...into the rice paddy, if you are not careful. This is November hiking in Sapa!

We scheduled a 2 day/1 night trek with an organization called Sapa Sisters - a locally owned tour company by women from the H'mong tribe in northwestern Vietnam. We met our friendly guide early in the slightly rainy morning, rented rainboots on, full of excitement for the trekking experience. We were eager for the exercise as fried spring rolls, beach lounging, and torrential rain had started to render us a bit sluggish. But as we took a sharp turn off the road to enter the steep decline into the the muddy rice fields, we quickly realized we weren't going to be able to keep the spring in our step.

And so thus began the VERY muddy and slippery 2 day hiking experience that was equal parts frustrating, and exhilarating. This was a trek that required huge concentration to descend safely due to the wet conditions, so we had to remember to pause and look around us to not miss the beautiful, misty fields. Along the way some of the local women helped us up and down the hills so we wouldn't fall, so it was like we had a little encouraging entourage following us. We stayed in a homestay for the night in a village called Ta Van where we had our first mosquito net accommodation (although the bugs in Vietnam have been quite minimal.) After waking up with the roosters, we hiked through some sunshine (finally!) for a few more hours before driving back to Sapa town for another night. Although the trekking conditions were not ideal, the area was actually quite quiet as the rice harvesting finished a couple months ago, so it was nice to be away from the crowds.