My First Trip To Vietnam - Pt. 2 Sapa

After spending roughly a week with family in Do Luong and Cua Lo beach, my fiance and I ventured North to Hanoi for a couple nights and then took a guided tour bus 6 hours into the mountains to Sapa.

One thing about Vietnam that I find fascinating is the French versus U.S.A. influence in the North versus South respectively. You can see this in the food and architecture quite a bit. The churches with French architectural sensibilities are striking and not dissimilar from what I've seen traveling through Europe. Of course, the french bread rolls, otherwise known liberally as banh mi, are also quite amazing and delicious as a reminder of how French culture has influenced Vietnam. Of course, fond memories of the effects of French colonialism are drawn quite short beyond the superficial, as with colonialism throughout the world, stripped the native countries of natural resources, dignity and caused more harm than good.

Sapa, or Sa Pa as locals call it, is located up some ridiculously steep and majestic mountains. Getting up there was relatively calming compared to driving in the cities like Hanoi and even Vinh, whose traffic is mind-boggling. Generally, people were pretty considerate to each other on the road. I also think we were lucky to have a good bus driver.

Having lived in Boulder, Colorado and traveling throughout the mountains of the North West, South West and Rocky Mountain region, I must say Sa Pa has some of the most majestic views I've ever seen. Of course, they're quite different than anything I've seen in the U.S. Everything is quite greener and the rice fields are on this graded slant up and down the mountains. Also, there's no snow, but rather some huge waterfalls scattered sporadically throughout the valley.

As far as the weather goes, it was nice and cool compared to the Central area of Vietnam and even Hanoi. We had perfect weather the first two days, but then hard, ceaseless rain the last two days we were there. The rain was so bad we had to ditch our umbrellas which tired our arms on long hikes and walks for rain jackets purchased on discount. We also needed to buy a few new pairs of dry socks because our feet were so wet for days.

We decided to to half of our stay in Sa Pa in a homestay and and the other half in a hotel. The first day and a half with the homestay we fun, though we got really really wet towards the end. The rain just didn't stop. However, when we stayed with the family, the food they made us was quite nice and we got friendly with our fellow homestay lodgers from all over the world including Russia, the U.K. and France. The little girl who lived at the homestay was a complete ham and knew how to work us like a New York City street performer. She had card tricks and random beer bottle cap tricks to show us as we drank the free rice wine provided to us into the early evening. She even knew how to make the dogs do some fun tricks.

One of the coolest things about Sa Pa was the Black Hmong minority ethnic group. They originate from Southern China and have swaths of land, especially agricultural land, in Vietnam dedicated to them as minorities. They are pretty much around tourists all the time trying to sell them handmade goods when it's not one of the harvest seasons. They actually have outstanding English skills for the level of education which most of them has, which finishes around age 15, when most of them get married and start families. They pick up English man many Vietnamese people who live in major cities throughout Vietnam according to the tour guide. Goes to show what really wanting to learn a new language can do for someone and how much they're capable of if they were given real access to quality education besides access to speaking with foreigner tourists.