Sapa Trek with the Hill-Tribes in Vietnam: 10 Things You WON’T Expect

A Sapa trek with the hill-tribes in Vietnam will take you through the scenic Hoang Lien Son mountain range near the Chinese border. We’ve talked about the tremendous beauty of Sapa in our post about how to arrange your own Sapa trekking without tour companies.

Sapa is indeed one of the best places to visit in Vietnam. On a Sapa trek, you’ll walk through tribe villages and cascading rice fields that may be a rich vibrant green if you visit in the summer, or strikingly yellow immediately before harvest. You can expect magnificent mountain vistas stacked with rice terraces, landscapes so beautiful they’ll take your breath away. You can expect to be astounded and amazed.

But what about the things you won’t expect?

On our Sapa trek with the hill-tribes in Vietnam, we came across several things we never even considered would’ve been part of our trip—some of them pleasantly surprising, and others…not so much.

If you’re planning on taking your own Sapa trek, review the list and see if there’s anything you’ll want to bring to prepare yourself—after all, it’s impossible to prepare for the things you never expected!

You can watch our 10km trek TO our hill-tribe homestay in Sapa here:

10 Unexpected Things You’ll Find on a Hill-Tribe Sapa Trek

1. Leeches

Yes. Leeches. You will almost definitely have leeches. Especially if it’s raining.

I didn’t even think about leeches being on the Sapa trek beforehand—which is a complete fail on my part, considering my trek in Thailand also had leeches and it wasn’t even raining then. I should’ve known better. But alas, I’m human.

Our Sapa trek was during August, and it was pouring. The leeches were relentless. Ben and I were both wearing hiking boots with thick hiking socks, and would still find leeches burrowing in through the socks and onto our skin.

2. Weed

Maybe you’ve heard of the “happy water”—a homemade rice wine frequently offered to tourists on their Sapa trek by the hill-tribes in Vietnam. You may, however, also come across the “happy plant,” otherwise known as marijuana, cannabis, reeeeeeeefer, or more commonly, weed.

On your Sapa trek you may come across entire fields of the marijuana plant—our guides from the Vietnam hill-tribe frequently pointed them out to us. We did learn, however, that they’re not planted for recreational use, but rather to make hemp for making clothes and embroidery.

You may even be offered to have a puff of the happy plant out of a bamboo water pipe after your shots of happy water, but keep in mind you’ll probably be given dried leaves!

3. Buffalo Poop

And lots of it.

You’ll come across many buffalo on your Sapa trek with the hill-tribes in Vietnam, and of course the piles of poop that follow them.

The problem with the magnificent beauty of the rice terrace Sapa trek scenery is that too often you’ll be so enraptured by the view, you won’t notice the giant pile of bull crap you just stepped into.

Guess those rain boots would come in handy for more than just leeches. You should probably bring a travel-size pack of wipes for any bull-crappy accidents (and these may also help with #9 on the list).

4. “Zombie” Kids

Go on a Sapa trek with the hill-tribes in Vietnam and you’ll know about the zombie kids. As you walk through a village of the hill-tribes you will inevitably be approached by a group of 5-10 young girls all chanting in the same slow, monotonous tone, “You buy from me” into oblivion. The group of girls will follow you, wrap around you, obstruct your path, and continue chanting until they find someone new or you break down and give them money. The girls are so adorable, and your heart will go out to them and you’ll want to buy from them. Here’s why you shouldn’t.

Despite your urges, we were told that you should not give these children money. In doing so, our guide informed us you’re actually promoting these girls being taken out of school to work. In fact, the money you give doesn’t go directly to them—the children get a cut for their family, and the rest goes to their boss.

 If you like kids you’ll love reading about our experience splashing adorable Korean kids with water while Teaching English abroad

5. Shamans

Though missionaries have converted some of the H’mong hill-tribe to Christianity, most H’mong people continue to practice shamanism, including our guide and her family.

When we came to our homestay with the hill-tribes in Vietnam, we learned that the mother of our guide was, in fact, a shaman. We also learned that this was unusual, as the shaman is usually a man.

A warm and smiling woman, the shaman didn’t speak a word of English, but she did show us her sacred wall paper altar, complete with worshippings and offerings. She gripped onto my hand as she gently urged me forward to see the silver and yellow designs.  It was such an unexpected pleasure being walked through and shown such a revered element of the Hmong culture!

