Nov 20 Sapa Ecolodge.

 Today we were up early and into a fancy limousine bus for our 5 1/2 hour transfer to Sapa in North Vietnam. Our hotel is called Sapa Ecolodge. It’s an amazing hotel on the top of the mountain with 360° views of tiered rice fields and small villages below. We got checked in our hotel and met our tour guide named Su, who took us on a 7 km walk through the villages over rivers and lots of uphill hikes back to our hotel. When we first left the hotel, we were met by a group of Red Dao women trying to sell us there goods. They were so demanding that they followed us on our entire 7 km walk and became quite upset when we got back to the resort as we did not want to buy any of their goods. We tried to tell them several time NO THANK YOU but…!!!!!!! lol The weather is gorgeous at about 25° but we are so high and there are a few clouds so it makes the mountain peaks a bit hazy. We learned how they husk rice and bag it for use. There were many water buffalo grazing in the rice fields and sooo many chickens everywhere. Rice harvest isn’t until April so the fields were quiet. Fish farms are intermixed among the rice fields.  We saw the local health center and saw boarding schools and elementary schools along our walk. Many of the roads are washed out still from the typhoon that hit Sapa in September. Lots of work to rebuild is still underway. Once we were back, we enjoyed a few complimentary free beverages on a veranda overlooking the mountains and valleys. At 6:30 we had supper in a 360° restaurant up top the mountain. The food was OK but not cheap. The grounds of the hotel are absolutely beautiful, but the walking paths are a lot of uphill with very little lighting and no handrails on the stairs, which made it a bit tricky. Now I am back in my room, enjoying a quiet evening and getting ready for a longer walk tomorrow in a more remote area of Sapa. 

Where Sapa is in Northern Vietnam

My Room 207 Sapa Ecolodge

The view of my room from the path. 

Our group along our 7 km walk 

View of the tiered rice fields and valley below. 

Me up top the path before the descend down

Bev with the valley below 

Local farmer working in the field 

Free well deserved drinks after our hike. 

Wild Christmas poinsettia 

Infinity pool. We will enjoy tomorrow. 

Gardens in our resort

The 360° restaurant at dusk with the infinity pool below