30 September 2006

The official Sapa' web.

If you are looking for informations about an eventual trip to Sapa here is a good link to see : http://www.sapa-tourism.com/ . It's the official web of the city.
Great informations in english or french language.
Posted by LithYs at 15:01:10 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Last night party in Sapa.

Now it's time for bouddhist celebrations  in Sapa !

3 days ago the people put bouddhists flags everywhere in the streets. The flags are made of thick silk and are full of vibrants colors : blue, red, yellow and white.
The  2 temples of Sapa are now full of offerings and incenses passively burn all day and nights. Many adepts are walking in the streets and the temples are full of life.

Last night some children were carrying a dragon clothing on their heads while others children were playing drums so evils monsters and spirits would flee from the party. The 6 legged dragon was dancing around houses while the drum player was like in trance.
If the people in the houses don't give offerings to the dragon that night, you can be sure that family will have an unlucky life until the next dance of the dragon.

The minority night market was empty last night as there was the party but tonight it will be full of crowd around the church and the lake.

Posted by LithYs at 14:11:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

28 September 2006

A game of cat and mouse.

Today while me and my wife were walking to the far away kitchen, we saw a small mouse stuck in the way. It wasn't able to escape us as there were small walls around the way. We catched it while an old woman was looking us, pretty laughing.

5 min later the mouse was in a 25 liters box that was inside the kitchen. We made a small garden in that box with small stones, dead branches, old leaves,... Then we left some rice and some water for the mouse.

When we came back 3 hours later the cat from the house up to the small hill already made the box fall down and got the mouse (we think so.... there is not much room in the kitchen for it can hide somewhere.)

Poor little mouse :-)
Posted by LithYs at 18:49:50 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

27 September 2006

25 september 2006

Just met a tourist from USA. His family is japanese and he looks like japanese too :)
After eating cheap food at the market we went to Cat Cat village : a cool walk down to the river and the waterfall for about 1 hour. We saw 2 monkeys on the way to the village. These 2 animals are permanently inside cages but today one was attached outside and was eating an apple. Looked like a dirty little punk ;)

We spoke about h'mong people on the way to the waterfall and their culture. He was happy to discover such people of course :)

Then we went back to Sapa walking the way to up. Many men asked us in vietnamese about a ride in motorbyke to the city but we just passed by. The way is only 4 kms to Sapa but it's a little bit hard to go as it's going up permanently.

After such moments and energy spent, we headed to a little cafe and got some fresh drink : a cold coffee and a fresh mango shake for my friend. That place is marvelous. Only 10 000 vnd for 2 drinks. Yes only half euro or 2/3 for a dollar for 2 drinks :)

Before eating in Gerbera, my favourite restaurant, we walked a bit in the city and I showed him some places to see in Sapa. He was looking for a 2 days trek in the villages around the city so I went to the market and asked a h'mong woman if she could take him to her house and walking in the rice fields. She said "ok". It wasn't the first time she was about to do that. Another person staying in Sapa sometimes asks her to bring some tourists to the villages.

The night finished at Gerbera and after that, we went to the night market and ate some fresh pork bbq.

A nice day :)
Posted by LithYs at 17:38:03 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

26 September 2006

Welcome to Livinginsapa !

Welcome to my blog.

I'm Olivier, a french man living in Sapa, a city built by the frenchs during the Indochina era.
This place is surrounded by several mountains (including the Fan Xi Pan, the tallest mountain in Vietnam) and villages, populated with local minorities (H'mongs, Daos, Xa Pho,...)
The fresh atmosphere and the view give to that place an unique feeling. Beeing able to see far away villages from under a pine tree while smelling the sent of fresh cutted rice and locals flowers is an incredible experience.

Through this blog I'm gonna tell you good advices to travel to Sapa, the local villages, or even some far away places like Tam Duong or Bac Ha. Also I'll tell you days of my life in that city.

I'll try to translate every posts into french when I got time so come back sometimes to check out the news :)
Posted by LithYs at 22:05:59 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |