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Published: December 9th 2008
On Friday night Larry and I boarded a rickety old train and spent the rest of the night (10 hours) being bumped and rocked around our 4-person "deluxe sleeper" on dirty mattresses which may have been nice 15 years ago. It was the beginning of our Sapa experience!
We arrived at Lao Cai Station (on the Chinese-Vietnamese border) at 6:10am and boarded our 1-hour shuttle bus to Sapa. The ride was absolutely breathtaking! (LOL...Sometimes we lost our breath because of the beautiful scenery, other times it was because we thought our bus would fly over a high cliff when it zipped around the sharp corners!) Upon arrival at our hotel we were surrounded by women and girls of the H'Mong tribe. In surprisingly good English they asked us our names and where we are from. After speaking with them for a bit we made our way to the front desk... only to be informed that our tour had changed and we no longer had a hotel room .... instead, we would be staying in the tribal village!! A little nervous, but mainly excited, we quickly threw our pajamas and toothbrushes into a daypack and set off for our 2-day trek
through the local tribal villages. Soooo cool!
We hiked on pretty rough paths for 5 hours or so on Saturday, but being distracted by the beautiful views, the time flew by! By 3pm, when we had walked over 12 km and reached our homestay, we had managed to learn a few things in the H'Mong language, witnessed the ancient ways of using water power to pound rice, learned the history of the area, and seen a horse decapitated and skinned. Quite the afternoon!!
With sweat covered bodies and sore muscles, we made ourselves comfortable on the porch of "our house" and spent the next 2 hours chillin' with Khu, our amazing guide. When food was delivered (in a large cardboard box), I headed inside and did my best to assist with dinner preparations. Watching Khu cook with nothing but garlic, salt, and vegetables I didn't think dinner would be much, but when it was time to eat everyone was impressed by what she was able to make over a single bamboo fire. Sauteed morning glory, fried zuchinni, sauteed bok choy, and tofu with a fresh tomatoe and lemon grass sauce (and pork and chicken for the boys). It
was sooo good! Skipping dessert, the lady of the house cleared our dishes and wasted no time in serving her 80 proof rice wine which burned our throats and entertained us until a major storm rolled in and cut off all power to our village for the rest of the night.
Sunday morning we awoke to the sound of rain pounding on our tin roof and went outside to assess the damage. After hearing of the strong rains which caused multiple mudslides and over 100 deaths in the North last month, we were a little worried about continuing our schedule, but as we ate our banana pancakes and pepped up with sweet Vietnamese coffee the rain slowly eased. By 10am we were suited up and out trekking again. This section of our trek was shorter and meant to be more relaxing, but unfortunately because of the rain we found ourselves climbing over hills of slippery mud and trudging through flooded rivers. (Props to Danny for managing it in flip flops!) What should have taken us an hour, took us 2, and unfortunately due to a washed- out bridge we were unable to visit the neighbouring village, home to a
neighboring tribe.
After stopping at someone else's house/restaurant for a bowl of noodles topped with a fried egg, we headed west where we ended our trek and boarded a bus back into town. Not quite ready to say our "good-byes," we spent the rest of our afternoon touring the Sapa market with Khu. Although we had already talked about it numerous times amongst ourselves, we were reminded of how lucky we were to have Khu (and not another guide) as we saw her telling off the locals who were harassing us with their handicrafts. "You buy from me???" is only fun for the first 10 minutes!
Leaving Sapa, as we winded our way back down the mountains, I couldn't help but feel that I had just experienced one of the rare places you come across in life, that will forever leave an impression! 😊
Highlights of our Sapa Trip: - the scenery!
- doing the homestay
- playing "Sh*thead" (a card game) with Khu and the boys
- playing "Bullsh*t" (another card game) with Khu only to find that she can't bluff and would rather pick up a pile of cards than attempt to deceive us! 😉
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Uncle John
non-member comment
Amazing Pictures of a culture that only the vary adventurous tourists will experience.