The allure of Sa Pa, about 10 hours northwest of Hanoi and just shy of the Chinese border, is the escape from the constant noise and activity of the cities and a glimpse into rural life.
Travellers pay to go trekking through the mountainside, rice paddies and bamboo forests, spending a night in a village homestay – a chance to peer into a different kind of life.
This is the real Vietnam.
The journey to Sa Pa starts with a nine-hour overnight sleeper train to Lao Cai and an hour minibus ride to the town itself.
Our guide Vu, a tiny 19-year-old girl in the traditional dark blue dress of her tribe, meets us at our hotel and escorts us through the bamboo, corn and rice-covered valley and four villages during our three-day stay.
The guides who shepherd tourists from Sa Pa to the villages are of the Black Hmong tribe, an ethnic minority in Vietnam, which share the Muong Hoa valley with several other minority groups.
Walking along the winding road out of Sa Pa, minibuses with new groups of tourists and locals on motorbikes pass by before we head down a mud path into the valley.
Rain from the previous night has made most of the path a slippery mess.
A group of Black Hmong women accompany us during the trek, helping some of the group (me included) in the hairier spots where mud gets shin deep and the path seems impassable. The women are small – about 150 centimetres – but strong and agile.
They bounce around muddy paths sure-footed. Their small feet fit the foot-holes better than westerners. Some also carry babies on their backs while others sport woven baskets.
Vu reassures me they still slip when it's been raining, but more likely she's trying to make me feel better about my bad balance.
We rest under a small shelter atop a hill. A dark grey blanket covers the valley but luckily the rain holds off.
Looking down over the valley, the rice paddies cut into the mountains like steps to the summit. A marvel of human engineering.
Vu, who speaks fluent English, became a guide about a year ago and learned English by talking with travellers. She wasn't taught English at school, but the younger generation are.
Each village has its own dialect, she says. Her village, Ta Van, has about 2000 people while another we pass through has 400. The tribes can't understand each other's language.
We ask Vu about her life and find out she's married and seven months pregnant with her first child. Most girls get married about 16, she tells us.
She also has a gold covering over one of her teeth which apparently are all the rage in Sa Pa.
She doesn't do guiding work every day, but Sa Pa, in the Lao Cai province, has become more popular with intrepid tourists during the past few years, she says.
It shows. Sa Pa is blooming with construction projects – new hotels, bars, businesses. In 10 years this place will be unrecognisable.
The danger is that Sa Pa will move from hidden gem to overblown tourist trap. We're in town during the low and rainy season (around May to September) and tourist numbers seemed just about perfect. New groups arrive at our hotel every day and Sa Pa still has a buzz as travellers stock up for treks and get well deserved massages. A friend who was in Sa Pa in November (the high season) noticed similar numbers.
Fewer people means trekking groups are small and intimate – our group had seven people and the maximum one guide takes is 10.
Larger groups would make the tour seem like a conveyor belt of westerners and would lose the sense of exclusivity and expedition.
Meandering through the villages – Cat Cat, Lao Chai, Ta Van – you get a strong sense you're walking through the lives of the villagers. A young boy with a stick guides a water buffalo along the street as it stops to chew the grass; men, women and children toil in the bright green fields; a simple and satisfying meal made by a family.
Everyone seems to win in this situation. The Black Hmong make a living through their guiding work and selling handmade bracelets, bags and wall hangings. Travellers see a life relatively unchanged by technology. Sa Pa becomes a prosperous little town making a name for itself in the travelling world.
The challenge for Sa Pa is to remain true to what it is: an authentic experience in Vietnam.
- The Marlborough Express
SIMON WONG
Rest stop: Express journalists Ian Allen, left, and Simon Wong take a break during the trek through the Muong Hoa valley
Labour intensive: A Black Hmong woman toils away in a rice paddy.
Lifeblood: Rice paddies carved from the foothills of the Hoang Lien mountain range provide the staple food for the area
Village life: Young girls make their way through the village together
