To reach Sapa, we took a sleeper train overnight from Hanoi. Sapa is very near the Chinese border (Yunnan Province) and in fact the railway town of Lao Cai (where the train to Sapa arrives - followed by a 30 km drive to Sapa itself on winding mountain roads) was more or less destroyed by the Chinese during a brief border war they fought in 1979. Apparently the Vietnamese gave them something of a mauling, inflicting 20,000 casualties on the Chinese before they withdrew with their tails between their legs after a few weeks.
Anyway, Sapa is a beautiful place, and is home to large numbers of 'minorities' - these are the non ethnic-Vietnamese people such as the Hmong, Dzao, Thais and others. They have terraced rice fields and it is very green. Coming from a mostly brown country like Australia, it’s hard to believe a place could be so green! The Hmong are the most numerous, and are subdivided into 'Black Hmong', 'Flower Hmong' and several others which I can't remember right now. The 'Black' and 'Flower' in their name relates to the clothes they wear. The Black Hmong were the ones we had the most to do with, and their women spend much of their time collecting the Indigo plants that they use to dye their clothes the black or very dark blue that distinguishes them from other Hmong tribes.
We went trekking in the mountains with the Hmong people, two days in a row, 11 km one day, 14 km the next. Visited a number of local villages down in the valleys. We gratefully accepted a motorbike ride back up to Sapa after the second day's trekking though! We had a nice guide for this trip - a young girl of about 19 who was from the Thai-speaking minority in the local area.
They told us that it rains in Sapa every day in summer and indeed it did - ranging from very gentle drizzle to quite heavy rain. The weather was very changeable and we sometimes needed to put on plastic ponchos while trekking. A few minutes later it would be sunny again.
The young Hmong people spoke very good English. When we asked whether they learned it in school (these were mainly girls about 13 or 14) they said no, they had learned it entirely from tourists like us. They were nice people but the constant pressure to buy blankets, pillow slips, jewelry and other handicrafts gets a bit much after a while. They follow you along the track calling out 'You buy from me!!', 'You buy from me!! Apparently the boys generally attend school but many of the girls would rather sell to tourists than attend school.
Some of the old ladies are the most persistent - one practically chased me up the street, with the price of the thing on offer dropping from 120,000 Dong to 40,000 in increments of 10,000 all in the space of 20 seconds as I retreated into the hotel. Anyway a very interesting experience. Many tourists do 'home stays' with the locals but we did not.
We learned all about their marriage and matchmaking customs - there is a 'Love Market' each Saturday at which they attempt to pair off their eligible young people. We were told that the price of a decent bride is one buffalo (worth about $200) plus a few pigs for the feast. They have a system where the prospective couple spend a few days in each of their parents' homes - if not compatible, they have a drink of rice wine and go their separate ways with no hard feelings.
You might think the Hmong are very poor, but every house has electricity and most likely a mobile phone. We have been very impressed with the infrastructure here - in many ways it puts Australia to shame. Even in the most remote areas there is mobile phone coverage and in the small towns ADSL internet access. Cafes in a small town like Sapa often have free wireless internet access, for example. Even though we are a much wealthier country, there are still well-populated parts of Australia where mobile service is poor or not available (some parts of the NSW south coast, for example).
I think over the years the central government has sometimes had a difficult relationship with these 'minorities'. The kids told us they go to school in Vietnamese only, although they speak Hmong among their friends and family. I have read that there is some concern that the government is trying to gradually 'Vietnamize' the area by encouraging the settlement of ethnic Vietnamese, much as China is accused of doing in Tibet and other places.
The sleeper train was OK - although we were paying for a higher standard ('Soft Sleeper' vs 'Hard Sleeper') than the carriages many of the Vietnamese passengers were riding in. That said, there were plenty of Vietnamese families in our carriage as well as maybe 50% westerners. Some of their kids would come to our cabin to practice their English. We had been told the toilet facilities were fairly primitive so I brought along toilet paper and soap - in fact they were OK. The Sapa train is a special one though (the ‘King Express’) and is nicer than the other ‘soft sleepers’ we had later in the trip.
As with most modes of transport here, the speed is fairly slow so it takes much longer to travel a given distance that we would expect at home. Travelling by train here is interesting (though most has been at night). It's amazing how many people live right on the railway line. As the train rolls by you are looking right into their living room with them eating meals, watching TV etc.
After Sapa, we returned to Hanoi by train, then after a day or two took a bus to Halong Bay.
Click here to see our photos from Sapa.