We’ve just got back from an exhausting and amazing trek around the stunning rice paddies near Sapa.
We organised the trek through the hotel and asked for a local guide to take us off the beaten track. 1 hour later, after a much needed shower having slept on the train, our guide Mia (pronouced ‘my’ ) waddled into reception with a big smile on her face.
Mia is roughly (!) 19 and from the Black H’mong tribe that live in a village close to Sapa. I say roughly as they don’t celebrate birthdays. We also learnt over the trip that Mia couldn’t read or write and learnt her excellent English from tourists. The thing I’ll remember about her was how playful and happy she was … we had constant banter throughout the trek.
The trek was about 30km over 2 days, with a ‘homestay’ night in a village.
We started the trek by driving to a village that most treks end at. We immediately picked up a tail in 2 local woman who followed us for the next 2 hours. We were kitted out in our Colombia hiking shoes and they had flip flops, handling the steeo terain with ease. Mountain goats with flip flops!
We stopped for a green tea mid morning in one of Mia’s friends house that had a Sewdish family staying. They had a young girl (maybe 7 is) who had typical Swedish blond hair and blue eyes … the local kids couldn’t put her down, literally.
We continued trekking throughout the day meeting various groups of kids with big dirty smilely faces. One group were picking snails out of rice paddies and were very keen to show off their haul.
We got to our homestay in Ban Ho at about 5 after passing by a dam that was being built above the village we were staying in. The dam was not welcomed at all by the locals as it is cutting off one of their water supplies.
There was a village gathering at the house next to our homestay to celebrate the New Year (Chinese). We wandered over and were cojoiled into downing shots of rice wine with a table full of very drunk toothless locals … priceless! Laura got a massive cheer when she nailed hers and held up the empty glass!!
Above the drinking, the woman were praying for a good crop guided by a Shamen who was zoned out and chanting. It was like walking into another world.
We went back to our homestay and helped Mia cook our huge dinner on an open fire in the kitchen bit of the hut.
I’m not too sure what I made of our homestay as it seemed like every house was one. You can’t blame the villagers as it is there main source of income. We were lucky in that there were only about 5 Westerners in the village when we were there, but I can imagine it doesn’t feel too authentic when it’s packed.
On day 2 we headed further down the valley to a remote village (will add name later) taking in various sites on the way. We came across a very cool water powered rice mill that pounds rice before it is ready to peel.
The remote village was, well very remote! The kids were smiling, but when Mia mischievously told Laura to approach a little girl she burst into tears with the look of fear in her eyes … giant white woman bad!
We trekked to our pickup point via the homestay, where we stopped for lunch. As we went we saw women doing back breaking work in rice paddies with babies strapped to backs with cloth … not a man in sight, they were probably working hard at their rice wine drinking skills at home.
After getting back to our hotel we showered and headed up the street the check out Sapa Market. Nothing too special, but I did get offered opium twice on the way!
We decided to splash out on an Italian for dinner as we figured we’d earnt it. With wine and a dessert it came to $22, which is an absolute fortune here. To compare were eating street food in Hanoi for $2.
We’ve got an early start tomorrow as we’re heading to Bac Ha Sunday Market.
