"Trek" as we understand it is a multi-day walk. We have done a few. What they call treks in Sapa can be as short as a day-hike, and that is what we opted for on this visit. The first day was from Sapa down to Cat Cat village and the waterfalls there. Mostly downhill. I would have preferred
entirely downhill
. But it was only 5k, or maybe 5 miles, and the taxi back to the hotel was there waiting for us at the end.
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Perhaps the best part of our Sapa experience was
our guide, May, a 29-year old Hmong single mother,
whom we had engaged through the tour company;
she met us at the hotel upon arrival; she understood
our interests were mostly cultural and not athletic;
her English, learned from tourists she said, was the
best we encountered in Vietnam
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Our hike is in there somewhere, down to Cat Cat villages;
several hundredsteps, hard on Vicki's knees, but she held up
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| Hazy, even in the afternoon |
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| Construction everywhere in Sapa, from small to large scale |
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| Curiosities along the way |
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More good fortune: Vicki's articulated walking stick, purchased
last summer in darkest East Anglia, finally gave out in Sapa; but
for 6U$D she found an even better replacement in this market
stall; probably very close to where they're manufactured
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| Valley view |
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| Us, there |
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One of the things Vietnamese tourists do in Sapa is to rent indigenous
peoples' costumes and do selfies; we'll see more of that
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Rice is a one season crop in Sapa; everything would be more
green in July; and hotter |
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| An up and down world |
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| Indigo, in someone's garden; May knew all the plants |
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| On a mountain-side, terraced world, retaining walls are everything |
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| Water feature: fish farm |
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| Returning from labors on the mountain-side above |
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| Cat Cat Falls |
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| Divergent footwear for the trail |
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| Traditional bridge construction |
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| Less traditional (welding in center) |
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| Upper falls |
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Could be a scene from Maine, or the Appalachians, or the
Rockies, no? OK, ignore the bamboo |
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| Us, there, again |
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| French outpost from 1922 |
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Just as we arrived, there was a traditional dance...more sticks
and baskets... |
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| Selfies in costume |
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| Among several water wheels at the falls |
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And a water-powered mortar/pestle grinding machine...
the old fashioned way
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