Vietnam: Sapa

So, after another day in Hanoi, Ethan and I took the night train up to Sapa on a "3 day/4 night" trip. Sapa is known for it's beautiful terraced hills and the cool weather. It's a big rice producing area where six different ethnic groups live. Our trip basically consisted of a partial day of trekking, staying overnight in a hotel, then two more days of trekking, staying overnight in a village homestay, with another overnight train back to Hanoi. The Sapa area is most busy in the summer when the weather is much warmer around the rest of the country and we didn't fair all that well as it was foggy for most of the time. But still a good trip. Here are some photos.

Yeah, so I think I mentioned it was pretty foggy.


First day visit into a village. I think a family of 7 or 8 live here with not much more room than what you see here. It's pretty typical for girls to get married around 15 and have kids by 16 or 17.


Finally seeing some rice fields


An hillside view of a school

Picture from the 2nd day of a water buffalo

Our guide, Du (sounds like Zhu), uber small

Kick ass rice fields

Yeah, that's still me.

I guess there is no Home Depot here.

The calm before the storm.

Check out the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z2wFPMcnYY

Kids at play...sort of. Ethan and I were pretty sure that's poo that they're getting ready to throw at us.

Dinner at our homestay. Maybe the best meal I had in Vietnam.

He didn't like my goatee too much and I luckily stopped him from burning it off. But he didn't really mean any harm.

Dog and Buffalo...Isn't that a Heart song?

A little better visibility the next day.

And we had to use the shitty bridge.

See, I told you she was uber small. That's Du on the far right.

One last shot of the terraced rice fields.