Trekking along well worn trails...

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I've been in Sapa in the far north west of Vietnam for nearly a week now ... it's so nice to leave my stuff unpacked in my very comfy hotel room ... it's begun to feel like home after moving every few days before this.

As I've posted on Facebook, the place has been in cloud the majority of the time, but I did fortunately get some nicer weather for a two day homestay trek I did. We could actually see the surrounding mountains and rice fields!

My companions on the trek were three friendly Germans - Serena, Bjorn and Jan. And 3 others who did the first day as a day walk. The seven of us had about 8 local ladies following us nearly the whole first day. As anyone has been to this part of Vietnam knows, in Sapa the local tribal ladies are very persistent sellers, walking with trekkers for kilometres in the hope of selling something worth a few dollars. Mostly embroidered textiles, and several of them pulled out their sewing as soon as we stopped for a drink of water.

You need to be pretty firm to resist them and avoid being mobbed. In fact, I've said "no shopping" at least 10 times every day I've been in Sapa 😊 Thankfully, the ones in town seem to now be recognising me after I've been here so long and haven't bothered me the last few days.

The homestay was very 'cushy' by comparison to my other one in Bac Ha - real beds and soft mattresses. And in the little village, there was about 30 homestays, a bar and a massage place! Not exactly the remote rural experience we were expecting.

The second day was rather more 'trek-like'. Instead of walking on roads and paved motorcycle paths with heaps of other trekkers from Sapa, we negotiated our way through the rice paddies mostly on our own. All in all, a good experience and I'm so pleased I wasn't pressed for time and could wait for some decent weather. I feel so sorry for people who come all the way up here (it's an overnight train journey in both directions) and see nothing but cloud.

Off on the train to Hanoi tonight, and then flying south to Dalat in the central highlands. I'm craving some warmer weather and sunshine!



p.s - once again, lots more photos below so please scroll down...

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Photos

Very Scenic
They make the most of every bit of farming land here ... resulting in all the hillsides being covered in terraced rice or corn fields

Cafe in the Clouds...
Everywhere in Saps was on the clouds for most of the time I was there...

Sapa Town
Typical Sapa streetscape: coffee shop, hotel, trekking shop, bakery and massage place! Not a tough place to hang out for a few days even in bad weather.

Our Motley Crew
Trekkers outnumbered by local ladies from the Hmong tribes - all groups had their own set of hopeful followers.

Tugging at the heartstrings
Some sad little faces - this girl just stood and watched us all when we stopped for a break

Blue Sky!
What a treat to have sun and to be able to see more than 50 metres in front of me!

Constantly Sewing
Many of the ladies with us were constantly embroidering - more things to sell presumably. Our guide told us 'if you can't sew, no one will marry you'.

People Watching
One of the joys of trekking through the smaller villages was seeing the kids playing and adults going about their daily lives. I wonder if the little girls (and women for that matter) get frustrated at having to wear traditional clothes, while the boys seem to have an anything goes wardrobe?

What a Face!
Like many of the ladies, this one had huge earrings and a colourful head scarf. Most were very friendly. However, this old crone seemed a little crazy, being quite persistent in begging and grabbing at travellers through the window of the bus as we were heading back to Sapa.

A Hard Life...
The ethnic minorities in this part of Vietnam still hold to much of their traditional culture and farming way of life. Unfortunately they are also some of the most disadvantaged citizens, and our guide told us there is also a risk of girls who can't read or write being abducted and sold across the nearby border into China.

Spectacular scenery
We walked through a valley with mountains on both sides, and the villages dotted along a river down the middle and rice fields up the hillsides.

What's in the Baskets?
Most of the local ladies accompanying us basically had their 'shops' on their backs. Carrying all their handicrafts for sale and just waiting for opportunities to show them off. Some quite intricate embroidery that takes days or months to finish.

Lunch stop
If you showed the slightest interest in buying something (like Jan here) you got besieged.

Balancing act
Serena, Jan and Bjorn balancing their way carefully along our walking trail which was the narrow edge of a rice paddy. Most of the trail was very easy walking.

We weren't alone...
Particularly the first day, there were many many groups of trekkers on the trail. Here you can see the little tiny dots of other walkers along the trail in front of us.

Rustic but many home comforts
Our homestay had real beds and mattresses!