May 30th - June 1st, 2006 - Sapa Tribal Villages

We arrived in Hanoi early in the afternoon and made it succesfully to our tour guide office after a very dodgy cab ride from the airport. Although I didn't believe it was possible, traffic in Vietnam is the most chaotic so far - here, it is survival of the biggest! cars yield to buses, bikes yield to cars and people yield to bikes. Traffic lights rarely exist and if they do the bikes don't bother stopping anyways! We spent an afternoon eating and waiting around the city until our night train to Sapa. As we walked down the length of the train, we came accross some wooden slabs and were fearful that it was going to be a very long night but our tour guide kept walking and eventually they're were cheap looking airline seats...phew, but we kept walking and eventually we made it to the couchettes with 4 bunk beds that were absolutely stunning. We met sopme cool people and had a surprisingly refreshing night sleep.
The next day we checked into an equally spanky hotel in Sapa and then went off on a 3 hour day trek down from the clouds in Sapa into the valley of a tribal village. The tribes all wear different clothes to distinguish themselves. We arrived at Cat cat and were blown away by the rural authenticity. If you were to envision vietnam, Sapa is it - rolling hills with rice fields cut progressively down the valley, water flowing from level to level, locals wearing conical hats to protect from the sun, collecting the rice plants in a line and strapping them to sticks accross their shoulders and even local men leading water buffalo through the mud plowing new trenches for the rice. It was all pretty stunning and the pictures and video footage are the only way to do it some justice. After heaps of Vietnamese cuisine and delicacies, wandering through the local market complete with live crabs and frogs and relaxing in the hotel we fell asleep looking out our balcony into the clouds.
The next day was more of the same, a different village but equally stunning. The trails were very muddy and we spent most of our time tip toeing through. Local children would pass by and try and sell handicrafts, while others just enjoyed watching the white people struggle down the mountain side in the slippery mud. We stopped for lunch at a local hut where they conduct home stays. At first I was very sceptical because some of the sales people litterally stood outside the door trying to sell us stuff for at least 20 minutes. After we settled down and realized most of the food was from the hotel pre-prepared we relaxed slightly and after a few too many glasses of home made rice wine made by our hostess we came to really enjoy the experience. The house was pretty modest with the whole second floor devoted to home stays, which is a shame, since the huge family could have benefitted from the extra room. Back to town and then into Lao Cai on the border of China to catch the night train back into Hanoi. Overall, a very exciting 2 days made even more entertaining by a young Vietnamese girl who was in our tour group who didn't stop smiling the two days of the trip!