The sleeper bus to lao cai (border to china and very close to sapa) was different to the other sleeper buses I took in Vietnam, this one involved two level bunks with two very narrow beds right next to each other, so I was practically sharing a double bed with a Vietnamese guy – who, like all people who tend to share beds with me, took most of it. The Vietnamese pop-opera was also once again blasting on the close proximity speakers and TV until the early hours of the morning. Thankfully my bed pal left early in the morning, however it wasn’t long before we arrived at the destination.
A few hrs wait, the people with sapa tickets got on another bus and suddenly the scenery changed, we drove though mountains quickly gaining altitude, the scenery was shockingly beautiful, rice terraces and tall hills with thick vegetation. The bus stopped in the town of sapa, 1600mtrs above sea level.
The town itself is a tourist hub, although to my surprise I managed to find a dorm bed for $4/night, the room only had three beds so it was only just on the verge of being defined as a dorm, quite a nice find. The day after arriving I decided to trek solo to the village of lao chai, 10min into the journey a local old lady and young girl followed me, guiding me down shortcut pathes and lending me their umbrellas, when arriving in the village they requested that I purchase some of their handcrafted fabrics; this is what most of the local people do everyday from sapa town, a large profit for their simple lives. I gave them $5 but didn’t purchase anything, they gave me two coloured fabric bracelets for my generosity, I am still wearing them today.
The coloured garb of the locals at first seemed like it was simply to attract tourists, although during the bus trip into the mountains, I noticed the same vibrantly coloured clothing on local farmers on the roadside. During the second day trek I noticed more of the same, after we (two spainiards, a german, a french; and I) got lost attempting to trek back to sapa after taking a car to a huge waterfall at the end of the valley. We missed the official path and ended up walking most of the 12km trek through fields of corn, rice and native vegetables; at some stage we seemed to be walking through an irrigation stream. We noticed primitive, non-touristy villages scattered throughout the valley.
The H’mong people actually inhabit the long strip of highlands that runs through the top of thailand, laos and vietnam; I recognized the same clothing when scootering through the hills north of pai during a thailand trip a couple of years ago. The H’mong people of sapa speak their own traditional language as their first language, english as their second language (to communicate with tourists) and vietnamese as their third; oddly enough they should be able to communicate easier with a non-vietnamese tourist moreso than a vietnamese tourist. Each year the quantity of tourist visitors to sapa doubles, there is much construction and soon enough the small villages will begin to change.
I returned to lao cai, spent a night in a dodgy hotel for $6 (after trying 8 hotels ranging from $7-$10) and walked over the border to china the next day.
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Extremely delayed with the blog posts, I have been traveling with fellow backpackers and haven’t had time to catch up, plus the net in china is pretty crappy. I’m currently half-way up china :| will post more soon.
The 5000 Project 