We arrived in Sa Pa quite late Friday evening after a mammoth day riding – we’d passed so many small villages (including a village built on the mountain prescipice on stilts!) that we weren’t expecting Sa Pa to be the established town and tourist hub that it is.

After a bit of searching we found our booked accomodation – Sa Pa Heart Hotel. Just before arriving we realised that we had booked it for the following three nights and not that night, whoops. We were very tired and hungry so we were hoping that the hotel gods were looking favourably on us – lucky for us they were!

Ha is the hotel manager and she greeted us with a big warm smile and a no problem attitude, after a little bit of rearranging Ha had upgraded us and now we were booked in for four nights – bliss, time to relax!

That night after settling in, we thought we’d deserved a good dinner. We checked on trip advisor and the Paradise View restaurant was highly recommended so we used the energy we had left and made a beeline straight there – trip advisor was on the money and we had a lovely meal (Papaya salad is recommended) washed down with local Lao Cai beer, then headed back to the hotel and passed out!

The next day, Saturday, we had a chill out day and didn’t do much besides walk about the town and get our bearings. We weren’t expecting to see so many women from the local villages trying to sell us their wares (mainly embroidered items, some hand stitched but the cheaper items were machine stitched) – it wasn’t quite harassment but it was certainly off putting. We soon got Sa Pa street wise (if you say “maybe later” that’s essentially a verbal contract so it has to be a flat out “No” several times, or you will get followed) and after gaining a little more control of the situation we were unfazed by all the tourist hunting attention.

We felt a little guilty about our lazy day so we spoke with Ha and decided to book some tours – Sunday we booked a private car trip to Bac Ha market and Monday we booked a mountain trek with a local guide through some boardering villages, phew guilt passed!

Bac Ha Market

Sunday morning we were up for breakfast and ready to leave for the market by 7.15 a.m.  – the market was around a two to three hour trip and so we needed to make an early start. Our driver was waiting for us and we shared the car with another visitor, Barry – born in Canada and now living in India. Between talking to Barry about his journey and our driver offering us local insights the trip up to the market flew by.

One sad thing happened, we passed a funeral on the way to the market – a grandfather and his three year old infant granddaughter were travelling by scooter on the mountain road two days before and got hit by a passing truck; it seems the granddaughter was fine but her grandfather died. As the grandfather died outside, his body had to be kept outside as bringing the body indoors would be bad luck for his family. The ceremony took place over three days (it used to be longer but the government put a restriction it)  we saw floods of people gathering in a far off field paying their respects to this man. Our driver also told us the the traditional funerals are always very expensive – he believes this is why so many of the locals are kept poor by having to pay for expensive three day feasts for every funeral.

A short while later we reached the market and could hop out of the car and stretch our legs. The first thing that struck us was that all the men and women were wearing traditional outfits and they looked so striking in all their vibrant embroidered garments.

We then walked around the market and just about anything you’d need was for sell – livestock (buffaloes, horses, various birds, dogs, pigs), embroidered crafts, kitchen utensils, tools, baskets and food. It took us about two hours to walk around, by far the biggest market we had seen so far.

Bac Ha Market

After all that exploring we’d built quite an appetite so we stopped off at a local restaurant for lunch, washed down with a local corn (vodka type) drink, not for the faint hearted!

Back in the car, our driver then took us up along the Vietnam/China boarder for a quick look before heading back to Sa Pa, a river separates the countries so we stopped at the bridge – it’s mad to think how far north we had come!

Gate at the bridge on the Vietnam side

Gate at the bridge on the China side

Back in Sa Pa that evening we fancied a western food night and so went to Hill Station restaurant for dinner – Eddie was super impressed with his huge and tasty cheeseburger and my caesar salad was really good too, trip adviser another accurate rating!

Mountain Trekking

Monday morning we had a bit of a later start – our mountain trekking  guide Mai, was a local villager that arrived at the hotel at 10.30 a.m. and so it was a leisurely start to what turned out to be quite laborious trek. We walked through Sa Pa and then through some back alleys before reaching the foot of the mountain; walking up the mountain was a little steep (vertical) in parts and there was no real track to follow, but after about an hour we reached the top so it wasn’t too much trauma. At the top we could see views all over Sa Pa on one side and the other side we saw rice paddies and neighbouring villages, amazing!

After taking in the view we then started our descent on the other side of the mountain towards some villages and it wasn’t long before we’d reached a stop point for lunch, it was quite a large shed structure/ dining hall, filled with other tourists that were on the same sort of trekking tour. Lunch was really tasty and there was so much food, plates of veggies and local pork and chicken dishes were put in front of us, not to mention local spring rolls, so good.

After lunch we continued our descent over some pretty rough terrain and rice paddies, our local guide giving us insight into the village life as we walked.

About an hour or so later we made it to a small village and got picked up by the hotel driver, time to head back. All up the trek lasted around six hours but I’m told there are easier and  quicker trails to follow if you want less of the rough terrain!

Mountain view

Stunning views

Off we go

The next morning it was time for us to head on and so we packed up our bikes and said our farewell to Ha and some other guests.

Sa Pa was definitely more on the expensive side but the views are breathtaking and it is definitely worth the trip.

All packed up