We enjoyed a couple more nights in Hanoi after our visit to Halong Bay. We did more people watching and walking the streets of Hanoi. Of course we sampled more food.

We enjoyed a relaxing lunch at La Place Cafe overlooking St. Joseph’s Cathedral.  Built in 1886, it serves as the cathedral for over 4 million Catholics in the country.

For dinner we ate at New Day. I enjoyed the Ba Cha. This is my second sampling of this great Hanoi food. It consists of a plate of lettuce, coriander, mint, pork patties and broth. These are mixed together in a bowl and I spice it up with some red chilis in he broth. Delicious. This is served with Vietnamese spring rolls. The dinner at New Day was a budget buster at $8.40!

We also took another try at egg coffee at Giang Cafe. It is down a street that is filled with bustling coffee shops on a Sunday morning. It was very crowded but we eventually sat at the typical minature tables and chairs common in Vietnam!

For dinner we went back to 4P Pizza. We sat at the bar in front of the pizza prep and wood fired ovens. It was great to watch the “lean” production line in process. Definitely a balanced process.

The Sapa Journey Begins

At 9:30 pm we are on our night train the ET – Pumpkin Express train to Lao Cai. It is nice having our wonderful Handspan guide, young Duc escort us to our berth. We have a four berth cabin to ourselves and am looking forward to some sleep on the nine hour ride!

Our train arrives in Lao Cai ahead of schedule at 5:30 not at 6:30 am. I just had gotten about 2 or 3 hours of good sleep when coffee showed up at the door of our sleeper.

We are met by a private driver who takes through the mountains to Sapa. I had hoped to get about an hour sleep but the road was winding and winding. Then the sun started to rise and the beauty of the mountains kept me awake.

We arrive at 7:30 at our hotel for breakfast, then a quick shower to help wake up. We met our Sapa guide at 8:30 and we are starting our 15km hike by 9 am!  So much for sleep!

The Ta Phin Valley

We start our walk at our hotel, then walk through the town of Sapa. Within 15 minutes we are walking along a countryside trail.

Soon after we are among the rice terraces, pigs, large and small, ducks, chickens, dogs, goats, cats, etc., all living in harmony together.

 Our walk takes us through a couple small villages and among different ethnic groups. The first village is that of the black H’Mong group in Ma Tra.
We stopped at a little village cafe along the way.

I opted for a hot ginger lemongrass tea with our guide instead of cold Hanoi Beer. Energy producing versus energy sapping.  I will take any help I can get on these treks!

The beauty on the trek is outstanding. The rice terraces have been harvested and rice is not being grown here at the moment because it is “winter”. They only have one growing season per year here, unlike those paddies in the Mekong and other delta areas who have water sources year round. So the paddies and terraces are not green this time of year but very beautiful in a different way.  There are, however, many different vegetables being grown.

We continue our hike through the Ta Phin Valley and stop for lunch at a Ta Phin village home. This is the a village of the Red Dzao group. They must have looked at me and said “he likes to eat” because they brought multiple servings of spring rolls, stir fried pork, Bok Choy, steamed rice of course, and yes, French fries!

After lunch we soak our feet in an herbal hot water mixture. Wow, was it welcome and refreshing. Apparently it is boiled with at least 14 medicinal herbs! We enjoyed talking to Sue, one of the wonderful Red Dzao ladies from the village.

After lunch it is a short walk to where we meet a driver for a ride back to Sapa. It is a bumpy, bumpy one hour ride. As I like to say, “this would be a great place for a road”!

After napping and a hot shower, we enjoy a great Sapa dinner at Little Vietnam. The local grilled duck and salmon are delicious. Yes, the rivers here have salmon and fish farms along the river.  We saw many duck today, lol.

We head back to our hotel after dinner, enjoying the walk through the town of Sapa. It reminds us a bit of a mountain ski town. The town is booming now with 24 hour construction of hotels and will not be a quaint mountain town for long. There apparently are many investors funding the large boom including the large hotels.

To top off the evening our wonderful hotel and host Viet delivers hot bananas and chocolate to our room for desert!

The Golden Stream Valley

We start the day with a good breakfast. Today we do a 13 km hike south of Sapa. It includes stops in small mountain villages of Y Linh Ho, Lao Chai San, Lao Chai and Ta Van.

The first stop is a market to buy the fresh ingredients to cook lunch at a stop on a small spot in the mountains at Lao Chai, a village of the Black H’Mong people. We gather chicken, pork, bamboo shoots, lemongrass, mushrooms, bean sprouts, petel leaves and bean sprouts.  This is a market for the locals with primarily meat, poultry and vegetables.

The first part of the walk is a bit cloudy, but still offers great views of the magnificent mountains, rice paddies, streams and small villages.
We stop beside a stream in the beautiful valley for a morning break. The sky gradually starts to clear and as we eat lunch it is mostly sunny.

The lunch stop is terrific with magnificent views. I enjoy a black Vietnamese coffee before the meal. The lunch is outstanding, a lemongrass chicken, stir fried bamboo shoots, vegetable pork roll wrapped in betel leaves.

The villages we walk through and visit are small with many farm animals along the trail and in the villages. We came face to face with pigs, piglets and buffalo a couple times. We meet people from the Black Hmong and Dzay ethnic groups.

We often have them traveling along with us, our “fan club”. Obviously they are wanting to sell souvenirs, but we disappoint since we have no capacity to acquire and carry “stuff”‘since we carry everything we own living around the world.

We are able to see the homes of two different tribes. It is a quite simple life they live but are very happy people. I must say it was odd to see the flat screen TVs in the homes with few material goods. Beautiful clothing is woven using hemp and indigo dyes.

At the end of the trek we are driven back to Sapa along the opposite mountain range. We are able to see the incredible mountainous trek we had just made. We arrive about 30 minutes later after a bumpy ride back at our hotel, a bit stiff after two 12 km plus days of trekking.

We enjoyed a nice dinner at our hotel, grilled salmon, grilled pork, veggies and ginger tea.

Last Day in Sapa

Our final day in Sapa is one of rest, a walk around the town, and a bit of travel planning. We enjoy a walk around Lake Sapa, a stop at a local coffee shop for Vietnamese brew and a pizza for lunch!

We have to take a break from the SE Asian food every few days!

We head back to Lao Cai late afternoon to grab some dinner and catch the night train back to Hanoi!

We think Sapa is definitely worth the visit. It is probably on the brink of being too touristy, but not yet cheesy. It has a wonderful history and beautiful scenery. It is definitely a town in transition, from a more quiet quaint mountain village, to a hotel filled resort area.

And a few more pics!