Hiking with locals

02/04/2024

Completely exhausted, we sipped our coffee at 8 a.m. After breakfast we gathered our last things together and brought our full backpacks down to the lobby. The hostel owner provided us with a room where we could park our things. Our local trekking lady picked us up and we started walking straight away. On the way through the “city” we picked up other group members. The tour again led through rice fields and small villages. We were impressed by the landscape! What became very tiring in the long run was that we were accompanied by women and children who helped us along the way, but only did so because they wanted to sell us their things later. You really had to be persistent. We also felt sorry for the children who passed us everywhere on the way and offered us bracelets to sell. They begged us with googly eyes and the words they had learned by heart: “Buy one from me, buy one for 10,000.” On the one hand we were taken aback by it, but on the other hand we were really annoyed at some point... because they were always standing where there were nice views.

“They just want to sell us something anyway. But what should I do with such an ugly bag?”

We had lunch at a restaurant with everyone together. Salad, rice, tofu and fries were placed on the table for everyone to help themselves to. After refreshments we went through another village, we saw a lot of agriculture, lots of chickens and dogs; a dead pig with its bristles removed and a half-dead pig transported on a scooter. Of course, many handmade items were also sold, from painted pictures to woven pillowcases to cinnamon-cardamom incense. It was a different world again.

We learned that in some population groups here, men look for women on a celebration like New Year's Eve, then go to their parents and pay for them and then marry them. This is most likely due to the fact that there are still minority populations living here who still live a very traditional life. That's exactly how they grow rice here, which is not sold, but is used solely to feed the village residents. Maybe we tried this rice for lunch today and it tasted different than usual.

The tour ended at around 2:30 p.m. and we were taken back to Sapa by a small bus. We were already exhausted and longed for a bed. We asked the hostel if we could get an earlier bus, but unfortunately there was no option. It was very friendly that we were allowed to use the shower of the hostel owners (who live downstairs in the hostel). Once freshened up we went out and wasted our time somehow. We tried our hand at café and restaurant hopping, drinking coffee and iced tea, eating cake and a hotpot with vegetables. A new experience for us, in which we dirty the entire table and Ronja burned her fingers slightly.

We somehow managed to pass the time and are now sitting (or lying) on the bus. We are once again surprised by what we have booked here. We were really hoping to get a bus like the one on the way there. Unfortunately, this wish did not come true and we are stuck in “sleeping bunks” that are far too small. I have no idea how we're going to get any sleep here... we'll probably arrive at 4 a.m. The question is whether we won't have suffocated by smells of stinky mice, sweat or food by then.

Until tomorrow

Ronja & Nina