Sapa (or Sa Pa) is a town in the Hoàng Liên Son Mountains about 315km northwest of Hanoi. With terraced rice fields covering the walls of Muong Hoa Valley, the area is a visual delight. The views put Sapa on the map and it's now a well-known tourist destination.

The most popular thing to do is trek, or hike, to nearby villages, both to take in the scenery and experience hill tribal cultures. While the first two of our three days there were super cold and so foggy that you couldn't see more than a few meters in front of you (let alone see the views...), our luck changed on the final day. We met a local guide and hiked to her village, Lao Chai, home only to people of the Hmong tribe.

The youngest of nine children, she was born there and still lives there, now with her husband and baby, although all of her family members are still right next door. 

We loved seeing how people in that region live. Particularly intriguing to us were the rice farmers and their tools, the foods being cooked on the side of the road and the way they construct new buildings. The misty/foggy weather also ended up giving us some interesting views along our hike and a few really awesome photographs. 

Because the rice harvest season is mid-May through mid-September, there were no rice plants growing while we were there. However, the terraced fields are still stunning - they're basically giant staircases covered in bright green grasses and algae. I can't even imagine how beautiful they would be during the season! I guess we'll have to go back someday to find out...

And, while the town of Sapa is definitely touristy, there were some cool things to see and do there as well, such as eating local foods (we did plenty of that those first two days) and walking around checking out tourist trinkets and the crazy, makeshift power hubs with hundreds of cables sticking out of them.