dozen or so tracks, some with moving trains on them, some not, to get to our train, all the way carrying our heavy luggage.  Thi made sure that we were in our cabin before taking off.  We had a four sleeper cabin.  We had one Vietnamese guy who didn’t speak English or French, a Frenchman who doesn’t speak English or Vietnamese, myself who speaks only English and only a little Vietnamese, and Thoi who speaks English and Vietnamese.  It made for an interesting time to spend 10 hours with them.  Luckily most of that time was spent sleeping, as it was a night train to Lao Cai, a town near the China border and the “jumping off” point for Sapa. 

The next morning, Wednesday the 4^th of March, after the 10 hour train ride, we met our tour guide for the rest of the trip, Thanh, just outside the train station around 5:20am.  He directed us to a private car with a driver and we proceeded on a VERY foggy and dark, one hour drive up in altitude and through winding, mountainous roads to Sapa.  The elevation in Sapa is 4,800 feet. 

After checking in at the Bamboo Hotel in Sapa, Thanh walked with us to a local restaurant for breakfast.  We then scheduled to meet with him at 4pm to get more details on the tour and the revised itinerary. 

After breakfast we walked around Sapa town for a while, checking out the area.  The fog rolls in and out so quickly that we had to keep putting our jackets on or taking them off to keep from sweating too much.  The local young girls and older women won’t leave you alone.  They want to try and sell anything they can to you, and they don’t give up easily.  Their outfits are very colorful which makes you want to take their pictures, but if they see you trying to take a picture, they’ll hound you to buy something. 

The persistent fog made getting any decent pictures nearly impossible.  After a fairly lengthy walk in the morning we stopped at a local restaurant and had some lunch.

At 4pm, we met with Thanh at the Bamboo Hotel lobby and he outlined what was going to happen during the rest of the tour.  He showed us a map of the villages where we were supposed to stay the nights.  He told us that the government had closed the mountain to hikers until further notice due to high fire danger, so he recommended that we do the village to village trekking with the homestay’s first then see if the mountain is available by the time we finish 5 days later.  Two or three of the originally planned homestay’s were in the same national park area as the mountain so they would be out of bounds.  But he showed us 4 other villages/homes where he recommended that we should go to, two of which rarely get visited by tourists as they usually go to the ones in the national park.  So, not having much say in the matter, we agreed with Thanh’s decision and went with it.  We would do the homestay’s before doing the mountain, if it’s open by that time. 

The only problem with doing the mountain last, however, was that Mt. Fansipan was the entire reason we came to Sapa in the first place and the homestay’s just seemed to be a nice way to “wind down” after the big hike.  And because it was considered extremely strenuous, for experienced hikers only, we wanted to get it out of the way while we were still fresh and not worn out from a week’s worth of hiking and homestay’s.  Unfortunately circumstances dictated otherwise so Thanh told us that he’d meet us around 10:00am the next morning to begin the hike. 

Thursday March 5, 2009.  We had a complementary breakfast at the Bamboo Hotel in Sapa, then we prepared our backpacks for the week’s hike and went downstairs to check out of the hotel around 9:45am.  We only had to wait a couple of minutes for Thanh to arrive…wearing his backpack.  He didn’t drive up; he walked up from…somewhere.  So we checked our remaining luggage bag with the hotel, donned our backpacks, grabbed out trekking poles, and followed Thanh.  We figured that he had a car around there somewhere or would hail a cab.  But, no, we just started, right out of the hotel, hiking down the road toward Lao Chai village for about ¾ of a mile where we then turned to the right to take a steep, dirt path down into the terraced rice fields.  That was the beginning of five consecutive days of hiking.

The fog was thick at some parts of the hike, then there was sun on others, but most of the time it was at least very hazy, making picture taking difficult at best.  We hiked 6.14 miles that first day over a 5 hour period, including breaks.  We were walking for 3 of those hours.  In addition to my backpack and essential personal items, I was also carrying with me 7 pounds of camera equipment in two separate padded bags, including my camera body, two lenses, a polarizer for each lens, a spare battery, two spare memory cards, and a small tripod.  I ended up using each item at least once during the hike, so all of that equipment was needed. 

Along the way, at one of the villages where people were selling stuff, they had a large scale setting on the ground.  Thanh immediately went over to it and kneeled on it to see how much he weigh’s.  So, since he did it, we decided to weigh our backpacks since we had no idea how much they weighed.  Mine weighed in at 8 kg (17 pounds), not including the 7 pounds of camera equipment that I had been carrying separately.  So that made my pack a total of 24 pounds while Thoi’s pack weighed 7 kg, (15 pounds). 

We went through Y Linh Ho village, Lao Chai village, and stayed in Ta Van village, home of the Zay people where we had a huge meal of Vietnamese food.  We had six different items, including cha gio (fried spring rolls), fried tofu sautéed with tomatoes, a chicken dish, a pork and onion dish, a beef and shredded vegetable dish, a bok choi like dish, and watermelon for desert. 

This particular home can accommodate about 11 people, all in the space of about 25’ x 25’.  Mattresses are literally set “shoulder to shoulder” on the floor with a mosquito net over each one.  There was a separate, small building outside with a small shower and a toilet. 

The couple who ran the house was very friendly.  The man of the house was already there, but his wife was out.  It turned out that she was out working the fields while he started dinner for us.  Just as dinner was about to be served, she came in from the fields and started talking with us.  It was very interesting to see the man, in Vietnam, doing the housework and the woman doing the field work. 

None of these houses had any heat and although we’re in Vietnam, we’re in North Vietnam…in early March, so the weather can be really cold, and it was.  While we didn’t have a thermometer on us, it felt like it was in the low to mid 40’s at night.  And in addition to not having heat or insulation, these houses are built with large openings in between the slats that make up the building and large ventilation holes where the fog just runs right through them during the night, making it really cold for sleeping and putting a chill on everything.  The fog was so thick that during the inevitable “bathroom run” during the night, we could barely see the outhouse from the house.  I have never worn so many layers of clothing and jackets to sleep in before in my life.  Unfortunately Thoi had a hard time sleeping. 

Friday March 6, 2009.  We had a huge breakfast consisting of rice, several vegetable dishes, and “pancakes”.  These “pancakes”, however, were actually just very thin crepes on which you then had to cut up your own banana and pour honey.  You then have to roll it up and cut it into bite size pieces to eat it.  They were really good, but definitely not the pancakes that we’re used to here in the USA.   

Actually that first night we didn’t really know how things worked, so although we were the only people staying at this house, and there were 10 other “beds”, we only used one blanket for the two of us.  So after that night we learned that we should just take what we need (meaning more than one blanket), but in addition to taking a second blanket, we also learned another lesson; that when they put us upstairs, despite that there were about 15 or 20 mattresses throughout the room, we chose a corner one, away from the major openings.  It was warmer there. 

Since we left this first homestay at about the same time as a couple other groups, the first hour or so seemed more like a parade than a hike.  But this section was fairly strenuous, and a good thing too as it kept us warm against the cold temperature and thick fog.  The weather this day went from very thick fog to just a very heavy overcast; certainly no sun.  We hiked 7.37 miles this day over around an 8 hour period. 

