September 5th-6th, 2019
Yesterday once we arrived back in Ha Giang and returned our bike we had time to chill out for a few moments, have dinner and take a shower before we got on a night bus to Sapa. I read that Sapa used to be like Ha Giang before it got flooded with tourism. It is a neighboring region that sits just west of Ha Giang. It has similar scenery and is home to Vietnam’s highest peak, Mt. Fansipan (10,311 feet). This will be our last stop in Vietnam before we continue west and cross into Laos.
All the backpackers go to Sapa as it is very beautiful. The big activity here is to go trekking through the mountains and valleys with a local guide who will hike with you to their village where you will stay for the night or nights (depending how long of a trek you do). We have heard good things about Sapa, and that it is best to get out of the town and into the small villages. The town itself has become very touristy and full of kids and local tribe people who will harass you to buy bracelets and other various items. We had been warned about being “Sapa’d” where you will surly end up giving in to a kid and buy a bracelet because they go to such great lengths following you around (even for miles) and doing anything to beg, plead, and even cry for you to buy a bracelet. Luckily, we didn’t experience any begging as bad as this. Maybe we are getting better about not being vulnerable to these tactics but we would say no and not pay much attention to them, and they seemed to quickly get the picture we were not going to buy anything and would go look for someone else. It’s hard because intuitively you want to help the children but buying the bracelet is not the way because it encourages them to stay out of school and become beggars.
We arrived very early in the morning to Sapa after our overnight bus from Ha Giang. Brendan wasn’t feeling well and seemed to be coming down with a cold. We had the option to either get a hotel in town and rest for a day or start a trek. Even though he didn’t feel well Brendan said we should go ahead and start a trek. There were local women all around the bus station ready to take you. I had read you need to choose your guide carefully as this has become such a popular thing some of them scam you and take you on concrete paths with tons of other tourists and don’t really give you a fair introduction to life in these native villages.
I feel we were lucky though and without doing much research got a very sweet woman as our guide. We spent the next five hours or so trekking through the mountains to her sisters house in a H’mong village. They had a car take our big bags so we only had to carry a day pack which was nice and made the hike doable.
The views were beautiful but I have to say after coming from Ha Giang it was a bit anti-climatic since we had just spent four days with fantastic mountain and valley views. For travelers coming to this area who want to do both Sapa and Ha Giang, I would recommend doing Sapa first as the views only get more incredible in Ha Giang and it is less touristy. We did enjoy all the cows, pigs, goats, and buffalo along the way that just roam freely.
I got my first leech of my life during this hike. Brendan had small ones on him too. They got around our ankles. Even though I had socks, shoes, and long pants, one big one still got me through my sock. Luckily Brendan pulled it off for me. I was surprised it made me bleed as much as it did (it wasn’t a lot, just more than I thought) considering I did not feel it attach or being pulled off. It sounds really terrible but it actually wasn’t as bad as I imagined having a leech on you would be, so I guess that’s one more thing I can have less fear and be tougher about.
We stopped for lunch and still ended up at the homestay fairly early in the day since we started so early. There was a big waterfall right by the village and we changed into our swim suits and went back to go swimming. It was really nice.
Super tired from the night bus and the last week of activity, we went back and rested on our pad on the floor until dinner time. The woman’s home we were in (Mama Ze) was very sweet and she had a really nice family. It was a similar experience to the homestays on the Ha Giang Loop where they made a big dinner and really pushed you to drink the corn wine with them at the end. The dinner was once again very good and very similar to all our other dinners at homestays.
Brendan and I went to bed on our mats in the attic of this structure that was their home. As it turned out a 17 year old girl ended up having her first baby in the room right below us on this night! It was not Mama Ze’s daughter and I wasn’t clear on the relationship, I think it might have been her niece, and Mama Ze helped with the delivery. The girl who gave birth was super quiet but we heard the screams of the newborn baby and it was quite a trip.
Mama Ze and family were very sweet and informative on the H’mong culture and their traditions and way of life. When we got up the next morning the whole place felt very peaceful. We had our coffee looking at beautiful mountain views and observed how all the animals laid around in harmony including dogs, cats, and chickens. We watched Mama Ze’s Mom do laundry with her feet in wash bins as she cleaned the bedding from the birth that happened during the night. It was a very interesting experience and like I said, felt very peaceful.
Once we had a big pancake and egg breakfast (this is the Western option they prepare as all the locals eat pho for breakfast) we started our trek back to Sapa. Today however we didn’t go through the mountains but instead went down into the valleys with all the rice paddies. This was my favorite part of the trek as it gave us different views than being high in the mountains like we have been the last week. We learned more about the process of rice and how they harvest it. It was cool going through the fields and seeing the local workers and families and how they would all break for lunch and eat in a circle in the field. Again, we liked seeing all the animals and it was a very beautiful hike. Today we went with Mama Ze and two girls from Israel. We all had lunch together at the end of our trek. It was pretty much a half day of hiking, and we were back to Sapa by mid-afternoon.
We decided to splurge on a $21 a night hotel room in Sapa as we both needed a real bed after a week of sleeping on mats on the floor. The hotel was really nice with a good bed and shower and included a huge buffet breakfast in the morning. Brendan not feeling well, we were excited to just rest in the room. Our hotel had one hour massages for $8 so I did that while Brendan napped. It wasn’t as good as my traditional Thai massage but it was nice, and for $8 I’m not complaining. Later that night we ventured out to downtown Sapa and had some pho for dinner.