Let’s start where we left off: The Tall One and I had just made our way through the bustling night streets to our bus stop on the edge of Old Town.

It was close to 10pm at this point, and we did a bunch of weird hand waving as we tried to get our way onto what we think was the wrong bus going to the right place. In the end, we made it on. Check it out:

This was a double-decker sleeper bus with one lane of seats on each side and one on the center. Sean and I got top bunks. I got a window. ‘Twas surprisingly comfortable for me – less so for Sean. It was pretty clever, though. You pretty much have to lay supine, and your feet stick under the backrest of the person in front of you. Shoes must come off when boarding the bus.

We were headed to a quickly-growing city called Sapa, way north in Vietnam, just across from the Chinese border. It lies in the mountains and is famous for the beautiful terraced rice paddies.

What’s still very strange to me is that the night bus to Sapa is so common. The drive is barely five hours. While this is certainly a long drive, especially for quick trips to Vietnam, it really isn’t enough to justify an overnight. I mean, even if someone can magically fall fast asleep immediately and sleep like a log the entire drive, five hours just isn’t enough! And all the buses leave around ten, which puts you in Sapa around 4am after a couple bathroom breaks. It just doesn’t add up.

I was so tired after our day around Ninh Binh that I was truly dreading the trash sleep we were about to get. It was also frustrating knowing the first thing we were going to want to do when we arrived was to find a hotel with super early check-in so we could sleep more.

The bus took some extra long stops so that we didn’t arrive until 6am, which was nice, since at least the sun was up when we arrived. I peeled my eyes open briefly once I felt the bus climbing, and my eyes naturally sprung open the rest of the way at the shock of the beauty before me. More on that later, though!

As soon as we left the bus, we were approached by local ladies asking if we had a booking, how long we were staying, if we wanted to come to their homestay, and if we wanted to go trekking. The ladies were from local Hmong tribes, and they were dressed in traditional clothing. It was very neat to meet these ladies because I watched a short documentary on Hmong cooking methods and celebrations about a year ago! We assured each of them that we already had a booking (not true, but we had our hotel picked out), and that all we wanted to do right now was sleep. No trekking.

Some other silly things about the night bus – the toilet was non-functional, and there were no charging ports. Quite hard to recharge (physically and electronically!) under those conditions. The need to find a place to rest for a moment was even more pressing because we hadn’t done any research ahead of time on what to actually do in Sapa once we arrived. So we wandered in the general direction of our chosen accommodations.

We stopped at a little café with outdoor seating and charging ports for breakfast. Sean tried to get a Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, but it came black on accident. I opted for the local Hmong tea and OH MY it was so delicious. Green tea with ginger, lemongrass, cinnamon, and honey. YUM. We also had some chocolate treats, and Sean had an omelette.

Slightly more rested and less panicky about our phones dying, we made the final walk to the hotel.

Hotel de la Coupole, aka the craziest, most opulent hotel I have ever seen in my life. I’d found it online, and though it was miles more expensive than the standard in Vietnam, it was still well below the average 3-star hotel price back home – just a little over $100 a night. I generally avoid hotels if I can because I find them boring and expensive, but this place seemed worth the splurge. Here’s a peek at the lobby:

Remember, it was still only 8am at this point, which meant early check-in. There was some confusion over the prices of the rooms available and the price online (online was cheaper), and early check-in was going to be another 50% of the room price. Very quickly, our ambitions to stay in this wondrous place were dashed. We resigned ourselves to the idea we’d had all along – that we just aren’t meant for the finer things.

We stepped outside (after having the door opened by several adorable doormen) and set to the interwebs to find an alternative. After a few minutes, a doorman approached us to ask if we needed a taxi. We mumbled our “no-thank-you’s” and walked further from the door so we wouldn’t be a nuisance.

More minutes passed, and then the doorman approached again, this time all the way at the end of the street. He told us we should come sit inside because it is more comfortable. We obliged, but it certainly felt strange! To be welcomed to relax in a hotel lobby after having just shunned them was not something I might have expected.

Even less expected was when a different doorman delivered two tiny cups of hot chocolate to us! While we were literally sitting there booking a room at a different hotel! What the heck?? Salt on the wound – the hot chocolate was delicious.

We guiltily finished the delicious chocolate and said our many thank-you’s as we left and went around the block to our new, very cheap hotel ($40/night). The hotel was on a pretty street strung with paper lanterns.

We had to wait a very long time in the lobby for some reason, but we were eventually notified that our room had been upgraded from our original booking and was ready for us. The view was spectacular.

I stayed on the balcony staring for a long time before retiring to the reclined lounge chair in the window. The room was quite large, with a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom that had a fancy shower and a Japanese-style bidet toilet. After a shower and a proper toothbrushing, we passed the heck out for several hours.

We woke up hungry, and we’d already decided that if we couldn’t sleep in Hotel de la Coupole, we were at least going to eat there, if just to explore the halls.

We made our way back around the block for afternoon tea, but we were disoriented when we were led not to the café but to the cocktail bar on the tenth floor. We took the mistake as an opportunity to explore.

