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Hi!
This is a few days late!, but thought we would give you a update on our trip to the mountains of Sapa (near China) and in the capital city of Hanoi
We spent 2 days before Sapa in Hanoi, mostly wandering around the very busy streets filled with motorbikes and visiting lakes and some parks. We discovered a great local kitchen where they serve "Bun Bo", which is a big bowl of rice noodles with herbs and a hot broth, crispy onions and beef ontop. We went back again the next day! On the 2nd day in Hanoi we visitied the Ethnology museum, which was all about the different ethnic minority groups and hilltribes in Vietnam, very interesting especially as we were heading to Sapa the next day- home of the Hmong hiltribes. There were a lot of interesting displays of the traditional clothing and replica stilt houses to see.
That evening we caught the 7 45 night train to Lao Cai, it was a really comfortable train with cabins of 4 bunk beads and polished wood walls... we were told by our travel agent that you do NOT want to go on the government trains only the tourist trains, as apparently they are very dirty and smelly ( I think she may have just wanted to make some more money :) ). We arrived in Lao Cai at 5am and then took a hour minibus that winds into the mountains to Sapa. We were really lucky that the weather was totallyu clear and sunny- normally Sapa is hidden in the clouds with a lot of rain! The climate is also a lot cooler and quite refreshing from the heat in Hanoi. We booked a room for which an extra $2 gave a celining to floor huge window with a amazing view overlooking the mountains :)
We headed offf on the first day to explore Sapa and its market, which was full of tourists but quite fun, there are many Hmong people with really colourful clothes selling their handmade products. There was a large French influence in the town previously so we took the time to sit and eat tasty chocolate tarts and pastries in French cafes :) We decided to walk to the closest village called Cat Cat village, which was around 4km away and is where some of the Hmong people live. The village itself was very touristy whihc was a shame, however we kept walking and ended up in really stunning countryside of waterfalls, rivers and hills with paddy fields and wild flowers... we wished we had brought a picnic! After about 2 more hours of walking we arrived back to Sapa for some pho and then walked some more steep steps up to the very ugly "microwave tower" on a hill- but it did give a great view of the surroundings!
The next day was a Sunday- and the biggest atrraction on this day is the Bac Ha market which is a 3 hour minibus away. Its a huge local market where around 9 different hilltribes come to trade animals, buy meat and vegetables, and to socialise. It was really interesting to walk around, but we wernt quite brave enough to try the food! That evening we ate dinner at a place with a nice view and then had an earl night as we were going on a 2 day trek the next day!
The first day of the trek started at 9 30, just before we had gone to a buffet place to stuff ourselves with breakfast in preparation for all the walking! We met the other people on our trek (7 on the 1st day) and our 24 year old Hmong guide called Khu, who is very funny and has perfect English! The trek was 17 km, and went through paddy fields and gradulally climbed uphill initially. We went past villages and tiny schools, Khu also showed us plants used for dyes, eating and for making clothes. We stopped for a picnic lunch with 3 curious children watching us, Khu said they probably had never seen tourists before!, the trek we did was very remote in comparison to the easy route that most take with hundreds of tourists. We saw 1 small group of 4 in 2 days! The trek became easier afterwards, and the views were really incredible... At 3 we arrived at the homestay and said bye to 3 of the tourists, so there were only 4 of us left. We were staying in a very small Hmong village of only 5 houses, the house we were in was really nice and the couple who lived there were very welcoming. Luckily it was right by a big river and waterfall, the weather was great so we all went to swim and relax for a few hours. In the evening we sat down to a feast cooked by Khu and the owners of many dishes and the local rice whisky which they had made. The rice whisky was very strong and not very nice!, but it was polite to drink it. There was a huge thunderstorm in the evening so we all sat inside and played card games until bed.
The 2nd day was a lot harder! Khu had cooked huge stacks of banana panckakes with honey from the village and so we were quickly very full! We started wallking at 9am and were steep trekking uphill and downhill for 3 hours... The view was still great but it wasn't as sunny. At 12 we got to the endpoint and were all so hungry!, Khu cooked a vegetable soup with fried eggs, then we relaxed for a little while until our minibus came to collect us. In the afternoon we relaxed at a cafe, mainly as I had a really sore throat and was catching a cold. Then it was back on the mini bus and our train headed back to Hanoi that evening. We arrived back the next morning at the early hour of 5am, again!
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