Day 5, 6 & 7 - Sa Pa

Off to Sa Pa - that's what we thought. Punctual, as stated in the booking, we stood at the bus stop at 6:30 a.m. and waited with anticipation to leave Hanoi and head to Sa Pa. Well... Fifteen minutes passed, half an hour passed, an hour passed,... The bus didn't come. Suddenly we received a text message that we should be picked up at a location 20 minutes away on foot. Fortunately, the bus was able to pick both of us up as latecomers at the original location, but it was quite stressful. Finally, at about 8 a.m., the journey began!

Our first long-distance bus ride (by the way, much cheaper than in Germany!) was relatively uneventful. Towards the end, it was quite curvy uphill, which Emilie slept through as usual.

Arriving in Sa Pa, we already felt like we had completed the first part of our planned trekking tour: the climb from the bus stop up to the hostel with our fully packed backpacks. The Lustig hostel was quite relaxed. Especially the beautiful rooms were really great. The only downside was a big black stain above Anna's bed that looked like a squashed bat... (the other night I slept somewhere else :D) and the hard bed on the second night. But you can't have it all, can you?

The city of Sa Pa itself was very sleepy, but we were approached by locals a lot on the first day. They really wanted to sell us their bracelets, necklaces, etc. and sometimes had a hard time letting us go... After a unspectacular lunch/dinner, we looked forward to tomorrow's trekking tour.

The next day the alarm went off at 7 a.m. and Anna woke up in her element: Off for a hike!

After a big breakfast at the hostel, we met our guide Sang at the Sa Pa church and off we went. After about 15 minutes, we reached the first spectacular viewpoint, where it became clear how much rice is grown here. In perfect weather, we continued our hike through the landscape and experienced some ups ("wow, it looks so incredibly beautiful!") and some downs ("I will never go hiking again" - anonymous quote :D).

Soon, however, we were able to rest with a coconut at a viewpoint and enjoy the scenery.

Our guide Sang was very nice and told us a lot about the villages in the Sa Pa area, where each village has several tribes. She also told us that people (or even children) here get married very early, around the age of 14. It was also fascinating that the older children always have to take care of the younger ones. The youngest son has to stay with the parents and take care of them with his wife. Sang was the youngest child in her family and therefore enjoyed a good education. She was even able to study tourism in Hanoi. At the age of 25, she still had no husband, and according to her, that would not change anymore, because she is too old. But she actually does not want to get married and hopes to be able to build something of her own someday.

She told us this and many other things as we walked through the villages and fields. It was very noticeable how much garbage and plastic was lying around everywhere. We don't know exactly why this is the case. The masses of tourists walking the paths are probably not entirely innocent in this matter.

We were accompanied by an old local woman until lunch, who often helped us over waterfalls or other difficult paths (even when we didn't ask for it). But when we didn't want to buy anything from her during lunch, she got pretty angry and we didn't see her anymore. Sang told us that people here actually only earn something through tourism. Otherwise, they live from their cultivated rice and the animals that also eat rice. The locals do not pay taxes, but they also receive hardly any health care or something like a pension.

After our first, exciting and relatively moderate trekking day, we reached our first homestay. Here we sat together with other hikers from all over the world and locals, ate well, and enjoyed the "Happy Waters". This is rice wine, which I (Anna) would describe more as rice schnapps, as the alcohol content seemed quite strong. We learned the Vietnamese "cheers" and had to learn that among the locals it is common to always drink an even number of "Happy Water" shots, otherwise it brings bad luck. After a nice evening with Happy Water and a few rounds of card games, we fell asleep tired in our "princess beds". They really looked like royal canopy beds with their mosquito nets! (Emilie and her royal blood :D)

On the second day, we started the day with a delicious breakfast. Typically Vietnamese are very thin pancakes for breakfast, which almost remind of crêpes, with various fruits and honey or this special, thick condensed milk that is also added to the coffee. After that, we started our second trekking tour, tackling one ascent after another. However, the view and the waterfall were an incredible reward (at least according to Anna's feeling - Emilie hasn't done anything soooooooo exhausting in a long time!!!). Especially the paths through the overgrown bamboo jungle and the rocky paths in the water were challenging for Emilie (she also slipped on the rocks and injured her knee - in that moment, she would have given anything for a helicopter). But we were able to admire an impressive waterfall and took real adventure paths (greetings to Mama and Papa Amann)! Anna slipped a couple of times too, but it wasn't that bad ;-) Fortunately, we were picked up by a taxi after lunch and didn't have to walk the last kilometers back to the city.