VIAJES: Sapa (Vietnam). Land of valleys and rice fields

Sapa, is located in the north of Vietnam, so closed to the border with China. Getting there is necesary to take the train from Hanoi to Lao Cai.

Lao Cai was a little old station during the age of the French colonization in wich French troops interchanged spices and merchant with the Chinesses. Now, i`t´s a village plenty of travellers & backpackers with the desire to arrive by bus to Sapa and other villages around it for trekking.

It´s better to take the train at night, to arrive to Lao Cai at the beggining of the morning.

From the window of my hotel´s room I could see the first sight of this impresional place. Hills with rice field terraces, floaded by water and groups of houses.

The valley is the scenary lost in the mist. A phantasmagory siluate with different green colours and echoes of a far away land.

The top mountain in Vietnam is located there. It´s called Farsipan, with its more than 3,400 m of high, was impossible to see it, covered by the mist and rain.

The bambu forest is other of the atractive in this land. Bambu is very important for the people who live in the villages. With it, they can manufacture a lot of tools, kayaks and handcrafts. It also uses to feed up animals.

The rest of the vegetation mixes with bambu trees, it´s fabulous!.

Water is so important in the region, not only to grow the vegetation, and planting and watering the rice seeds, even to use the potential energy in mills to powder the rice grains. In the photo, a water mill.

In the villages, live different ethnic towns, like the Black Monh´s. Me rounded with a family sewing clothes and handbags.

A lot of rice terraces sit down on the hills till getting down the riverside of the river. During two days I could trekk and watching several towns like Lao Chai and Ta Van.

Water buffalos are used in the rice harvest. They do the function like the tractors in Europe.

There are several waterfalls in the area. One of them, maybe the most spectacular I visited, you can see it in the photograph.

Finally I could see a woman selling handcrafts, who belong to the Red hat ethnic.

Nobody who like to travel to Vietnam, should lose passing through Sapa. The magic loved mist land.