day 23 - first day in sapa - 08.09

Our train to Lao Cai arrived an hour early again. It seems to be a norm here that transportation arrives hours earlier than planned - which is fine of course :) Worse would be if it would arrive later. This time we travelled in the most luxurious class which is soft sleeper as they did not have any other tickets left. It was nothing too fancy - 4 beds with sheets, blankets and pillows. Pretty much like the hard sleeper only there was more room for each bed as there were 2 levels instead 3 and there was a door, making the area small room. I got some good sleep on the train besides the heat and noise.

Getting off the train we were surrounded by bunch of very aggressive minivan drivers who were very eager to take us to Sapa. I had read that in Sapa the currency exchange rates are very bad so I figured I should exchange money here in Lao Cai. Wasn't able to do it in Hanoi as everything was closed on a Sunday. So we got an agreement with one minivan driver that before heading to Sapa we will stop at a bank. As banks opened at 7:30, we had more than an hour to kill - we headed to a cafe for breakfast. Of course the exchange rates were bad also in Lao Cai, even worse than at the airport :( but i had no choice. Bus ride to Sapa was about an hour, it is located 38km west from Lao Cai, up in the mountains at an elevation of 1650 meters.

The city is close to the border of China so it was formerly a hill station. The most interest to visitors are the minority groups that live nearby here - H'mong and Dzao people. Day to 3 day tours are organized to visit their nearby villages.

After arriving to Sapa, we were quickly recruited by one of the hostels - as it looked decent and was quite cheap we just stayed without looking around at all. Took a shower, got changed and headed downstairs to find something fun to do for the day. At a check in we were given the tours introductions - looks great, there are 8 different tours available to all kinds of locations and destinations. We picked one 1 day tour that took us south. Apparently it was already too late, close to 10 and all the tours had left already. After some calls by the reception lady she hurried us downstairs to catch a tour that just left a nearby hotel :) Nice and quick organization :)

Our one day hiking tour was from 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, including lunch. The small villages that we visited were Y Liinh Ho of H'mong people, Lao Chai village and Tavan village of Dzay minority. The hikes were wonderful, the landscapes are amazing. Starting point was Sapa and we made our way downwards through rice fields and bamboo woods crossing rivers on the way. On the tour we got information about the lives of minority groups, their education (which is mostly organized and funded by UNICEF) and about general life in Vietnam.

We saw rice fields :) and found out how rice is grown. In other areas of the country they get 3 crops a year, but here in the mountains they get only 1 as they have no way to keep the rice in the water so they can only plant during wet season. As a surprise to me - rice needs to be under water only at a certain time during the growing, later it needs only sun to get the rice riped.

We were shown their school, one home of the locals and we saw lot of their lifestyle while walking by the villages. Throughout the whole tour we were accompanied by the local female people. They were wearing their national clothes and were trying to sell their goods to us. They spoke surprisingly good English though. In our group there were 6 tourists, including us, and about 10 accompanying minority group locals. They would all ask us our name, our age, if we have a boyfriend or a husband, how many kids we have and where are we from. At the midway through another set of minority group locals would join us so all the people would change and we started answering the same questions again :) Once they heard that me and Riina are around 30 and not married, they cheerfully promised to fix that :D

Their lifestyle is poor of course. Living in bamboo houses with mud floors. Rich families have TV's, a motorbike and buffaloes. Less fortunate ones might own a pig. Different minority groups have different religions and go to separate schools.

Lunch was at around 1pm, consisting of bread, eggs, cheese, tomato and cucumber slices - it was good and filling. Back to Sapa we were taken by minibus.

In the afternoon we strolled around the city, explored the market and had cake at a cafe. Sapa is said to be the coldest location in whole Vietnam. Today we got light rain occasionally and at times the jackets were needed as the breeze can get really chilly. So I get to use the warmer clothes that I brought with as well :) In the evening we arranged our tomorrows tour and sat in the internet for couple of hours at a nearby hotel that has free wireless. I'll get the pictures organized shortly so you can catch up on our doing via photos as well.