We also hiked through the Giang Ta Chai village, the Su Pan village, and stayed the night in the Ban Ho village, home of the Tay people. 

Here at the Ban Ho village they are doing major construction in the area, building a dam for a hydro-electric plant and all of the required infrastructure including roads, the power plant, power poles, etc.  As we understand it, they presently have to buy power from China which is apparently too expensive to continue with.  So the solution is to build this hydro-electric power plant in the only fairly large river in the entire area.  The downside of this, in my opinion, is that they’re destroying the landscape of the entire valley where many of these villages reside.  And if they destroy the landscape, this will likely reduce the desirability of this area for tourism.  The primary things to see here are the terraced rice fields, and if the weather had been better, they would have been beautiful.  But they’re gouging large sections out of the hills surrounding these villages and destroying this scenery.  So because of this, I figure that they’ll lose money in the long run if tourism decreases as a result of this. 

On our way to this homestay, we ran across a group of people, including several French people.  While following this group, we all hiked to a grassy hill, overlooking the valley far below where we all took a break to set down and take in the beauty of the scene.  It reminded me of the opening scene in the movie, “The Sound of Music”, where Julie Andrews is singing in the grassy hills of the French Alps. 

We saw a large variety of different types of hikers during our time on the trail this time.  For instance, in this group of people there was one woman who simply didn’t seem capable of negotiating some of the slightly steeper sections.  She was extremely slow and people had to help her all the way.  We were stuck behind her much of the way as we couldn’t get around her for a while. 

At this homestay, two of the French couples from that group we saw earlier were also staying at the same place as we were.  Only one of the men, a doctor, spoke much English.  He spoke very good English and we had some good conversation during dinner and the next morning. 

Late that afternoon, all of us walked from the homestay to a nearby “hot tub” facility, overlooking the soon-to-be-dammed river.  The water comes from a natural hot spring and we were supposed to go to a hot spring, but since they’re doing the construction on the river and surrounding area, they built cement tubs to contain the water from the hot spring.  The air temperature was probably in the high 50’s or low 60’s, and overcast.  We all took turns changing into our bathing suits in the one outhouse near the facility and then went into one of the two large tubs.  The water felt like it may have been about 85º at the most, which in a hot tub where you’re just setting there “soaking it in”, actually saps the heat from your body, making you colder.  We all took turns moving underneath the water inlet to the tubs as it was a little warmer than the tub water.  But after setting in it for about 15 minutes or so, I had to get out as I was getting colder by the minute and we had to brave the outside 50 something outside air temperature until we could get dried off and changed.  I was freezing for a little while after that, until we started walking back.  This small “hike” back to the homestay did help to get my body temperature back up again. 

Saturday March 7, 2009.  Today, after a breakfast of “pancakes” and rice with various other meat and vegetable dishes, we began to hike again and make our way across the valley floor.  But before we headed for the valley floor, we went up a different trail to Lavie Waterfall where we spent about 30 minutes shooting pictures and enjoying the rushing water.  It was here that I was able to set up my tripod and experiment with long exposures to blur the water and give a very ethereal look to it. 

When we finished up with the waterfall we began a fairly steep path up the Southern mountain surrounding the valley to the Nam Toong village, home of the Red Zao people.  We toured their village for a little while, then we took a much steeper trail, literally straight down the mountain, back to the valley floor. 

At the base of the mountain, in the valley, we crossed a suspension bridge, resembling the Golden Gate Bridge, only a lot smaller, over the Muong Hoa River and proceeded up the northern mountain, nearly straight up for another couple of hours.  We walked up and up and up for what seemed like forever, through beautiful, water filled, terraced rice fields.  Then Thanh pointed up at least 3 or 4km away and said, “We’re going there.”  Then, a few hours later when we got “there”, Thanh said, “We’re almost there.”  Of course he’d neglected to mention that we had at least another 2km down a slippery, muddy, dirt road, and then at the very end, just for good measure, we had to climb up a steep, muddy path to get to the bamboo hut in the Sin Chai village where we stayed the night.   

After arrival at the bamboo hut, Thanh proceeded to prepare a large meal of rice, chicken, potatoes, cabbage, and bamboo shoots.  The chicken was about as fresh as it could possibly be, short of running after it, catching it, and biting into it because when we arrived, there as a live chicken in a box waiting for our arrival.  Thanh then had me hold its wings and feet while he slit its throat.  I held it up so that the blood would drain out of the chicken and into a bowl.  Later on, he would cook this blood with vegetables in a soup.  Initially I held the chicken too straight up and Thanh said, “Lower it a little or it may poop right into the bowl of blood.”  During this time, the chicken, in the last throws of its life, flapped its wings so hard that I lost hold of one of them.  So Thanh had to help me get a better grip on it again.  Finally it stopped moving.  Then sure enough, when the chicken went limp, it pooped. 

Thanh then plucked all of the feathers, gutted it, chopped it into pieces, and stir fired it with seasonings of some sort.  It was really good chicken.  We also had fresh bamboo shoots that we bought at a little road-side stand just as we arrived at the peak of the mountain.  Of course something like bamboo shoots in this sort of a location does not come in a can.  These are fresh from the field, so they’re muddy and have to be peeled by hand before cooking them.  Before Thanh had me help him with the chicken, he had shown Thoi how to peel off the outer layers of the bamboo shoots, one layer at a time.  He then had me help him with the chicken.  So after finishing with that I went to help Thoi to peel the remaining bamboo shoots since she had a large pile of them to do.  The way Thanh had shown Thoi to peel them was very slow and difficult to get it peeled properly.  Then after struggling through quite a few of them, an older Red Zao hill tribe woman, who apparently helps out there at the bamboo hut, came by, set right down, picked up a clever, and started slicing and peeling them very quickly.  She didn’t say a word, but just showed Thoi and I a MUCH faster way to peel them.  After that, we all finished the pile in just a few minutes.  Thanks to her, we had dinner a little earlier than we might have.  The entire meal was very good. 

The temperature throughout most of the hike ranged from mornings in the 40’s to afternoons in the 50’s, maybe low 60’s.  But once we get hiking each day, it takes only a few minutes before we have to stop, take off our backpacks, and remove our heavy jackets, underneath which we have short sleeves.  And, depending on the terrain, we could be dripping with sweat throughout most of the day.  This, however, creates a situation where when we stop for any length of time, such as for lunch, and start up again, we have to don our heavy jackets again because we’re soaked with sweat and cooled down from the stop. 

The sweat situation caught up with Thoi this evening at the Bamboo Hut.  As usual, we sweated quite a bit during the hike to the hut, but we got there fairly late in the afternoon and it was cold and foggy, meaning that there was no sun around to dry out her sweat-soaked shirt and jacket that she hung up on a line for the next morning.  I saw this and decided that the best course of action was for me to put on her shirt, under my jacket, to dry it using my body heat.  Although it was very cold for the first few minutes, I soon warmed up and was able to dry her shirt within about 30 minutes or so.  Because of my success with her shirt, I decided to do the same thing with her jacket, which was really nothing more than a light windbreaker.  Repeating the process, I was able to dry out her jacket in the same way while she used another jacket that she had brought with her and wrapped a sleeping bag around her, to try and remain warm.  We also took full advantage of the heat given off by the gas stove while Thanh was preparing dinner, in order to remain warm. 

