Sapa Excursion

Today - 24 March:
Today we went on another full day trek.  This time, we opted to not follow the prescribed itinerary, instead we followed the suggestions from our guide.  We went for a short drive down the mountain to start the trek.

We went to 3 different villages and it took us 5 1/2 hours to walk to them.  We went to Lao Chai, Tavan and Xangtachai. 
At the start of the trek we were followed by 3 Black Hmong women trying to sell us something.  They spoke a little English and had standard questions I think they have picked up over the years:
    What's your name, where are you from, how old are you, how many children do you have and is that your husband/wife.

We thought we could shake them quickly by telling them that we didn't want to buy anything, but nothing seemed to work.  They decided that they wanted to follow us the entire way to all of the villages.  And they did.  One of them had a one-month old baby in a sling on her back and breast-fed her along the way.  She did have an umbrella that she opened occasionally to protect her and the baby from the sun.

As we continued our walk we picked up another woman trying to sell us something and after we said no a couple of times, she just tagged along for the trek.

Now mind you, when we say trek, we really mean a hike up narrow, rocky paths through the mountains to get to the villages.

The final leg of our trek took us through the bamboo forest.  It was very lush and provided us with some shade as it was sunny and quite warm.

When we reached the final village and took a couple of minutes to sit, the women took that moment to really try to sell us something.  But Mike & Karel came up with a good idea to pay each of them a small amount and let us take their pictures.  It took a bit of convincing, but they did it and once they were paid, they no longer followed us.

We think the trek was over 10 miles and none of it was in a straight line.  The villages we visited this day were more modern with having shops and guest houses.  The buildings were built with concrete and bricks and had electricity.

Tomorrow we get up early for a final trek that will include some more hiking and a couple more minority villages.  After lunch we will be shown a special market and then we will take a short boat ride on one of the local rivers.  We will then be taken to Lao Cai where we will be able to take a shower and change to get ready for another over night train ride back to Hanoi.

We will post again when we reach Hoi An on Sunday as we don't expect to have internet access on the train and subsequent overnight Junk ride through Halong Bay.

Until then,
Deb & Karel