3.4. Day 4: Sapa – Rock Cave – Den village – Sapa

– I woke up early and went to the local restaurant for breakfast. It’s wonderful if you have a hot bowl of noodle with lots of pork on a cold morning. After that, I returned my room, pick my backpack up, rented a motorcycle, two girls had gone before.
– I came back to my way after done, went toward Rock Cave – Sa Pa. On the way, I met a lot of amazing things. There are the terraced fields, the villages at the bottom of the mountain. If you travel to Sa Pa in harvest, it will look beautifully.

– I went into a village, I saw many local children who just wore T-shirts and shorts in the days of cold weather. I stopped my motorbike to say hello, they were friendly but they did not speak a common language (Vietnamese) but spoke the local language. I gave them some jelly. I took some pictures with them. Actually, I wanted to make friend with them, got more information about their life and asked them to lead me to go around there, go to some amazing places or just play with them, but we had a language barrier, so I could not do it.

– On the way, one side was abyss and the other side was cliffs with some ravines. There were many signs to warning it maybe has stones which falling down from the Mountain. I went to a valley region, there were many people were gathering cheering for something under a deep cliff, but I could see anything because I was far from that. Took some images of the landscape there, then I came back to my way, at that time, I remembered that I had an appointment with 2 Vietnamese girls, so I had to go back to Sa Pa quickly to be on time.

– I led they go to the way that I have just gone that morning and all of the places where I had stopped by. When we reached the cliff area where had many people cheering up, I gave a sign by hand to let them know I want to stop. I told them should take some pictures cause that area is a beautiful place with the villages below, the terraced fields and so on. From there, we could see the 4D route, we opened the map and found that we were near Sao Chua Village, near the 4D route.

 

– At that time, I saw a large group of men had gone down, the screaming echoed up, it seems they gather to do something, I looked down, there were two foreigners also looked down, they said hello, then there were an answer to said “Hello, come here, come here”. I did not hesitate to go down. I asked 2 Vietnamese girls that would they like to go down with me? And they said no, for sure, they felt so tired for climbing yesterday, moreover, it was not easy to go down. Finally, I found a way to get down, it was so steep, so I would get a trouble for climbing when I came back. When I arrived, they welcome me by a question “Where are you from?, they thought I was a foreigner, but I responded to them by Vietnamese and a nice smile.

– By asking, I knew they were bringing woods to make a new house. That was the best way to ship wood from the Mountain to their home. Unlike the civic area, they always cut down trees to make a house, it takes more 1 year to select enough woods they need to build a house, then they roll the woods go down the Mountain and use buffalos to pull them. His name is Giang A Binh, he is a tour guide. He had a homestay with 3 rooms in the village. At that time, he was in process to build new his house. I couldn’t believe it, how could they do it without any trouble, it took 10 people to do it. He said they used buffalo leather cord which so durable to tie the woods, I saw them do it. It was incredible.

• I asked him for a local restaurant around there, he told me there was not any local restaurant. If you want to eat something, you have to book it before. He recommended that I can stop by his homestay. I agreed and asked his phone number. The girls called me back when we were talking. I said goodbye to him and then came back, I retold to the girls about my meeting with Giang A Binh, they agreed to make a call to him to let him know we will stop by his homestay for lunch.- At 11:00 am, we went into the village where Giang A Binh lived. We left our motorbike at his homestay, then walked to his home. We entered into his house. Because we had untold his wife that we would drop by their house, so she could not prepare lunch well to us, at that time, we were feeling hungry. For a while, we did not know, where the hell he got a chicken, then he told his wife to cook it. For waiting time, we talked. He was friendly. He said he had lived in Lao Cai, then he went to Sa Pa to work as a tour guide. Then he got married and got off work, now, he just a homestay host.

 

 

– We came back his home. Everything was done. We had a chicken hot pot for lunch. It was delicious. We ate and talked to Giang A Binh. We asked him about “ngón” leaf – a poisonous leaf which we had read in a book. He told us should be careful cause it was very toxic, just 1 leaf for the kid and 3 leaves for adult, you will die if eat it. It was popular there. He said there were many teenage couples who could not get married had used it like the last solution for them. Some of them had been driven to the hospital to cure, but it still has a big effect on them. Now they are crazy or something like that.

– At 15:00 pm, we said goodbye to them. We took some pictures for memory, they were friendly. It just cost us 200K for lunch at his home, but we paid 300K because they were friendly and enthusiastic. I asked him how to get O Quy Ho cool. He gave me a direction to get there and not forgot to remind that I have to rush, if not that, I will be late for the bus to go to Lao Cai City that night. I did as what he said.

– On our way to go to Sa Pa, we met a group of French. We stopped to say hello to them. We told them about our experience at Giang A Binh’s house and recommended them to get there if they want. We gave them some persimmon as a gift and then said goodbye. So my journey in Sa Pa ended up.

3.5 Day 5: Sa Pa Town – Lao Cai City

-At the end of the day, I thought I would stay there for some days, to get more information about the people, their life and then I will go to Ha Giang as my plan with alone traveling. But it failed after I had talked to the girls. We got on bus – the last bus of the day, so it was quite deserted. On the bus, we asked the driver is there any motel around the bus station for rent. He gave us some place addresses. After we had gotten off the bus, we followed the driver’s direction to find a motel for rent. Finally, we got one.
– After a long day, all we needed at that time was having a shower with hot water. Oh dear, I could not wait for it.

– 9:00 pm, I wrote a diary and then I went to sleep. The next day would be a new journey. O:)

Next week was more great experiences in Ha Giang (Trip04)

 

Trip03 Adventure Sa Pa: Average 5.2/10

7/10 : Adventurous

Quite satisfied, going many places to experience new things

1/10 : Daring

Not satisfied, because the tours to Fansipan so nothing daring

8/10 : Cultural

Contact with local people, explore cultural life

9/10 : Friends

Randomly met good friends

2/10 : Professional

Poor skills, exploiting the limited information

4/10 : Efforts

No big challenges so not much efforts

 

Other adventures …

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I wish to encourage everyone can travel by their style and find out the adventures inside every person. Join me as I share adventure diaries, experiences, destinations and useful travel tips, skills, gears.

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Daring-Long, Saigon, 2016-Dec-06, 03h10 a.m