Sapa:

March 13th, 2005 - March 14th, 2005

Greetings from Sapa, a former French hill station in the northwest of Vietnam, near the Chinese border.

We arrived here on Sunday morning after taking an overnight train from Hanoi. The overnight train was nothing like we had faced in India.

This train had a compartment of four beds and could be locked up - a nice piece of mind while travelling overnight. As luck would have it, we had a really nice guy from Holland in our cabin who was also on a trek and the fourth person was a local Vietnamese guide who was leading a different trek.

We arrived early in the morning to the town of Lao Cai where we were driven 35km straight uphill in a mini-bus to reach Sapa. Unfortunately, it was misty, wet, and cold so the beautiful views that make this region famous were hard to find. However, the mist did provide a pleasant atmosphere for the town. We were greeted by several members of the Black H'Mong hill tribe - all wearing traditional dress and selling various handicrafts.

We had a few hours to kill before checking into our hotel and starting our trek so we visited the local market. Tops on the list of items to make you ill were the dead dogs on sale as food! Yum Yum...

Other items on offer from local members of the H'mong village included marijuana and opium. Despite requests from the government not to cultivate or sell drugs, this still remains a quick way to earn money for the poor villagers.

After a breakfast in a cute French restaurant we went to check e-mail - the cafe was filled with local villagers in formal dress buried in computer games. No matter where in Vietnam we go, the kids are always obsessed with video games and pack the Internet cafes all day long.

Our trek on the first day took us about 3km downhill to Cat Cat Village which is populated with the Black H'Mong group. It was similar to other villages that we have seen on our trip, only more authentic in that the villagers actually wear their traditional clothes - unlike in Thailand where they quickly change into traditional clothes when the tourists arrive.

The views were remarkable with rice fields stacked on the mountainside covered in a light mist. The village descended all the way down the hill to the bottom of the valley.

The only down side was having to hike back up to the top at the end of the tour; however, the exercise was welcomed after several weeks of inactivity.

We began our second day in Sapa later that usual and the added sleep was much needed. We trekked down the main road to another local hill tribe village. The fog covered the town again and we were not able to see very much, just like the day before.

However, about halfway down the road to the village the sun started to come out and the fog lifted. What we saw before us was the most amazing valley of stacked rice fields on the mountainside with this beautiful mist rising overhead.

Because the visibility cleared we left the main road and began to trek down the mountain and into the valley. This made for a much nicer walk to reach the first village.

Of course, before we reached the village we were stopped along the way by young H'Mong children trying to sell us bamboo poles to help make the trek down an easier one.

Only one person in our group bought a pole - ironically, she was also the only person in our group to fall down on the hill! Thankfully, she wasn't hurt.

We made friends with a young villager along the way; here name was Na. We bought a bracelet from her after speaking in English with her for about 10 minutes. Her English was excellent for a 7-year-old. According to our guide, the local tribe children can speak English better than Vietnamese because they spend more time interacting with tourists than attending school. Their mother tongue is a hill tribe language that resembles Chinese more than Vietnamese.

We had lunch in the house of a villager before wrapping up our trek at the end of the valley. There we were transported by jeep back up to Sapa Town - fortunately, the fog had lifted there, too, and we were able to actually see what the town looked like. It featured beautiful French-style hotels and houses mounted on the cliff side overlooking the beautiful valley.

We had a couple of hours in Sapa town before we boarded the overnight train back to Hanoi and the completion of our trip.

We now have two days in Hanoi before we head off to Halong Bay for two days and one night. Our one night will be spent on a beautiful old Chinese Shipping boat.

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