I'd spent the first half my short vacation in Halong Bay. I planned visit the lovely mountain province of Ha Giang. But unfortunately, my travel buddy had to cancel at the last minute making me change plans. Instead I decided to go to other stop, it's a bit more touristy but still on a mountain. That is Sapa, one of the most famous destinations in Vietnam. Of course, I have to pack up my luggage such as one extra pair of long pants shorts, short sleeve, shirt, t-shirt, underwear, hat, rain pants, shorts, sunscreen, sunglasses, phrase book that will come in handy passport, playing card, earplugs extremely important in a third world country as are sleeping pills, tooth brush, bottle opener altimeter watch, backpack and one more thing, my heavy leather jacket.
I headed out my apartment on my way to the railway station. I boarded the Orient Express and found my way to the sleeper car night fairly luxurious. The train pulled away into the night not giving me much view of the scenery. The next morning, founders pulling into the border town of Lao Cai, this was of course for my walk rainy and wet. A short wait later, I and several other tourists were in a van in cruising up mountain road which must have been beautiful on a clear day. It took less than an hour to arrive at Sapa – the mountain town. The bus stopped me off at a hotel where I met our tour guides, young ladies of the black Mong tribes. They rallied the tour group putting us in rain gear then let us out through wet streets of the town.
Before long we were in the countryside, just ten o'clock after two hours in the train. It was a good change from the traffic in noise of Hanoi. It was a difficult track through this slip reminded. She pulled a tendon but we were able to see the villagers’ life up close indigo dye for their clothing, their favored color, maybe their travel color. The Black Hmong tribe took our tour group out onto the muddy trail through the slippery and muddy rice fields and through the streams. The relaxed affable manner of the Mong reminded me up many other mountain tribes, I had encountered elsewhere. The different tracking groups converged at a meeting point where the charming little children kept saying something that my first couldn't catch. And finally, we had our first casualty, but we still took time to enjoy the picturesque terracing surrounding us, eventually, made down to the river where we would stop for lunch.
Late in the afternoon, we began to make our way through the villages; we were deposited in small groups at various houses for the night. It was a fairly nice house, the family lived downstairs and we will be staying up in the loft. It had many things spend a nice house in a village, having a clean bathroom and a pool table a ball thing, so I along with a Mong woman and her son chalked up for game but better than everything else. This house had a view of the perfect place to reflect and collect my thoughts.
Here we are near shopper with about 3,000 to your cell and 3,000 villagers. We walked for about four hours the hallway for many trails and add to your ankles come to the Mong family home stay relaxing store tired bodies. Hopefully, we'll get by used to them. That's nice so quiet stream nearby kids playing pool, even dogs and cats sold. This one arrived conveniently at mealtime, a meal which the famished trekkers made short work.
I woke early the next morning to enjoy the peace of the place. However, before too long everyone was getting ready to assault the trail. A few hour to the fields and we made it to waterfall, mission accomplished, and then we had to make our way through village and through the saleswomen. Finishing back at the hotel, I took one quieter stroll through the mist. Then we drove back down the mountain and took the overnight train back to Hanoi.
I'm finally home, it is 5:30. My muscles are sore, my shoes and everything in my bag are damp to varying degrees, but glad for the experience. Sapa Vietnam has some amazing scenery, even if it is quite touristy.
Source: YouTube.com under Creative Commons
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