The next day after my halong bay trip was my 3 day, 2 night tour of Sapa. I heard from word of mouth that it was one of the top things to do in Vietnam but I didn't know much about it so I kept it that way so it would be a surprise for me.

Sapa is located 10 hours north of Hanoi so I was booked in to do a sleeper bus to get there.

The only downside is that because this is Vietnam it's catered for smaller people, not being racist here at all but it's the truth, so for people like me I struggled to get comfortable with my legs being cramped half the time, but the journey was made easier by making friends with Tasso, a half Danish, half Greek, American guy from Virginia who was actually on my tour, and a guy called Charlie who actually was next to me in the sleeper so we could have some footy banter to pass the time.

We arrived at roughly 7am and were shown to the hotel which would be the base of the tour where we would get free breakfast, meet and greet the other people on my tour and the guide then on the second night stay in one of the hotel rooms.kk

In my group was Tasso, an Australian guy called Paul and Anne from Germany. We had a couple of hours to get to know each other before we left which was good and we met our tour guide called tung. At 9.30 we left the hotel and went off to trek, before we actually started walking there was about 20 women, mixture of young and old waiting for us to start, they were all dressed in the same gear as our guides because they were from the same tribes. As soon as we set off all the tribe women flooded around us asking our names and what country we were from making small talk which was a bit unusual but nice to have extra company.

At first the views from the edge of Sapa town looked great as you could see how high up we were looking out into the surrounding mountains which was cool but it wasn't really trekking until we got off the proper roads and paths which didn't take long. The rice paddy hills looked beautiful from up a height and more impressive considering how many there was as they were all over the place, the lush green from the rice shoots growing and the trenches made to help the irrigation made it look very impressive. As we continued to walk through the hills every so often we would come across young children trying to sell you little tribal bracelets with massive puppy dog eyes saying "pweeeese" but most of us said no, it would become a regular theme as we found out.

by time we got to the village some 3 hours later to have lunch, you found out the real intentions of the tribal women that had followed us which was that they wanted to sell some of their custom made tribal items. Such as shirts, hats, wallets, bracelets etc. I had heard that they did this but the fact that they actually were good company and helped people down the hill you felt obliged to buy at least one garment off them which i did so by buying a wallet, but the kids came back trying to get us to buy stuff off them again and sometimes the older people were persistent but eventually left after everyone had pretty much bought at least one thing.

After dinner the trek became a lot better, getting off the beaten track

And actually seeing the tribe village of hmon and getting a look at their way of life. When we first got there tung showed us how they make their clothes, which is made from hemp, off marijuana leaves would you believe it, they didn't smoke it though, just used part of the plant to make the clothes. She showed us that process then carried on through town, we went into her house as she dropped some fruit off and it was only what I could imagine a third world home would look like, it was so bare and basic, dirty and I felt so sorry she had to live there with her parents and 3 little sisters.

We continued through the village, which was essentially more rice paddies but on more flatter ground, little wooden hut type houses and plenty farming areas where buffalo and ducks were usually seen floating around.

We stopped in the next village of ta van, where the tribe was called the dzay, because most tourists spend money on the first village the dzay try a lot harder, you even see across the other side of the bridge children chasing down the vans that are going to park up so they can ambush the tourists when they get out.

We had a few trying to sell us stuff and we refused, one woman in particular that we named mushroom lady, on account of the hat she was wearing made her look like a mushroom head, she started spouting out stories that Paul said to her he was going to help her village and she needed money for her granddaughter who was pulling on his pockets asking for money, in the end she got angry and called him a bad man then left which is not ideal sales techniques to be honest.

We walked to the home stay which was also tungs father in laws house so we met her husband, (they get married between ages of 15-25 and no later) and his side of the family. The house was very basic with not much in except a stove in one room to cook tea, we sat at the table outside the house and relaxed, had some beers and watched the sun go down over the mountains which was awesome, then by 10 we were all shattered and went to bed, which was basically a mattress up some stairs with a muzzy net, but it was a cool experience to get to immerse yourself in the way of life for these people.

The next day we left the homestay and had a 3 hour trek which took us through the hills and at one point a waterfall where we stayed at the top of it and chilled for a while then headed down and across the river to the other side of the mountains to town for dinner. We got picked up by a van to take us to the hotel as we would be staying there for the night, but on the way we stopped at ta van to pick up other people going back to the village and would you believe it the mushroom lady was there again, she came over and had some banter with Paul but again he refused to buy and at one point made a gesture that she would cut his neck which got a bit freaky.

Back at the hotel and Sapa we were given a few hours to chill before free food for tea so we checked out town which was alright and saw the markets, then we all got a massage to reward ourselves after two days trekking.

On the night we decided to go for a few drinks, mainly karaoke bars as they seem to be so popular over here, but with it being a Monday everything was pretty much dead. The best part of the night was randomly befriending a whole Vietnamese family of about 20 people sitting around little plastic tables in the pavement on the street, we joined them and despite neither side really understanding the others language we just laughed a lot, ate food and drank rice wine with them which was a really cool experience, unfortunately Paul tried to get some pics of everyone but it didn't work which was a shame.

Third day was the last of the trek and it was a short one and a half hours to cat cat village and a waterfall. On the way down me and Paul bought a big bag of sweets to give to the children to be nice to them. Walking through the little villages and seeing the quality of life was such a shame and the best way to cheer all the kids up was hand them candy and they came from everywhere, being really greedy too which was funny. We got to the waterfall which was nice and there was a little music and dance performance on in the little music theatre type area where the waterfall was which in honesty was quite boring.

We got back to the village and just chilled out for a about 4 hours until the bus came by having pizza, shower, a whole body massage and a beer, was so nice after 3 days hard work, especially since I overpacked and brought my massive rucksack instead of my smaller bag like everyone else.

Right up there with one of the best experiences I've had on my travels, it was so different and a unique experience to sample a different way of life which makes me a lot more grateful for what I have and understand a lot more about what these tribes and villagers go through.