Day 56 - Arrival in Sapa, Cat Cat and Sin Chai Villages

I had the best sleep on the train in a really long time. The train arrived at Lao Cai station on time at 7:15 am. As soon as the train stopped a kid got on to try and get us to ride his minibus into Sapa. When I got off the train I was constantly being harassed by multiple minibus drivers to take us to Sapa. Ended up taking one for 25000D up the winding road up the mountain to Sapa it seemed just as windy as the road to Hana in Maui. Upon arrival, harassment from people to stay in their hotels ensued. People here will follow you for ages to get you to cave in and follow them to their hotel.

Sapa is an absolutely stunning place. The mountains are cut with rice fields and everything is green. A definite place to see when in Vietnam. Sapa is populated mainly by hill tribes, particularly the Black Hmong and Red Dzao. Most of their money is made through selling handicrafts to tourists. Decided to walk to Cat Cat, a Black Hmong village, located about 2 hours from Sapa. The trek to the village was quite easy but we were constantly asked by motorcycles trying get us to ride back to Sapa for $1 USD. The ticket to enter Cat Cat was 15000D. The village and waterfall were beautiful. Every makeshift home was selling handicrafts such as pillow cases and blankets. Walking through the village little girls were singing in the streets and hanging out of trees. One thing I'll remember forever is a little girl who asked me where I was from and I said "Canada". She looked at me and said "You have Canada on you bag!" Quite cool that she knew the Canadian Flag.

The scenery in Cat Cat is beautiful. Lots of rice paddy steps and animals running all over the place. This place is tiny before I knew it, we had already walk through the city and decided to continue onto Sin Chai, the less touristy village as it is further off the beaten track.

Sin Chai was more amazing than Cat Cat. It was more impressive and felt more genuine than the first village. All the women had hands stained by indigo dye and freshly dyed fabric was strewn about everywhere to dry. Everyone we passed said "Hello" with a smile. No one in this village approached us to sell things. They just went about their daily routines. Just down the road I ran into a woman who was shucking rice and took a photo and jokingly she said "Money, Money". I gave her 1000D, she got really happy and gave me a huge toothless smile. The people in this village were very friendly and asked where I was from and just gave a smile. They were very genuine here. Babies and puppies running around all over the place. This village was beautiful. It was full of steps of rice paddys, oxen, pigs, chickens and tiny shacks with satellite tvs. Everyone was wearing indigo clothing and all the toddlers didn't wear any pant and were absolutely filthy. It was brilliant.

Back at the hotel when the sun set, the city was freezing at about 5C. My body didn't react to the cold very well and my hands went numb for a couple of hours.Thank god I was able to rent an electric blanket from the hotel convienently as it was not heated. If the weather is like this all the time, 30 C in the day and 5C at night I can't stay here much longer.