Sapa Village Trekking || Part 2

In the northern reaches of Vietnam, near the Chinese border, tower the highest peaks in Indochina. Hidden in the mountain valleys are vibrant villages full of unique cultures and magical landscapes sculpted by bright green rice terraces. In part two of my Sapa adventure, we have just come down from Phan Tse Pan, Vietnam's highest peak, and embark on a two-day village trek walking through these magnificent rice terraces and meeting the local Hamang and Dzau hill tribes. And here's how it went. So we have just come down from the Phan Tse Pan and that was really actually such a cool experience. There was so much to see and do up there and just the views were absolutely incredible. And we are back down in the Sapa town here. We just grabbed a quick lunch and it's already almost about 2 p.m. so we spent most of the morning up in Phan Tse Pan. You can spend quite a few hours up there. And finally we're gonna start one of the things I'm most excited about here in Sapa. We're gonna start a little village trek where we're gonna hike through this valley that we saw from the cable car. We were looking straight down the valley that we're gonna hike down now and we're gonna stop in these little villages along the way, meet some of the local hill tribe people of northern Vietnam, and yeah just have these beautiful views of rice terraces and mountains. And then eventually we'll be doing a village stay. So we're gonna be doing a homestay in one of the villages tonight. So yeah, we're gonna start the hike and enjoy some of these views, enjoy some of the nature, and yeah. Let's start. So we have not hiked very far from the village here. We're just coming down the hill here and we're just having some of these first views of some beautiful rice terraces and we can see Phan Tse Pan where we were this morning. And we have So she's joining us a little bit for the trek here and some of these are her home villages. And yeah, so beautiful hike so far. So let's keep hiking and see what else we find. We have just hiked down the escarpment and we are in the valley here and we've made it to a little bit of a village and we have this nice little road. We have about a three mile hike to the first village of Lao Chi that we're gonna head to but we're on this nice little paved road now but just surrounded by these beautiful rice terraces and just amazing mountains all around us. So yeah, let's keep hiking. This is so beautiful. This has been beautiful hike through the valley here and then we've come up the other side of the valley and we're in I Le Hu which is the hometown of Ji who's been following us and showing us a little bit of stuff and she's been so cute. As we've been hiking she's been taking some plants and creating little crafts for us. The crown and the little horse. And then this is where her home is and she just wants to show us a little bit of her shop and some of the local Hmong crafts. Ji just showed us a lot of her beautiful Hmong handicrafts there. Some nice bracelets, some nice bags, and unfortunately we didn't need anything but we gave her a tip for some of the photos and the guiding that she gave. And when you're in Sapa all through town there's all of these local Hmong that come and offer their guiding services. So if you wanted you could have a local showing you around some of the villages here but we just wanted to be independent and on our own time schedule. But it was cool to have her and just to see a little bit of her traditions and cultures here. So anyways we probably have about two more miles to Lao Chi which will be the next little village and then keep going on to Tavan. So let's keep hiking through these beautiful terraces. So we have just hiked down from that other little village and we are now in Lao Chi and that was just one of the most beautiful parts of the hike so far. We just were hiking through all of these rolling hills with amazing just really steep terraces. We had the sun just shining right through them and absolutely beautiful just exactly what you would picture Sapa to be. So we're just walking through the little town of Lao Chi here and then our homestay is in Tavan which is just about a mile from this little village. So we're gonna walk through town here and then yeah probably in about 15-20 minutes we'll end up in Tavan for our homestay. It is about 5.15 and we have just gotten to Tavan and we're at our Hmong cultural homestay. And the little village here it's full of little homestays and guest houses because there's a lot of people that will be doing this Sapa trek just trekking through a couple of the villages here. And so there's lots of cute places to stay but ours is up on this little hill. We just have these nice gardens, a little pond, this beautiful view of the mountains. And yeah I'm super stoked to spend the night here and then tomorrow we're gonna get up and do another day of trekking. So really looking forward to that. Super fun, super cool to be out in these little remote villages meet a couple of the Hmong people and yeah just see those beautiful rice terraces. So we're gonna check in here probably hang out try to find a little restaurant in town and we'll see you guys tomorrow morning when we continue hiking through Sapa. Good morning guys we just woke up to the beautiful rice terraces of Tavan. Some beautiful mountain views and we are about to start our second day of trekking around some of the villages of Sapa and we are just on the outskirts of Tavan here. So we're gonna start the morning by just walking into town. Last night we got here like right as the Sun was setting so we didn't get too much time to explore the village during the daylight. So we're gonna go check out Tavan a little bit and I think Tavan is a bit of a hub for a lot of the homestays. There should be some cool cafes too so probably get a coffee in Tavan and then we'll keep kind of walking around this region checking out some of the beautiful rice terraces and all of the little villages that surround the Sapa Valley here. So yeah let's head out. As we have just walked probably about half a mile from our little homestay to the village of Tavan and I'm just so amazed and impressed at how many hip little like bungalows and guest houses and coffee shops and restaurants and there was an art gallery in this tiny little town and then you just have these amazing views. So we've just come to S Plus Bungalows and they have a little cafe coffee shop. They have this nice little porch out here that takes you out into the rice