This day we hiked 9.5 miles over about 6 hours and 45 minutes, including a lunch break. 

Sunday March 8, 2009.  Today we awoke to a very cold and foggy morning.  Thanh took a lot of leftovers from the night before and made up a huge batch of fried rice with it.  It was very good. 

We hiked back down the mountain from the Bamboo Hut to the Thanh Phu village, home of the Tay people, where we would do another homestay this evening.  Along the way we also went through the Nam Keng village, home of the Xapha people.  But because it was only a short hike to our homestay, we arrived around 1:30pm, dropped off our packs, and walked another 2 miles to the My Son village, where they don’t see many foreigners.  In fact it was a bit amusing that as we were walking along through the village, we ran across  a group of little children, and I mean little.  The oldest had to be around 7 or 8 years old.  They were either working or play “working” with a hoe and other tools, in the yard.  Just as the oldest girl there saw Thoi stop to take a picture of them, she stopped working/playing, put her toddler sister onto her back and ran toward the house.  Apparently she was trying to protect her little sister.  Then a little later on, when we came back down that same road, on our way back to the homestay, the little girl again took her little sister, put her on her back, and ran toward the house.  Children around here have great responsibilities even at a very young age.  Today we hiked a total of 7.8 miles over a period of 5 hours and 51 minutes. 

After our 4 mile round trip walk, we arrived back at the homestay to find another foreigner, named Chris, setting on the front porch sipping tea, along with his Vietnamese guide, Dung (pronounced Yoong).  Chris is from Brisbane, Australia and he was doing just two homestays, and then returning to Hanoi by train prior to attending a retreat in Hoi An, Vietnam.  So the homestays were just a “pick up” tour for him to kill a little time before his retreat, but he ended up leaving with more than he’d bargained for.  I’ll get back to that a little bit later. 

Chris’ tour guide, Dung, had left Chris alone this afternoon to go into Sapa for the night.  So while the man of the house, his name was something that sounds like Nah, was talking with Thoi and Thanh, Chris kept asking for them to interpret for him throughout the afternoon and evening. 

The evening went well with dinner and much drinking of “happy water” (rice whiskey).  But then, through the evening’s conversation with the host family, with Thoi and Thanh acting as interpreters, Chris came to know that the family has three daughters, 13, 15, & 17.  The older two are studying in Sapa and 15 year old Nhit is doing very well in school and has all sorts of certificates hung on the walls of the house to prove it.  But the family can’t afford to keep her in school once she starts high school next year.  When Chris heard that, he started asking Thanh, Thoi and I how he could help.  He trusted our advice because it came out through the conversation that Thoi had built two houses for her people in Tay Ninh and Trang Bang (South Vietnam).  So since we had some experience in the area of helping people here in Vietnam, he wanted to know everything about how to do it. 

Since it became quite late and Thanh had had a lot of happy water, he had gone to his bed to rest while the rest of us continued talking. 

Although Chris wanted to help Nhit, it was conditional.  He was very adamant that if he was to support Nhit up through college, it has to be what she wants to do and not what her parents want her to do.  He was very clear that she has to be allowed to freely choose her own future, whatever that may be, even if that means not going to college, or working in a coffee shop, for example.  But it has to be what she wants to do. 

We had to try to explain to Chris that children in Vietnam, especially those coming from the poor countryside, have it ingrained in them to help their parents in any way they can, especially as their parents get older.  So it’s VERY difficult to know whether her decision to go to college, if she decides to do so, would be what she really wants to do or what she feels obligated to do to both please and be in a better position to support her parents as they get older.  Finally Chris had to concede that it would be difficult to tell, but he just wanted to be sure that she’s happy with her own future. 

Later on, we had to ask Thanh to come back to the table and help us with coming up with some real numbers on how much it might cost to support Nhit through high school and college, since he had just finished with college himself in the nearby area.  After much calculating we came up with some final numbers.  Chris thought about it for a minute, and then said, “I can do that.”

Also that evening Chris kept asking if Nah could take him out to plant corn with him the next morning rather than doing the hike he was scheduled to do.  So Thanh, who also works for the same tour company as Chris’s guide, called Dung to let him know of Chris’ plans and not to arrive until about Noon the next day.  Throughout the evening, Nah kept saying that he couldn’t take Chris out to plant corn, mostly because Chris is a guest and he didn’t want him to have to do manual labor while on his vacation.  But Chris kept pushing the issue and really wanted to do it, so Nah finally gave in and said, “Okay”.  It was the next day before I found out from Thoi that it just wasn’t the right time of the year to plant corn, so Nah took Chris out to turn dirt all morning, which we later found out from Chris was a very hard morning of work for which he was very sore afterward, but he still enjoyed it. 

Monday March 9, 2009.  Today we got up, had some breakfast, and packed up our backpacks in preparation for the last leg of our homestays.  We then said goodbye to the owners of the homestay and also to Chris, who, considering how much “Happy Water” he had the night before, was very chipper this morning and excited to go out to “plant corn”. 

We were scheduled to meet a car at 10am at the base of the mountain that we had climbed up during the previous days.  We arrived a little early, so we waited a few minutes for the car to arrive.  It was sort of funny, we hadn’t ridden in any sort of a vehicle for nearly a week, yet we were 33 miles from where we had started.  So it felt kind of weird to be riding in a car, all the way back to Sapa.  This drive took about an hour, after which we checked back into the Bamboo Hotel. 

Throughout the 5 days of homestay trekking Thanh had been in cell phone contact with his office checking on the status of the mountain.  Finally just as we were finishing up the homestays they opened the mountain to tourists again. 

Tuesday March 10, 2009.  Today after having a large, complementary breakfast at the Bamboo Hotel’s restaurant, we went back up to the room to wait for 8am so that we could pick up the laundry we had sent out when we arrived the day before.  Right at 8:00 I went downstairs to see if they actually had it done at the time requested.  When I arrived at the front desk, the girls running the desk just handed me the bag of completed laundry.  It was entirely unexpected, but very welcome as we really needed these clothes so that we could begin to organize and pack the backpack for the mountain climb portion of our tour later on in the morning.  I say that it was unexpected because at most hotels when we have our laundry done, it takes much longer to have it done. 

During the homestay portion of our tour, both Thoi and I wore a backpack.  I was actually using Thoi’s internal frame backpack, which is smaller than my large pack that I use if we’re camping on a non-supported hike, as we didn’t have to carry food, tents, or sleeping bags with us, while Thoi used a smaller day pack that she had just picked up on sale specifically for this purpose.  But for the mountain climb portion, due to the expected difficulty of this leg of the tour, Thoi decided that she wouldn’t wear a pack since we would have porters to carry food, water, sleeping bags, and a tent, so we would just pack whatever we needed for both of us into the pack that I was carrying. 

