Phil & Gail: SaPa - The Land and the People

The day we arrived — at 7am! — it was sunny and warm. Tommy recommended that we take a trek that day since the weather can be unpredictable. He called a guide…and Shue, who is a member of the Hmong tribe, arrived about 30 minutes later.



So we went from train to van to breakfast to trekking in about two hours! It was a wonderful day. We took motorbikes to a set of villages about 5k away from SaPa. From that point we walked through 3-4 villages with our guide. She took us into houses




….introduced us to people she knew along the way









…and basically did an excellent job showing us the area. We were trotting through rice paddies with the water buffalo



….climbing up the steep hillsides with the tribes people who were hauling rice (on their backs!) to their homes.



We saw schools, farms, craftspeople working and even a wedding along the way. At the end of this long day (14k) we took motorbikes back to Sapa and collapsed!

It was rainy for most of our second day in SaPa, so we slept in and had an easy day.

For our third day in the region we hired a car and guide for a trip to the market in Lung Khau Nhin, which involved going back down to Lao Cai and then up in the mountains to the east.

The steep mountainsides were cultivated with a variety of crops including
rice, of course, but also tea, pineapple and corn. The market at Lung Khau Nhin is primarily for the local people, with very little tourist business,







although Gail did some haggling.



After returning to SaPa, we were out for a late evening walk and wandered by the Catholic church. (I have lived in Hanoi for awhile and have seen little, if any outward sign of religion. I do see Buddhist shrines in some stores…but nothing like other Asian places I have visited. So….to find a large Catholic Church in Sapa was interesting). We could hear singing, so we walked up to the door and were met by a “standing room only” crowd of people. They were bunched outside the front door…..gathered at the side doors…everywhere. I (Gail) am short and couldn’t see…so I asked my husband to see if the church was really full or if it was just curious people at the door. He said the place was totally packed. But here is where it gets interesting. The place was packed with Hmong people. Wall-to-wall….singing traditional sounding hymns…taking communion…. Sharing the peace with all. I was totally floored. Never expected to see Hmong in that environment.

On our last day in SaPa, we hiked by ourselves down to Cat-Cat, a small village near Sapa. We spent the day walking through rice fields…up and down the mountainside and ended up at a beautiful waterfall.



We ambled through the countryside and ended up taking a motorcycle back up to SaPa because we were so trashed by all the climbing and trekking. We ended up having a late lunch (pizza!) at a restaurant called Delta. The pizza was very good! I am sure some of you might be saying “How can you eat Pizza in Vietnam!”. Well, I (Gail) have been living in Hanoi for several months and really wanted something different. I love Vietnamese food…but after all the hiking, pizza and beer sounded too good to pass up!

The pizza brings us to another observation: SaPa didn’t seem like Vietnam at all! After living in Vietnam for awhile, SaPa seemed very “western”. Most people spoke English….whereas in Hanoi—especially where I live, English is not common at all. The French settled Sapa and much of their architecture still is visible. I really felt like SaPa was a mix of the French Alps and Bali. Mountains and rice fields. Oh, and mix in a healthy dose of ethnic minority tribes. The H’mong, Dzao,, and other tribes people are EVERYWHERE.

The land of SaPa and it's people are quite beautiful. Combining that with the large number of English speakers made it a very comfortable and enjoyable place to visit.