North Vietnam Tour: Day 3: Trekking in Sapa

Click here for photo album Sapa, North Vietnam

Woke up at 8am, had breakfast downstairs in Bamboo Hotel, check out and waited for Huang to come. We set off for the 11km+ hike down to Lao Chai, village of the Black H'mongs.

Huang our guide.

It was a cloudy and foggy day to hike. Unless you like shooting into a blank wall of grey fog...photo opportunities of the beautiful mountain scenaries and rice paddy terrace were not that many. We got like small windows of opportunity to quickly grab a few shots before the fog obscure our view again.

 

There was a few of Black H'mongs whom accompanied us for our little dandy hike to the village.

 

For most of the day, this is how the typical conversation with the locals here...who accompanied and "helped" us throughout our journey.

"Hello"

"Hello"

"What's your name?"

"Lee"

"Where you from?"

"Malaysia"

"Ahh Mah-layseee..." - repeat to her freinds 

etc. etc... until we stop our destination.. which they asked to buy their wares for their assistant through out the journey.

There was even one old granny that followed Ju all the way from our Lunch Stop to Ta Van. 

We bought a few stuff from them to show our appreciation and they really did help out at time at the paddy fields etc.

 

Here are some nice shot of the trekkers (Oi.. Tom.. I am making you a "diep-chai" star here....where are the pretty shots of me in your Canon? hee hee hee..)

 

We also went to Ta Van. This is the village where all the homestay "hotels" are located. Looks impressive and nice. Must really come back here one of these days, during summer time.

Got back to the Hotel at around 3pm. Guide was kind enough to arrange a room for us to freshen up and take a shower before getting on the bus to Lao Cai for dinner and a train back to Hanoi.

Reached Hanoi at 5:30am tired by had a great time.

Some more model shots.... ;)

 

North Vietnam tour: Day 2: Walk About in Bac Ha and Sapa

Click here for the Photo Album Bac Ha, North Vietnam

Day 2 started off with a tour of the Bac Ha market after breakfast. 

This is a weekly Sunday market were mostly locals and some Flowery H'mong selling their stuff. Can see that it is already a tourist market as opening price were absolutely ridicously high. Bargining is a norm, with rate of 50% to 60% cut is possible. A short walk from the hotel we were staying in. Here you have your normal sections of dry, wet, souvernior, live stock, clothes, bags, food etc. sections. Spend only a good couple of hours there and then it off to Sapa as it was quite the same as what we saw yesterday.

Road condition was worst that the last time on the journey to Sapa via Lao Cai. Probably due to the rain. Port holes and mud patches everywhere. Stop at Lao Cai for lunch. Reached Sapa sometime around 3pm as it was a 45 minute drive away from Lao Cai. Really foggy and raining. The tour guide went home after checking us in at Bamboo Hotel and left us with a free and easy afternoon. 

 

Rested and we went out for a little walk in the town. Didn't really manage to explore the whole town as it started to really pissed down after a while. Abandon the idea, and parked outselves at a local diner for a few hours before we set out back to the Hotel. 

What can I say about Sapa, this is nice little colorful tourist town which Sapa H'mong peddling their wares whever we go. I suspect we miss many sights ... it is definately worth visiting again.

Here's a few shot of Tom and Ju having a bit of fun at the verendah of Bamboo Hotel.

North Vietnam tour: Day 1: Walk About in Bac Ha

Click for here photo album

Me, Ju and Tom went on a little outing as thing were toning down in the project. Signed up for a Bac Ha-Lao Cai-Sapa package in Vietnam.Took a train from Ga Hanoi train station on Friday night. Nice sleeping coach (4 to a unit). Reached Lao Cai around 5:30am. Had local breakfast at a little local touring company designated restaurant.

We then head out to visit the famous Can Cau market which according to our guide comprise of 6 hill ethic tribes i.e. Flower H'mong, Phu La, Black Dzao etc. whom convene only on the weekly Saturday to sell their wares. In general they are known as the Flowery H'mong due to the local hand weave bright and vivid colour cloths they wore.

The journey was pretty bumpy at part due to road works and poor maintenance which lasted around 2.5 hours. We spend a couple of hours or so wandering around the market which is broken into the food section, the souvenior section, the food section, the cloth and the live stock market. The locals and the market was filled with a vast array of color making it a photographer dream. As it turned out, our visit during this time was on the brink of the rainy/autumn season(soon to be winter), it would be definately very vibrant in colour if we came during summer time.

Later on in the afternoon, we headed back to Lao Cai for lunch at then set out to vist a minority village which is a few kilometer hike away.  Took some of these shots on the way to the village.

Reached Loa Cai again at around 6pm for dinner and sleep!