About 300 km northwest of Hanoi is a town called Sa Pa, a lush and gorgeous area in the Hoàng Liên Son Mountains. Trekking from village to village visiting the hill tribes and crossing the terraced rice fields of the Muong Hoa Valley is the main attraction. Normally, it looks like this:
I happened to arrive at a moment when it was very cold and enshrouded in fog.
Nevertheless, it was a very good experience. Sure, we missed the views, but the main attraction is really the culture of the 8+ tribes in the area – it was an honest look into what it’s like to live a remote pastoral life. The people of the region are not Vietnamese and have always had a separate identity and existence.
We arrived via a $30 overnight sleeper train to Lao Cai, followed by a bus to Sa Pa. Did I sleep? Hmmmm….nahhhhhh.
We stayed at a place called Sapa Paradise View hotel, where the staff was incredibly friendly, the rooms cozy, and priced right at $35/night on Agoda. We were able to arrange a guided trek with a local woman.
The remarkable thing is that all the people who live there speak phenomenal English. It’s bizarre considering how isolated they are. They somehow seem more inclined towards new language acquisition as a culture. Everything down to the idioms and intonation was on point. Many people never took a formal class and learned it all through watching TV and movies.
As we trekked from village to village, we learned about life, customs, marriage traditions, and their reliance on agriculture. They continue to rely largely on subsistence agriculture. They eat what they farm, and their crops may be sold at the local market or exchanged but it is not more broadly exported to the rest of the country.
Animals freely roam around the valley and return to the owner to sleep and be fed. We saw plenty of roosters, chicken, and pigs running around, along with groups of ducks, which can be distinguished between the “wet ducks” (loud, noisy, and water-based) and dry ducks (ugly, quiet, and largely land-based).
We saw women weaving hemp fabric for clothing on big looms:
And of course ate a tasty lunch of tofu, veggies, chicken, and a pile of spring rolls (so simple, so good):
Many people there cannot afford to eat meat, and they may only eat it once a month or on a special occasion like a wedding. It made me realize how much I take for granted being able to eat chicken (or even eat) every day of my life.
Although many visitors stay in a home stay in the village, we opted to stay in hotels. Firstly, I had a call until 4am, and it would have been weird being on the phone at that hour in a cold stone single-room unit with a family talking about the financials of the nonprofit I’m on the board of. The dissonance would be a bit too much for me to handle. Above all the discomforts of the situation, it’s also just plain rude.
The last day, we spent our morning at the Sunday market near Ban Ho perusing the bags, clothing, and meat for sale.
And then we were back on the overnight train to Hanoi!