Sapa, Vietnam: Mountains and Rice Terraces:

 

Right, let’s start with the travel accommodation. I took the posh sleeper train (the Victoria) from Hanoi to Sapa (294 km). Not ensuite, but great toilets. Clean, and there were flowers and curtains in there (not like British trains where you’re lucky if it flushes). Got a glass of red wine brought to me in the evening (splendid), and a croissant and coffee in the morning as the carriage rushed towards the dawn at Laocai Station. This was class. I had my own cabin with two berths, so if I’d fancied bringing a guest, I could have (I didn’t).

above: One's carriage for the night.

above: Train traveller with red wine.

above: The most agreeable train toilet situation. Love the flowers. Nice touch.

It’s pleasantly cool in Sapa, in north-west Vietnam. A beautiful landscape of mountains, mists and rice terraces, it’s a popular area for trekking, so I did a bit of this (without unnecessarily roughing it, naturally). As per the photo below, I wore another of my aesthetically superb holiday outfits. It did the job, though. The umbrella was a nice touch, I feel (the guide’s idea, not my own). Many tourists now make use of homestays with local families whilst on trekking trips (which is obviously good for the local economy), but I stayed in a hotel in town and went out for the day.

above: A new homestay building, since these are increasingly popular with tourists.

There are five ethnic groups in Sapa (Hmong, Dao, Tay, Giay, and Xa Pho), living either in the town or in farming communities. Crops include rice, corn, and hemp (from which the local people make their clothes and fabrics). I saw tomatoes being grown, too. Livestock include buffalo, which are valuable animals in Sapa, each worth several thousand US dollars. They are used as marriage dowries and as a general measure of someone’s wealth. My trek also took me past an outdoor stall where dog meat was being butchered. It should be noted that the Vietnamese keep different kinds of dogs as pets, and you see many around in most places I visited. It is also worth noting that their chickens are truly free range and run around everywhere. Perhaps any of us who buy and eat chicken (probably not as free range as this!) from supermarkets, or eat pork, beef, or lamb should think twice before recoiling at the site of a dog butchery. It is a simple matter of perspective, after all.

above: Marijuana. You knew that, though, didn't you?above: Bushels of hemp.

above: Corn hanging in the rafters of a local house.

above: Buffalo stance.

above: Lay a little egg for me. 

above: Can you see the little piggies?

                                                                   above: Dog butchery.

The town of Sapa itself is relatively small. Apparently, it became a tourist hub in the 1990s, reflected in the array of restaurants and cafes lining the streets and a lot of ongoing construction work. It’s a great place to people watch, especially seeing the various local ethnic groups, each identifiable from their traditional dress. Although I had a prearranged tour guide via my travel company, many of the local women act as guides for tourists who want to go trekking.

above: Hmong lady (I think)    

                                        

above: Hmong girl (I think)

above: Red Dao ladies.

above: Some of Sapa's many eateries, often catering to tourists.

                                                           above: Tea drying in the street

above: Health and Safety on the building site. Gulp. Hard hats?

Oh yeah, and after leaving my hotel to get the train with its nice toilets and wine (and free WiFi) back to Hanoi, the local guide was seemingly unaware of the fact that the usual route via which he would have taken me was blocked due to construction works and a landslip. Having pondered momentarily, he decided on an alternative and persuaded me to walk (whilst literally holding onto him for dear life) along the very narrow pathway on the edge shown in the photo below. There was a metre-deep hole on one side (which is difficult to appreciate from the photo) and a drop the height of the half-completed building opposite on the other. No barriers, obviously. The bit we walked on was sand and about twenty centimetres wide. This was one of the rare occasions on my holidays where I thought I was imminently going to be a goner. I’ve done Health and Safety tests for work purposes in the past, and this was everything they tell you NOT to do. I suppose I should have made a fuss and put my hands on my hips and said ‘No, absolutely not.’ But I didn’t. Didn’t think I had much option, really. I just avoided looking down and hoped for the best. Mercifully, fate was on my side this time, which was probably fortunate from an insurance perspective, and for the future career prospects of my tour guide.

I do not pretend to be any kind of expert regarding the ethnic minorities of Sapa, and I'm not going to regurgitate the work of others who know what they're talking about, without credit. If you are interested, the below website is worth a look, and contains some brilliant photographs covering all Vietnam's ethnic minorities.

https://www.rehahnphotographer.com/ethnic-minorities-in-vietnam/