Sapa was shockingly cold! We were under the impression that Vietnam would be warm and tropical; boy were we wrong. Sapa was near freezing and even had snow at slightly higher altitudes. It was rainy, foggy, and windy almost the whole time we were there.
We planned on doing a trek there and, because of the cold, were vastly under prepared. After stopping at one of the local North Face knock off stores we were outfitted with some fancy rain pants (which we threw away after the trek). Our trek was ran by local women from he surrounding villages. Our trek leader was named Lan and was part of the local Black Hmong tribe. In this valley there were three tribes who spoke three different languages, none of which were Vietnamese. Many of the tribes people couldn’t even communicate with the tribes right next door! Coming from the U.S. it was a mind boggling situation. Our host only knew her tribe language and the English she picked up while giving tours. It was fascinating to learn about all their traditions. Various marriage traditions, rites they had to perform if someone died, New Years festival clothing, drinking traditions, and many others.
“Interesting” would be a good way to describe our homestay experience. We arrived after a long day of hiking, being rained on, and falling in the mud. Our home stay was more or less a barn in the outskirts of one of the villages. There was no fire, except for some smoldering coals in a metal pan. Our dinner was fresh when we got it, but since it was so cold, by the time it finally made it to our mouths it had cooled considerably. We still ate it all. We sat around the “fire” talking about traditions of the local Hmong people, Rachel learning how to make the traditional embroidery and hand woven goods, and enjoying home made rice wine. Once it got dark around 8PM we discussed just going to bed because it was so damn cold. We probably made it another hour and finally decided to call it quits.
The next morning we woke, surprisingly refreshed, and slightly warmer than the night before. Our hosts made us pancakes with banana, sugar, and lemon for breakfast. We then continued on for the trek that day to the bamboo forest and water fall. Everything was covered in mud, giant puddles, and general treachery. Thankfully our guide’s friends showed up to help us again. Ryan’s guide had a baby on her back, held Ryan’s hand, while holding an umbrella pointing out safe food holds all while also walking down the slippery mass of mud. We’re still not sure how a woman so small could hold up a someone twice her size while carrying a baby. The only people who fell were us and the other two tourists who did the trek with us as well.
After the trek was over we found the only restaurant with a raging fireplace, but so did all the other tourists who just finished their freezing cold treks. We ordered food and shared all the crazy freezing cold adventures we had.
