Sublime Sapa

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After arriving at Lao Cai train station bright and early, we were again herded onto a minibus, and had to wait there about half an hour for the next train to arrive. Fully loaded up (they don’t believe in spare seats in Vietnam!) we headed off for Sapa which was a beautiful 1 hour drive up into the mountains, although Jen slept most of the way so missed it all. A rather surreal sight awaited us there - about 50 Black Hmong girls and women in their full traditional dress waiting outside the hotel where we were dropped off! Was this our welcoming party?!

After a rather average breakfast and a shower at the hotel we were assigned our guide - a young Black Hmong woman called Sen, and our group which consisted of the four of us and a young Dutch couple.

We set off down the street in light drizzle, and were immediately surrounded by the Hmong women - one on each side of each person. The questions came thick and fast - Where you from? How old are you? Do you have any brothers and sisters? What’s your name? We continued through Sapa town and down the road for about an hour, then turned off down a track through the beautiful rice paddies. All the while our new friends were chatting and making us various presents out of bamboo and ferns - horses, hearts, headpieces……. We continued heading downhill till we reached the river at the bottom of the valley, near where we were stopping for lunch. We crossed over the bridge, where our new friends turned into bloodthirsty sales people, pulling various items out of their baskets, and demanding we bought from them as they had helped us, given us presents etc. We held them off till after lunch as it was too difficult to make a decision on an empty stomach. We had a wonderful lunch by the river, then headed back outside to face the music with a little trepidation. We each bought one thing from each of the girls that walked with us for a rather inflated price, but for the amount of effort they had put in it seemed worth it.

We strolled through the most amazing scenery for the rest of the afternoon, feeling like we were walking through a postcard. You’ll have to look at the photos, but unfortunately they don’t really do it justice. We arrived at our homestay around mid-afternoon, and were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was, we had beds and even a pool table! We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out at the homestay, playing pool, and getting to know the other group who were also staying with us, while our hosts started preparing dinner. Around 7pm we were presented with the most amazing banquet for about 20 people - see the photo! And it was all prepared over one fire.

After dinner, our sweet young guides showed their alcoholic side, when they pulled out a bottle of rice wine and shot glasses! We spent the next few hours drinking rice wine, and being forced to sing songs.

The next morning after a breakfast of pancakes, we set off on our supposed 3km leisurely stroll. In reality it turned into about 2 hours of trying not to fall on our bums, clambering down wet clay banks. We all made it down safely, and had a well earned lunch of noodle soup at the bottom of a waterfall (the local delicacy, and this was one of the best we have had). We got the bus back to the hotel, arriving around 2:30pm for showers and dinner (at 4pm!) to get on the bus to the train station at 5, and caught our sleeper train back to sweltering Hanoi. We were a bit sad saying goodbye to Sapa, but looking forward to our next adventure in Halong bay…. Famous last words!

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Comments

[granvic]

Fantastic photos, loved the doc/blog. sounds great but exhausting; sounds like Peru/Egypt with all the forced selling be street wise... jamie joins me in sending lots of love; very quiet without sali her visit went by too quickly. xxxx