"Stuck on Fansipan without a rain jacket" Filly's photos around Sapa, Vietnam Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A TripAdvisor™ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Sapa, Vietnam by TravelPod blogger Filly titled "Stuck on Fansipan without a rain jacket" Filly's travel blog entry: "Took a night train to Sapa from Hanoi with two German guys I met on my Halong Bay tour. All I had in mind was a small bit a trekking to some villages with a home stay. However I was tempted by the Fansipan mountain climb when the boys decided to do it. It meant staying an extra night but I figured I'd make up the time elsewhere. Sapa is a town in northern Vietnam only 30km from the Chinese border. There is still a lot of ethnic minority communities living there including the the Hmung, Black Mung and Dao tribes. It is a mountainous region and the area is famous for its terraced rice fields. They are quite a striking sight but unfortunately when I was there, there wasn't much visability due to the poor weather. Farming is tough here and very manual, apparantly the men and women carry up to 50kg of rice on their back during harvest up and down the terraces. The Black Mung community have taken to selling there crafts on the streets of Sapa. The young women follow tourists around for hours (in a friendly way) but eventually enfource the hard sell. They are very friendly and speak suprisingly good english but I found it a little off putting. It makes tourism in the area seem a bit sleezy. Apparantly there is free schooling for the mung children but most of the girls are sent to sell on the street instead ...



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