Sapa is a fabulous, mystical place. Getting here was not so much fun. The train grunted and groaned up the hills to Lao Cai (mere miles from the Chinese border) arriving at 6:30 am. Neither of us got much sleep so we are both a bit grumpy. The trip could be it's own blog post but the day was so fantastic I'm not going to waste our time reliving the less than stellar journey. Suffice to say that this is one of those times that the destination is more important than the journey.
We were picked up by our bubbly guide Sai, a 27 year old woman from the Black H'mong, fresh from a big bash last night carrying a sign with my name in one hand and the most fabulous headdress (definitely too beautiful to call a hat!!) in the other. We walked over to the car and set off on the 37 km/one hour drive. Lol, I'm not sure how Ken always end up on the side of the car away from the 1000 foot drop. The road to Sapa goes up a mountain that must be higher than the Hai Van pass; it's definitely narrower with more twists and turns. But, wow, what vistas. The mountains here are lush farm land so the hills are terraced to prevent erosion. The main crop used to be rice but this far north there was only one crop a year so they've switched to taro rice (not sure what that is) but they get three harvests a year so there more food and some leftover to sell to the nearby Chinese. Not sure whether the driver had a hot date but we seemed to be passing every car, bike, motorcycle and bus we came in contact with. At one point there was a group of water buffalo blocking one lane but he just swerved around them without slowing. I thought Ken was going to have a coronary and I had one hand firmly on the "Oh Jesus" bar for most of the trip. Wild driving aside, we made it safely to our hotel which is on the edge of a mountain so more great views assured when we get back after our trek.
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| Chau Long Sapa Hotel |
Sai escorted us to breakfast and we planned to meet back at the hotel in an hour so we could eat and get cleaned up. We were headed to Lao Chai, the Black H'mong village where Sai's family lives. The driver dropped us off at the top of the mountain as we were walking the 8 km or so to the village. There was a number of H'mong ladies and children waiting to swoop in with their wares. Lol, almost immediately bought a bracelet from two very young children who appeared to be on their own but I am sure their Mom was nearby supervising. Hard to say no to the dear things. We also picked up three additional "guides", friends of Sai's. One of them looked about 15 (though she was likely in her 20's) carrying her one-year old in a sling on her back while the other two had baskets of wares hitched over their shoulders.
Walking downhill always sounds so easy but the roads were very uneven, the terrain very steep, there was a fatal drop off and the constant "threat" of motorcycles coming fro both direction. The beautiful scenery and warming weather made it all worthwhile. At one point,we had the option of continuing down the road or taking a shortcut. Assuming the narrow, treacherous track was a not far from the village, we decided on that route though it looked tricky. Fairly quickly it was clear that we would be going quite a ways on the path but we had reached the point of no return so we carried on. The scenery was still stunning even when I was terrified of falling over the cliff!! On the top of a particularly large hill closer to town, there was a large yellow building that I asked about. Apparently, it's the secondary school for the village. The kids walk up and down twice a day so no wonder they are all in great shape.
Everyone once on a whole, the older of the three unofficial guides would give me her hand or show me the best holes to step in. I was happy when we got off that path and back onto the road even when the pitch seemed like 45 degrees. We made it to the village without incident crossing a thin metal bridge that swayed as we crossed. Lol, Ken and I walked down the middle sneakin peeks over the sides.
The village is a conglomoration of houses spread over a wide area including many houses deep in the mountains. Lao Chai has a single tribe of very industrious folks, mainly farmers numbering approximately 2500. In town, we came upon all manner of livestock wandering the streets and grazing nearby pastures; chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, water buffalo.
In addition to food crops, the H'mong grow indigo to dye their clothing the traditional deep black colour. The clothing is made from hemp fibre that they weave and then dye. Say provided us with a demonstration at one of the shops. We also saw a man carving marble and incense drying in the sun.
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| Marble carving |
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| Incense drying in the sun |
Tourism is big business here as well as there are numerous places to spend money; both shops and restaurants. My first purchases were from our unofficial guides and then I sprinkled money liberally among other shopkeepers much to Ken's amazement and amusement. We also stopped at a local watering hole where Ken tried the local brew.
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| Water buffalo |
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| Peach blossoms |
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| Sai weaving cloth from hemp |
Having sufficiently boosted the economy of Sai's village we headed back across another rickety bridge to the next village Tay Van. Same same but a little different. Wandered up to the car and headed back to town. Finally, a moment to relax and clean up. We made a lunch of the snacks we'd not eaten on the train, Kem went for a coffee and I had a quick nap. Later in the afternoon,we wandered through town up to the lake before heading to dinner at an Italian place.
Sated with pizza, we headed back to the room for an early night. Off to a festival tomorrow am so we want to be rested. Sadly we couldn't stay up to see if Ken has what it takes in Karaoke.
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