The pictures online did not lie, let me tell you.

So crazy! Every detail was interesting, thoughtful, and vibrant. And the scale of the thing was just mind-boggling itself.

The view wasn’t so bad, either.

We wanted to dink around up there some more, but we were also very hungry, so we asked for directions back to the café on the ground floor.

The afternoon tea came with a choice of beverage – Vietnamese coffee for Sean and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows for me. Mmmmmmmmmmm….

Check out the spread! We didn’t even make it to the top tier and had to take those as leftovers.

The whole time we ate, we chatted about the wonder of this place and Sean researched online. Turns out it was built just before Covid hit (oof), and it had already won several awards for fine hotels in Vietnam and greater Asia. It was crazy, but we decided we couldn’t not stay here.

Immediately after tea, we headed back to the booking desk, this time with better knowledge of the price and without the early check-in fee. We were asked to sit and were given another round of tiny hot chocolates. “Same like this morning,” said the adorable doorman who probably thought we were the crazy ones. Nobody seemed concerned that we didn’t have luggage. They just showed us to our room and answered all our questions about trekking. One receptionist, Su, even offered to arrange a trekking tour for us with a knowledgeable local guide, and we accepted.

All in all, I think our first hotel had a bigger room with more amenities and a better view, but everything else about Hotel de la Coupole, especially the staff, service, and décor, was superior.

Already into the early afternoon, we decided today would be our treat-yoself rest day. Our only objective was to enjoy this crazy hotel. We took in our new room and new view, and then it was off to explore.

The hallways were beautifully decorated, and we found some hidden, unused ballrooms.

The bathrooms all used clean, rolled-up washcloths for hand-drying, which I was obsessed with! No pics, haha.

I will present you with far too many pictures of the crazy pool, though:

So beautiful….. So crazy….

We made plans to return for a swim later, and then we wandered into the spa, where the attendant lady insisted we sit down to peruse the spa menu. I obliged, though I could tell Sean was a bit caught off-guard. No turning back now, though, because another lady arrived with two cups of hot tea for us! Gah! It was just like the delicious Hmong tea I’d had that morning. Gingery and honey-ey and delicious. I was hooked.

I’d already been considering a massage, seeing as how they were about half the price of a similarly nice spa in the US. I’ve actually never had a massage in the states! Only once in Mexico on a random side street for $30. That was actually quite a funny story, but I haven’t written that blog yet. Whoops!

Another “menu item” that caught my eye was a bath in Red Dao healing herbs. I love a good bath. And bathing in tea??? Could I possibly pass this up? I just wished there was a package deal that combined the bath with the massage. Then all my dreams could come true.

AND BEHOLD. There was such a package! A couple’s package!!! Bahahaha. Poor Sean. There was no saying no to that one. We scheduled our appointment for the next evening and bid our farewells.

We felt rather guilty about two-timing our other hotel, and besides, we needed our swimsuits. So we moseyed back around the block to gather our belongings, check out, and enjoy the beautiful view one last time.

The paper lanterns lining the street had come to life as the sun set, but the mosquitos were also coming out to play, so we high-tailed it back to de la Coupole.

Time to swim! We had the pool all to ourselves, and half of the pool was bubbling with jets. Haha. So silly.

I didn’t get a great picture of it, but at the head of the pool was a bronze man diving in, and when I swam up underneath him and looked up, it was a pretty weird feeling – like he was about to dive right into my arms. I couldn’t help it. I spread my arms open for a hug and laughed at my hilarity. Sean was occupied elsewhere, so I had to demo again for him later.

After a good play, we lounged on the ridiculously plush lounge chairs to dry off. Another couple came in and the man took pictures of his lady friend posing near the pool in her swimsuit. What fun was missed!

Reluctantly, we headed upstairs to clean up, dress up as best we could, and head up to the tenth floor for dinner. Up, up, up.

I gotta say, dinner was a surreal experience. There was very much a “Be Our Guest” feel to the whole thing. There was only one other couple in the massive, decadent restaurant, and around ten staff members were tending to our needs. We ordered and were delighted to be presented with bread and fancy pairings while we waited for our food.

The bread, though delicious, was a mistake. We were about to experience yet another “less is more” lesson.

Yummy food! Sean ordered a lychee cocktail, and I ordered a shot (I thought it was a glass, okay?) of Hmong wine. The wine was strong – really just hard alcohol. Oops.

We ordered garlic-fried Hmong greens and sticky purple rice fried in bamboo shoots (my favorite!) for sides. Sean’s main was braised Sapa sturgeon in a clay pot. I don’t know why exactly, but I was super skeptical of his dinner choice. Turns out I should have trusted him. That fish was sooooo good. I ordered one of the chef’s specialties – duck with potato terrine and butternut squash. It was super tasty, but we were so full by the time they brought it out that we could barely enjoy it.

We weren’t able to finish all the food, so we took leftovers back to our room and hoped we’d have time to finish them at some point.

Sleepy, sleepy, we rested up for a big day ahead.

Trân trọng/ best regards,
Lizzy-wa