We stayed at the Cat Cat Hotel, which has a seventh floor restaurant with phenomenal views out over the hills of Sapa. On our first day we climbed up the mountain to the botanical gardens, and found ourselves lost in a maze of winding paths leading to all sorts of places- lookouts, cactus gardens, ethnic villages, ostrich farms- and connecting back to other paths, so we spent hours wandering around to different sites.
Sapa is a hill tribe area with many different tribes- Hmong, Red Dao, Tay and others- all wittheir different customs and traditional costumes. We went trekking and stayed overnight at a local home in a Tay village called Ban Ho. The trek was great- very slippery because it had been raining. We got helped along by some young Hmong girls, so only one of our group wound up in the mud. As we walked we were surrounded by clouds of yellow butterflies- so many that we had to be carefull not to step on any. Our guide said they only come out like that one month of the year. The other trekkers in our group were Lee-ann from South Africa, Susie from New Zealand, and Anton and Maggie from France. She had a very interesting job with an NGO, and he the dark side of the force, being in advertising. Our guide, Mai, was a wonderfully playful Hmong girl, who tried to teach us how to play the leaf, to attach seed pods to our eyes, to eat indigo berries- all sorts of stuff.
When we arrived at the Tay village, we were going to soak in a nearby hotspring, but it was on the other side of the river and the recent rains had washed out the bridge. To get to the hotspring we had to ford the chest-high, fast flowing river, which we did with the help of two elderly Tay women who held onto us and dragged us accross. Even Mai decided to cross, although she was scared to because she couldn't swim.
After a feast of a dinner, the family men had us try shots of the local rice liquor- very potent stuff! Then we sat having tea with them while they entertained themselves getting Lee-ann to take their pictures while they blew smoke out of their mouths, from the tobacco bong they were smoking.
The next day we had a beautiful swim at the waterfall, then headed back toward Sapa. But as Ban Ho is at the bottom of a valley, the hiking was much more intense than on the way down. The path up the mountain goes about 900 meters in 2 miles. Since we were late leaving and had to hurry, we hiked it in the midday sun in an hour. I still gasp just thinking about it.
Back in Sapa, we discovered a wonderful pastry shop called Baguette & Chocolat, and also a fantastic and cheap family restaurant, so for our time in Sapa we became fixtures at both, spending the money we saved on dinner on decadent pastries. Next door to our guesthouse was the "Pink Floyd"- a restaurant/ bar that played... well... Pink Floyd. Constantly, and at high decibel levels. So we usually fell asleep and dreamed to a Pink Floyd soundtrack.
Although we loved Saga, the end of our time there was marred by an unfortunate incident- our laundry disappeared under mysterious circumstances (the woman at the hotel claims a strange man took it to Hanoi!)- so we lost a lot of the clothing we needed for this coming year of travel. As responsible people will, when confronted with the loss of laundry, we decided to go drink wine at the Pink Floyd. There we met two other travellers, who we chatted to for hours. They were wonderful people, and just what we needed to cheer us up. It's good to be reminded by life that stuff is only stuff. Sometimes it's easy to become to attached to the things we think we possess. Lessons in detachment accompanied by Pink Floyd.
