09 Jan 2026: Lao Chai- Ta Van village- Sapa- Hanoi (Meals: B/ L/-)
Breakfast
The standard hotel buffet style you see a lot in Vietnam. You will be seeing a lot of it on this tour. This morning I grabbed some bacon, hashbrowns, a biscuit, ham, rice, tomatoes, and cucumber. I have a bowl of beef Phở before I added any broth.
I ate and my tour guide will pick me up for trekking at 8AM. We will be walking through the hills and villages of Lao Chai- Ta Van village.
This was a little tough on the knees. At the end of the day I walked 20km and up and down a considerable amount. Thankfully it was mostly down. There was only me, a Singaporean woman, and the guide on the trek. The guide was from the local tribe. She had some stories about her people but what I found more interesting is the personal stories she told. She was married at 16, and had her first of 2 children at 17. She is now 26. She does this walking tour about 25 times a month in the summer which is their high season. She said it is very pretty with the green or golden rice patties during the summer. I would still prefer going during the winter if it means I can avoid the cold Canadian winters.
I really enjoyed the walk, resulting in a large number of photos.
Near the end of the hike we had lunch at the last village on the trek. Our table had a great view. Rice, tofu, spring roll, vegetables and salad. We finished of the meal with a nice hot chocolate.
After lunch we took a little drive back to the hotel. There was a an hour or two before the drive back to Hanoi. I went for a walk to explore Sapa since I didn’t have much time to explore the town itself.
I wondered to the edge of a sidewalk. This hotel opened up below me. Parts of this town are very vertical.
I got back to the hotel and we started our drive to Ha Noi shortly after. I took many van “Limos” on this journey. They are comfortable, but the TV rarely works and the massage function and USB charging ports on the chairs are sometimes turned off. There is more room on these than a bus and I enjoy being a passenger over the driver on these long drives overseas.
Back to the same hotel, different room.