Sapa - Trekking

Starting on our second day in Sapa, we did a two day trekking tour through the many rice fields through a valley down to Ta Van where we spent the night in a homestay. The tour was guided by a local woman who could tell us a lot about life in the villages of this valley. Basically, every village is home to a different tribe and it’s only about 20 years since people from different tribes can marry each other.

The tour started in Sapa where we were picked up by our tour guide. When leaving Sapa, there were many local women with baskets on their backs waiting to “join” all the trekking groups that left in the morning. In their baskets they carried handmade (or not) products like scarfs, bags, wrist bands, towels, etc. The women tried to be helpful on some “difficult” passages on the path and would use their minimal English to ask for our names and where we are from. They walked alongside our group for several hours where we made a stop and they tried to sell us their products before returning back to their villages. Buying something is optional but it is still awkward to be put in this position where you feel like you are supposed to buy something.

But the tour led us through nice areas with great views onto the seemingly endless rice fields which were stunning, despite not being the best time of the year where the fields are either flooded or the ripe rice shines in a golden color. Each family in the valley owns some rice fields and grows the rice for their own consumption, hardly any rice leaves the valley. The land of a family is handed down to their sons, which, with a growing population, leads to the problem of families having less and less land available to grow rice. Women in the valley can face a hard life as they are typically not inheriting any land. Also, if a family has only girls, it is common for the husband to leave his wife and start a new family. Women who are divorced or never married can have a tough life and may end up with nobody looking after them once they get old.

After walking for most of the day, we arrived at our homestay in Ta Van towards the evening. While we expected a sparsely furnished room in a house of a local family, we only had dinner in the main house, not together with the family though. After dinner, we chatted and played games with David, a German guy who was the only other tour participant who stayed overnight. Then we got to spend the night in one of two quite nice rooms in a tiny house separated from the main house. It very much looked like this was only built for this purpose and that this whole homestay thing with tourists pays off. Housing in the valley is an interesting topic in general as we were told that people who want to build a house continuously buy the required materials whenever they can afford something. Then, for the actual construction, they invite people from the village to help build the house in exchange for food. So it seems like there is not much formal training in construction but rather learning by helping others out. Also, spending while you can afford seems like the way to go in the valley. Our guide explained to us that if they earn some money they spend it on the things they need right away and if they don’t earn any money on a particular day they just don’t buy anything and live off of what they have.

After a good night's sleep, we had breakfast on the terrace of the main house, and then continued our tour through the bamboo forest, passing a nice waterfall, and some more villages. Finally, after lunch, we were brought back to Sapa by minivan.Læs mere