VIET NAM SAPA TREKKING.

SAPA

330Km form Hanoi and by overnight sleeper train will bring you to Sapa, an incredibly picturesque village that lies on the Hoang Lien Son mountain range near the Chinese border in the north. Here one can see many hill tribe people , the three main tribes in the hills are the H`mong,Dzao and Tai. Their villages and the life style and rice terraces, lush vegetation and the Fansipan, the highest mountain peak in Vietnam make this area a very interesting visiting place. We undertook two trekking expeditions, one of 8km up and down the mountain range and one of 12km going down the valley visiting villages along the way and coming back by bus.

The treks start early in the morning and a group of tribes women will be waiting outside the hotel and will follow you all along the trek and talk to you and will try and be friends with you ,of course in the hope of selling you colourful clothing and souvenirs.

The local tribes have quickly adopted to tourists and most of the women speak English, French and a little bit of some other European languages. Whilst the women are chasing the tourists the men are looking after the house and children and also doing the cooking. In some of the remote villages tourism has not had a good effect, however the villages are not complaining as they have become relatively wealthy. The H`mong tribes wear more black whilst the Dzao wear more red and less black colour clothing. The Dzao women,when they get married shave off their forehead and their eyebrows so that other men would not look at them (except tourists).

Our treks took us to stunning scenery with vertical rice terraces, huge water falls and mountain peaks that had permanent mists hovering above them. The weather here is cool so walking is not that tiring and the treks are well marked. Roaming and walking around this region was really very pleasant and given more time there is a lot of trekking to be done including the climb to Fansipan.

During our Sapa trip we met a lovely Canadian couple from Vancouver by the name of Salim and Shazan who were on their honeymoon. What a coincident, they also know our friends Azim and Ruby in Vancouver. They did the same treks as us and therefore the trip became even more interesting as we discussed and talked about a few things. Ruby will be able to recognise the couple from the photos I have posted.

stepped rice fields.

Dzao woman and me in conversation

a class room in the tribe village.

Dzao tribe women

taking a rest on the trekking trail.

Dzao tribe women

tribe woman acting as a guide.

stepped rice fields

H`mong women following on the trek

Grinding machine-hand powered.

H`mong tribe women waiting at the hotel

falls are a popular photo site

By another falls in the area

By the falls in Sapa