Sapa and the Nearby Villages

We took an overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa which was an 11 hour ride. The cabin was extremely comfortable, with four plush beds and nice furnishings. We were sharing the cabin with a couple from Australia and spent the evening having drinks and snacks and talking about various places to travel. We arrived in Sapa in the early morning and it was a short bus ride to our hotel, which overlooked foggy rice terraces and nearby Cat Cat village.

Sapa is a small picturesque village just 5 minutes from the China border. The main town is a bit touristy but a short trek will take you into the nearby villages where you can see many hill tribe people, their villages, rice terraces and lush vegetation. The minority groups which are most prominent are the Hmong, Red Dao, White Thai, Giay, Tay, Muong groups.

Groups of ethnic Hmong youngsters and women can be seen hauling impossibly heavy, awkward baskets of wood, stakes, bamboo, bricks, mud and produce. The Hmong people are the most outgoing, always smiling and wanting to talk (or sell you some homemade jewelry or clothing). We went on a trek to nearby Cat Cat village which winds through the village and rice terraces, the views changing by the hour due to the low hanging fog that comes and goes.

We were sick for a few days which unfortunately cut into our time to do longer treks outside of Sapa. We were able to do a full day trek to Lao Chai and Ta Van which is predominantly Red Dao and Giay minorities. We didn’t go with an organized trek or have a guide but a couple of Hmong women followed us on our trek and pointed us in the right direction for the different paths to take, at times holding our hands while we crossed small rivers on small stepping rocks. The views were breathtaking and it was nice to see life in the small rural villages. We met one woman along the way who must have been around 80 years old, her ears stretched from the heavy weight of the large earrings that they wear. She sat with us for a while and took the rings from her ears to try to sell.

At the end of our 10km trek, the Hmong women didn’t ask for any money but only asked that we purchase something. I spent $4 on a few bracelets and then we took a motorbike back to Sapa. The motorbike ride was intense, winding around mountains while our driver made calls on his cell phone but we made it back quickly and in one piece! We made plans to leave although it is an area we will definitely come back to. There are so many villages in the north of Vietnam that we would need weeks to explore fully. We took an overnight train back to Hanoi and it was nice to be back. We both feel very comfortable there and enjoy daily life in the city. We spent another 6 nights in Hanoi before taking a flight to Vientiane, Laos (only an hour and a half flight on a prop plane). We are both happy to be starting a new country and we’ve been looking forward to Laos for a while now.