If I would be asked which place has thought me the most during this journey, I think my answer would be Sapa. I’ve never seen any culture that was so different from my own and it was exactly that in combination with the views that made Sapa very interesting.
We had two days left so we decided to rent a motorbike the first day and booked a guided trek with O’Chau the next. Both were very lovely days, although the last one was a bit overshadowed by fog and rain, which made views a somewhat less impressive.
The scooter day went by fast because there was much to see in the surrounding villages and only little time to do so. Before noon we went for the valley and the views. We were in luck with the weather that day and the views were immensely wide and far. We also stumbled upon a waterfall where we build a tiny dam to hold the water so we could dip our feet in. But after gathering some courage, I decided to take an ice cold shower under the slippery waterfall as well.
In the afternoon we went out to visit some little villages in the neighborhood. Cat Cat was the one that was recommended and visited by a lot of tourists, but it did nothing for me. Maybe because Cat Cat was too focussed on tourism and the shops, stalls, restaurants that come with that didn’t felt like we were in an authentic little village. However when we went half an hour further down the road, we found an unspoiled village that was build in the valley and had pretty views, both on the landscape as on the everyday local life.
Sander on our 6 euro a day motorbike.
What was most interesting about the little village was that people had almost no electricity and no running water but managed to support their needs for food themselves. Their little houses all had a bunch of animals (chickens, pigs, dogs, ducks, buffalo’s) surrounding it, some rice and cornfields a little further away and a river that provided them with all the water they needed. For me the most striking thing about it was how dirty the little children seemed to be. Most of the younger ones wore no pants in order to make sure they wouldn’t need diapers or some cloth that mothers need to bring to the stream to wash.
Next day was a foggy day. Around 100 days a year in Sapa are like this, so make sure you at least book a 2 night trip if you want to have a big chance to see the views. The thick fog lasted all morning on our trek day, and on top of that it started pouring rain around 11. At noon we were totally soaked and my shoes got stuck in the dirt all the time. That in combination with walking all morning made us want to end the trek early. 
After eating lunch and sitting for a while at the fireplace with Lam, our English speaking Hmong tour guide, the fog cleared up and we were finally treated with some sun and lovely views. We decided to continue after all and learned a lot from our guide about the people in the local villages and how the government doesn’t support their needs. It seems that families that want education, health care and cloths need to sell handmade embroideries because chicken, pork, rice and corn is all they have.
These days resulted in seeing a very different culture, with some very interesting guides. And we only saw a lot about the black Hmong culture. There are a lot of other minority cultures as well in Sapa. In other words, there is much left to see. However after four educational days, we had to catch the night train to Ninh Binh, this time with soft sleepers. I hope Ninh Binh will be as impressive as Sapa. But we’ll let you know one of the next days.
The way we wander 