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After all the annoyances with our tours in Ha Long Bay, Sapa was a welcomed change. Sapa may be one of our favorite places so far! The landscape may best be compared to the mountains in Switzerland and Austria. However, in Sapa the mountainsides are covered in rice paddy terraces. The Aussie guys we met in Ha Long Bay also booked a trip to Sapa and, ironically, ended up in our tour group too.
When we arrived at our hotel in Sapa, several local village girls greeted us, asking us our names, where we were from, and how old we were. Whether we were 23 or 29 they all responded with "Very young!"...Why, thank you! The girls accompanied us along our trek into the local village for lunch and offered us little embroidered bracelets, similar to friendship bracelets. Although, we later learned that they are more like commitment bracelets. At the beginning of our trek they showed us their jewellry, embroidered bags, and sashes, requesting "You buy from me?" "You buy from me later?" If you say the magic words, "maybe later", that's it...there's no going back. Cherith learned this the hard way. The earrings Cherith liked belonged to
another girl she was not previously committed to and her trekking buddy became clearly upset, "You say you buy from me later, but you buy from her!...Why you buy from her and not from me?" Cherith then ended up buying from her too.
For our 3 days of Sapa trekking, we were very lucky to have a young woman named, May Pham, as our guide. She had a great sense of humour and was proud to tell us she learned English from a Canadian English teacher. May Pham grew up in one of the local villages around Sapa and has dreams to further her studies and teach. Unfortunately, her dreams go against her parents wishes. They would prefer she follow tradition and get married, as most women are married by the time they are 18-19 yrs old. We told her our friend, Jim, would gladly take her in and put her parents minds at ease. (We really tried to bring her home for you Jim, she's a cutie!) May Pham's parents were also angry that she wanted to be a tour guide, but since she is sending a fair amount of money home, her parent's are getting used to her current career. Among all the villages we visited, most women have their children around the ages of 18-19 yrs of age. We met several young girls with babies as young as 16 years. May Pham explained that arranged marriages are still the tradition and matchmaking seems to follow customs similar to astrology. For example, if someone was a fire, they could not be matched with fire. They would be better matched with water. Tree and water also make a good match.
It was great to have the Aussie's around as it filled Cherith's need to have someone to jump off cliffs and into river rapids with...Certainly not Sinéad's forte! They kept her from being swept away by the rapids on several occasions. There was also a Dutch couple with us named Evelyn and Willis. Unfortunately, Willis was treating one of his hands from a medical treatment in Hanoi. His hand was swollen to the size of a small pineapple! Although it kept him from swimming, he was able to join us on the trek to the homestay for the first night.
May Pham brought us to some incredible swimming spots along the trek - all fresh water rivers. It reminded us of swimming in Northern Ontario or Pete's cottage, minus the mountain views. The Aussies had swimming contests against the river currents to determine who was the strongest swimmer. Cherith also put in her best effort, but it was hard to beat these competetive runners and swimmers. And, despite having forgotten her swimsuit, Sinéad managed to get a good dose of the refreshing water by jumping in with clothes and all (the "quick-dry" clothes she got before leaving came in handy!) The hike was long, but the scenery was breathtaking! The village girls were also great company and they knew the terrain really well.
For our first night we stayed with a local family in one of villages we trekked to. We spent most of our time hanging out on the back porch, as the view was perfect. After the trekking, we became lazy kitties...reading, writing, and relaxing.
Not too far from the homestay was another river, where Cherith and the Aussies decided to go for a swim. The current was the strongest yet! Everytime Cherith managed to grab onto a rock, the river picked her up and took her further along. The Aussies were greatly entertained by this, oblivious to the fact that they had at least 50lbs on her to help them against the current. Nonetheless, the sandy beach and large sunbathing rocks across the river were well worth the effort! After cooling off and relaxing from the hike, they decided to head back for dinner. While standing on a rock, Cherith's legs suddenly slipped out from beneath her! She landed square on her hip and arm and slide right into the water. Luckily the Aussies were there to save her. Unfortunately, her hip bruised a fanastic shade of purple and we didn't even get a picture. For those of you who saw the time she hit herself with the jet ski - it was almost that good!
Dinner at the homestay turned into great festivities. We all helped in preparing the meal, whether chopping vegetables or stirring the beef. Our host (or the man of the house) surprised us all by bringing out a large bottle of homemade rice whiskey and filling up each of our little cups. With a table of at least 16, our cheers "Bo ma ha boi!" echoed throughout the village. With every round, we got louder and louder! Soon we had other trekkers and guides from other homestays join in on our little celebration. Of course, just when we thought one bottle was finished, another one magically appeared and our cups topped up once again. We read that it is rude to turn down a drink or toast in Vietnam, so you can imagine we didn't want to disappoint anyone by refusing the rice whiskey! The next day, however, we read that it is taboo to be drunk in the village...Just can't win!
Our sleeping quarters turned out to be really neat. Essentially it was about 12 matresses all layed out upstairs, each with it's own mosquito net! It was very comfortable and it felt like it was our own little tree house.
After the homestay we trekked further along through other villages, down mountainsides, over rice paddies, past waterfalls, across suspension bridges, and through bamboo forests...Totally cool! We made it back to our hotel in Sapa and spent the afternoon and evening chilling out in the charming town. Sapa's elevation is at 1500m and the climate was very similar to a mild summer in Toronto. If you get to Vietnam and only manage to visit Sapa, it may still be well worth it!
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