Sapa is very busy and touristy and the H’mong (one of the local tribes)ladies follow you around asking you to buy things from them. Most places we’ve been you hear the crickets or bird song in the background but in Sa Pa it’s “You buy from me? You buy from me?”.
We’ve spent three day’s here trekking (more light walking than trekking, which my knees are very happy about!) and spent one night in a home stay in one of the villages. It wasn’t authentic village life but it was a very fun experience. Five groups combined in the house and all the guides cooked us a very delicious dinner. The owner of the homestay, who had no english language skills, communicated with us through the art of lots of shots of rice whisky and terrible european pop music but he was very happy with our enthusiastic responce. We also attempted Bamboo dancing and limbo, which the guides found very entertaining. Our guide, Lan, was very funny and laughed a lot. She was great fun to tease especially because her english was very good and would tease us back. We were hoping she would be our guide today but we were given a vietnamese man who didn’t know as much about the area and the village we visited wasn’t as good as the ones we’d visited on previous days but we enjoyed the walk and the views.
By: Traveler Aimee