Destination: Sapa
Throughout the year Sapa attracts several tourists from around the world. Located in Northern Vietnam, it’s an extremely picturesque village.
It overlooks beautiful valleys of rice paddy fields and blossoming vegetation. Several different tribes live in Sapa and each can be identified by their unique way of dressing and their individual dialects.
Getting there
Tourists travel to Sapa from various destinations. One can get there from Laos, China and Hanoi, which is the most common route.
My Journey
I traveled to Sapa from Hanoi. I was backpacking solo from Singapore without any particular plans. It was a very spontaneous trip that transpired due to the desperate need to break the monotony I’d been facing in Singapore. The moment I landed in Hanoi, I knew I had made the right decision. My bus journey from the airport to the Old quarter was pulsating to say the least. It was definitely a drastic change from Singapore. I had entered the land of cone hats, bamboo poles and motorcycle fleets. When I reached the hostel, I was awe struck by the images of Sapa, which led me to make my bookings the same night.
It was an overnight train journey to Lao Cai railway station. The train fascinated me. I was in a coach with a four-sleeper cabin. I was sharing the cabin with a honeymooning couple and an old Vietnamese man. From Lao Cai I took a bus to Sapa. It was a beautiful uphill journey. I spent two days and a night in Sapa, where I decided to live with the local people in a home stay.
Two days of sheer bliss
Since I didn’t have enough time to figure things out by myself by wandering about town, I opted for a guided trip. The bus dropped us at our destination, where we had our breakfast and waited for our tour guide. To my pleasant surprise, our guide was an 18-year-old tribal girl who spoke fluent English. This was just the beginning of other equally surprising events that followed. Along with a few other travelers I went for a five-kilometer trek into the village which took us through the lush rice terraces. The moment we started, a big cluster of tribal women followed us, all of different ages.
Some were even carrying their kids or siblings on their backs. These women were dressed in beautiful black attires and ethnic jewelry. They belonged to one of the many tribal groups in Sapa (I later found out they belonged to the Black H’mong tribe). Most of these women spoke fairly decent English and insisted we buy the ethnic souvenirs they were selling. They were very persistent, and would not give up. But if you buy from one, you will be attacked by several others to buy even more.
“You take my photo, you buy something from me” was their recurring statement. Halfway through our trek, we came across another tribe, the Red Zoa tribe. These women were identified by their distinctive red headgear and extremely unique beaded accessories. A majority of them had their heads shaved.
Most of these women were middle aged. Come to think of it, I do not remember seeing any young girls in the Red Zoa tribe. Like the Black H’mong, the Red Zoa women were also selling ethnic souvenirs, but the Black H’mong women were far more aggressive.
On the way we stopped for lunch. Our meal was nothing like the well known popularized Vietnamese food you and I are used to. It was a portion of rice, cooked vegetables, meat and egg: simple yet delicious. We continued walking through the villages, crossing several streams until we reached the village we were going to call home for the night.
I was in the company of three other travelers: two from United Kingdom and one from South Africa. Other than travel stories, our common topic of discussion was cricket. Our hosts welcomed us by serving us some traditional green tea and refreshments. It was still early in the evening, so I went around exploring the area with my camera.
All I could hear was the sound of the streams. I felt so calm and at peace almost as though I was echoing the beautiful and serene scenery around me.
The people in the village were very warm and friendly. They greeted the tourists with a big smile. I came across women working in the fields wearing their cone hats. I was also invited into the home of a lady who spoke absolutely no English and to whom I was a total stranger. She offered me to share their evening refreshments and also let me take pictures of herself and her family. We communicated in an unspoken language.
Later in the evening we all sat down together along with our host family to eat dinner. It was a feast of delicious local food prepared by our hosts. Along with the dinner they also served us some home made rice wine, which was more like shots, very strong and pungent and tasted a lot like tequila. The hosts insisted on us having more of it. When we went to bed, the room was surprisingly pitch dark with pin drop silence. All we could hear was the sound of the water rattling through the stones.
The next day after breakfast we headed for an uphill 12 km trek. Due to the rain, the trek was really muddy and damp. In fact it was raining while we were trekking. On the way I slipped and stepped into two feet of buffalo dung. Not the most graceful experience of my life, but I survived. Later that evening after having dinner I had some free time so I walked around the market and some other areas that I had missed out on earlier. That night we took a bus back to Lao Cai, and then a train to Hanoi. This time I shared my cabin with an Australian family.
The beauty of Sapa can be justified by the number of tourists it attracts from around the world. Overall it was an extremely pictorial and rejuvenating experience. As I documented my whole journey, I learnt a lot about this part of Vietnam, the lifestyle of the local people and the different hill tribes. The time I spent there was definitely not enough, but it only makes me more determined to go back and explore other regions of Northern Vietnam and the multitudinous hill tribes that live there. I’ll be back, soon!
