Sapa - Rice Paddy Paradise

18 - 20 February 2015

Wow...I slept really well.  The rocking of the train is quite soothing making for a nice sleeping environment.  The train pulled into Sapa right on time...6:20 AM:

Oh...I guess I didn't tell you...we signed up for a 4-night, 3-day trip to Sapa (2 of the 4 nights are the night train there and back).  I know...what is with all these organized trips?  Yeah...we usually like doing 1 or 2 organized trips per country and then travel around on our own, but Tet is tonight and we wanted to celebrate it somewhere, so we organized this trip to be in a smaller town for the celebration and then doing a homestay with a family on what is considered New Year's Day.

Our tour guide met us at the train station and drove us the 1 hour to our hotel in Sapa.  Today we do a short trek in the morning, explore Sapa in the afternoon, and sleep in a hotel in Sapa.  First the short trek to the textile town of Cat Cat.  On the way down we were approached by a vendor.  She was very persistent so we bought a chain purse and she agreed to pose for a picture.  She is dressed in the traditional garb of the Hmong people.  In this area the minority population is 49%.

This area is just amazing...check out this scenery:

We walked around Cat Cat village known for its textile work.  Here are some pictures of their work.  I wish I had the room to buy some of these blankets and take them home with me.

And an adorable girl wearing clothes made in the village:

Like every good trek, this one ended at a waterfall:

The rest of the day we walked around Sapa, had a new beer brewed in this area (Lo Cai), and took in a New Year's Eve celebration:

We thought about staying up till midnight to celebrate New Years, but since we didn't even stay up for our own New Year's Eve, why would we stay up for Vietnam's.  We returned to the hotel around 9 PM and the workers stopped us in the lobby and had us join them for some tea, candy, and sunflower seeds while we watched some variety show special for Tet.  After about 45 minutes we were able to excuse ourselves and went to our room.  At midnight we were awaken by what sounded like church bells that went off for 5 minutes...Chúc Mừng Năm Mới...Happy New Year!

The next morning we had the provided breakfast and checked out of the room.  Today we go on a 8 mile hike through the rice paddy fields to our homestay.  The walk started on a road lined with bamboo, and just down the road was an awesome view:

Finally, we left the road and entered the rice paddy landscape:

Finally, after about 8 miles we made it to the house we are staying at, around 4:00 PM.  They were waiting for us and were anxious to sit down with us to a New Year's feast...rooster heads and all:

Quite the dinner spread

Daughter of host family

Rooster head...crown and all.

Tet tree

Let me tell you...this family was out to celebrate Tet big time.  The rice wine was flowing very freely and neighbors came and went throughout the night.  The evening pretty much went like this...fill shot glasses with rice wine, raise said shot glasses, yell "Chúc Mừng Năm Mới", drink entire shot glass of rice wine, shake everyone's hands, repeat, repeat, repeat.  We made it to 10:00 PM till we called it quits, but heard "Chúc Mừng Năm Mới" going on till after midnight.

Here are some pictures of the house:

Our bedroom...loft looking down over dining/living area.

The next morning they served us some really yummy crepes with banana and honey and we were on our way for the return 5 mile trek.  Even though we spent all of yesterday walking through this landscape of terraced rice patties, we were still not bored of the scenery:

After about 3 hours we arrived at a village on a main road.  This is where a van will pick us up and drive up back to Sapa.  While waiting we watched the teenagers of the village strut back and forth along the road showing off all their new clothes that they received as Tet gifts.  Our tour guide told us that just after Tet is the time that the teens try to find girlfriends and boyfriends since they have new clothes and they have one week off from school and the rice paddies are still dormant.  In one month the entire village, children included, will be busy preparing the paddies for planting.

We arrived back in town to see a different city than we left.  When we left for our 2-day, 1-night trek the town was quiet because everyone was at home with their family celebrating Tet.  Now today, 2 days later, everyone seems to have taken to the street to celebrate in the city center park and children were running around playing:

We had some lunch and then our tour guide picked us up to drive us the one hour back to the train station for our overnight train ride back to Hanoi.  We arrived to the station 1.5 hours before our train arrived so we figured we better eat something before boarding.  All of a sudden Tim didn't feel well....not good timing since we have a 10 hour train ride in front of us.  He went back to the restroom in the noodle shop we were in and came back saying that it was a squatter and he needs a "sitter".  He ran out the street looking for a better bathroom.  He returned and we took his temperature and he had a fever...great.  We filled him with all the medicine he took last time and hoped for the best.  He ran back to the bathroom one more time before we boarded the train. We apologized in advance to the couple sharing our berth that Tim would probably be getting up to use the bathroom regularly.  Let's just hope he doesn't get any sicker!