6. Phone Service

Surprisingly enough, our Australian and Belgian companions, who had both purchased sim cards for their phones for their time in Vietnam, were able to find phone service on the Sapa trek.

When you’re immersed in that stunning natural landscape of your Sapa trek, you feel so far removed from everything else that phone service just isn’t something you’d expect. But turns out, many of the guides from the hill-tribes had smart phones—we’re actually friends with our guides from the hill-tribes on Facebook!

The quality of service you get will depend on the company you buy your sim card from. Our Belgian companions purchased their sim cards at the Hanoi airport, and their service was weaker than the Australians. If phone service is important to you, you’ll definitely want to research the most reliable companies.

7. Four Seasons in One Day

The Sapa billboard is said to speak of its ever-changing weather: “Four seasons in one day.” In the morning, it feels like a brisk, cold autumn; after sunrise, a light spring; a hot summer in the afternoon; and at night, a little taste of winter.

For our August visit, we didn’t experience the cold winter parts so much, but we did experience dramatic changes in weather. The month of August is notable for the amount of rain it gets—this is when the rice fields are at their greenest and most vibrant—but our guides from the hill-tribes told us that the rain typically stops at the end of the morning. Of course, they were right. While our mornings were dreary, gray, rainy, our afternoons were much warmer with beautiful blue and sunny skies.

8. Corn

We were given tons of food by the hill-tribes on our Sapa trek, but something we really didn’t expect was how much corn the H’mong use.

Corn just isn’t something I ever associated with Vietnam, but we learned that corn is actually a staple among the H’mong hill-tribes. In fact, we saw people from the hill-tribes carrying giant baskets of corn cobs on our Sapa trek.

We also had the chance to eat some delicious Mèn Mén on our Sapa trek, a dish made of ground corn that we ate wrapped in banana leaves. We watched the production of the ground corn by our H’mong hosts in a large stone grinder. After being ground, the corn powder is then sifted to remove any shells or kernels. It’s certainly a labor-intensive process, but the result is quite tasty!

Learn more about Vietnamese food you’ll love!

9. Bathrooms that are different

Now this is something I actually did expect, but it’s a fair warning for anyone who doesn’t!

The bathroom set-up of your homestay with the hill-tribes in Vietnam will vary depending on your guides, but it will most definitely be some variety of…different.

Our homestay actually did have a shower, with running water from a tube that connected to a nearby waterfall. The toilet at our homestay was a squatter toilet, and toilet paper was available but in very limited quantities.

How Can You Prepare?

10. The Time of Your Life

Okay, fine. This may not actually be that unexpected. But gosh golly darn, it is certainly true.

When you see pictures of a Sapa trek with the hill-tribes in Vietnam online, it seems too good to be true. Before arriving in Sapa, part of us feared that the Sapa trek would be overrun with tourists, that it wouldn’t be as beautiful as the photos, that we’d be hassled by people trying to sell us stuff the entire time, or that it’d be too difficult to find a good guide from the hill-tribes (make sure to read about how we found our incredible H’mong host for our Sapa trekking, without a tour company).

We feared that our Sapa trek wouldn’t live up to the hype, that the photos of the mountain vistas and rice terraces were only so amazing because they were taken by professional photographers.

Luckily, Sapa really is that amazing.

And also luckily, we had a wonderful guide: a kind and sweet woman who had the most incredible home atop a mountain encircled with rice terraces. Yes, there was some buffalo poop and some leeches. Yes, the morning of our first day of trekking had torrential rain, and yes, the bathrooms are a little different. But for us, every single part of the Sapa trek was worth it for the pay off of the miraculous vibrant green landscape! We were lucky that our Sapa trek was during August, while the rain was plenty and the rice hadn’t been harvested yet, as the shockingly verdant rice fields matched our expectations and truly lived up to the hype.

And even better, now that you know exactly what unexpected things you should expect, you can plan accordingly and make your Sapa trek even better!

What’s next? If you’re looking for more adventure and have experience on a motorcycle, you can take a bus from Sapa to Ha Giang so you can drive the Ha Giang loop by yourself! Otherwise, you can head back to Hanoi and use it as a base to explore the scenic Tam Coc. Whatever you end up choosing—we’d love to hear. Tag us on Instagram or Tiktok to keep in touch!

Safe adventuring, friends!

Whole lotta love,

Benny & Renny

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What’s the most surprising thing from our Sapa trek?

Let us know in a comment below!