Trekking in Sapa

After my experience with the Halong Bay tour I decided to do Sapa on my own so I went to the train station and booked an overnighter to Sapa. I've been told Sapa is constantly 'shrouded in mist' so I knew not to expect great views when I was there. When I arrived to town I was greeted with nice cool weather. Considering it was almost April I welcomed the opportunity to wear pants and long sleeved shirts. Sapa is a small town in the mountains that recently has become a big hit on the tourist trail. Its known for all the ethnic minorities consisting of Hmong, Dzao, Tay, and Xa Pho tribes that live close by and the absolutely stunning views you can see if you get a clear day. My first day I just spent lazing around the town getting all my bearings straightened out. But the best part of the day was when I sat down at a street stall to grab a snack before heading back to the hotel and a bunch of locals came stopped in. We all ordered some food on the grill and then they got an aquafina bottle from the vendor with what looked like dirty water and a root in it. Well long story short, they insisted I drink with them and we ended up finishing the bottle off. Even though we didn't understand hardly a word of each other we all had a good time and some good laughs (probably at my expense).

The next day I hired a driver to take me around to some of the local villages where I got to see how the locals lived. When I arrived at a local cave I was bombarded with kids asking if I wanted a guide through the cave. Even though I only hired one I got four. They obviously were experienced spelunkers because they hopped and zipped right through while I trudged along slowly. When I got out a woman allowed me into her home where I saw their true lifestyle and got to have my first (and not soon to be last) taste of rice wine. The day was good but after checking back in with some of the travel offices there was no one signed up to try and climb Fansipan (the highest peak in Indochina). So instead I booked a homestay trek for the next day.

We started off walking out of town for about a kilometer before we turned off and headed towards the villages. Just before we made it to the first village it seems as if the skies just opened up. We came to a ledge that overlooked the village in the valley and you could see for miles. It was perfect. Walking through the villages was very fun and rewarding just to see the way they live. I felt like these villages seemed a lot more authentic then the ones I saw in Thailand. When we finally arrived at the village where we were to spend the night we were given some free time to explore before dinner. This was loads of fun because I didn't have to follow anyone around and had the freedom to do what I wanted. After my discovery tour we had dinner at the house and then it began to rain. The rain didn't matter since there was no electricity and we couldn't see anything if we wanted to. The night turned out to be one of the funnest nights in a while though. The family we stayed with cooked a feast that was probably the best meal I've had in Vietnam. We then sat around and talked with the family and the guide while the host broke out his rice wine which we didn't refuse. About five our six bottles later we were all having a great time and they night became blurry.

The next day we got up early and trekked back towards Sapa. I had booked overnight train heading back to Hanoi for that night but wished I hadn't. Sapa had really grown on me and its definitely one of my top destinations in SE Asia. So as I waited for the minibus to take me back to the train station I unloaded all my snacks and little trinkets on the little kids. They're really cute and these two girls gave me some bracelets even though all I gave them were some useless Singapore coins I had left over which they would never be able to use. I definitely would like to come back sometime but for now I gotta get over to Laos.