Trekking around Sapa Town

What a way to end our days in Vietnam! We took a night train - my first sleeper train ever - up to the hills of Sapa, which is in NW Vietnam. It was beautiful and green with terraced hillsides, much like Dalat. And it also rained on us, much like Dalat. But it wasn't quite as cold - so that was nice. We got in early morning and really wanted to do a 2-day trek and stay with a family in a village, but we weren't sure if we'd still be able to book that on the same day. We lucked out though and had an hour to repack our bags, change our clothes and grab some b-fast before joining 2 other people and a guide for a muddy mountain stroll.

As it had been raining on us for part of the morning, the trail was super slippery. One of the guys in our group, Michael, spent the majority of the hike on his butt. Lucky for us, part of what the village people do here is send their children out to walk along with the tourists, in hopes that we will buy something from them at the end of the hike. I had the 2 sweetest girls, Ti and Mo, walk with me for hours and hold my hand and try to keep me from slipping. They had a pretty good success rate. However, at one point, I did slip and I took both of them down with me. Everyone laughed - it was quite funny. I kept apologizing to them, but I don't think it was the first time it had happened to them on the trail with a clumsy tourist. And sure enough, I wanted to buy something from them at the end of our hike. I walked away with an overpriced silver bracelet, that the silver is already chipping off of and a wallet that'll make a good souvenir for one lucky person!

Anyway, our guide, Hi, led us down the trail and we ended up hiking about 13 km when we finally arrived at the homestay for the night in Ban Ho Village. Now, this family operates with no modern day conveniences, except for a tv, which every family seems to have, no matter how poor you might seem. It's quite impressive to see how their world works. We cooked over an open fire and did dishes in the corner on their cement floor. Lani and I helped make spring rolls that night. Hi wasn't so impressed with our rolling capabilities - but anyone that knows me, knows I'm not a cook. So this was a great start for me!


We ate like kings and queens with more food than anyone would ever really eat (yes, it was even too much for Lani and I). However, we had no problem popping in like 8 fried spring rolls each. After dinner, we helped them wash dishes, we sang around the fire and then we had a dance party. The loud music must've been heard across the entire village, because all of a sudden, all the boys in the area were standing on the cement patio wanting to join in on the fun. It just took a couple minutes for them to stop being shy and then they were out on the dance floor turning tricks and doing their own little break-dance moves.

On the second day, we went to a waterfall. It was nice and refreshing!

When we returned from the waterfall, we said good-bye to our host family of 4 generations and started up the trail again. Luckily, it wasn't raining on us this time. But it sure made my legs hurt walking up hill...just another reminder of how out of shape I've gotten on this trip. I'll be sore for days! But it was such a cool experience to be hiking through the hills and staying with a village family. Sapa and the surrounding area was a high point of our adventure in Vietnam. A nice way to close the Vitenam chapter.