We went on a hiking tour through the lush green and yellow paddy fields of Sa Pa. Mi was our guide, a lovely local Vietnamese lady. She showed us around this magnificent landscape whilst simultaneously telling us about local minority customs and weaving her hemp strings. We saw absolutely stunning landscapes of rice paddies and entered a mesmerizing bamboo forest.

This time of year, mid-November, the rice has just been harvested. If you’d like to see the rice fields in light and bright green, you should visit Vietnam in June or July, when the seeds have just started to sprout. In August and September, the rice fields are fully grown and turn yellow.

We stayed at the fantastic D&D Eco Sapa Lodge, which organized the tour for us. They always arrange tours with local guides in order to invest in the indigenous economy.