After a fantastic time in Halong bay, we take an overnight bus from Cat Ba to Sapa, in the mountains Northeast of the country. Over 285 miles away.
Night bus from Cat Ba to Sapa
The bus leaves at 4 pm from Cat Ba and is scheduled to arrive in Sapa at 5 am.
It is the same type of bus than the one we took between Phong Nha and Tam Coc.
To leave the island of Cat Ba we have to take the ferry again. And since it is the end of a long weekend, there are many many other cars waiting to take the ferry. We end up waiting at least two hours in line until we can finally get in the ferry.
The driver then apparently tries to catch up the time we lost in line and starts driving really fast!
At 9 pm we still haven’t stopped and everybody in the bus starts to need to go to the toilet. So Maider goes to ask the bus driver to stop. He stops us on the side of the highway in a tiny little shop. We ask where are the toilets, they show us a room but these are nothing like toilets. There is simply a bucket half full of God knows what. So we all go to pee outside, on the side of the highway, in the dark. Everybody had a huge laugh !
Arrival in Sapa
We get back on the road trying to fall asleep. Maider and Brigitte will barely sleep. Especially since we arrive at 3:30 am instead of 5 am. Thankfully we booked an extra night at our hotel for tonight for half the price. We finally arrive at our hotel at 3:45 am and finish our night.
It is foggy with a light mist when we arrive in Sapa. And the temperatures are a lot cooler.
Sapa is a small city located at 5,400 feet above sea level, in the middle of the mountains sculpted by terraced rice fields. The surroundings of this mountain village are filled with tiny ethnic villages (Hmong, Dzao, Tay…).
If we come here it is to do a 3-day trek in the region. Alizée and Romain, that we met in Australia, recommended us a great French speaking guide. We got in touch with him a few months ago and he will bring us off the beaten path far from the other tourists. The two nights we will be sleeping in local families with whom we will share our dinner.
Discovering Sapa
We decided to stay one day doing nothing in Sapa to rest before the trek. And we did well given the little sleep we had in the bus.
After sleeping a few hours at our hotel, we wake up and discover Sapa by daylight.
And boy we didn’t expect this. There are hotels EVERYWHERE, the entire city is under construction, groups of tourists come pouring in the city every 5 minutes, and the poor locals begging us to buy some of their craft work. We knew this town was getting popular and touristic but we had no idea it was getting this popular. It seems like the hotels are getting bigger and bigger. Honestly we don’t like it, it really destroys the entire charm of the city.
A lot of people come here from Hanoi on day trips, or take the night train from Hanoi to spend the day. Thankfully we only start our trek the next day and won’t be doing the same as most people here.
So today we rest, the weather isn’t too good, it is foggy so we barely see the mountains.
Trek day 1 : villages of Y Linh Ho and Lao Chai
The next day we meet our guide Chinh at 9 am to start our trek. Chinh is a 27 year old guide who learned French and English in Sapa. He is self employed and offers treks around Sapa that go from 2 to 5 days. We plan on spending 3 days with him.
Today we will walk 9 miles total.
First we walk to the village of Y Linh Ho (village of black Hmongs) where we stop at his parents’ place for lunch, before continuing to the Lao Chai village where we will spend the night in the house of a black Hmong family. When we start the trek there is still this heavy fog around the city and we can’t see much.
Accompanying us are 3 ladies from the black Hmong ethnic group.
They are here to help us on the way because the trail can be a little difficult and slippery.
In exchange they hope that we will buy some local handcraft from them. They are very nice and speak astonishingly good English. They wear the traditional clothes of the black Hmong.
The walk is pretty. The sky starts to clear up and leaves us with a beautiful blue sky.
The landscape around us is amazing. We walk through the forest and across rivers.
To finally arrive to the well known terraced rice fields.
The scenery is beautiful. It is hard not to take pictures of every single rice field we see.
When we arrive in Y Linh Ho, the 3 ladies leave us and we buy a few souvenirs to thank them. One last picture all together before going our separate ways.
We then get to Chinh’s house, where his entire family lives.
The house is surrounded by rice fields.
We meet his parents, his sisters and brothers in law, as well as some friends of his.
A lot of people are around because they are getting ready for his sister’s wedding the next day. There should be around 100 guests. And for the occasion they went and bought a huge pig that they will kill and serve the next day. They killed the pig right there in the house in front of us. Luckily we aren’t vegan! But we won’t share the specifics here…
Chinh showed us his house and the surrounding rice fields that belong to his family.
We then had lunch outside. On the menu, Bahn Mi. But also some sake, their local alcohol made from rice. Apparently they love this stuff here and Chinh made us try a couple of shots.
After that we spent time with the family.
