Time for day two in Sapa! Except today, we would be leaving the city.

We started with an amazing breakfast in the hotel.

The spread was so bountiful! And free espresso drinks on order! We each got a Vietnamese coffee, because “when in Rome….”

We were set to meet our guide at 9am at the church, so we did one last tour of the pretty hotel in the daylight before we left.

Then we checked out and high-tailed it to over to the church. We were quickly approached by a lady, but we shook our heads and continued on, until she said, “Maybe this is you?” She opened a paper with my full name on it (middle name included!) Haha. Awkward.

And we were off! Our guide’s name was Mimi, and she was super sweet. As we started our walk through the city, she asked about the receptionist who had connected her with us. “He’s my brother-in-law!” she said. Lol.

Once we left the city, we began our long descent along the side of the road leading away from Sapa. The views of the valley below us were spectacular.

One of the first things we saw once we entered the valley was a family of worker buffalos! Look at the babies!

The terraced rice fields were breathtaking. I’ve always wanted to see terrain like this, like Machu Picchu! It was so satisfying.

A couple hours into our hike, we crossed another group of trekkers: two Australian men and an entourage of local ladies. One of the men was a professional photographer, and he was guiding the other man on a travel photography expedition. Quite the trip! We chatted quite a bit and stopped for lunch together.

After lunch, the Australians got the ladies together to sing a song in the Hmong language. We had a whole studio set-up with lights and microphones. Sean was in charge of the static camera. I was in charge of saying, “action.” I actually cried a little because the song was so pretty, and one of the ladies had such a beautiful voice!

I was reluctant to continue our trek because it was so much nicer in the shade, but we had places to be and things to see!

Almost every house we passed had a dog or two. Mostly, they were lazing around in the shade, but their purpose was to guard the house and farm, so some of them were a little more on-edge. Several had puppies! One puppy we passed was super playful.

The mom was not, though! She was by far the most aggressive dog we passed. Mimi had to block her with a stick as we ran past the house. Scary!

At this point, we were off the paved trail. Mimi kept telling us how much the area has changed in the last decade. Ten years ago, the big hotels didn’t exist. Six years ago, the power lines were installed. And in the last two years, the first part of the trekking trail into the valley was paved. Before that, it was all dirt trails. This was Mimi’s first trek since the pandemic started, so she noticed that the trail had changed a lot.

Now, she said, we were going “the buffalo way.”

The buffalo way was muddier, but oh-so gorgeous.

It was also ridiculously hot out in the sun! At one point, I stopped in the middle of the road, stripped to my undies, and took off my under layers. I’d layered up to protect myself from mosquitos, but I still have no idea if all that work was overzealous.

Sean’s sunburn was also starting to show, especially on the back of his neck. Sunscreen only lasts as long as it takes to sweat it off.

“At the beginning,” Mimi said to me, “I look at you, so light, I think you be more tomato. But now he more tomato!” Lol. Only the tops of my ears got a little burnt outside my baseball hat. No color, either, just ouchy.

Okay, here’s some photo-dumping of the breathtaking rice paddies!

I truly couldn’t get over the views at every turn, and whenever I said it was beautiful, Mimi would smile and say, “For you!” Haha. She was saying that to her, this was just home.

Once we started our descent from the mountains back into the valley, I was ready to take a nap. It was so hot, and the hike was so long! About nine miles total. The very last bit of the trail was paved again, and very steep. My knees started acting up, so I took the paved bit backwards. Sean got a kick out of that.

We were so thankful to have had Mimi as our guide. It was nice to learn about the area. Kind of heartbreaking to hear how much the area has changed, though. I know that without the growth of tourism, this place would still be how she once knew it, but also, we probably wouldn’t have been able to visit! The increased wealth in the area has also led to some increases in living standards for the Hmong people. The song the ladies sang during lunch was about their kids being able to go to school now and all the progress that allows them.

It would be lovely to come back to Sapa some day and give back somehow. This was definitely my favorite stop on the trip.

We were all tired after our long day, so we said our goodbyes as Mimi put us in a taxi and waited for her husband to come pick her up. It was back to Sapa City for us.

We wandered around a bit, dazed and sweaty. We tried to find a place to eat dinner, but a lot of restaurants hadn’t reopened yet since tourism had just started picking up again.

Too tired to think, we ended up back at Hotel de la Coupole for dinner and mocktails.

The pho was sooooo good. Delicious broth! The noodles were wide and fresh, and I ordered the same sides as the day before because they were so yummy the first time. We were the only ones in the whole restaurant, and when we left and said thank you, we had ten smiling staff wave us off.

Time for our spa appointment!!!!

Unfortunately, the bathtub was way too hot. Even the lady who showed us the room was surprised. She turned on the cold water and left us to it, but we spent half our bath time just trying to get the water cooled down so we wouldn’t cook in the tub. Sean ditched early for a shower.

So the tea bath wasn’t as lovely as expected. Still an experience, though! And the massage!

We were asked ahead of time if there were any body parts we wanted the masseuse to focus on or avoid. I kind of wanted a foot focus since my feet were so tired after the hike, but I also didn’t want to give up any other areas. The foot massage was amaaaazing, but when my masseuse started the back massage, oh my! So good! This was only my second ever professional massage, and goodness! It really did make me wish I could get weekly massages!

I was a bit… surprised when… she straddled me! Lolol. Pretty sure that wouldn’t happen in the States. I confirmed afterwards with Sean that he, too, was straddled… Bahahahahaha.

After the shower, bath, and massage, I felt so relaxed and clean. So refreshed. It was time to bid farewell to Sapa as we spent another confusing hour trying to figure out which sleeper bus to be on, and then we were off again.

Trân trọng/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa