Sa Pa

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Sa Pa

 Asia » Vietnam » Sapa By Steve Sarah
June 4th 2007
S&S After a great overnight train ride up from Hanoi, we spent two days exploring Sa Pa in the north of Vietnam. This little mountain town is surrounded by hill tribe villages and loads of rice paddies. The villages themselves are fairly close to each other (a few kms apart), but the different ethnic groups all have their own clothing, traditions and very distinct languages which is surprising. Further, they don't inter-marry and there is clear village rivalry between groups. Normally girls get married here around 15 years old, and we saw tons of young girls carting around babies. We met a woman who is also 28 and has 3 children, the eldest of which is 12 and she was amazed we didn't have any kids yet. On Saturday night there was the weekly "love-market" in town, where boys and girls ages 14-16 meet up in their finest attire and dance for each other, looking for a mate. The highlight of the trip was a 12km trek yesterday through three different villages and met Ku, our new hill tribe mum. We are back in Hanoi now and off for a Halong Bay cruise tomorrow.

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Photos

Bus to Sapa from Lao Cai
18 people + 14 seater mini-van + 1 sick passanger = bad traveling experience

Downtown Sa Pa
Steve waits eagerly for the Running of the Water Buffalo.

Sa Pa Saturday market
This H'Mung woman had a good price, just for us!

Sa Pa rice paddies
Beautiful rice terraces near Sapa.

Sa Pa rice paddies
And more rice terraces. Vietnam (we were proudly told) just passed Thailand to become the largest rice producer in the world. Also it's the 3rd largest potassium producer in all of Indochina.

Touring the villages
The short guy with the green hat was our fantastic tour guide, Thang. He was from a far off Hilltribe and was the 11th of 12 children. He managed to get out of his village to attend university and is now going to open his own guide firm. Highly recommended.

It goes like this...
Where you from?
What's your name?
You buy from me, ok? ok? ok? ok.

Plowing the fields...
Steve carefully considers his post grad-school career options.

Planting rice seedlings
We learned the basic steps in rice farming:
1) Plant rice seeds in clusters on ~10% of the land
2) While seedlings grow, plow the rest of your fields with the water buffalo and flood the fields during the rain season
3) When seedlings reach 20cm, pluck them in groups (shown here), and replant them on the other 90% of the land, where they spread out and grow faster and larger.
4) Harvest the rice, and pound loose the husks in a water wheel
5) Wash away the husks
6) Boil and enjoy!

Great deal
Water buffalo for only $300US...

Boys will be boys
And really, what little boy wouldn't want to ride water buffalo?

Kick the can
Vietnamese style

Ku
Our Red Dao mother. She also has a 28 year old daughter (she is 48)

Comments

[Mum (Linda)]

Good Night Viet Nam
I am sure you are very tired in the night after all that trekking. I can just imagine that bus trip and get a very deep nauseated feeling. Looks like a beautiful area to visit but the heat and smells must be something else Love Mum

[DeLaine]

Mother
Sounds like Vietnam was very interesting. Love reading your blog and miss you both very much.

[Dad (Tommy)]

Great photos
Enjoying your travel blog and feel I am travelling with you.You cover your trip well with the wonderful photos which tell a great story Love Dad