Sapa Trekking

Cities are great, new foods are delicious, the people are so intriguing but my favorite part of travel is seeing the beautiful landscapes around the world. That is exactly what we are off to do on our overnight trip to Sapa. Getting to Sapa required an overnight train, which I’m a total fan of considering it saves daylight travel hours. Upon our arrival in the tourist driven town of Sapa, high on the hill we were ushered off to begin our trek through the rice paddies. We were quickly introduced to our tour guide, who was dressed in the traditional village clothing. As we exited our hotel and began on our way we quickly realized this trek was going to be much different than other we had taken. Mimi and I are very accustomed to doing things independently or with only a few other people, especially when trekking. This day was vastly different, fist off our group was about 20 people full followed by nearly a 1 to 1 ratio of village women. In our truly American way, we are fiercely independent and want to do things on our own even if that means falling on our asses and getting a little muddy along the way. The trek through the ride paddies was muddy and some steps became a little precarious at times but nothing we couldn’t handle on our own. Every step of the way there was a local woman there to take your hand… you can imagine how much we cringed each time they tried to help us “I can do it, I’m fine, no, no no,” ripping my hand away each time. They were nice and it wasn’t anything they were doing I just can’t seem to let go of that fierce American independent attitude. Besides the hike being crowded the scenery was beautiful. The terraced rice paddy hill sides, the green green grass, the turquoise river rushing through the valley below us, it was all stunning.

That evening we stayed not in a hotel in town but at a home stay, which consisted of a mattress on the floor in the attic in a village home in the hills. We stayed there with an older couple from Malaysia/Australia and a young guy traveling on his own from Denmark. The evening was spent relaxing on the patio, exchanging travel stories and taking in the fresh air and sounds of nature. The family we stayed with was nice complete with a small giggling little girl and cute little puppies to play with. The next morning we awoke early had a quick breakfast and were off for another days trekking through the rice paddies.

Our homestay for the evening.

The cutest puppy!  I got to play with him all night :)

Bamboo forests covered in butterflies!

This day was much more enjoyable as it was only the 5 of us who stayed at the home stay the evening before. The beautiful sights continued on and it seemed that every time we looked up from where we were stepping the view was even more beautiful than the last time. Bamboo forests lined a lot of the trail during the second day and once they opened up it gave way to the beautiful sights of the river rushing through the valley below, stone walled terracing for the rice paddies, women bent over in the ride paddies, men driving the water buffalo through the fields and children skipping around selling items to tourist and jumping on backs of water buffalos.

Bamboo forests

Upon our return to Sapa we caught the bus out of town for our night train back into Hanoi. I find myself repeating how much I love my life and these adventures.

My favorite from the hike.