"Rice Paddies" a Lao Chai Travel Page by jujub

Minimum 3 persons. That is what the the tour operator told me, in order for me to be able to go to Sapa. I had to find 2 other souls with no fixed plans, 4 free days, 60USD (was it 60 or 70 bucks? i lost my receipt), and a will to go outside the city of Hanoi.

I started to pitch the idea to some of my co-workers, and after some daily badgering, I had 2 new travelmates. I divided my supply of doxy in 3, in case we got bitten by that bloody sucker, Ms. Anopheles gambiae & parasites, and made a mental note to get my prescription filled as soon as i got back home. Which, was timely, since the whole SARS epidemic was breaking out -- but we were very oblivious to it, ankle deep in mud, rocks, and poop. (i only heard of SARS when i got back home -- was wondering why people were twitchy everytime i sneezed).

We booked this trip through TF Handspan (http://www.handspan.com/index.html) -- i would have done the trip independently, but we were pressed for time, so on a whim, i stimulated a bit of the Vietnamese economy and booked a trip for 3 to Sapa. The trip was well-organized, and included pretty much everything, and it was worth every single penny.

The trip starts by meeting your guide, in our case, super-hyper nice guy Mr. Hung, then departing from TF Handspan (via their own mini bus) to the train station. We took an overnite soft sleeper train -- trust me you want the soft sleeper: there were hard seats, hard sleepers (take this literally: something like a bed without the mattress), soft sleepers, and not sure if they had soft seats.

You arrive in Lao Cai, bright and early, then you hop on a van, that drives you to Sapa (90 min). Sapa is a cute little town, but you will be harassed by women and children from minority villages, trying to sell you goods. They are extremely persistent, and no, you cannot take pictures of them (they believe you are stealing their souls with the camera). Children might let you take a photo in exchange for some candy.

Mr. Hung took us to the Cat Cat Waterfall, to the Black H'mong minority and the Red Dzao villages, and he cooked us lunch on the last day!!!

Hope you enjoy the photos and the tips! =D

PS: TF Handspan is also a cafe -- don't eat the "pho" there, it's horrible!! =P