After packing up the pack, we went downstairs around 9:35am to check out and wait for Thanh who was supposed to arrive at 10am.  But when we arrived in the lobby, he was already setting there waiting for us.  He told us that he had already made a reservation at the Bamboo Hotel for when we return from the mountain.  So we checked our one bag of luggage at the hotel, I put on the pack, and we followed Thanh down the street.  We walked through much of Sapa town until we arrived at the tour company where Thanh works, to wait for the van to arrive to take us to the trailhead of Mt. Phan Xi Pang, otherwise known to English speaking people as Mt. Fansipan. 

The drive consisted of 10km of very bad, dirt and gravel roads.  Sapa is at an elevation of about 1,650 meters (5,413 feet), while the trailhead is at an elevation of 1,900 meters (6,233 feet). 

We started the hike around 10:45am and we hiked for about 2 hours before reaching a camp where we ate a very good lunch consisting of French baguettes of bread (Vietnamese banh mi) with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and cha lua (a fairly dense meat loaf, almost like a bologna) sprinkled with salt. 

Then after lunch, we hiked for another 3.5 hours to reach the “base camp” at an elevation of about 2,800 meters (9,186 feet).  In total, we hiked for 6 hours with only about a 30 minute lunch break.  We arrived around 5pm.  If you did the math, you’ll see that we climbed almost 3,000 feet in just 6 hours.  Now doing this sort of climb at sea level where the air is nice and thick and full of oxygen would be difficult for most people, but we’re doing all of this climbing at an elevation where the air is significantly thinner which makes everything you do more difficult.  The hike was grueling, made up mostly of nearly vertical climbing almost all the way.  It’s got to be the most difficult physical challenge we’ve ever undertaken.  But I have to hand it to Thoi, for somebody who hates to hike up steep areas; she’s been a trooper in this hike. 

After dark we had a huge dinner of stir fried pork with vegetables, beef with vegetables, fried tofu with tomatoes, another vegetable dish, and rice.  We had all this while wearing every piece of clothing and jackets we had with us, it was so cold and windy. 

We stayed in one of three tents that were set up and tied together so as to avoid being blown away.  Over night the winds gusted to nearly 70mph and the temperature was somewhere around 37 degrees.  It was so cold that we had to wear everything we had with us, in the sleeping bag, and Thoi was still cold.  I was okay because I was wearing a long sleeve thermal underwear T-shirt underneath a long sleeve hiking T-shirt, full length thermal underwear underneath my hiking pants, a heavy fleece jacket, and an outer shell jacket.  It was a difficult night and Thoi didn’t get much sleep at all. 

Wednesday March 11, 2009.  Finally morning came so we got up around 6:30am and had a large, steaming hot bowl of noodle and egg soup.  We left to start the summit leg of the hike at 7:30am without the backpack since we would be returning to this camp on the way back, after summiting.  This was an extremely strenuous section of the hike.  It was nearly straight up in many places.  We arrived at the summit at 10am, just 2.5 hours after starting.  According to the plaque at the top, and my GPS, we were at 3,143 meters (10,312 feet) and at that altitude every step you take requires much greater effort than at sea level. 

We arrived at the summit just a few minutes after a camera crew and several women, likely hosts of some VTV (Vietnamese Television Network) program, had arrived.  We had been passing them, and then they would pass us all the way up the mountain over the past two days.  So it was no surprise when we saw them there. 

We waited for them to finish doing their shooting, then we took the flag that is there at the peak and had pictures taken of us there.  During lunch the day before, as I’d mentioned, we had banh mi with the French baguette of bread.  Well the bread came in a small, white paper bag.  I saved that bag for the purpose of using it as a piece of paper to write a message on it if we made it to the peak.  So since we did make it, I took out this paper bag, which was folded flat, got out my pen and began writing on it.  I had to go over each letter about 10 times just to make sure that it was thick and dark enough to be read in a picture.  I wrote “Grandma & Grandpa Made It, 11 March 2009, 10AM”.  While I didn’t know it at the time, Thoi later told me that one of the VTV camera people was taking pictures of me while writing my note. 

At the peak is a triangular shaped metal marker with the words “Fansipan” and “3,143m” on it along with a large North Vietnamese flag. 

After summiting and spending about 30 minutes there at the top, we returned to the campsite where we spent the previous night to pick up our backpack and to have a lunch of egg noodles (mi).  It then took us another 3.5 hours to go from this base camp campsite to the camp where we had lunch the day before and where they have a “store” where I bought two cans of soda and a 1.5 liter bottle of water.  To down those soft drinks felt very good as I was not drinking much water so that Thoi would have the majority of it.  The reason for this is that they only provided us one 1.5 liter bottle per person per day and we had already used three bottles between the two of us and they only carried so much water with them, so we had to ration water in order to have enough for the entire hike.  There were very few places where we could have gotten more water, and then it would have to have been treated, boiled, and/or filtered. 

While still at the base camp for lunch, I negotiated with another tour guide to get some more water to tie us over until we arrived at the store camp.  She is a guide from the Red Zao tribe, wearing the traditional garb for her tribe.  She gave me a full 0.5 liter bottle of water and the remainder of a 1.5 liter bottle, which turned out to be about half a bottle. 

We hiked for 11 hours and 10 minutes this day to get to our final camp site.  We arrived at our camp site for this evening in the dark, around 6:40pm.  Although we had flashlights with us, we decided not to use them since our eyes were adjusting to the darkness as it was growing darker and we didn’t want to use the flashlights and risk destroying our night vision and having a much harder time seeing.  We could almost make out the contours of rocks, roots, logs, and other hazards of the trail as we climbed down, and down, and down until suddenly we saw a light coming toward us.  It was the Red Zao tour guide coming to meet us; as she knew that we were supposed to arrive there also that evening. 

We had a large dinner of chicken, a pork & vegetable dish, egg rolls, potatoes, rice, and several other items.  With the elevation at this camp site at 2,481 meters (8,139 feet) and the elevation of the trailhead at 1,940 meters (6,365 feet), we had 1,774 feet yet to climb down the next morning.  We managed that distance in just 1 hour and 23 minutes. 

Thursday March 12, 2009.  This morning we had a breakfast of, what else, “pancakes”, and several other Vietnamese dishes.  After taking some pictures of our three porters and the other group’s two porters, we packed up, put on the backpack and hiked for just 1 hour and 23 minutes to get back down to the trailhead.   

As we were approaching the trailhead we started to hear and see the signs of civilization, including dogs barking, peoples voices, and power lines.  So we knew that we were close.  It felt so good to stop and know that in just a little while we would be in a nice, warm, cozy bed.  But when we arrived at the Bamboo Hotel at around 10:30am, they said that we would have to wait until 12:00 noon before our room would be available.  We asked if there was any way we could at least take a shower.  They said no, but for $10 more they could get us into a nicer room right away.  We said, “We’ll take it!” 

The first thing we did was to take a shower, then I gathered up all the dirty clothes and wrote down the quantities of each different item in preparation for bringing the laundry down to the front desk to get it started early enough that they could complete it by 8am the next morning. 

We had been very lucky as we found out only after finishing up with the mountain section of this tour that they had closed the mountain again just one day after we began our hike to the top, again for fire danger.  But we were already up there so there was nothing they could do. 

