Sapa, Vietnam

Sapa...how to describe it in words and pictures and make it justice? I can't think of a good way. You might just have to go there yourself. You see, Sapa is literally in the clouds. And when it clears out, the view is so mesmerizing that one can hardly look away to take a picture. Therefore, there are no pictures that will really reflect the majesty of the place. You might just have to go there yourself. And experience it. Experience the view, talk to the locals , trek through their villages and rice padies, stay at their homes, see how they live, share their food and their happy water, and come back, amazed at the beautiful world we live in.

I took a tour. Not a hardcore backpacker thing to do, I know, but I came across the best most compelling sales girl in all of Vietnam at Sinh cafe open tours. I don't exactly normally cave under pressure, but when I bought the tour for the perfume pagoda, she somehow managed to sell me tours to all the must-dos in North Vietnam in one sit; Sapa, Halong bay, and an open bus ticket to go South. If you saw my post on the perfume pagoda (a far from pleasant experience) you'll understand why I started my Sapa tour with very low expectations. In fact, I was late coming back from the pagoda and for a minute there I thought I would miss my bus to Sapa. Hectic start, but I managed to get picked up from the agency and delivered to the site where sleeper buses pick up passengers in Hanoi. Scepticism aside, I was one my way. The bus pick up site seems to be randomly situated in the city. The buses come half full, so I imagine that they start off from an actual proper bus station. I lined up for the first bus, around 10.30pm, but it filled up very quickly. I managed to secure a bed-seat on the second bus 10 minutes later. Some people had to wait for a third bus. I passed out and woke up 6 hours later to a bus sitting on a street that lines up a canal, full with people sleeping and with the AC off. The bus arrived to Sapa town around 4 am, but we were allowed to sleep in the bus until 6. Needless to say, the air was very stuffed in the bus, and I was happy to get off it and into the cool air. As soon as ypu get off the bus, many locals show up trying to secure homestays and trekking tours from the arriving tourists. I eventually got picked up by a taxi driver who had mine and other peoples names written on a sketchy piece of paper. We were taken to a hotel where we could drop off our bags, have breakfast, and meet our guide for the rest of the trip. So far, so good.
Our group of 12 people was lucky enough to be assigned to "Su" for our local guide. She's not Vietnamese but belongs to one of the three locak etnicities: the monk people. She's 27 years old, and has a 1 year old baby girl and a 3 year old baby boy. Like most of the local women in this area of Vietnam, she's the bread maker of her family. She works as a tour guide, and in the field while her husband takes care of their children and their home. Women in this area choose their husbands, around the age of 17, and are free to marry whoever they choose to from any of the surrounding villages.
On the fist day, Su took us for a half a day 5km hike into Cat cat town. Cat Cat is the closest village to Sapa town. Here, we got to meet some of the locals, watch them work the marijuana plants to get threads that after a lot of handling become fabrics that they dye in Indigo blue, a dye obtained from the local plants. We watched some of the locals dance, and saw a small waterfall. We were also slightly harrased by children, elders and young women alike to buy local products like scarfs, small purses, bracelets, and the like. I am happy to inform that I didn't cave on day 1. The rest of day 1 was off. I didn't do much other than go bargain for some north face knockoff jackets. I bought 2 for 15 USD each. We spent the night at the grandview hotel in a very decent room.
Next day we got breakfast at the hotel, and started our first day of trekking towards the southern villages. On this day, we started our trek with Su and about 10 more locals. They were all very friendly, asking where we were from, our names, ages, about our families etc. And in return thet volunteered information about their lifestyles. They helped us through the not so challenging trek, holding our hands whenever we needed it. Expectedly, as we got to their village, about 10km into our trek they asked us to buy something. I was more than willing to tip my nice personal guide, but she wasn't having it, so she gave me a very good price on a purse (which I suspect is not even made locally or by hand, but more likely brought from China). Oh well.
We stopped for lunch, and then continued our trek towards our home stay. In the way through the mountains, the views of the rice fields are mesmerizing. The rice is still not gorwing, as it is only planted in late April/May, and harvested in September-December. If you can choose, the best time to visit Sapa is in July, when the rice is in full bloom and the fields are covered in bright green. We went up and down the hills, getting peaks of the very high mountains on the background which were covered by clouds most of the time. We crossed bamboo bridges, jumped rocks to cross creeks, watched the locals working in the fields, or selling water to the bypassers. We visited one of the local primary public schools. We chewed on sugar cane (yummy and refreshing) and tried boiled bamboo (not so great). We saw baby duck, baby pigs, puppies, buffaloes and butterflies, and were offered marijuana.
We spent the night at a local family's home. The house had a seating area outside where we were welcomed with hot tea. The inside of the house consists of a big room where mom, dad, grandpa, four babies and two teenagers sleep. A western bathroom and hot shower (a real luxury here). And a kitchen area. The upper floor has about 15 matresses distributed on the floor, covered with mosquitoe nets for tourist to spend the night in. We helped cook, ate dinner with them (tofu, rice and cabbage for me, and the most yummy lemongrass veggie springrolls), and helped them with dishes. We player cards, had a few beers and went to sleep. In total, we trekked for about 20km.

The next day, after our host cooked us banana pancakes with local honey and coffee for breakfast, Su picked us up. But we didn't start our day trek until we all had one or two shots of happy water (rice wine-guaranteed to warm you up). Su gave us the choice of going "the long way" which we happily took as it meant less tourists, and less locals trying to sell us goods. She trekked carrying her 1 year old baby girl on her back the entire time.
The second day trek was filled with laughter and fun as more than one of us slipped, stuck our feet in mud, stepped on Buffalo poop, or literally just felt into a small pond of muddy water. It was a more challenging trek but also a so much more rewarding me that day one. We really went out of the beaten paths, climbed rocks to see waterfalls, a local opium farm (shhhh), local burial sites, rice paddies, the homes of some locals, and the mountains. At the end of our 10km trek we had lunch (ramen noodle soup) and got picked up by a van that took us back to Sapa town. Here again we got harrased by locals wanting to sell their goods. I caved a bit here and got a very pretty scarf.
When back in Sapa, many of my newly found friends and I went for a stroll through lovely Sapa town where we got a non impressive full body massage (a relaxing way of killing time nevertheless), got dinner at the hotel and dessert at a local coffee shop. Around 8.30pm we were picked up by a local taxi which dropped us off at the Sapa bus terminal. We were initially a bit confused about which bus would take us back to Hanoi, but after the punk who works at the bus station finally put down his phone and talked to us, we got it figured out. We took a last beer on a bar across the street from the bus terminal, boarded the sleeper overnight bus, and passed out until we were back in Hanoi.
We were dropped off at 4am a little ways away from the city center, which is utterly inconvenient, but after walking for about 20 minutes we managed to get to the fifth floor of the central backpackers hostel where there was a sort of camp going on; people sleeping in the lounge's couches, and puffs, and even the floor were waiting for breakfast places to open up. Around 6.30 am we went for breakfast and I parted way to get picked up for my next adventure: Halong bay. All in all, Sapa was amazing. So far, the highlight of my visit to beautiful Vietnam.Read more