I was surprised by the cold and humid weather in Sapa, closer to zero degrees. I was wearing four layers of clothes to keep me warm (my bed in the hotel had an electric warmer just like in car seats but that didn't help much when electiricity was cut). The season was absolutely wrong for seeing the beautiful rice terraces as they don't even start the cultivation before June in this Northern part of Vietnam, high in the mountains. The fog was so thick that on my last day I could barely see 15 metres ahead. I however enjoyed the encounter with the local ethnic minorities during my 2 day trek. The road was so muddy that all the tourists adopted one or two local Hmong women to help to get down the hills (those who didn't most likely fell over into the mud), I also borrowed rubber boots from the hotel. I was escorted by two ladies as well (photo above). The friendly ladies spoke with broken English they had learnt from the tourists. Some children replied: "no honey", when you refused to buy anything with the excuse of "no money". Men were working with their buffalos in the villages and took care of the babies while women communicated with tourists and tried to sell their handicrafts. I was obviously forced to buy something from my women but the deal was clear from the beginning.
While the first day of trekking was very touristy and the village roads were lined with handicraft shops and farm animals at the same time, on the second day my guide took me off the beaten track and took me also to a house of another ethnic minority (characterised by their red hats). I ate with the family some rice and cabbage while the communication was limited to a lot of smiling. The food was cooked on an open fire but as in all the houses I had seen along the way, you could find a TV in the largest room of the house.
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