Friday March 13, 2009.  We met Chris again on our last day in Sapa, coincidentally, as he was entering our hotel just as we were leaving.  We also found out at that time that he had a chance to meet with Nhit in person.  So now he knows who it is he’s supporting.  He said that she seemed like a very nice girl. 

Sapa is at an elevation of 1,500 meters (4,921 Feet).  In the morning we walked with Thanh to a garden area in Sapa that is at an elevation of 1,800 meters (5,905 feet).  So just the day after doing “the mountain”, we did almost another 2,000 feet of climb and decent just as an after thought tour.  Our legs were not very happy with this. 

Later on that day Thanh took us to Lao Cai where he showed us the China border, right across the Red River.  We then had dinner with Thanh at a restaurant right across from the Lao Cai train station.  We boarded the 7:30pm train and after talking a bit with our “bunk mates”, a Vietnamese girl from Hanoi and an American woman from Bend, Oregon, we went to bed until around 4:15am when they woke everybody since they were getting close to the Hanoi station. 

Bill & Thoi

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Thoi & Bill's Hike of the Kalalau Trail, Kauai, May 2007

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Thoi and I were finally able to do our Kalalau Trail hike this past week.  This hike has been in the planning stages for a couple of years now and almost happened in August 2006 but had to be cancelled at the very last moment due to bad weather. 

We arrived in Kauai on Saturday May 26^th, 2007.  Late that afternoon Thoi and I went up to “Kayak Kauai” in Hanalei and picked up a gas bottle for our camp stove (you can’t bring this sort of thing on an airplane, even in your checked luggage).  On Sunday we did a bit of grocery shopping for the rest of our stay there. 

The statistics regarding the Kalalau Trail in Kauai are as follows:

-  The trail head begins at the end of the road on the north side of the island, at Ke’e beach.  (Pronounced Kay-ay).   The road does not go entirely around the island. 

-  There is one trail, but it can be broken up into several segments, depending upon where you want to go and what your goal is. 

-  At 2 miles in is Hanakapi’ai beach, a very nice beach with pounding surf which could be dangerous to swim in.  It also has a rushing, refreshing, fresh water stream with large boulders, running into the ocean.  This is Hanakapi’ai Stream.  From there you can go inland (up-valley) 2 more miles to Hanakapi’ai Falls. 

-  Back on the main trail, at mile marker 6, there is a closed campground (Hanakoa) with a stream where you can get water or refresh yourself in it.  It’s fairly dark and covered so not much sun gets in.  There is certainly no beach here as you’re in an inland valley, up about 650 feet above sea level.  Despite being closed, people camp here anyway and it’s not just because they wanted to defy authorities, but because they had to stop to rest. 

-  At mile marker 8 there is another nice stream, an emergency helipad and some flat spots where people sometimes camp, despite it not being an official camp site.  Again, this is inland and not very pretty, but could be a very welcome resting point if necessary. 

-  At mile marker 10 is Kalalau Stream…you’re almost there.  This is a very nice stream to cool off in and just set amongst the large boulders and rushing water.  One more mile to the beach and campgrounds. 

-  The entire Kalalau Trail is 11 miles each way and depending upon your pace, may take anywhere from 3 hours to 12 or more hours.  Some of the people living in Kalalau Valley know this trail so well that they run the trail, hence the 3 hour time.  Obviously you can’t run the entire thing, but there are portions where you could make good time if you’re in great shape, you know the trail very well, and it’s not wet or slippery. 

-  The highest elevation point on the trail is 850 feet, but you’re going between that and sea level continuously. 

-  The Sierra Club rates this trail either 9 or 10 out of 10 for strenuousness, depending on where you look, and is in the top 10 of the best hikes in the entire world.  See the following quotes from the Sierra Club: 

1.)  “The Kalalau Trail rates as one of the most beautiful hikes in the world, and one of the most difficult -- earning a Sierra Club rating of 10 on its difficulty scale.” 

2.)  “It's (the Kalalau Trail is) a classic and rated as one of the 10 best hikes in the world by the Sierra Club.”

We had camping permits beginning on the night of the 28^th of May and running through the night of the 1^st of June.  We did this because of last years weather “surprise” and hoped that this way we could get at least 2 or 3 good days out of the week.  As it turned out, we had excellent weather for the entire time we were there.  We had a little sprinkle on Wednesday afternoon, but it was certainly nothing to write home about.  We really did luck out with the weather as on Monday and Tuesday of the following week it rained most of both days. 

The weather report for Monday the 28^th of May sounded good, so we planned to get up early that morning so as to be at the trail head by sunrise, 5:55AM.   It is a 30 mile, 50 minute trip to the trail head.  We clocked it on Sunday.  By the time we got everything ready, we ended up leaving the condo around 5:10AM.  We arrived at the trailhead at 6:05AM.  However, over the years of doing the first two mile portion of this trail and usually arriving early, we have seen too many cars obviously left there overnight, up on blocks and without their wheels.  So we were not going to park and leave the car at Ke’e beach, rather I decided to park at Ha’ena Beach/Campground a mile up the road, towards Hanalei (a lot more people around both day and night).  So I dropped Thoi and the packs off at the trailhead, gave her a walkie talkie (I had the other) and proceeded to drive back to the Ha’ena Beach to park the car.  I arrived there and immediately called Thoi to tell her that I was on my way back by foot.  There was no response.  I kept calling every few hundred feet until I finally got hold of her.  I was only about ½ mile from the trailhead by then.  These Motorola GMRS “12 mile” walkie talkies may work if you’re on one mountain peak and the other person is on another mountain peak, with nothing in between but thin air, but they certainly don’t work well if you have a mountain between them. 

It took me about 17 minutes to walk back to Thoi at the trailhead as I didn’t want to risk ruining my feet before this hike by running. 

We found that the use hiking sandals for this hike worked best because of the wet and muddy conditions with lots of stream crossings.  But apparently Thoi hadn’t broken in her new hiking sandals with bare feet well enough before this trip, as the day before “The Hike” (on Sunday), we went for a little 4 mile walk behind the condo and up the coast.  When we got back, Thoi showed me two huge blisters on her toes that she didn’t have before this little stroll. 

Monday morning came way too early.  We got things ready, including Thoi using Spenco’s “Second Skin”, Moleskin, and bandaids on her blisters and on potential future blister sites.  I just wrapped my feet with white medical tape as I had been doing for the past couple of years when I do a hike with my hiking sandals.   It’s worked well in the past. 

We had tried to limit our backpacks to about 30 to 35 pounds.  And to be honest, we really don’t know what they weighed as we didn’t have any way to weigh them, but they both were likely around 5 to 10 pounds more than our goal when everything was all packed up. 

