"Follow the Culture" - Sapa, Northern Vietnam

Sa Pa - 19th Dec to 23rd Dec 2014

We had booked the Intrepid Travel Sapa Trekking trip before we left Australia, one of the very few things we had booked and planned.  So very glad that we did - if you ever have the opportunity to get to Northern Vietnam, do make the effort (and it is a huge effort) to get up to Sapa because it is a truly incredible place.

This trip started leaving Hanoi with a 9 hour sleeper train ride.  The "Et Pumpkin" Express Train has two sets of double bunks in each room and there are two toilets at the end of each cabin and I am fairly confident it all goes straight onto the tracks.  The tracks require major maintenance and they are working on it but it all takes time and apparently they have been working on the tracks for the last 3 years. 

Getting settled in before we leave the station, 7.30pm.

The wide angle lens makes it look quite spacious... it really wasn't!! Also with the continuous movement of the train we were thrown around our bunks.  Gentle rocking of the train along with the aggressive shuddering made for a very dodgy night sleep, all smiles now but the tired mess at 6am wasn't so chipper!

DAY ONE

20th December 2014 - Arrived at Lao Cai

Just arrived off the train at 6am in Lao Cai.  Forced to have breakfast at a specific cafe while we waited for our ride to Sapa, think it was around about 1 hour from Lao Cai to Sapa by road.  After an eventful drive across the range to Sapa, we were semi-checked in and met our tour guide Lulu.

The hotel we thought we were staying at.  The reality was that we stayed in rooms across from this hotel, the rooms were pretty shabby and cold - complete with fake fireplace with flittering flames....

We met up with our guide Lulu, she is such an incredible woman.  She is resourceful, polite, self taught in speaking English, smart, funny and beautiful.  But if I had only one word to describe her, she is all sass.  She made the trekking tour!

We had a small afternoon walk to the nearby village called Cat Cat, to kick off the adventure.  Just a short wander to the river and the hills covered in rice paddy fields.

The mountain range, North of Sapa.

Shahn, as we walked into the Cat Cat village.

Pig in the rice paddy.

Late afternoon walking to Cat Cat

Stalls all along the path down to the river.

Lulu showing us how the water powers the rice grinder.

(left to right) Lulu, Shahn and Ashley

Maize storage in a local house, the maize was not for the family but for the farm animals.

Having a look around the village, the houses were large and stored a lot of produce. The weird thing was that we just walked into their house was a bit strange on the tourist trial.

Ducks playing in the water from the rice pounder.

The steps down to the river. We made a b-line down the steps dodging the tourists with selfie sticks, those things are everywhere.

Wier on the river near Cat Cat

Water falls in the gorge.

Locals washing clothing in the river.  Bet they had cleaner clothes than we did.

More Hmong people growing indigo along the river and using it to dye their clothing to sell.

Rice drying in the Sapa sun 

After our wander to Cat Cat, we went for a wander around the Sapa village.  There were two main areas for markets, during our trip they were moved further apart from one another (I assume to try reduce congestion and rubbish into different areas instead of so close together)

Michael talking the talk; buying peanuts, they were really tasty.  This whole bartering process with this lady took about 10 minutes, Eak was driving a pretty hard bargain - this lady was tutting, Eak was holding his beard in contemplation. The lady won.

Just shopping in the market.  The North Face on the right, fruit and vege on the left.

Again wandering around the market in Sapa

Meat in Sapa - supplied fresh and was reasonably cold so it would have lasted a while.

Everyone was on their phone, quite literally all the time (while on motorbikes, in vehicles, walking, in the middle of a conversation - impressive multi-tasking!). This lady was selling fish and shrimp.  They were mostly dead fish, some were still alive thanks to some air bubble filters.

The hillside collapsed and crushed the house and shop.

On our evening walks around the town.

Shahn exploring, it was about 2 degrees so beanie, scarf and puffer were necessary!

Socialism is where its at here.

A little lake in Sapa.

Hidden from this picture is the floating island of rubbish, so sad.

Night Markets, looking for dinner... street food was reasonably priced and delicious.

DAY TWO

21st December 2014 - Sa Pa

Day one of the big hike into the Sapa hills.  It was going to rain that afternoon so we needed to get to the first village as quickly as possible, we just trucked along pretty consistently - must to Lulu's dismay, she really didn't want to get wet clothes.

We plodded along the track, with three other women from distant villages who wanted to sell us their stuff, we regularly had people following us not creepily just they want to make some money and tourists are fair game. 
We are missing photos from a small camera that was unfortunately lost or stolen in Ha Long City.

