Sapa, Vietnam

Vietnam is a country with great food, scenery, friendly people and interesting attractions. We traveled to Vietnam last year and spent 6 days in the northern part of Vietnam visiting Hanoi and Sapa. The latter was the highlight of our trip. Sapa lies in the north west of Vietnam near the Chinese border and is an 8 hour overnight train ride from Hanoi.  The moment we boarded the ‘Hogwarts Express’ like train, (if you are familiar with Harry Potter, you will know what I mean), I knew we had made the right decision to visit Sapa.  Although the ride was a little bumpy, it was quite fun. As the train leaves Hanoi, you will pass by some of the local residents in Hanoi and will be surprised by the short distance between the train and the resident (I think we were close enough to shake hands with them!!).

In 8 hours time, the scenery changed from old buildings and busy streets to dramatic scenery with terraced rice paddies, colorful hill tribe people carrying baskets of leaves and goodies on their backs.

After a nice hot breakfast, we started our trekking to the Cat Cat village. There are many local tours in Sapa and we booked ours through a local tour operator in Hanoi. I would highly recommend you book a tour guide whether via the hotel or local tour operator because some of the treks required permits and it is just so much easier to have a guide to take you through the treks.

The trek took us up and down steep rocky trails over streams and rivers and as it was wet season, we had to walk through muddy fields. But it was all worth it (as you can see from the pictures below). Some bloggers complained about the locals being pushy in selling their goods but when you visit their homes, I think it’s totally understandable. The living conditions were poor and you could see kids running around bare feet. Some could not even afford a pair of pants to keep them warm. Our guide brought us to one of the local families. We saw a big pot of rice that looked as if it was cooked for days and were told that the rice will last the family of 12 for the whole day. So how can you blame them for being a bit aggressive to earn some money for a pair of shoes? Moreover, I found their sales pitch was tolerable. The kids always had a smile and kept repeating, “We are friends. We are friends. Can you buy from me??”  We bought a few bracelets from them and I still have them with me (not to wear but to remind how fortunate and blessed I am).