After spending almost 2 hours at Chinh’s place we get back on our way.
This morning when we left Sapa we saw a few other groups of tourists. But now we are all alone. We walk across the rice fields and through villages where we only see locals.
The scenery is incredible. And the weather is amazing.
So you know what that means. Picture time !
We stop on the way for a refreshing beer.
The colors in the evening are beautiful.
Before arriving in Lao Chai where we will spend the night, another village that is larger than Y Linh Ho. Here there are 3,000 inhabitants, for only 1,000 in Y Linh Ho.
We take another break in the village, where Brigitte will learn how to cut pineapple the Vietnamese way.
From here we also admire the sunset.
Around 6 pm we arrive at Miss Co’s place, she will be our host for the night. From her patio there is a beautiful view on the rice fields.
Miss Co lives here with her husband and two children. But the husband can’t be with us tonight. Apparently he is at a wedding 60 miles from here and drank to much to be able to drive back. Miss Co speaks very well English. She learned the language in the streets of Sapa trying to sell handcraft to the tourists. Today she works as a guide. She has a big house that can accommodate up to 9 people.
Tonight it will only be the 4 of us.
Miss Co and her daughter prepared us a delicious dinner that we will eat all together.
They cooked way too much food (as usual) and everything is super tasty (as usual too).
She also takes out a bottle of homemade Sake and starts serving shots to everybody as it is custom here.
At the end of the meal, Miss Co proposes to play a drinking game. The concept : a chicken’s beak inside a bowl full of sake. We have to make the beak turn with chopsticks and the person the beak points towards has to drink. So we drink quite a bit and laugh a lot.
We then go to bed before the roosters and pigs wake us up early.
Trek day 2 : villages of Su Pan, Ban Lech and Ban Ho
Miss Co prepared us delicious pancakes with honey and bananas this morning.
The view from our breakfast table is amazing.
We can see the locals going to work.
Before leaving, we take one last souvenir picture with Miss Co.
At 9 am we walk down to the village where a taxi is waiting to drive us to the starting point of today’s hike.
Again the weather seems like it will be absolutely beautiful today and the day should get pretty hot.
We start our day with a nice uphill walk through the forest.
The view points are incredible.
We have a nice view on the valley and villages bellow.
We stop to take a bunch of pictures.
We see a few water buffaloes bathing in the mud.
Once at the top, the view is incredible. Once again we can’t believe how beautiful it is here.
We then make our way downhill, admiring our surroundings.
We start to really feel the heat now since there is no more shade on the way. Thankfully we are going downhill.
We stop for lunch right by the rice fields, under the welcomed shade of a tree.
Before resuming our hike. Again today there are no tourists in sight.
We are in the middle of the rice fields and Chinh takes us through magnificent places.
We are completely immersed in the life of the locals. We are lucky to be able to observe them in their daily tasks. Like working in the fields.
After one last steep uphill track, and 9 miles in total, we arrive in our home-stay for the night. Here we are in a family belonging to the Tay ethnic group.
Once again the family has a nice large house.
The first thing we do when we arrive is drink a nice cold beer.
Today was clearly harder than yesterday because of the heat. The temperature reached 95 degrees, for a real feel of 105. Chinh tells us that it is the first time this year that it has been this hot. Usually it isn’t this hot until August.
After dropping our bags in our room, and taking a very welcomed shower, we help the family preparing the spring rolls for tonight. A very nice moment.
We then eat dinner all together.
Another delicious meal. Here again we get to drink plenty of homemade sake…
A great evening before going to bed.
Trek day 3 : villages of Ban Ho, Nam Nhu and Nam Cap
Once again the roosters wake us up. No need for an alarm clock in this country !
After breakfast with pancakes and honey, we start hiking at 8 am. Today we try to leave early to beat the heat. It is our last day and we only have 7 miles to hike.
Again the weather and the landscapes are beautiful.
But at 8 am it is already blazing hot. Good that we only have half a day hiking. Especially because there is no shade on the way.
Today we walk across many many rice fields.
Then we make our way through the valley, with the mountains in front of us.
There are only very few houses here. We do see a few locals working in the fields but still no tourists. Chinh explains that everybody living here are farmers and work in the fields.
We finish our trek late in the morning and a car is waiting to drive us back to Sapa. On the way we stop for one last lunch together.
It feels weird to see so many people again after spending 3 days far from civilization. This trek was an incredible experience. Chinh was an excellent guide. We all went along great. His French was really good and he had a great sense of humor. We saw some breathtaking landscapes, met people that were very nice and amazing hosts, and of course the food was delicious.
It is time for us to leave Sapa now. We take a bus from Sapa to Hanoi where we will spend our last days in Vietnam.