We each had around 2.5 liters of water (5.5 lbs) in our integrated 3 liter water bladders (can’t fill them all the way to 3 liters), blow-up mattress pads, poncho’s, emergency space blanket, walkie talkie, flashlight, toothbrush and paste, inflatable pillow, dried food, etc.  I also carried the tent, the stove & fuel, the cookset, GPS, compass, flint/magnesium firestarter, digital camera, spare batteries for all of our equipment, Gerber Multi Tool, sunscreen, glasses, contacts and solutions, water filter and treatment tablets, and the infamous “orange shovel”.  Neither of us brought a sleeping bag, at the recommendation of Micco, our friend who runs “Kayak Kauai” in Hanalei, and we were glad we didn’t as we would have over heated and carried in an unnecessary item.  I brought a “mummy liner” which is basically a cocoon-like sheet and Thoi brought a large piece of silky material from a fabric store that worked well in these conditions.  Thoi also carried two sandwiches for our lunch on the first day and three oranges.  Although heavy, we have found that there is nothing quite so refreshing during a strenuous hike as an orange. 

Oh yeah, I’m sure you’re wondering what the “infamous orange shovel” is all about.  Well, it’s used to make a hole in the ground to “do your business” in, if you get my drift.  But when we got there we found that there was a self composting outhouse so we never needed to use the “orange shovel” on this hike.  Maybe next time. ;)

The first ½ mile was not as difficult as I had expected.  I’d figured that this would be the most difficult portion as we had not yet gotten our heart rates up and were still getting used to the packs, not to mention that the first 15 minutes is all uphill.  During the hike, I was thinking of ways to accurately describe the strenuousness of this hike to a person who had not experienced it.  I think that the best way to describe it is to take a “StairMaster” (a continuous stair stepping workout type of machine at most gyms) and double the standard step height to about 24”, then do that continuously for 11 hours straight with only a few breaks.  I think that this pretty much sums up this hike. 

Because of having to park so far from the trailhead and walking back before beginning the hike, we didn’t actually begin the hike until 6:40AM, which we will later find out was a mistake as it didn’t give us enough leeway before sundown.  The entire way there, we were concerned about not making it to the beach before sundown. 

We used our trekking poles all the way which made things MUCH easier as they provide balance, extra push when going up hill, and additional stability when in a very precarious location or going downhill.  I also swear that trekking poles, used correctly, help to prevent blisters as you don’t have to use your feet to try to stabilize yourself, rather you can use your poles for this while the feet set flat on the ground as much as is possible. 

By the time we got to Hanakapi’ai Beach, (first 2 miles) in 1 hour and 15 minutes, we were happy to see the stream and splash water on ourselves.  Thoi also took this opportunity to adjust her foot protection and apply more moleskin.  The Spenco “Second Skin” just squishes out uselessly and makes it so that the moleskin won’t stick on.  At this 2 mile point, I was thinking to myself that I still have 9 more miles of this grueling trail and was wondering how we were ever going to be able to complete it.  Normally getting to the 2 mile point is not “grueling”, but add a 35 (or more) pound pack in the equation and it changes everything. 

Right after Hanakapi’ai Beach you go from sea level to the highest point on the trial of 850 feet by way of a series of switchbacks.  In other words, continuous up hill for a time.  Then after a short flat section, you go back down several hundred feet through another series of switchbacks.  This sort of thing is repeated over and over throughout the entire trail. 

Starting at Hanakapi’ai Beach and much of the way thereafter, we heard from different people coming back, telling us about a certain section of the trial at around the 7 mile marker.  Or rather they were warning us about this section of trail.  One person told us to try and make it across this section before the winds pick up in the late afternoon.  Several other people told us that they turned back at that point and camped at 6 mile (they never did make it).  They also told us not to cross that section.  They were not just warning us, they stated that we should not continue past that section.  Then another younger guy coming back told us just to be careful and we’d be fine.  Then after we passed the 6 mile marker (prior to the dreaded 7 mile section), we stopped at a precipice and overlook that had a wide spot before a long downhill section where we decided to eat our sandwiches.  There we met another young hiker coming out from Kalalau Valley.  He just plopped himself down on a rock next to us and began talking.  His name, as we would later find out, was Joey.  We asked him about the dreaded 7 mile section.  He took us up to the ledge and pointed WAY DOWN at a section of red, crumbly dirt that looked impossibly far down.  He said, “…That’s it, but it’s really no big deal.  Just don’t look down or you might get vertigo.” 

Also at the Hanakoa Stream at mile 6, we met a man and his three adult sons who were also doing the trail.  They were parked there in the stream, tending to blisters on their feet.  They said that they just finished doing a 13 mile hike on the Big Island in the Hawaii Volcano’s National Park 3 days earlier.  They said that they do a LOT of hiking but agreed that this trail was something else.  He said if he were to take his wife on this hike (referring to Thoi and I as husband and wife), he’d have to find a good divorce attorney when he got back.  We ended up passing them, then they would pass us, and back again all the rest of the way to end of the trial.  They arrived at Kalalau Beach only a few minutes before us. 

After lunch we continued down the switchbacks to the dreaded 7 mile section.  It was somewhat treacherous because it was downhill, it had marble like, crumbly, volcanic gravel and sand.  The “trail”, if you can call it a trail, was only about 4 inches wide (one sandal width), it had a steep slope to the ocean three or four hundred feet below, and there was no vegetation to stop your fall should you loose your footing.  It resembled a Martian landscape.  We just got down to the business of doing it and it didn’t seem all that bad.  This section, as it turns out, was not the worst part.  We got out of the gravel part and into solid rock by now.  But when we were mostly through it, we rounded a corner to the next valley and we were hit by a blast of wind.  This was the worst portion as it was only about 1 foot wide or so and goes straight down for about 300 feet on one side and has a vertical wall on the other side.  Going back, we will discover that we barely even noticed this section.  I guess we got used to it.  Certainly we now knew what to expect, so it really was no big deal. 

By mile 8, Thoi was beginning to show signs of the stress of the trail.  She said that she nearly gave up at this point but was too stubborn to stop after getting this close.  I have to admit, though, she was remarkable to continue at this point as I felt pretty bad by then too with too much weight on my shoulders and realizing that we still had 3 miles yet to go.  All I wanted to do at that point was to take off my pack and set there for a long, long time.  But I knew that if we did that there, then we might never get to the beach which was the “pot of gold” that kept us going all along the way. 

Finally we came up to a sign that said “Kalalau.  This is sacred land.  Give it your utmost care, respect and leave knowing you have preserved it for future generations.”  But we weren’t there yet!  Although we had a nice view of Kalalau beach, we still had to do “Red Hill”.  This was a steep downhill section of red dirt and gravel before we got to the beach.  About half way down Red Hill, we stopped for a break and to take pictures.  Then we got to a flat section that crossed the mouth of Kalalau Valley…but we’re still not there yet!  This broke out to a stream that we would later find out was Kalalau Stream and a mile marker that said “Mile 10”.  We saw a woman camping there and thought that maybe this is it, but where’s the beach and where are all the other campsites???  She told us that we had to cross the stream and pick up the trail on the other side and continue about another mile.  STILL ONE MORE MILE TO GO!!!  I thought to myself, it never ends!  So we stopped there for a moment to scoop up water in our hats and put it on our heads to reduce the possibility of heat stroke.  I also carried Thoi’s backpack for a little while here to help her out. 

