Hey Everyone!!
This is Noelle, and I have the stellar job of writing our blog for Sapa. After our incredible stay in Hanoi, we were up and ready for our long drive out to Sapa. The drive out was about 6 hours of stunning countryside views. We saw miles of rice fields, winding roads through mountain villages, and just overall beautiful landscape (I have yet to find anything that truly is less than beautiful in this whole country). Compared to Hanoi, Sapa is a little more chill. There’s much less traffic but still is a pretty busy little city. Once we arrived we got settled into our rooms for the night and went out to eat lunch. After lunch, we had a bit of free time to go explore Sapa and obviously play a few games of da cau, a game kind of like foot badminton that involves kicking a birdie and keeping it off the ground. After a nice bit of downtime, we walked over to dinner. Dinner inspired some deep conversations, as our days have gone on our group has grown so much closer. It feels finally like we are truly a team. After a great evening circle full of even more questions, we all got our day packs packed up for our exciting trek in the morning.
An early start to the day got us ready to meet our guides, Ru and Lang. After introductions, we got started by picking our route out to our homestay. We all decided on the longer route up and over the peak of the mountain instead of heading through the valley. As we hiked up towards the peak the mist would blow across the mountain making everything seem straight out of a fairytale. We reached the peak and saw incredible 360 views of all of Sapa. The mountains here are simply incredible. They go on as far as you can see. After the steep uphill, we had an ever-steeper downhill descent. With butterflies surrounding us, we headed down the mountainside to our lunch stop. After some delicious food, we started up our hike again. We had another hour and a half descent to our lovely host Mao’s house.
We were greeted with tea and coffee in the cute little house where we were spending the next 2 nights. Mao’s house is placed on the side of the mountains in the steps of the rice fields. There’s a path leading down to the river through all the rice fields from her house too. Right now isn’t quite rice season so all of the fields have little purple flowers sprouted around the edges. From our homestay, we are surrounded by unreal mountains with steps carved in for their crops and a big bouldery river at the base of the mountains. The whole place is just very serene and peaceful. It’s truly difficult to describe how incredible it is here. Pictures can’t even do it justice. You guys should just come see it for yourselves because it is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world. Anyway, we got settled into our beds and finally got some much-needed time off our feet. (We did about 7 miles to Mao’s house). We had an incredible home-cooked meal accompanied by the best french fries we’d ever had in our lives. After dinner and clean up, we had a fun Evening Circle with our game of Mafia. Once we finished we all got ready for a great night’s sleep, after a brief moment to appreciate the stars out here we all headed to bed.
Another early start to the day had us unpacking our day packs and only grabbing the essentials (snacks obviously). Mao made us some delicious crepes and we had coffee and tea once again. The mornings in the village are so picturesque. As the sun rises, many of us are found outside reading a book or journaling to start our day off right. Our guides greeted us this morning and we started out to our waterfall hike. We hiked out through a neighboring village across the river, and said hi to the local village children. As we walked up through the mountains we had time for more bonding and reflection. Once we got to the waterfall we all jumped in to swim around in the cold water. We then continued out to our lunch spot and from there we went down to the river. Once we reached the river a few of us were brave enough to try to make it across by jumping on rocks. Some more successful than others, a lot of us took some trips into the river. The rest of us just decided to brave the walk across the slippery river bottom. After we made it across we headed back uphill to our homestay. We had a bit more free time for working out, playing banana grams, reading, journaling, drawing, etc. Once we had some time to ourselves, we were again given the unforgettable french fries and another incredible meal from Mao. After dinner, we had our last Evening Circle with our current Leaders of the Week (LOWs), Spencer and myself, where we did a fun game of Hot Seat and transitioned to our next LOWs, Wade and Oliver. After our Five Minutes of Fame, we headed off to bed!
We had a later start to our morning today, and got all packed up for our trip back to Sapa. This morning we woke up to heavy mist. It was like we were in a cloud. With rain jackets ready we headed out after breakfast on our short hike over to lunch/bus pick up. Our hike was misty, but we went up through the roads above the village. With cows and chickens accompanying our stroll, we went by rural food markets and went through fields of greenery. Once we reached Ru’s home for lunch, we played a few rounds of some intense uno, and played banana grams again. Another beautiful meal later, we sat and talked while we waited for our bus. Once the bus finally arrived, we had a twisty and misty ride back to Sapa. After the drive back we had an hour of alone time. This time was for each of us to get away and be just alone with ourselves after a few days of constantly being together. After our alone time, we had time to go explore more of the city and hang out as a group. Tonight we went out to get a taste of back home at a pizza place. After dinner, we had a fun Evening Circle of charades. We then all headed up to bed and got everything repacked for our early leave in the morning.
In short, Sapa has been incredible. We are now on our way back to Hanoi and out to the junk boats. We are all so excited for what’s to come, and even more proud of the three-day trek we completed.
Love you guys!!
Noelle
