Christina, Shen & women of the H'mong Tribe after a long trek up and down the rice terraces to Ta Van, Sapa Valley. The Black H'mong are the most progressive and skilful of the tribes. They will accompany visitors on their trek during the months when they are not tending to their rice fields. Most of them speak English quite well though they don't necessarily know how to read or write.Michael & Mr Bang, owner of the Pink Floyd Restaurant & Pub in Sapa Town where we had a great meal of mountain goat steamboat, home-made honey flavoured rice wine and home-made snake wine. They met on the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai and became good friends over many cups of very strong Vietnamese coffee.
Christina, Shen & the effable Mrs Linh of Hanoi Guest House. We have become good friends since our previous visit to Hanoi in 2007 when we visited Ha Long Bay. She is a delightful host and always has a warm smile for everyone.
Michael & Mr Thinh and Hanoi Bia. Mr Thinh and his son (rowing the wooden boat at the back) own the boat which takes visitors to the Perfumed Pagoda. Mr Thinh is a good 80 years old on but still fit and healthy. He doesn't know a word of English and Michael doesn't know any Vietnamese but they got along just fine.
Trekking among the many tribal villages in Sapa Valley. Quite a task for city folks like us but we count this as definitely one of the more memorable holidays for us. The scenery is simply beautiful and you feel transported back to a place where time almost stood still.
There's more to life than just increasing its speed
~ Mohandas Gandhi ~
Even hosts go on holiday every now and then. This year end we decided on Sapa Valley, a lovely hill station about 8 hours north by train from Hanoi city. Last year we were in Ha Long Bay and we chose to go trekking in the mountains to visit the hill tribes near the Vietnamese border to south China.
We experienced the wettest weather in Hanoi in the last 23 years. It is fortunate that we caught the tail end of the rains but we still have to endure a couple of very wet days in Hanoi before going on to Sapa Valley.
The views were breathtaking which made us forget about the slippery and treacherous trekking up and down the slopes of muddy rice terraces. Much of the valley is still unspoilt although Sapa town is developing rapidly due to the large influx of tourists.
