Miss Clarke's Adventures

Last Friday I left Hanoi for the weekend and travelled to the north-west of Vietnam to a beautiful town called Sapa which is located less than 40km from the Chinese border.

Leaving at 10pm on Friday night, I took the ‘Orient Express’ night train to Sapa.  I was so excited by the prospect as I’d never travelled on a sleeper train before!  I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the ‘beds’ were and how much sleep I actually got. 

We were gently awoken by the sound of Vietnamese music at 5:30am as we pulled into the station at Lao Cai.  Travelling by bus to Sapa was a wonderful experience as we climbed steeply into the mountains just as the sun was rising.

Shortly after arriving in Sapa, we set out on a walk to a tiny village called Cat Cat.  The village is home to an ethnic minority tribe called ‘Black H’Mong’.  The Black H’Mong people were all so friendly and very keen to show us many beautiful handmade items which included silver bracelets; ornaments carved from soap stone and delicately embroidered clothes.  After a look around the village, we continued our walk to a magnificent waterfall where we swam in the pools – it was exhilarating!  We then enjoyed a leisurely picnic before heading back to Sapa.

The following day we enjoyed another long trek.  Leaving Sapa very early, we took a jeep to the start of the walk.  Our hike began with an extremely steep and slippery descent into the valley.  The scenery was absolutely breathtaking with towering mountains, gushing waterfalls and a vibrant green and yellow patchwork quilt of fields.  We hiked through the many cascading rice terraces and watched in awe as the Black H’Mong people worked tirelessly in the heat of the day to harvest their crops (I shall view a plate of rice with much more appreciation from now on!).  Along the way we stumbled across a variety of farmyard animals including: pigs, hens, buffalo and ducks!  We also met lots of children playing carefree in the fields.

Late afternoon, we arrived at our accommodation which was actually the home of local people. They made us feel welcome and we very quickly felt like members of the family!  In the evening, we were treated to the most delicious banquet of local dishes which were so welcome after our long and tiring walk.  After dinner, we enjoyed playing cards with the other people staying at the house.  As there were people from so many different countries (Spain, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Vietnam and England) we all had different card games to share.  We had lots of fun learning the rules and playing all the different games.

Early the next morning, we continued our trek.  As it had rained very heavily during the night, the paths were treacherous at times!  Fortunately, a local Black H’Mong lady held my hand at the most dangerous points and prevented me from falling on my bottom!  Although it was exhausting trying not to slip all the time, I loved the walk and especially the parts where we wandered through the forests of bamboo.

After a thoroughly enjoyable and invigorating weekend of walking, it was time to bid farewell to the tranquility of Sapa and return, by night train, to the hustle and bustle of Hanoi.