Sapa, North Vietnam

After an overnight train from Hanoi with a softish sleeper !!, I arrived at the station in Loa Cai to be met by a guy from the tour company to take me the 40 or so klm to Sapa, its about 1.5 hours, and uphill all the way, well nearly !.

The landscape becomes more and more spectacular as you go with the open landscape of small settlements giving way to high mountains and steep valleys and rice paddies. As you get closer to Sapa you come across many minority villigers in traditional costume depending on the tribe, although all seem to be of Mongol descent. Its hard to put into word the stupendous beauty of this area of rural northern Vietnam. Its so peaceful and tranquil compared to the hussle and bussle of Hanoi, its like another world and hard to believe that such a city actually exists when you are here.

I am so glad that I was able to get on the train as its so often full. For me this is without doubt the highlight of my time in Vietnam, its not hard to see why people want to stay longer here. Visiting villages takes you back hundreds of years in time which is an experience in itself, but its all part of the experience that makes traveling very very special. I know I am privileged to have the opportunity to visit such places, but nevertheless one cant help but be in ore of these people. It makes one appreciate what one has and how lucky one is when you see how little the villagers have, but they are very happy and thats fantastic.

So I arrived at my accommodation about 8.30am, a very quite small hotel on the edge of town at the bottom of the hill, and I have beautiful views out over the valley to Fansipan, at just over 3000m its the highest peak in Vietnam, although I don't have time to climb this one as its at least a 2 day trip.

Met by a guide which comes as part of the trip I have an hour or 2 to have a look round the town and its market all quite fascinating to see all the villigers in different traditional dress and very colourful, very busy with locals and tourists.

So at midday I left with my guide to walk to the village of Bang Khoang, we stopped en route to meet local people and had a chance to see weaving being done on once of the village houses. Needless to say life here is very basic, but the people are very happy and lovely to talk too. BUT, you are besieged by villigers, children and elders alike wanting to sell you all manner of handicraft which gets a little annoying after a while, but its all part of life here and you get used to things after the first day.

It spent the evenings in a bar in Sapa with a pool table which was great. Its been a while since I was able to spend an evening playing, much to my surprise 2 mongol girls came to play, Mi Mi and Me too, yes these are their names. Mi Mi turned out to be a very very good player, and extremely hard to beat, if not impossible, as she always seemed to get her way, quite a character, but it certainly made a big difference to have her playing when it came to doubles. So myself and several others including a Scotish guy who was also very good had a lot of fun and few beers until the wee hours playing pool in this little bar.

Incredibly here language is no problem, villagers have learnt to speak English from the visitors, many, particularly the children are almost perfect. They work very hard too, although it was very good to see schools and know that the children do actually go to school and are keen to learn in the most part. A number of new schools have also been built by organisations such as UNICEF which must make quite a difference.

The second day we have a much longer trek to the villages of Loa Chi and Ta Van. Although its a bit touristy you have excellent views and walk through the paddy fields descending into the valley as you go. its about 7 klms to reach the village, We where accompanied by children from the village on their return from Sapa, for once we are not asked to buy anything and its a fascinating to talk to them and learn about their village, families and lifestyle here in the mountains. We also had a nice cool swim in the river which was really good.

We had lunch in the second village before being taken by jeep back to Sapa which by road which takes about 20 minutes, although it took most of the day to walk.

For my final day the guide took me to the village of Ta Giang Phinh which is someway beyond the first village I visited, I must say this was much less touristy and quieter which was really good, and gave us a chance to talk to more local children.

So that was my tour of Sapa and it was once again time to return to the station and catch the night train back to Hanoi. For once I managed to luck in and get one of the best sleepers which meant I could get a really good nights sleep.