Sapa, Vietnam #2

Sapa is indeed very beautiful. It's not hard to take a good picture there because every angle of the place is a perfect water colour painting.

Our tour guide, Ky pointed to a dot on the map "this is where you will be spending the night." Ooooo... It didn't seem very far from Sapa town, like only 15cm away ;p If only it was that easy & straight forward.....

We made friends with a few friendly Black H'mong ladies dressed in their traditional costume outside our hotel. They offered to walk with us to their village. Cool! In contrast to the people in Hanoi, they speak very good English. Impressive considering that they don't go to schools. Hmmm... the fresh fragrant rice does make a difference huh? ;p

Me and my Black H'mong friend, Chi
I'm a giant in 'Smurf's Village'!

(Take note of her jungle trekking footwear - cheap rubber shoes)

The 10cm distance means 7 hours of walking under the hot burning sun on muddy brown road, thru the jungle, up the mountains, over the valley, gliding down the steep slopes, across the gushing stream, along the narrow path of rice terraces. Certain places were dangerously steep. We held on to our dear lives by grabbing whatever we saw. Balancing is very important here because the lightest breeze could cause one to fall and die! Yup, it was that scary :) From time to time, Chi, my little Black H'mong friend lent me a hand. If it wasn't for her, I might have already ended up somewhere down there ;p

Green is good for the eyes

Winding road and river
This is the route Lao Chai Village

So hot! Luckily we were well-equipped

One wrong step, then it's goodbye....

See how the Black H'mong gals expertly glided down without much effort?

Believe it or not, the Black H'mong girls travelled like this to and from Sapa town every single day, with a pair of cheap rubber slippers! Mannn... now i wonder why we bother to spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of branded sports shoes haha... :)




The scenery along the way was magnificent. The further we trekked and the deeper we went into the jungle, the more beautiful the place became and the stronger was the smell of nature (& buffalo dung ;p). Standing on top of the mountain, I felt a sense of freedom. So, this is how it feels to be on top of the world? Even the air was different here! My exhaustion faded when I saw how beautiful the place was - mountains covered by clouds, angry river below, greenish paddies with little houses dotted here and there... hmm.. They all went so well together like butter and bread! Somebody once said, not all beautiful scenery is created by Mother Nature herself. Sometimes she needs a little bit of help from human beings. So true in this case. The place is heavenly! I felt as if I was IN an oil painting! The vast of greens made me feel so insignificant. The world is indeed huge!




After 3 or 4 hours of trekking, we finally reached Lao Chai Village. Yayeee... because that's where we replenished our energy - lunch! I was starving! Lunch was simple but it tasted so good. It did! Really! And the view from where we sat was awesome too :)

Our cafe is the one with blue shade

Chi's village

Greeted by Black H'mong people. Friendly people.
They all hoped we buy handicrafts from them
Sorry gals. I'm a tourist with limited resources

Simple Life, Simple lunch

After resting for about half an hour, we continued our journey. The village isn't very big - men, women and buffaloes working hard in the paddy fields, kids with (& without) pants running around. We spotted two men washing something in the stream... a closer look and explanation from Ky - they just killed a dog for dinner later. *goosebumps*

Men cleaning dog in the stream

A gathering for the kids only

Full moons Exposed!

Two little girls followed me all the way from the cafe to a resting place, all the while chanting "why you buy from her and don't buy from meeeee?" "buy from me, i sell you cheeeeeaap....". They recited the same phrases over and over again like a broken recorder for 30 mins! So patient, so persistant of them... and me ;p I gave in and bought a pouch from one of them. The other gal was hurt. I'm serious. She ran to stand in front of me, repeat her phrase with tears pouring out like waterfall! Oh dear.... only another purchase would stop that and it did! Thank goodness!

"I sell you cheaaap"

Gals waiting outside rest house

After another 4 hours of climb, we finally arrived at our home. It was a little cottage on top of the hill in Ta Van Village. We home-stayed with a small family of three - parents and a shy kid.

Our cottage

Colourful kiddy pants

Me in Ta Van

Our Homestay 'Dad', making dinner for us

Our beds were on the attic. hmmm.. the bed looked comfy. We even had mosquito nettings to prevent bugs from reaching us at night. OOoo... I loved the place! The blanket seemed a bit too thick though. After being in the hot sun and sweating profusely for 7 hours, I wondered if it was really necessarily to have a blanket meant for winter use. I wished I had aircond instead! haha...

Our bedroom up there

I thought we would be pooping in a hole full of worms but noooo, we had good bathroom facilities here! I know I'd said this many times but THE SCENERY WAS AWESOME here! The sun set pretty early over here too. We got to enjoy our delicious homemade dinner outdoor. What a great feeling that was!

Sunset in Sapa

Homemade yogurt with fresh mango
Tasty and good way to cool our over-heated bodies

After dinner, we helped to clean up. We shared the cottage with another group of tourists from Australia and Belgium. They were fun to hang out with :) Before we went to bed, I sneaked outside to feel the air. Breezy and dark. I tried to count the number of stars in the sky but I lost track halfway. The place was filled with music from the nature - crickets and frogs. So, this is how it felt to be living in the oil painting....

I was thankful to have a thick blanket. It was actually quite cold at night. So lucky of the locals to have free air cond to enjoy everynight! With the cool air and music all provided free by Mother Nature, I went to dreamland trouble-free.....


It was worth every effort to come here...