The town of Sapa, in the northwest of Vietnam, about 40 km from the Chinese border, is located at an altitude of 1600 meters and is surrounded by mountains and rice terraces. Sapa is popular among local and foreign tourists because of its pleasant climate, fresh air, the highest mountain in Vietnam, and hiking opportunities. That's why it attracted us too. We really missed the fresh air at the beginning.
The whole city is one big construction site and the main street has been newly asphalted: dust, traffic jams, and the smell of asphalt and open sewer pipes. However, this has improved somewhat over the course of the days.
The city not only revolves around the small lake, but it is expanding more and more and hotel capacities are being built that make one dizzy. (Our hotel Saparis is marked in red)There is a beautiful viewpoint on the outskirts of the town,which can be reached via a nicely landscaped walking path with narrow passages Other hiking trails lead through the rice terraces In some places, corn and cabbage are also planted on narrow terraces. Many of the offered tours lead to the villages of the ethnic minorities. The Hmong and Dao tribes are also influential in the cityscape of Sapa with their colorful costumes They offer their textiles and handicrafts as well as their services as trekking guides.As beautiful as they may look, they can be quite pushy at times, and the children are already sent out to sell instead of going to school. The youngest ones are strapped to their siblings' backs, and as soon as they are about 3 years old, they start approaching tourists with small items to sell.We took a nice walk to the neighboring village of Cat Cat. A museum village of the Hmong, where some traditional houses can be seen and craftmanship and dances are performed. But a lot revolves around selling Vietnamese and Asian tourists seem to like to shopThe little children look absolutely adorable with all the jewelry But unfortunately, we never saw the happy and carefree open laughter that we like so much about Vietnamese children.Despite some limitations due to illness, we enjoyed our week in Sapa.
