Sapa - Vietnam
6/23/05
Sticking to the hurricane schedule, we took the train in Hanoi at 9:30 p.m. of the 22nd of June and arrived in Sapa at 8:30 a.m. of the following day. The train in Vietnam is pretty good; we had a hard sleeper class and I slept like a baby during the whole trip.
Sapa
Sapa is a hill station built in 1922. It lies at 1,650 meters of altitude in a beautiful valley close to the Chinese border, 300km northwest of Hanoi. The whole area has spectacular scenery frequently shrouded in mist, and is home to diverse hill-tribe communities.
The two largest ethnic groups in the region are the H'mong and Dzao and although most of the montagnards have had no formal education and are illiterate many of the youngsters have a good command of English and French due to the recent tourist boom. This is now the most popular destination in the northwest of Vietnam.
H'mong migrated from China in the 19th century and it is one of the largest minority in Vietnam. They wear indigo-dyed linen clothing with women typically wearing skirts aprons, wrap-on leggings and a cylindrical hat.
There are several groups within the H'mong, including black white red green and flower.
We were brought to a hotel where we had breakfast and met our guide for the 2-day 'trek', a 16 year-old cute girl in her tribe's costume.
Our group was made of 8 people. Angie and I, two British girls, two American girls and a couple , a French-Vietnamese girl and a French guy.
Only around 10 a.m. we started walking down the hill from Sapa and in 30 minutes we were entering the trails amidst the rice terraces.
It had been raining so it was very muddy and slippery, but we didn't really have to walk too much, around noon we stopped at Cat Cat village for lunch.
We kept walking during the afternoon to the next village, Lao Chai, where we spent the night in a homestay. The walking was very easy with another break to rest; this time we stopped by the river where these lovely kids try to sell bracelets.
The rice terraces are endless.
We arrived fairly early at the village ...
... and had the time to explore around. The people have such a strong character that it tells you right away that they endured a very hard life.
The dinner was freshly cooked exclusively for us on their own style...
... it was excellent and after eating everybody got together to play stupid card games and the penalty, for the looser, was to drink a shot of the strong local homemade rice vodka. We had a lot of fun!
6/24/05
The 2nd day of our 'trek' didn't start early. We were up only at 8:30 a.m. Then we had a nice long and slow breakfast with crepes, fruits, coffee and tea; we were again on the trail only around 10 a.m.
We hiked to another village where we visited a nice house, this time a different tribe, the red Dzao.
We stopped by a waterfall to rest, had lunch and then after another easy hour of walk we took a jeep back to Sapa.
We passed by this bridge that reminded us of the Golden Gate.
When we arrived in Sapa and the first thing was to take a shower and then leave to visit the town. Sapa's market is full of other tribes, all weaving traditional clothes.
Before going to the train station to get the train back to Hanoi we went for a Vietnamese coffee with the French-Vietnamese couple, Thomas and Phuong. In Vietnam they always use little chairs and little tables, we experienced this through out the whole country, and the coffee is always freshly brewed and excellent.
Around 8 p.m. we were back in the sleeper train heading to Hanoi.
Sticking to the hurricane schedule, we took the train in Hanoi at 9:30 p.m. of the 22nd of June and arrived in Sapa at 8:30 a.m. of the following day. The train in Vietnam is pretty good; we had a hard sleeper class and I slept like a baby during the whole trip.
Sapa
Sapa is a hill station built in 1922. It lies at 1,650 meters of altitude in a beautiful valley close to the Chinese border, 300km northwest of Hanoi. The whole area has spectacular scenery frequently shrouded in mist, and is home to diverse hill-tribe communities.
The two largest ethnic groups in the region are the H'mong and Dzao and although most of the montagnards have had no formal education and are illiterate many of the youngsters have a good command of English and French due to the recent tourist boom. This is now the most popular destination in the northwest of Vietnam.
H'mong migrated from China in the 19th century and it is one of the largest minority in Vietnam. They wear indigo-dyed linen clothing with women typically wearing skirts aprons, wrap-on leggings and a cylindrical hat.
There are several groups within the H'mong, including black white red green and flower.
We were brought to a hotel where we had breakfast and met our guide for the 2-day 'trek', a 16 year-old cute girl in her tribe's costume.
Our group was made of 8 people. Angie and I, two British girls, two American girls and a couple , a French-Vietnamese girl and a French guy.
Only around 10 a.m. we started walking down the hill from Sapa and in 30 minutes we were entering the trails amidst the rice terraces.
It had been raining so it was very muddy and slippery, but we didn't really have to walk too much, around noon we stopped at Cat Cat village for lunch.
We kept walking during the afternoon to the next village, Lao Chai, where we spent the night in a homestay. The walking was very easy with another break to rest; this time we stopped by the river where these lovely kids try to sell bracelets.
The rice terraces are endless.
We arrived fairly early at the village ...
... and had the time to explore around. The people have such a strong character that it tells you right away that they endured a very hard life.
The dinner was freshly cooked exclusively for us on their own style...
... it was excellent and after eating everybody got together to play stupid card games and the penalty, for the looser, was to drink a shot of the strong local homemade rice vodka. We had a lot of fun!
6/24/05
The 2nd day of our 'trek' didn't start early. We were up only at 8:30 a.m. Then we had a nice long and slow breakfast with crepes, fruits, coffee and tea; we were again on the trail only around 10 a.m.
We hiked to another village where we visited a nice house, this time a different tribe, the red Dzao.
We stopped by a waterfall to rest, had lunch and then after another easy hour of walk we took a jeep back to Sapa.
We passed by this bridge that reminded us of the Golden Gate.
When we arrived in Sapa and the first thing was to take a shower and then leave to visit the town. Sapa's market is full of other tribes, all weaving traditional clothes.
Before going to the train station to get the train back to Hanoi we went for a Vietnamese coffee with the French-Vietnamese couple, Thomas and Phuong. In Vietnam they always use little chairs and little tables, we experienced this through out the whole country, and the coffee is always freshly brewed and excellent.
Around 8 p.m. we were back in the sleeper train heading to Hanoi.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 9:52 PM
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