Sapa, a charming village in the rice fields of Vietnam

Sapa is just magical. It's high up in the mountains of northwest Vietnam, close to the Chinese boarder. The sides of the peaks are covered in rice fields, green in the sunlight. Hill tribes spot the horizon and children tend to the water buffalo around every bend. The H'mong girls are the friendliest people we've met. They really are special- full of energy, charisma and character.

We took an overnight sleeper train from Hanoi to Sapa. (Much more comfortable than our first train ride!) We trekked through the rice fields in the heart of the villages for 2 days. The first night we slept at a home-stay with a young family. We had 7 people in our group and we were presented with a feast for dinner. As far as home-stays go, the accommodations were very comfortable. We actually had a pad to sleep on, a thick blanket and pillow and a warm shower! Our guides Lang and Pan poured the rice wine freely over a game of cards. We slept well that night!

We awoke to a scene out of a picture book. The sun rose over the fields and we set off again on a fun filled day. We stopped in a each village to rest and chat with the girls. They all wear traditional hill tribe attire, with colors that represent their particular tribe. The guides are young girls, between 15-19 years old and they became close friends as the days went on.

The second and third night we slept in Sapa town at a hotel. Ben was our guide the third morning and took us to Cat Cat village where they were having a cultural festival. We were able to see how silver jewelry was made, basket weaving, farming, etc.

Later that day, Ben invited us to come with her and her friend CC to Ban Ho village. We rented a motorbike and cruised around sharp curves and high cliffs. We went to a waterfall and hot springs. Just the day before, there was an American tourist who was only 25 years old who drowned in that waterfall. When we arrived, the entire village was out to help rescue him. His body was found 3 days later. It was heart wrenching to been so close to such a tragedy. The village pulled together and used whatever resources were available however there were no true emergency personnel present. We are relieved that his body was found so it could be returned to his family. It just makes you appreciate just how fragile life is...

Ben is a beautiful girl who speaks extremely good English. She has only been speaking for 2 years and never went to school to learn. She has a very large vocabulary simply by speaking with tourists. She was very informative about village life, rice fields, and culture. It's really great that the girls get to be guides, it appears that they make a very good living and are able to assist their families with necessities. We had a wonderful time with her and will miss her deeply.

As we walk along, the girls ask us our name, age, number of brothers and sisters we have and how long we have been together. As you can imagine, this opens up the conversation and we became very close with them after hearing about their family life. All of the girls wear silver necklaces with charms that tourists have given them. Before we left, my mom gave me a silver necklace with the state of Texas on it. I've carried it around with me everyday and then I decided that Ben would love it. She was very happy when I presented it to her, as she had never even heard of Texas before! Now every time she looks at it hopefully she will remember Alex and I.


We definitely want to return to Sapa. The girls made it such a wonderful experience that we will not forget. The countryside is picturesque and the people are so friendly.