Sapa & H’Mong the Hills. The green door to heaven.

By Carolina –

The day started with lack of sleep mood, duet to an 8 hours ride in a ‘sleep-depravation bus’. After much confusion, we finally realized that, we’ve been forgotten at our arrival. Tired, hungry and frustrated… Put into one sentence ➡️ Not a good start!

⚠️ Coordination and updating their customers when changes occur, are also areas with opportunity of improvement for our tour provider – Ocean Tours Vietnam 🇻🇳

The next event of the day was an even bumpier ride to a very remote area, where we were escorted by a group of local girls and women of the H’Mong ethnic group, to our home stay at the village of Xa Ta Van in the Sapa region, at only 20 kilometers to the border with China 🇨🇳.

All frustration was forgotten the minute we walked into a breakfast ready table, at H’Mong the Hills home stay.
The host, Que – meaning cinnamon in English ❤️- welcomed us full hearted and apologized many times for the mess and inconvenience at our arrival. This woman, also from the H’Mong group, is one of the loveliest people we have met throughout our journey. A super sweet, welcoming, attentive, smiley and an incredible cook 👩🏻‍🍳 with a very cosy home, located in an breathtaking natural scenery.

After getting our tummies breakfast-filled, we started to get ready for our 11 K walk through this vast area.

We heard it had been raining a lot the night before, and the terrain was muddy and slippery. So, some of us decided to rent the proper foot ware from the stay. They gave us a freshly made lunch to be eaten 3 hours later, when it was time for us to have a lunch break – this meal was, by the way, just as delicious as all the other meals prepared by Que. After everything was ready and packed, our guide Dinh pointed out the way 🔝and off we went.

Dinh, plus 6 other local girls to escort us -💡 the drill 🔛 walk with you and help you through, so you get sort of compromised to buy some of their handcrafted accessories and souvenirs.
These girls were checking the Dane out 😄
The oldest lady took upon her to be Ulrik’s support throughout the tracking, and she would rush and surpass the others not to lose the grip of Ulrik’s hand 😍

Up and down, from one hill to another one⛰. Through rise fields, bamboo forest, streams and waterfalls. Fighting and being fought by the mud and the trails – and with resting points here and there. We wish we have had some more time to take all that green in.
At a certain pace we managed our way down a mountain and began climbing the next one ⛰. The cloudy day tricked us into thinking we were being spared by the sun ⛅️ – when in reality we were getting sunburned!

⚠️ Be saved and use plenty of sunblock cream, even on a cloudy day⚠️

All in all, our Sapa trip has been and will remain unforgettable and very treasured by us. Thank you Cinnamon-Que for your heart-warming hospitality 🙏🏼