SE Asia

Four of the guys from the Ha Giang loop met me at my hostel this morning. We were greeted by a tiny Vietnamese lady who called herself Mama Mao who was taking us on our hike today!
We hopped in a car with her at 8.30 and had a very short drive into town where we joined with 5 other people and Mama Mao's daughter, Zu, who was actually the one leading the hike. We walked through town, the morning market, and then up a series of slopes until the path became muddy and surrounded by ferns. Along this stretch, we were joined by two other older Vietnamese ladies in traditional clothing, carrying big wicker baskets on their backs and who also called themselves mamas. I'd heard from fellow travellers, these ladies join groups and walk with you until you reach the village in the mountains where they live, then try to sell you things in their baskets, and use the selling point 'they walked all this way with you'. I was a little weary about talking to them as didn't want to be guilted into buying anything, but they were very lovely. One of them made us hearts out of ferns, the other lady was 64 and already had adult grandchildren!
We walked through the hills, unfortunately with no views of Sapa as it was so foggy, but still a nice walk. The mamas left us just before lunch, and I did end up buying a ring off one of them which promptly turned my thumb green over the course of the rest of the day 😅
Lunch was the usual, rice, veggies, various forms of protein and spring rolls, but it was well needed after a sweaty uphill morning. There was practically no breeze in the mountains, and was very humid.
In the afternoon, we descended into a bamboo forest which the fog actually made look more impressive and a bit spooky. I don't think I've ever seen so many butterflies (in the wild). There were probably hundreds of these pale orange butterflies with faint stripes and spots on, circling the tops of the bamboo trunks and darting across the path. Every time one flew near me, I did put my arm out in hopes it'd land on me, no success. It definitely made up for the lack of views in the morning!
After emerging from the forest, we walked through corn fields and farmland, encountering a few furry friends along the way. This included horses, which I surprisingly hadn't actually seen on my trip at all so far!
We then descended down into rice fields which were so muddy and slippery, I'm surprised I didn't fall! Zu told us about the rice planting and harvesting process, and we watched as farmers waded in the muddy paddies.
We then walked further down, into small villages and the terrain changed from slippy mud to even more treacherous slippy concrete slopes! Zu ran down them while we carefully shuffled, with only a few casualties and near misses on the way down.
We reached a small stream where we sat and Zu grabbed a handful of nearby leaves and started shredding them, then gave us each a small handful. They were indigo leaves, and we were told to massage them into our hands from 5 minutes until they were a bright blue. As we were doing this, we kind of realised what we were tricked into doing. Washing away the leaves, our hands were a brilliant bright forest green, which would turn into a deep blue as the day progressed. The guys who hadn't fallen for the trick laughed at us and we walked the rest of the way down with hands of smurfs.
Just after 5 we arrived at a house where Mama Moa greeted us, also with blue hands as she'd been dying clothes indigo this afternoon. We all sat down muddy and exhausted, and had hot cups of green tea brought out to us. We then sat around a table, and Zu brought out a big jug of happy water, and all did celebratory end of hike shots of happy water. She then brought a pile of cards, and everyone drew cards, with the lowest two earning an extra shot until the jug was finished. I ended up having about 6/7 before very merrily saying goodbye to the half of the group who were staying over night as the other 5 of us giggled as we shuffled down yet another slippy slope, and were bundled into a car by Mama and driven back to Sapa.
Despite the fog, it was such a lovely day, I kind of regretted not staying over night.
What I foolishly didn't realise was that you can still get sunburnt when you can't see the sun. Turns out the UV was very high in the mountains today and my neck and arms got extremely sunburnt 😭
Luckily the sunburn hadn't reached my legs, so I got a foot massage which was much needed after a day in hiking boots, £3 for 30 minutes, an absolute steal. After applying countless layers of after-sun on, I then went to meet one of the couples from the hike for dinner and some more pool.
I'm undecided on how much longer to stay in Sapa for, I only have tonight booked, but would really like to do some more hiking and try get some decent views, so will hopefully extend and work something out.Meer informatie