Sapa trekking tours

Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Lao Cai » Sapa
March 18th 2012

Published: October 25th 2012

Awesome! This is how I can describe the view driving up to Sapa at 6 in the morning. I was so enthralled by the view that he was literally sticking his head out of the van to take pictures. It took us an hour to get to the city of Sapa where we were taken to a hotel room for the sole purpose of taking a shower after the train ride. After freshening up and being told by Canh, the our former guide from Vietnam package travel, that it isnt advisable to take a backpack weighing so much on the treck my friends and I went about trying to figure out how we had so much weight. Penut butter jar? crackers? 20 granola bars? towels? and then proceeded to figure out what we actually did need and put aside the exta's so we could handle the uphill road. I say "we" but really it was my friend shlepping the bag. In the beginning of the morning trek, I bought a few bracelets from some girls ranging from the age of 3-7. It was they walked with us for four hours where I eventually bought 2 bags. Everyone wanted me to barter but it didnt seem ethical when you saw how they lived. rather heartbreaking to see these children , dirty and alone begging for us to buy something. These children were carrying their baby siblings tied on their back. Our guide kept instructing me not to ask them why they were not in school and if I ignore them long enough they would leave us alone. After the 50th kid begging for me to buy a bracelet I was exhausted and made a decision that I wasnt buying anything not even from the older women who was following us with one of her companions. I was aware that their selling pitch was trying to hoop you in emotionally Everyone of them has an introduction sentence that starts like this: "Hello, what is your name? Where are you from? Do you have kids? etc.then as you walk on the precarious trails they are their to catch you and hold your hand so you wont fall into the muddy mess. They create amazing art work from branches and give them to the travellers and you can imagine after walking with them for four hours you can't help but talk to them and in the end they have told you about themselves, maybe true maybe rice fields not, and then that's it! you buy something Exhausted from walking in the humid heat and feeling blessed that there was no rain. At 8:30 in the evening we went up to sleep on the second floor-a loft that had no air but did have a great mosquito net. It was a far cry from what I'm use too , I cant say I was totally relaxed but I really worked on myself to just enjoy the experience and pray that I dont get malaria. .Our 10 day stay in Sapa has come to an end. A lot of people would think that 10 days in Sapa is way too much. We were in the same boat at the beginning of our stay. However as time passed by, we got deeper and deeper beneath the skin of this little community in the north of Vietnam and really got to appreciate this place and its people. This is a great privilege having plenty of time to explore. One of our many highlights was the encounter with the hmong people. In the beginning we found them rather annoying. They are eager sales people and really push it to the limit. They almost match the Egyptians in their effort to sell their stuff. However they do accept a friendly “no thank you” (ok, more like 15-20 no thanks). But a smile helps a lot, and when you take the time to communicate with them, you’ll find out that they have a great sense of humor and they do smile a lot.

Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved