Vietnam: Bac Ha and Sapa {Northwest Vietnam}

After spending a week discovering Hanoi and Halong Bay, Derek and I were really excited to head up into the mountains in Northern Vietnam. Everyone insists you head North, and I do too! It's incredible! This post will talk about the two places we went: Bac Ha and Sapa. Most tourists head to Sapa, then take a daytrip over to Bac Ha for the incredible Sunday market — we wanted a few days of downtime so we opted for a few days in Bac Ha to rest and get some work done. I'm so glad we did!

Bac Ha is small — one main street with a few hotels, and the rest of the town is sleepy and slow. Just the way I like it! We spent our first day there hiking to neighboring villages with a local guide, thanks to some friendly Minnesotans we met on the bus from Lao Cai to Sapa. {More on Lao Cai in a minute!} This was our first real exposure to terraced rice paddies, and was a great introduction before going to Sapa. We met some local Hmong (mostly Flower and Black), sat in their houses and played music, observed women of all ages working in the rice paddies, and mostly just took in the incredible views. We were thrilled to be up in the mountains!

The next day was the famous Bac Ha market, so we saw town spring to life early in the morning and continue buzzing into the late afternoon. In the market area, which is usually just empty, there were hundreds of stalls filled with trinkets, fabrics, fruits, veggies, slabs of meat, live pigs and chickens, daily household items, seeds, farming equipment — I could go on! We had a great time walking around, mostly due to the people-watching. It's easy to spot the Hmong women because their clothing (which we found they genuinely wore in their daily lives) is so beautiful! The amount of work that goes into making the clothing is truly incredible, and the precision with which they stitch is beyond my imagination!

The next two days in Bac Ha were mostly work days, but we took some time each day to go on a hike/run through the hills to discover small villages and beautiful vistas! All in all, Bac Ha was great for us. I can see why the guidebooks don't give it much credit — there's not much to do but walk — but we really enjoyed the people there, and the food was cheap and delicious! For those interested, we stayed at the Cong Fu (sometimes Cong Phu) hotel, which was fabulous. We had floor to ceiling windows with a great view, strong AC, breakfast included, and the proprietor was really friendly (and gave us a lot of free, cold water!). I'd recommend it!

Next, we headed to Sapa. To get to Sapa from pretty much anywhere in Vietnam, you have to go through Lao Cai. Lao Cai isn't very remarkable, but it is where the train station is. Most tourists take the train from Hanoi up to Lao Cai, then continue on to Sapa (Southwest of Lao Cai) or other towns to the East (like Bac Ha!). The trains are overnight, leaving Hanoi around 9 pm and arriving in Lao Cai around 7 am. I was unsure what to expect, especially since we arranged for our train tickets through our hotel in Hanoi (which I think was a mistake), but it ended up being an alright experience. We had "soft sleepers" in a 4-bed berth, which we shared with a Malaysian couple. "Soft" is a relative term — I think we had 2" of rather firm foam mattresses that looked dirty as could be, barely covered in a "clean" sheet. Much to my dismay, I looked into the train next to us in the station in Hanoi and discovered a luxurious train car with fluffy white beds and pillows (ours were like cats in a bag), and all sorts of fancy toiletries. Clearly we were not booked on the correct company! {I can't really help much on WHICH is the right company, but I know there are a few to choose from. Google will tell you with pictures!}

Despite my semi-disgust at the state of our train, it did the job. We could lock the door, so I felt comfortable falling asleep (as much as I could with a rocking train!), and our car had a Western toilet. The biggest tip from this whole post is this: Don't agree to any bus/taxi straight off the train in Lao Cai! I'm glad I'd read up on this before arriving, because we were hassled for 300,000 dong ($15 US) for a bus ride to Lao Cai, which I knew was WAY more than the 60,000 it should have been! I stood my ground and got him down to 150,000, at which point he gave me the "you are crazy and I'm offended you're offering me 60,000" look, so I walked away {frustrated}, down the hill to the bus station. The bus station has LAO CAI 60,000 printed VERY clearly, and we weren't given any trouble down there! It's like a 3 minute, downhill, walk. Make the trek. {From the train station, turn left, then right down the big street with the median!}

There are only a few negative things I've noticed here in Vietnam, but one of them is that look/feeling I described above — guilting you into not paying for something, regardless of whether they're ripping you off or not. Kids, bus drivers, women selling trinkets, etc. will all give you puppy-dog eyes and either straight up beg for money, or (if they have a little bit of English) explain why you are a bad person for not buying from them, or tipping them extra, etc. It really turns me off, and I'm having a hard time not getting a bit negative about it. Most of the time I can laugh it off, but sometimes they're too darn persistent, verging on insulting! I'll finish this post with some other observations of the more positive persuasion, I promise!

Our time in Sapa was amazing. I'm so glad we spent a full week there! We started our stay at the Sapa Garden B&B, which I already told you about, and spent our days split between relaxing at the B&B and doing short hikes in the valley. Once we moved into town, we were staying at the Sapa Queen Palace. It was 81 steps up to our room, and I tell you what: My legs are out of shape! Whew. Especially since we were doing all sorts of steep up/down hiking, those steps were a challenge! Decent hotel overall, but nothing fancy. And they lost my favorite jean shorts in the laundry. I'm trying to let that go! {Luckily, we're almost to Hoi An and the famous tailors — I'll have the perfect jean shorts made for me!}

We hiked down to Lao Chai (not to be confused with Lao Cai above!) on our own one afternoon, mostly because we wanted to get in the river! It was a pretty steep hike down (and then back up), but we had a great time sitting in the cool water, along with what seemed like every kid in the surrounding 10 miles! They were all splashing around, playing on rocks, jumping from here to there, and always waving and saying "Hello!" to us. We loved it. Hiking back up was hard, but faster than expected and gave us some incredible views! Highly recommended as a hike, which can easily be done by yourself in an afternoon (rather than as part of your overnight trek, which most people do).

Our favorite part of Sapa was probably our overnight trek, which we did with a local Hmong woman named Zi. We started out with a pretty long day, up and around the mountains of Sapa, down through her village (which I forget the name of!), to her house! We sat at her house, watching kids play and families tend to their rice paddies, before heading down to another village (Ta Van, I think). We spent the night at a homestay in Ta Van, again playing in the river with the kids and cooling off after a long HOT day of hiking. Most of the kids seem to actually be bathing in the river, but the fun they have doing it sure is impressive! I saw a group of maybe eight little girls, age ten and under, playing together SO riotously in the river, it was beautiful! They're so joyful!

The next day we again hiked up through the mountains to another village, where we had lunch and then returned by car to Sapa. The trip was short, but we had a great time chatting with our guide (who spoke English very well) and learning about her culture and business. It turns out that the guides, who are mainly Hmong or from another minority, really get the short end of the stick with the guiding business. Most (like 95%) tourists set up their trek through their hotel, which then hires the guide. Not only does the hotel keep a lot of the money initially, but if the group grows (say 8 tourists for a guide rather than 2), the guide still gets paid the exact same amount — her pay doesn't increase like the hotel's does. We were pretty outraged, actually. I'm 90% done setting up a website for Zi that I hope will bring her direct business, so she can actually make a living. If you're planning to trek in Sapa, let me hook you up with Zi! I'm not taking a cut, and I know she could use the money.

Our other favorite part of Sapa was the day we rented a motorbike. I would NEVER agree to this in Hanoi, or another busy Vietnam city, but the traffic in Sapa was manageable — so we went for it! We drove up the pass, into a cloud, before stopping at the Love Waterfall (also known as the Golden Stream Love Waterfall… terrible name.). We hiked into the waterfall, which was pretty darn buggy, before heading down the pass and exploring the villages we found along the way. We saw so much more than we ever would have without renting a motorbike (well, technically it was a scooter), so I'm really glad we did it. Make sure you observe traffic "rules" in Vietnam before trying this though, and wear your helmet!

Sapa is most definitely a touristy town, which I thought would really dampen my experience there, but I loved it. Despite being asked to buy trinkets every three steps, and having restaurant after restaurant of "European and American" food (which almost scratched my pizza itch, but not quite), the town is charming. I could spend so much time {and money!} just wandering Sapa and eating/buying everything I see! We found ourselves underneath the city in the market food stalls every day, eating pho and bun from the same hardworking woman (she was there at 8 am for our breakfast, and 8 pm for our dinner!) for about $1.50 each. Very affordable, and exceptionally delicious — I think the broth for the pho we had in Sapa is the best we've experienced. Really flavorful and darker than what I've seen everywhere else!

As we continue to travel in Vietnam, I'm struck by how many children there are. They are EVERYWHERE. And CUTE! It's also very clear that childcare here really is a group effort, and people aren't as anal about "protecting" their kids from life. Not to say the kids aren't taken care of — I think they are taken care of quite well. We see roves of kids playing together, running up and down the streets, chasing each other on bikes, frolicking in the river — all without real adult supervision. The thing that makes this ok, at least for me, is that everyone is watching out for everyone else's kids. Any adult, whether they know the kid or not, will pull a toddler out of the street if they shouldn't be there, or help them get on the bus if their parents hands are full, hold a strangers baby in a store, etc. I think in the US we're afraid to touch a stranger's kid, even if it's helpful, because it's just not accepted! There's also no signs of daycare anywhere here. Kids are watched over by any adult available, and everyone has a helping hand. We've been pondering this a bit — mostly as to how the US has become so drastically different in this regard. I think lawsuits have something to do with it, but I think there's more at play. Any ideas?

I've recently learned that in Vietnam it is 100% socially acceptable to wear your pajamas out in public. I see this in practice quite often, and chuckle, but am totally on board! They have some cute PJs!

People here are incredibly friendly, especially if they aren't really trying to get your money, and eager to talk and say hi. I've already mentioned their excitement at taking our picture, which they continue to do unabashedly, but they're also just happy to say "Hello! Where you from?!" or "Hi! Bye bye!" (even young children, barely able to talk!). They love Derek's beard (and chest hair!) — the men are so fascinated by it, and the women are really impressed with my ridiculously pale skin. Despite the communication barrier, which has grown as we've left the North and headed to much smaller towns, we still manage to have fun "conversations" and laugh with many of the people we meet. They are very sweet, and happy to help us in anyway they can {usually}.

I have about ten million more details I could add, so if you have questions: let 'em rip! I hope these posts will be helpful to someone, so the more questions the better! We're still heading South, and making some pretty big decisions today — keep your eyes on our instagrams {here's Derek's, too!} for details!