Sapa

We knew Sapa was potentially cold.  We'd brought layers.  While in Hanoi & Cat Ba, I checked the weather on my ITouch.  I have my weather app set to fahrenheit because those celsius conversions elude me.  Multiple times, I read that Sapa would be in the low 60s.  Awesome!

I don't know what's going on with this, but I talked to many other travelers who also saw false reports of higher temperatures in Sapa.  I also heard from tourists who didn't believe the posted temperatures & didn't go because they didn't want to be cold.  It was probably in the 40s but incredibly misty and wet.  The cold went to the bone.

This may be the conspiracy theorist in me, but I wonder if this wasn't a cynical tourist ploy to post false temperatures.  Just know that forecasts in Vietnam have been known to be... inaccurate.

So Sapa is cold.  At least in February.  I'm told it's lovely in September.  Thankfully, rooms that cost at least $20 (like ours, shown) all plug heater blankets below the fitted sheet.  Most guests turn that bad boy all the way up and sleep with it throughout the night.  It may be a fire hazard, but it's also a life saver.  Our room was surrounded on three sides by glass, on the fourth floor of an impossibly tall building on the side of a mountain cliff.  The power went out around 2 am & our teeth chattered.

It's also wildly beautiful.  We had been traveling steadily in Vietnam for over a week.  We hadn't been anywhere long enough to wash & hang dry our clothes.  We stunk.  I saw high forecasts in Sapa, so I thought it would be safe to give our laundry to our hostal.  That meant we had very few warm clothes until our laundry was clean.

Big mistake.

It was cold.

I would still advise going if you have the opportunity.  I doubt there's anywhere like it.  I wish we had more time and more warm clothes.  There are lots of intriguing trekking opportunities, some of which include homestays in surrounding villages.  There are some interesting eco-tourism opportunities that support local Indigenous economies.  We only had a weekend so we began hiking through town.

Even the kitten was cold!

Walking by a family of water buffalo was my first indicator that going to Sapa was absolutely worth it.  Even though the train ride was long & hairy to coordinate.  Even though it was cold.  Sapa is special.

We warmed up at a local restaurant.  They still had their Tet tree up.

We ordered a local, medicinal hot pot.  & hot coffee!  Always brewed in the cup through a french press.

OK, so now we had traveled to Sapa for water buffalo sightings and a hot pot.  The stew is on a hot pot, boiling as it's set on our table.  It was filled with ginger, garlic, onions, pineapple, carrots, and spices.  We added local medicinal herbs.  I recognized some sprigs and leaves but many of the greens were new to me.  We picked up strings of rice noodles and small chunks of tofu to cook in the stew.  Add the fresh greens on top of our bowl and devour.

After lunch I found a local spa offering Red Dzao herbal baths and massages.  I soaked in local herbs before experiencing more incredible body work.

We began hiking down to the Hmong village.

This part of Vietnam, Laos, and China is mainly inhabited by Indigenous groups like the Hmong, Red Dzao, & other "Hill Tribes."  Historically, they've often been disenfranchised from access and resources.  There's immense poverty throughout these mountains.  As is often the case, there is also incredible resourcefulness and resilience.  Farmers have terraced these mountains for centuries to create rice paddies and other crops.

We came across kids playing soccer on a terraced rice paddy.  My friend Walidah says the two universals are "Bob Marley & soccer."

(Can I mention how grateful I was for Keen sandals?  Traction!  So reassuring on perpetually wet, smooth stone steps.  Steep steps.  Say that fast.)

We caught a performance of young Hmong dancers.  There was also a Love Market while we were in town-- a time when young people begin mixing, mingling, and nervously thinking about romance.

I am willing to bet that you could find good food anywhere and at anytime in Vietnam.  My friend, Doug, missed that most when he returned home.  He couldn't step outside at 2 am & find someone cooking on a sidewalk brazier!

We were cold, wet, & felt at the furthest corner of the earth from our known experience.  The next day, a Sunday, was my Birthday and the Bac Ha market day.  We made plans to go to market, and then catch the Lo Cai train back to Hanoi.