Cat Cat hill tribe village

| September 22nd, 2008 | Sapa

We had a little lie in the day after our Tram Tom Pass adventure and it was well needed, and even if I do say so myself… Well deserved. We went off for a spot of breakfast at our new favourite eatery baguettes and chocolate before starting out towards Cat Cat minority village, Its the closest hill tribe village to Sapa and any trekking involved is at a minimum which ticks all our boxes… Still we opted to take our trusty moped down the pretty steep road to the bottom of the valley where we hopped off and carried on the rest of the way foot. It was still a pretty healthy walk along the valley path up and down a rocky little path for about half an hour until we came to a few little traditional houses by a waterfall, a proper postcard scene if ever I’ve seen one. By the side of the falls the was an automatic rice smasher thingy that takes water from the falls and when its full tips out the water and falls back down and smashes the rice or whatever is in the bowl at the end. We carried on along the path up some hills and then right into the rice terraces we had been looking down on from our room, we had a wander through the village an played on a bridge with some little children then had a rest from the hiking by the river while the little kids had a laugh at us and splashed around. Cat Cat village was absolutely gorgeous and there were hill tribe people going about their business all over while we just strolled around, taking pictures and chatting away to them and as we started back across the terraces to cut the hike back in half we wandered past a hill tribe fella who had been on the rice wine and was well pissed, we gave him a wave and he tried to smile back at us but just fell over so we didn’t bother him any more we just carried on passing a few children leading buffalo along and all sorts. It was at this point that we were glad we brought our bike! It wasn’t a very long walk but the hills and the fact it was pretty hot at the bottom of the valley had taken their toll and we really didn’t fancy the steep road back to Sapa town. We hopped back on our bike and took a little detour through another part of the village, it felt alot more rural and it seemed to be where most of the people actually lived, it was lovely just ambling through catching a glimpse of hill tribe life and loads of grubby little children playing and waving like crazy, animals all running about the place and people in the terraces cutting rice and tilling the earth. The road slowly wound to an end and turned into a rough little dirt track so we turned around and headed back up the hills and into Sapa town. We stopped for lunch at the Pink Floyd bar! Im not sure what makes it ” Pink Floyd” but that’s what it said on the sign and the owner even invited us back for rice wine in the evening with him… After lunch we sped off again just for a drive through the hills to nowhere in particular just to soak up the amazing scenery and winding roads, we were out for a few hours and turned back again before it got dark because they really aren’t the kind of road you want to drive on at night! Naturally we had our nightly hot chocolate before heading back to our hotel for the night because who knows when we will be in a place cool enough to drink hot choc again!..