Today we’re off on a six hour trek to beautiful Lao Chai and Tavan villages, home of the Black H’mong and Day ethnic minority people (sometimes referred to as hill tribes). The villages are located between four and eight km outside Sapa town in the breathtaking terraced rice valleys.
We started our trek from Sapa Rooms and walked through the town of Sapa downhill on an amazing walk to Lao Chai and further down to Tarvan, a walk of eight kimometers. The trek took us through one thousand year-old buffalo trails, beside many beautiful rivers, across bamboo bridges and through hundreds of terraced rice fields. Along the way we stopped for a home-cooked lunch prepared by our guide beside a tranquil river. For the most part, the clouds rolled in and out of the mountains without depositing too much rain upon us!
An aside from Joe: Last night while chatting with other travellers about bargains and markets that we’d seen over the course of our trip, an idea came to me. There needs to be a forum/blog for shoppers to share their stories about shopping and markets – something along the lines of tripadvisor.com, say, shoppingadvisor.com. This could have descriptions of the various markets in the world’s cities, info on the types of things on sale, dos and don’ts, how deep the negotiating can go, and maybe a few local language phrases to help the negotiating process. It would also share the good shops and poor shops (as measured by service, quality, price and experience). It could describe whether the products for sale are high end, low end, knock-offs, and anything in between. Four excellent contributors that we immediately thought of were Anita, Di, Brenda and Judie but all could share their story. Of course the business model would have to include sponsors and paid placements (a la tripadvisor, google, lonely planet, etc.). Remember you heard it first here!
Back to today’s trek. The 8km were excellent, although we found ourselves frequently tumbling down the slippery, muddy terraces between the rice paddies. (When we would eventually return to the hotel afterwards, our guide suggested that we not launder our clothes as tomorrow’s adventure trek will be equally or even more muddy. Wear the same clothes she exclaimed!). No one was hurt, so, if anything, we all managed to be more balanced as we trekked. In addition to the breathtaking views of mountain life at 3000m (and getting a load of the trekkers in wellington boots), we really enjoyed watching the children of the local villages. In some of the scenes, you see toddlers navigating difficult terrain or crossing high bridges or babies riding sideways in the arms of their mother on motorcycle! One particular encounter, though, had us quite captivated. Two 5-year olds, standing on the backs of water buffalo wielding a machete-like knife trying to help the buffalo reach the high branches of the delectable eucalyptus tree’s branches and leaves. As the animation unfolded, it was hard not to believe that fingers, arms and maybe necks weren’t dismembered or slashed. Anyways, their mom was watching quite non-chalantly as though this was just another day. Oh, the quaintness of modern day communism in rural villages.
We started our trek from Sapa Rooms and walked through the town of Sapa downhill on an amazing walk to Lao Chai and further down to Tarvan, a walk of eight kimometers. The trek took us through one thousand year-old buffalo trails, beside many beautiful rivers, across bamboo bridges and through hundreds of terraced rice fields. Along the way we stopped for a home-cooked lunch prepared by our guide beside a tranquil river. For the most part, the clouds rolled in and out of the mountains without depositing too much rain upon us!
An aside from Joe: Last night while chatting with other travellers about bargains and markets that we’d seen over the course of our trip, an idea came to me. There needs to be a forum/blog for shoppers to share their stories about shopping and markets – something along the lines of tripadvisor.com, say, shoppingadvisor.com. This could have descriptions of the various markets in the world’s cities, info on the types of things on sale, dos and don’ts, how deep the negotiating can go, and maybe a few local language phrases to help the negotiating process. It would also share the good shops and poor shops (as measured by service, quality, price and experience). It could describe whether the products for sale are high end, low end, knock-offs, and anything in between. Four excellent contributors that we immediately thought of were Anita, Di, Brenda and Judie but all could share their story. Of course the business model would have to include sponsors and paid placements (a la tripadvisor, google, lonely planet, etc.). Remember you heard it first here!
Back to today’s trek. The 8km were excellent, although we found ourselves frequently tumbling down the slippery, muddy terraces between the rice paddies. (When we would eventually return to the hotel afterwards, our guide suggested that we not launder our clothes as tomorrow’s adventure trek will be equally or even more muddy. Wear the same clothes she exclaimed!). No one was hurt, so, if anything, we all managed to be more balanced as we trekked. In addition to the breathtaking views of mountain life at 3000m (and getting a load of the trekkers in wellington boots), we really enjoyed watching the children of the local villages. In some of the scenes, you see toddlers navigating difficult terrain or crossing high bridges or babies riding sideways in the arms of their mother on motorcycle! One particular encounter, though, had us quite captivated. Two 5-year olds, standing on the backs of water buffalo wielding a machete-like knife trying to help the buffalo reach the high branches of the delectable eucalyptus tree’s branches and leaves. As the animation unfolded, it was hard not to believe that fingers, arms and maybe necks weren’t dismembered or slashed. Anyways, their mom was watching quite non-chalantly as though this was just another day. Oh, the quaintness of modern day communism in rural villages.
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