Cool houses on the outskirts of Sapa Town.

Rice paddies everywhere.

Shahn and Ashley

Michael and the Hmong ladies, Lulu (left) and three of the ladies that followed us all day on our hike.  They were pretty amazing to help us out in the mud and also to carry their basket backpacks full of stuff to sell, all day.

The rice paddies.

Impressive sight of Sapa as they are everywhere. Although there was a fair bit of soil erosion, with the water logged soils collapsing.

Our travelling group. Lulu keeping a sharp eye on me as I ran up the hill to have look.

The Hmong ladies always talking and keeping a fast walking pace!

Just hanging out.

The hills were impressive too, but really foggy most of the time we could see very little.

10,000 Vietnamese Dong (NZ$0.60) for a length of sugar cane, was tasty and refreshing.

Michael going rogue, Lulu was freaking out and calling after him to come back to the track.

Our bush path in the distance, heading towards the village where we stayed at the home-stay for the night.

Smashing the sugar cane

Fully stoked with the situation

It was the sugar cane that kept me going...

The tracks are the main route that the locals use.

Bridge was also a aqueduct, cool aye?

The river valley, rice paddies and local houses. Surprisingly, Lulu told us that the river never floods the houses.

Such beautiful scenery, it didn't get old.

We walked up the path on the other side of the valley.

Relaxing after a long days walk with consistent showering it was reasonably cold.  A small coal fire helped warm us all up and dry our socks.

Our homestay for the night.  It is their pride and joy, they kept it beautifully clean and we were so well fed & looked after.  We thoroughly enjoyed staying with this family, they were lovely.

The back of the homestay

Nice house that was built by the owners, well cared for and maintained!

Our host mum cooking snacks - Hot Potato Chips with garlic, the most AMAZING chips in history.  They were off the charts crunchy and delish! It was really dark in this room and was so hard to get a photo!!!

The kitchen for the house, this is the oven/stove top etc. The food was really tasty.

Our host family cooking and keeping warm by the fire.

Getting ready for dinner, such a spread of delicious food.

 The lady in the front with the rice bowl was classic, very funny and she had a headache and used a traditional method of relieving pain by heating up a cow horn and sticking it on her forehead she ended up with a soot black hicky but she said it worked.

Having generally chitchat with our companions, you can just see the horn on her head....

Talking and carrying on with the Hmong, an Italian family, an American and a couple of Kiwi's, the host family house was large with the second story being a huge sleeping area the house could sleep 20 people easily.

We shared homemade rice wine with the family, they were going really hard with the shots. Then taught them how to play Euchre.  It was hilarious, especially with the Italians - their english was pretty good but we had some communication issues.  Great end to a wonderful day.

DAY THREE

22nd December 2014 - Rural villages of Sapa

Starting the next trip.  

This was the final day of trekking in the hills and it was a pretty big day.  Both days we covered a few kms and it was well worth it, the scenery was stunning.

More rice paddies.

A paddy filled with water

Tramping and hiking like a natural

Bamboo forest

In the bamboo hills

Love this photo, sums up Michael beautifully.

Lulu thinking about life on top of a spectacular waterfall.

Shahn pretty happy with the last few days events, and looking forward to a hot shower!

Lulu was a cool lady, she has some heavy stories.

 She told us she was kidnapped when she was 15 by a man who wanted to marry her, Lulu managed to escape after a few days. It is a custom and relatively common where the man steals the woman and if she likes him they can get married. The really weird thing was that the guy was still in the village and she would see him every now and again.  She is now engaged to a man who she chose, she is really proud of that.

The last village we walked through, Shahn standing on the bridge too.

One of the farmers plugging up the holes.

So many ducks, enjoying the water

Ashley and Shahn, cracking out the wet wipes getting ready for lunch.

Last remaining few hours in Sapa, we went back to the hotel and had incredible hot showers.  We were again surrounded by local women who were trying to sell their wares, they are so persistent - followed us around the entire town, waited outside while we got coffee and haggled pretty hard bargain.

Shahn trying to do a deal with some of our new friends, her name is Ma.

Doing deals, the lady with Ashley was like 8 months pregnant, and was always out trying to sell something.

Different location, still trying to sell us things, hemp pillow cases

She was a cool lady, learning English off tourists and trying to build up some savings so she can do her own tours from her own business (like Lulu but not through a large company).

We are such suckers! But they were so cheeky and funny, such beautiful women.