Hanoi - Tracking in Sapa

20-Nov-2017, Sapa - We reached Sapa around 5am. As our train pulled into Lao Cao station, an annoying loud music started to play to wake everyone up. This was followed by a very strong smelling coffee as the lady who was trying to sell you snack the night before now come knocking and trying to sell you coffee. A mini bus was outside the station ready to pick us up. We were surprised that there was only 2 of us for such a big bus! We were told the drive to Sapa will take 1 hour. It was cold, and the road misty. The bus us took us to a hotel, and a buffet breakfast was available for us. We weren't staying in this hotel, just stopping by, shower, freshen up, store our luggage, and a guide came to lead us on a hike at around 9am. His name was Thay. And he spend two days with us, just walking from village to village. Above is a view of the valley of Sapa. It was beautiful, even with the mist and all. 

It had been raining, and the path was slippery and steep! So the bus drove us down nearer to the entrance to the village road, and we walked from there. Straight away some aborigine ladies started following us and talking to us. Their English was quite good. Asking us our name, where we were from etc. They were trying to sell us their handy craft, but not in a pushy kind of way. I told her I wasn't interested, and they stopped following us. We saw pigs all over the place. Little black pigs were kinda cute so I snapped a photo.

If you zoom in on the above photos, you can see small groups of tourist with a local guide walking all over the valley of Sapa. This was taken from a suspension bridge.

And above is what the bridge look like. Interestingly our guide is afraid of heights. So he walked straight to the other end while we slowly admire the view. That's him at the other end in red. After the bridge, he took us on steeper route and it was a while since I last hike up a hill. Seeing we were doing ok up and down the path, he got adventurous and lead us down some grass path next to a salmon farm. I though he was just trying to show us some salmon, but the path got narrower and narrower, kindly those narrow paddy field path, and soon it lead us to a river. There were rocks going across the river, and he jump across them with ease. We followed. It was the first time I cross a running river jumping over rocks! I was nervous, but was quite happy I made it almost across. The rocks were slippery! And I fell just at the last rock cause my legs were not long enough. The guide fell as well when he tried to pull me over. That was fun! The water was cold but not too bad! For the whole day I smell of river water and our shoes were socking wet! This all happened just before lunch. During lunch, I realised that I have damaged my thumb during the fall. I am blogging this in Jan 2018, and my thumb has recovered almost 90% now. It was a most unforgettable trip indeed!

Continue on the hike, we saw beautiful free range chicken. The look so pretty I just gotta snap a photo of them. And so I leave you now with a shot below of the famous terrace paddy field of Sapa. I guess we came at the wrong time, cause on a good day, these valley are either green, or gold. But we came during the rainy and misty season. The path was covered in mud, and the view covered in mist. I didn't mind that much. I am just happy to be hiking and out in the open! Sapa town itself was congested and rather touristy. Don't ask me what it was like there, cause I didn't spend much time there at all. Next thing you know, there will be a Starbucks there soon, just like Alishan, just like Ubud. Sigh. Come visit Sapa before all it beauty is gone and replaced by a fake amusement park!