terraces. So we're just gonna hang out here have our morning coffee and then we're gonna continue on hiking past Tavan and try to check out a couple more villages. But yeah let's just enjoy these views, enjoy some coffee, just another beautiful blue sky morning here in the Sapa Valley. So we have just walked probably about a mile and a half or two miles and you're kind of weaving through these little villages and then eventually you make it to this bamboo forest which was really cool to hike through with these tall bamboo spires and we have made it to the waterfall and it's not the most dramatic waterfall it's actually just this rock slab and you have water just trickling it down from these little pools little pools but it's a nice little place to get refreshed. There's some nice views looking over this village here you can see some of the rice terraces and the mountains. So we're probably just gonna hang out here for a little bit, grab some water, enjoy the view of the waterfall, the valley, and then eventually I think we're gonna head down into that little village right down there. From the waterfall we were coming down to the Supan Reservoir and as we were there we met this other traveler here and he said don't go down the trail that all the other tours go to come with me and join me on this trip to this Dzau village and the Dzau are another one of the hill tribes here in northern Vietnam known for their bright red headpieces and their yellow pants and so we're just gonna go walking through these random villages with no tourists and try to meet a little bit more of the local authentic hill people here in northern Vietnam. We've been hiking with our Dzau friend who's just helping tourists through some of the village up here and we've come to this little viewpoint and there's this giant boulder with amazing 180 degree views of the valley, the rice fields below, and we're gonna keep hiking up this hill. So we have just hiked about half an hour up from the reservoir here and we've gone up this hill so we're up a little bit higher overlooking the valley and we've come to this little guest house homestay up here of the Dzau people and we're gonna have some lunch we have these beautiful views overlooking the rice terraces very just relaxing and again this has just been super fun and spontaneous just kind of making our own adventure hiking through the Sapa villages here but the people are just so friendly so welcoming so we're gonna hang out here at this homestay have a nice lunch overlooking the valley it's about one o'clock or so now so yeah hopefully we'll just enjoy this view for a little bit and then we'll keep hiking through some of the villages. So we've just had our lunch here, beautiful views overlooking the valley here and now they're putting us in their local Dzau clothing and I think Dan is next. This was super fun they dressed us up in their traditional clothing and just showed us a little bit of their tradition seeing the house and then having coffee with them here this beautiful view overlooking the rice fields and just a really fun authentic experience with the Dzau people here so anyways we're gonna pack up our stuff and we're gonna start hiking back down the mountains towards the reservoir. We have just come down the valley over the Supan Reservoir over this little dam and now we are going up the north side of the Sapa Valley here and there's a couple other little villages that we wanted to check out there should be a little village called Supan up here and then another one heading back towards Sapa so yeah should only be about 15-20 minutes hiking up this hill checking out a couple more villages and then going up this hill here we'll just get really nice views looking back down on the valley but what a day it's been so far meeting some of the cool tribal people so yeah let's keep hikin so we have just walked up from the main road to the little village of Supan and we just have this beautiful view and we're looking back at Fonsi Pan the mountain that we were up yesterday morning so we're just seeing some of the tallest mountains from this side of the valley we're on more like the northern escarpment here and we're gonna head back west to the little village of Hau Tau and we're just gonna kind of like walk through these little rice fields and these little villages and we just have had some amazing views of these rice terraces and rice planting season isn't for another month or two so right now most of these terraces are just filled with water but today they just look so cool reflecting in the Sun so but if you come in more like late March or April that's when you'll get the very very bright green rice fields of Sapa but still beautiful views amazing reflections with the water and yeah let's keep hiking west towards Hau Tau so we have just had about probably an hour hike up through these rice terraced fields from Supan village to Hau Tau and it was just beautiful there were like these water buffalo and these bright green terraces and you're just getting the Sun that's gonna set within the next hour behind Fancy Pan and some of these amazing mountains of Indochina and flew up my drone got some amazing aerial shots of some of the rice terraces and now we're actually in Hau Tau village but we're gonna hike about half a mile back down to the road and try to get a taxi back to Sapa and that'll be about it for today but what a cool day we really had no plans so we just kind of like walked through these villages and let things happen and then meeting Joelle who took us up to the Red Tsao village there and just having that really authentic unique cultural experience with them and getting a lot of insight into their culture their heritage seeing their handicrafts seeing the inside of their house their food they dressed us up that was just like such a highlight of the Sapa Valley experience and I think there are guided tours that can take you that way but I just really loved being independent just hiking taking my time stopping at little houses at little rice villages and rice terraces taking photos and yeah what a cool way to see Sapa Valley and then tomorrow there's one more village I want to show you guys it's I've heard it's a bit of a touristy village but it's right outside of Sapa so you can walk from Sapa town and it's Cat Cat village so we'll probably see you guys tomorrow when I show you guys one more Hmong village right outside of Sapa that's a little bit more accessible if you don't want to do all of this trekking so yeah we'll see you guys tomorrow