Charlie and Liz - Gap Year: Sa Pa

Sa Pa is the town high up in the hills in the far north of Vietnam where people go to escape the heat of the lowlands in the summer and admire the views of rice terraces and the handcrafted souvenirs. Being November, we wavered over going there since it was likely to be rather cold, but the allure of somewhere quieter and more rural than Hanoi was strong.

Another overnight train of course.

We were booked in a hotel recommended by our friends Lin and Steve, which was perched on the edge of the steep Valley with an amazing view over the rice terraces The view was dramatic though not permanent as we wafted in and out of the clouds. Sa Pa was indeed cold as expected. The hotel provided an electric blanket and a heater, but after one very cold night we had to concede defeat and find a warmer (more expensive) hotel. In any case it was nice to experience the first hotel for the view and the roof top breakfast room. The new hotel was very nice with lots of nice touches and complimentary titbits like the one in Hanoi - and warm rooms!

The part of Sa Pa where most tourists stay is quite busy and full of restaurants and people selling goods of all sorts, but it is still a calm change from Hanoi. The food was good though still quite Westernised.

Sapa is in the area where the Dau and Hmong minority people live. They generally make a living off the land, growing rice and many other vegetables and raising pigs, chickens, ducks, goats and water buffaloes... Very self sufficient. These days they also sell to tourists, partly through normal market stalls and shops but also in the street. Almost all the sellers are women. The street sellers tend to be selling mostly embroidered bags and other items, made in traditional patterns or from older recycled traditional material. They have a curiously unpredictable sales technique which seems to involve targeting you as you walk down the street and being very persistent, but at other times taking no notice of you. In particular they follow you when you are on an organised trek, with at least one seller per trekker, initially with no mention of selling, just asking "where you from?", "how many children you got?", and other favourite questions. This will go on for however long the trek lasts, which can be hours, or until reaching a mysteriously pre-appointed place at which point you are "obliged" to purchase something from your one or more "appointed" sellers. They are good at establishing a rapport which makes you feel guilty if you don't buy something. The prices are also not really in line with the local value of things either so although just a few pounds for each item it starts to add up. We got caught the first time and ended up with several things we didn't really plan to get. After that we had to be more brutal and refuse.

The minority villages themselves are extremely basic. Straw roofed wooden houses in amongst the rice terraces, shared by family and animals. Children frequently with bare feet but very cheerful. There are publicly funded schools and medical centres in the villages and the people do own the land they live on. It did feel a bit wrong strolling through the villages with our cameras and peering at people about their daily lives. We assume and hope that the tourism income somehow filters down to the normal villagers as well as those directly exploiting it.

As well as the villages we saw the rice terraces which covered the whole hillside in most areas and have done for hundreds of years. It was very reminiscent of the areas we visited in South China, which is not so surprising since the border is only a few miles to the north of where we were. A new experience was a part of the walk through a small bamboo forest. Very different from a normal forest since the bamboos are growing quite small (1 to 2 inches diameter) but very dense. We also met a snake there that terrified our guide and others, since she had not seen that one before. It turned out to be dead.
When we returned to Hanoi the change in temperature was immediately noticeable. Even the altitude change from Sa Pa to the train station, 35km away, made the temperature significantly higher.