Just after we picked up the trial on the other side of the stream, we saw a sign that had arrows and miles listed.  To our left was a 2 mile trail up the Kalalau Valley, to the right was Kalalau Beach and the campgrounds.  It didn’t list a distance.  But it turned out to be about 0.8 miles or so all the way to the end of the beach where the waterfall was, the only source of water other than this stream.  Just a few minutes later I ran out of water so I used Thoi’s water for a while and despite that there were many campsites along the way that we passed, I was on a mission to hit the waterfall where we could drop our packs at a nearby camp site, get into the water to cool off, and make more water to drink.  Just as we arrived at the waterfall, Thoi ran out of water too. 

The campsites here at Kalalau Beach are not numbered or structured.  You just take a flat spot that seems like a campsite when you get there.  Some also had obvious fire pits, as did ours.  Just about 50 feet from the waterfall were a couple of flat spots that obviously were camp sites.  So we decided to drop our packs there to “stake our claim” and head to the waterfall.  When we got there, there were several naked people already in the water, bathing and gathering water. 

The man and his three sons who we kept passing on the way in, had taken a camp site much nearer to the stream but further away from the waterfall.  They obviously got so tired that they just took the first campsite that they saw.  Luckily for us, I had water on the mind and headed to the end before selecting a campsite.  Theirs was in a dark area covered by trees, with lots of leaves on the ground.  Our camp site was just about perfect.  We had a nice, bright, open area of dirt with several rocks to set on, overlooking the beach, and we were less than 50 feet from the waterfall.  The trail leading to the waterfall ran right by our campsite, so we were able to see and talk with a lot of people on their way either to or from the falls.  The location of our campsite also had the benefit of the continuous sound of the water falling into the pool below and the ocean surf crashing.  We had a perfect place to watch the sun set each evening and we could look straight up to see the moon and stars at night.  The only downside was that it was incredibly hot during the day.  But that too was alleviated by the fact that our campsite really was two sites and nobody took the second location where there was nice shade that we used for much of the time during the heat of the day. 

Earlier I mentioned that I was going to “make water”.  What I meant by that was that the water here in Kauai is allegedly contaminated by Leptospirosis from the urine of sick goats upstream.  So after much research I found that simply filtering your water did not remove the Leptospirosis, but that you had to treat it with Iodine as well.  So I ended up filtering, then treating all of our water.  Sure you could boil it, but that takes lots of fuel and then at the end, you have hot water to drink.  It’s very hard to cool it off to a temperature that makes it thirst quenching in a tropical environment.  Making water turned out to be nearly a full time job for me while we were there.  It would take 15 to 30 minutes to draw and filter 4 liters of water, then 30 minutes to treat it, then 5 more minutes with the neutralizing tablets to remove the iodine taste.  It was also a good thing that I filtered it as by about the 5^th time I used the filter, it was taking an inordinate amount of time and effort to fill our 4 liter water bladder.  It turned out that the ceramic filter was clogged.  I cleaned it and the filtering went much faster and easier from then on. 

A factor causing stress to our hike in to Kalalau Valley was to get there before sundown at 7:15PM.  So it was a relief when we finally arrived at the campground at 5:30PM.  It took us 11 hours.  The tent went up easily and without incident.  Now that we had water and shelter we could relax.  Thoi and I decided to take our showers at this point.  We did so “in” the waterfall.  Although it was initially a shock to us because it felt so cold, it eventually felt wonderful.  For you environmentalists out there, this stream flowed about another 50 feet to the beach where it just dissipates into the sand.  Also everybody else was bathing in this waterfall with soap and shampoo (the stream was only about 6 inches deep at the pool).  So because of this, we drew water for drinking directly from the waterfall, not from the pool or the stream below it. 

By the time we got there, both of us had some blisters to deal with.  Mine were just hot spots and were in places that I had missed when I taped my feet in the morning.  (Note to self: tape further up my feet in the future).  Thoi faired pretty well, but had developed some additional blisters too. 

I think, though, that we faired a lot better than some people who came in after us.  One guy had quarter size, open blisters on both sides of both feet.  He used hiking boots.  Later we saw him walking on the sand in bare feet.  By the way he was walking you could tell that he was in GREAT PAIN. 

Now that we were there, we could relax and get to know the people there.  Overall there were probably about 30 or 40 people in various locations spread about the 1.8 square mile area.  The beach alone was about 1 mile long by about 500 feet wide.  There were typically about 1 to 2 people on this entire beach.  A little different in density from something like Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.  What I’m trying to say is that most of the people were unseen most of the time as it’s such a large area with so few people. 

On our way in to the campground area, one of the guys there welcomed us to Kalalau Beach and complemented us on our accomplishment of hiking the trail all in one stretch as most people camp one or more nights along the way on the way in.  He started a conversation, but quickly realized that we had to put our packs down before we could talk comfortably.  Later on we did have time to talk with him.  We will refer to this guy as the “naked guy”.  Most of the time there he was naked but he, and several of the others there, perform a very necessary service.  They walk around the beach and campground area all the time and pick up trash that inconsiderate hikers leave there.  The entire area was VERY clean because of the efforts of people like him and the others. 

Our first dinner there was just a cup-o-noodles each.  So I started the stove with my flint fire starter (one stroke and it’s going), and placed one of our two pots onto the fire.  I believe that Thoi then put in enough water for both of the cup-o-noodles.  After just a couple minutes the water was boiling and we had hot soup for dinner. 

That first night was spent just recuperating from the hike in.  Just a little after sundown Thoi and I went into the tent and “died”.  We slept very well that night, except for a couple of charlie horses I had in my right leg during the night and having to pee several times.  And in a tent, where you can’t stand up to work out the charlie horse, this was very “interesting”.  The next morning we were new people.  It’s a wonder what a good nights sleep will do. 

 We were up several times to pee and saw two women come in during the night.  They put up their tent on the beach with flashlights. 

The next morning we got up around sunrise and made tea.  I also made more water.  Later on we decided to walk back to the Kalalau Stream and to explore some.  I was really surprised that we could walk at all, but we did fine.  In fact it was a good thing not to just set around after such a strenuous use of our muscles the day before.  This kept them from tightening up.  Our feet were also very good, considering. 

After soaking in the stream for a time, we decided to go “up valley” some as we had heard about something called the “Ginger Pool”.  So we started up the 2 mile valley trail.  But a short ways up there was a “Y”.  We just happened to run into the naked guy at this “Y” and he directed us which way to go.  We took the up hill trail until we hit a crossing of the stream.  We didn’t think that this was the Ginger Pool so we turned around.  Later on we found out that we were just about there, but that we had to make a left on another trail just before that stream crossing.  But all was not in vain as we had also gone up there to collect Mango’s, which we were successful in doing. 

When we got back down to the “Y” again, on our way back to camp, we again ran into the naked guy, but this time talking with a topless woman.  He finished up as we arrived there, so we asked him again for clarification on the directions and it was here that we realized the error that we had made.  Oh well, at least we got the Mango’s. 

I had never really cared much for Mango’s before this, but that day when we feasted on Mango’s back at the camp, they tasted so good. 

