SapaJul 14, 2009
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A few hundred meters higher than the Vietnam border crossing, Sapa sits shrouded in clouds. People come here mainly to witness the spectacular rice terraces and to see the villages of Black Hmong that live there, among others.
After some bad luck with weather in China, we were happy to have perfect weather in Sapa, with no more than a shower or two. Somewhere in our research though, we convinced ourselves that we needed rainboots. After one long hike in them and a few blisters to go with, we learned our lesson.
The hike itself was great though. A sharp descent into the valley that Sapa overlooks takes you to the village of Cat Cat. Numerous water wheels and villagers greet you along the way. Sadly, many of them are children that should be in school instead of peddling cheap jewelry to you. Two such girls followed us for a couple of miles, pestering us to buy earrings. When we finally convinced them that we really weren't going to buy anything, they used their few cuss words on us and turned tail! Naughty little Mhong girls!
The bottom of the trail showed us a beautiful waterfall with butterflies of all colors floating around it. After a moment resting there, we decided to hike up the "Fairy Steam," since, you know, we had rain boots on!
A bit upstream, we decided to test our boots out. We hopped into the middle of the stream and were throwing rocks, when Annie slipped and the camera (along with a month's pictures) dumped into the stream! It was fried, and not only that, but I noticed a leech inching up her boot. Good thing we didn't take a dip like we'd been thinking of!
So, there's a little gap in the pictures until later...
The rest of our trip in Sapa was great. We went on a guided tour the next day (I caved) that turned out really great. A Hmong lady went the distance with us, helping Annie along the way on some rocks and mudslides. Two Dutch and two Danish people came with us, and they were quite friendly. The end had a pretty rickety suspension bridge, with a HORDE of young girls once again asking us to buy stuff. I got a kick out of pretending to not pay attention while I was sitting in the car waiting to drive back up the vallye, then whirling on them with my best vampire impression.
Sapa has absolutely spectacular sights and I definitely recommend. Another nice thing is that the food noticeably improved. The French definitely left an impression in Vietnam, as there was good cheese and bread (baguettes) to be had everywhere.
After too little time, we hopped on the train back in Lao Cai and headed to Hanoi, chatting with an older Dutch couple about soccer and The Queen.
