arnie's jaunts: Apres Sapa

I'm waiting to board a bus headed for the city of Hoi An in Central Vietnam. I arrived into the city of Hue, 600 km south of Hanoi, after a 12 hour bus ride from Nimh Binh, 93km south of Hanoi. Nimh Binh is a sleepy town nearby scenic Tam Loc, one of Northern Vietnam’s natural wonders. The Tam Loc region is best described as “Halong Bay in rice paddies”. Whereas the rock formations in Halong Bay rise out of the large bodies of water, the rock formations at Tam Loc jet out over rice fields. The journey through scenic Tam Loc takes two hours on a hired rowboat. A slow ride through the center of Tam Loc brings travellers to lush rice paddy fields surrounded by large limestone formations.

On Friday, I said my final goodbye to Hanoi. It has been, “my home away from home” since arriving in Vietnam. While in Hanoi, I had the opportunity to stay at one of the friendliest places I ever have stayed at during any of my travels, the Thu Giang Guesthouse. Thu Giang, her sisters, Hien and Li, and rest of family provide a caring atmosphere for those that make the journey to the capital of Vietnam and into their guesthouse. They not only provide great value for their rooms, they make an effort to geniuely know every traveler they encounter. Their kindness and humour made my stay in Hanoi and Northern Vietnam that more special.

Over the last week, I have endured two overnight train rides from, and to Sapa in Northern Vietnam. The town of Sapa is 1600 m above sea level, and rests on a mountain range. I stayed in Sapa for two days, and two nights before returning for my last day in Hanoi.

The first day I hiked to a Hmong hill tribe village called Cat Cat, one hour away from Sapa. The hike to the village featured a small waterfall, and provided my first glimpse of the Hmong people. When I returned from my short hike, I met up with Tim and Tracey, who I met while traveling in Hanoi, for a few bottles of Tiger, and a round of darts.

On the second day, a guide, Wilda from Puerto Rico, and I left Sapa in the morning. Wilda was staying at a different hotel, and decided at the last moment to join us. We planned to hike into the Sapa valley and visit two hill tribe villages, Lao Cai and Ta Van. After arriving Ta Van, we planned to stay with a hill tribe family for the night.

During our trip, we walked, and hopped through muddy rice fields encountering wild buffalo, chickens, pigs, and roosters. The scenery was incredible, and the weather was favorably hot. We encountered many of the Hmong villagers, who were in traditional dress. Most were women offering souvenirs to buy. Many of the younger Hmong were fluent in English, and friendly -- to my surprise. A group of three young Hmong, Aa, Xo, and Li, befriended Wilda and I, then joined us for the rest of the hike. Aa was the friendliest of the three, and most fluent in English. She was nine, and part of the Black Hmong hill tribe. We arrived in Ta Van at 3 o' clock in the afternoon after 12 km of hiking and pleasant time with Hmong girls. Wilda and I were bombarded by the older Black Hmong ladies selling souvenirs. Before we could sit down, we were surrounded by at least 15 Hmong women all chanting, “you buy from me”, over and over again. Wilda and I escaped from the chanting, and walking off to explore the rest of the village before nightfall. Then, Aa, the small Hmong girl, kindly invited us to her family’s house. We climbed through a few rice fields before finally arriving at her house. Aa’s house was very basic. It consisted of one large room with no windows, and a dirt floor. A small fire at the center of room provided the heat for the house. We sat with Aa and her friends in front of the fire, as she introduced her family to us. We spent next 20 minutes inside Aa’s house, then it became evident we had to leave before it was too dark. We said thank you to her and her friends, and made it back to where we were staying before nightfall. Later that night, we were treated to the best dinner I have had so far in Vietnam, and my shots of homemade rice wine. The mother of the house insisted we drink several shots of rice wine with her, so we had to kindly oblige. The next day, Wilda went back to Sapa via motorbike, and I hiked to another village with my guide. My guide and I returned to Sapa around 3pm, and I took the overnight train back to Hanoi on Wednesday night.

Thursday was spent crawling through 9 reproduced hill tribe houses at Vietnam's museum of ethnology, and hanging out with Andy and Tess from Sweden in the guesthouse.