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As the hill
side resort built by the French in 19th century, Sapa has
become very popular to foreign travellers in recent years.
In early 1990s when the firsts travellers going to Sapa,
everything was simple, there were few hotels, mostly family
guest houses, and tours to Sapa were made by bus from
Hanoi,
there was no night train at that time, only cargo train
running from Hanoi to
Lao Cai.
Back in the 1980s, Sapa was knowned as a remote area in
Vietnam where only hill tribe ethnic minorities live, few
people went to Sapa because of road conditions. The public
buses run only once a day from early morning until sunset to
arrive in Lao Cai, from Lao Cai one has to stay overnight in
Lao Cai, catch another
bus from Lao Cai to Sapa, normally a
trip would take 3 days from
Hanoi to Sapa
Sapa trains at that time were not used by tourists, there
was only
day train, simple, dirty and packed with people,
the train leaved 1 or 2 times a day from Hanoi, stopping in Phuc Yen, Viet Tri, Yen Bai, Phu Tho and Lao Cai
First groups of backpackers went to Sapa in 1995, bus was
the only choice, the trips were organized by travel agents
in Hanoi, in the Old Quarter, usually Sapa tours departed on
Wednesdays or Fridays, if leaving on Fridays the trip would
go to
Bac Ha, famous for Sunday markets
The most
worth seeing things in Sapa is the rice fields, or
paddy terraces, and the best time to visit is September when
the rice is ripe, the whole valley looked like a picture.
Trekking tours were popular activities for young
people, it was really fantastic to walk in the hill
villages, between the rice fields, through the bamboo
forest, cut the rivers and streems and spend the night at
homestay in surrounding villages.
Homestay used to be a reluctant choice for tourists
going to Sapa in those days, as there were few
hotels in
town the independent travellers had to find a shelter in the
villages, there was no electricity, no heater, only some
thin blankets, just imagine temperature in Sapa in
wintertime is 4-5 degrees Celsius, sometimes it snows, most
families in town must have a fire in the middle of the room,
anytime they went out they had to dry their hands when they
came back
Most travellers today going on Sapa tours in 2-3 days, some
people stay 4 or 5 days if they go trekking down to remote
villages, there are Cat Cat village of black Hmong people,
Giang Ta Chai and Ta Phin villages for Red Dzao people, Ta
Van and Lao Chai villages for Dzay people, further out there
are
Ban Ho and Thanh Kim villages, inhabited by Tay people. |
