Travelled to Sapa on a night train and bus from Hanoi which took nine hours train and one hour bus, all the sleepers were sold out so I was on a soft seat in a crowded locals coach, very interesting when a bunch of tipsy suited guys in their 30's jumped on at 2am on the way. Not much sleep and lots of laughing at my expense I think as I was left with the most drunk and loudest crammed in next to me! At one time he offered me a wad of 100 dollar bills for my water, we all laughed as I played along pretending to take the notes and he would snatch them away, it was slapstick, at least we entertained the rest of the carriage, quite an experience, note to self, make sure to get a sleeper in future, which I did for the journey back to Hanoi. In Laos I had met a couple who recomended a guide who would give me a unique authentic non tourist trail experience with her hill tribe, I had called her a few days earlier and arraged to meet her, I did not know what to expect, I hoped for a great experience, what I got was beyond anything I could have thought of, I was completly taken out of my western comfort zone and whilst I loved it I was also disconcerted at the same time, laugh and cry, hope and despair, amazement and bewilderment were just some of the feeling I felt, their world is one of tradition, loyalty, simple farming of rice and corn and rearing animals to eat and work the land, my memories of our two days together will live with me for a long time, it certainly makes you reflect on the life we live. Her name is Chung, a 24 year old from the Black H'mong tribe who live in the mountains near to the border with China, she has two wonderful children, a little girl of three who I spend hours playing with and a little boy of one year old who seemed to spend most of his time attached to Chungs back, that was when she was not carrying my ruck sack! There are 900,000 H'mong living in the mountains together with other tribes and they still live now like they did when they first arrived from China in the 19th century, they have their own language and customs, in all there are six millions tribes people in Vietnam, although Chung did have a mobile phone and her husband a motorbike so they are adapting in some ways to the outside world. Chung spoke good English from her days as a tour guide and now she has a family just does the occasional private customers, good to see that even in the most remote parts that private enterprise is going strong. So after two days of quite tough climbing, beautiful scenery and good company we arrived back at Sapa where I purchased some clothes and bags that Chung had made and boarded my sleeper train back to reality that is Hanoi!