Sapa, Vietnam

After three days in Hanoi, we headed up north to Sapa. Sapa hugs the border of China. It's mountainous and absolutely beautiful. Sapa is home to several ethnic minority hill tribes. The views surrounding Sapa along with the beautiful people in the hill tribes, makes this town one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The weather, when we went, was foggy, misty, and cold, but this just added to the beauty of the the place. Terraced rice fields spread along the mountains where the hill tribe people spend much of their days working. Many of the women and children also come into town to sell crafts that they make in their villages--ranging from textiles to beautiful jewelry. The colors they use in their textiles are out of this world. The women and children also wear these beautiful handmade fabrics. It makes for such a magnificent sight against the greens and browns in the rice fields. Our first day in Sapa, we rented a motorbike and found our way to one of the hill tribe villages. The villages are open to tourists where you can walk around and learn about how the people live. It's amazing to see how self-sustainable these villages are. The following day we took a 12 km trek through the Cat Cat Village, which was my favorite village and probably the most visited. Parts of it seemed to be set up for tourists, but the natural landscape and the beautiful children innocently playing in their village just made for a really neat experience. We hiked from the top of the village down into the valley. There were buffaloes, roosters and pigs along the walk. When we reached the bottom there was a waterfall. Along the way we passed huts where women were weaving fabrics, dying hemp fabrics into indigo, and making jewelry. The fabrics are seriously amazing and the women who dye the indigo fabrics have the neatest hands. They are stained dark blue. 

Sapa was one of my favorite places in Vietnam. I loved how different it was from Hanoi. The hill tribe women really want to sell items to you, which can sometimes get a little annoying, because they will follow you forever, but it was really fun getting to talk to them and learn about how they live. If you find yourself in Vietnam, you must got to Sapa!