On our way back to camp, we were stopped by a guy who had just arrived with his wife, likely the night before.  He was on a mission to find another way out other than by hiking and wanted to ask us if we knew of any other ways.  He said that the hike in about killed them and didn’t think that they could make it back out.  At the time we didn’t know of any other ways out, but later on while down at the waterfall, while making more water, I was talking with another “resident” of the valley, Richie, and he told me that there is a guy named Bert who brings his boat in frequently to re-supply some of the people and to take people in and out. 

Years ago they used to have regular permits to allow boats to drop off and pick up tourists at Kalalau Beach, but it was shut down when it became a circus there and the place was “trashed”, as one of the residents told us.  I mention “residents” because although you can only get permits for one week at a time, people live there anyway.  Some might call them flower children, or hippies, or whatever, but whatever you want to call them, they are very nice, peaceful people.  In fact it is because of these people that we had such a “magical” experience while there at Kalalau Beach.  It’s difficult to explain if you haven’t spent time there, but the combination of the beautiful setting, the peaceful, often topless or naked people, the peace and quiet, the stress less, simple life, and the seclusion all made it what Micco called a magical place.  The more time you spend there, the more you feel it. 

We also had a very nice, lengthy conversation with a topless girl from San Luis Obispo, Shannon, who is also living in the valley.  She said that she had quit her job, dropped out of school, sold all her possessions, and came to Kalalau to live.  While it may not be the most recommended way to run ones life, if she’s happy and can continue to live happy this way, then who are we to judge her.  She, and most of the people we spoke with there all have one thing in common, they are just looking for peace and happiness.  Apparently they have found it here in Kalalau Valley…even if it’s only momentary. 

There is also a blue tent there, made of tarps, which is pretty much a community tent for some of the residents who aren’t up in the valley and for the “mayor” of Kalalau.  Rick and Sarah, and some others reside there.  They are the people we spoke with to find out more information on the boat and whether or not it might be coming in during the next day or two.  We had just resigned ourselves to the prospect of having to hike back out the way we came in, but when we heard about this boat, we looked into it as a possibility of an easier way out.  The only downsides were that there was no particular schedule for the boat as he is just a private boat owner and you had to float yourself and your back pack out to the boat through the huge, crashing surf.  But if he were going to come, it would likely be between 8AM and 11AM for lower surf conditions.  So not knowing if the boat was even going to come in on Wednesday, we packed up as much as possible without tearing down the tent and watched for a boat to arrive.  We were told what type of boat to look for. 

Lots of boats came and went, but none of them stopped.  They were all sight-seeing boats.  Then as we were about to give up and we started some lunch going, we saw one come by and it turned in toward shore.  So we started to deflate the mattress pads and pillows and put things away.  I quickly scarfed my meal while Thoi threw her Spaghetti and Meatballs in the trash bag.  But I didn’t get to the tent as when the boat got closer we realized that it didn’t meet the description we were given.  It turned out that this was another boat that dropped off some people and LOTS of supplies for them and that it came from the West side, not from Hanalei which is where Bert would come from. 

Now I suppose that a boat is a boat at this point, but we had already made a connection with Bert’s people here in camp and didn’t know these others.  So we gave up going out by boat since we were planning on going out by Thursday at the latest and we would have to leave well before any boat could come in on Thursday.  So it now seemed as though we were going to have to hike back out the same way as we had come in.  So we went back to the Blue Tent to talk with Sarah and the rest about the boat for possible future times in or out of the valley when Zack, another resident, came up and made us an offer.  He said, “…There is another way.”  He said that he could “sherpa” (carry) Thoi’s pack out for $75.  At this point, this was a god send as her pack was the main reason that this hike was so hard for her on the way in. 

So we decided that we would start hiking the next morning at first light.  And that didn’t mean at sunrise or after, but when it became just light enough to see the trail.  So we got up at 4AM and finally Thoi allowed me to tape up her feet like I usually do mine, and I wrapped mine double width as I should have on the way in.  It took us 30 minutes to get our feet wrapped properly.  Neither of us got new blisters on the way out and there was no pain from our present blisters. 

After that I got the stove set up and running to get tea for Thoi and I while I started deflating the air mattresses and pillows.  Just around 5AM somebody came into our camp with a flashlight.  He told us that Zack had gotten really sick and couldn’t make the hike out today.  So since he was going to go out that day anyway, he said that he would take Thoi’s pack out in place of Zack.  His name was Joey, the same guy we had met on our way in on Monday (he was on his way out at that time).  He had to make several trips in and out because he had borrowed a guy’s car and it “blew up” on him.  So, as the rule goes in Kauai, “you break it, you buy it”.  But apparently cars are quite an easy commodity to come by there for as little as $200.  Of course, he wanted to try to work out some other way if possible, hence the reason he had to go in and come out so much recently. 

So by 5:30AM I had gotten the tent down and everything packed up and we were able to see the trail…a little…so we started hiking out.  A good thing too that we chose this hour to leave as the first thing we hit, after crossing the Kalalau Stream and the mouth of the valley, was “Red Hill”.  We had to stop a couple times on the way up, but we made it very quickly compared to the way down it on Monday.  Then came the treacherous section at mile 7, but it was easy this time.  Overall the trail was VERY easy on the way out compared to the way in and it only took us 9.5 hours.  I was still carrying my pack, but Joey was carrying Thoi’s pack except at the mile 7 section where Joey said that he needed Thoi to carry his pack (which was mostly empty) at this point so that he could see his feet.  But other than that, he carried both his and her pack. 

We stopped at mile 6 to pump, filter, and treat another 4 liters of water.  Then we stopped at mile 2, Hanakapi’ai stream, where we all went into the water for about 15 minutes to cool down.  After drying our feet, we continued to finish the last 2 miles with a vengeance.  But this rate caught up to me just about 0.25 mile from the end of the hike.  I was getting light headed and had to just set still for about 10 minutes while Thoi took out a granola bar for me to eat.  After that I felt fine and continued with renewed energy.  Other than a cup of tea in the morning, some crackers, and an orange, we hadn’t had anything much to eat all day.  Of course we drank 7 liters of water between Thoi and I throughout the day. 

Then after we finished, we dropped our packs and Joey and I walked another mile back to Ha’ena Beach campground to retrieve the car.  I then drove back to load up the packs and pick up Thoi.  For a large portion of the trail, Joey was talking about wanting to get a big burger when he finished.  So the first thing we did when we all got into the car was to drive into Hanalei to get a burger at “Bubba Burgers”.   A cold soda never tasted so good.  Joey had a triple burger and fries while Thoi and I just had singles with fries. 

The day after the hike, Thoi and I went to Waimea Canyon to look at the Kalalau Valley from above and to look at where we had been just the day before.  On the way there, we went through the town of Waimea.  From the recommendation of two of the campers at Kalalau Beach, we searched out a store called “Auntie Lilikoi’s” in Waimea.  They manufacture and sell all sorts of mustards, sauces, and salad dressings, including wasabi mustard (very good).  Anyway, there was a local Hawaiian guy running the register so we got to talking with him about how we heard about the store and that it was from a camper at Kalalau Beach.  He just looked at Thoi with an incredulous look as if to say “you did that hike???”  He said that he used to do it but he has a bad knee now and knows how difficult it is.  He congratulated us for accomplishing this difficult feat. 

Bill & Thoi

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