Cold, wet, foggy and amazing.
Last day in Hanoi was freezing - so bizarre, cold, cold wind. I had on all the fleece I have been hauling around since China and my Down Jacket which doubles as a pillow. Was very happy to have something warm to wear as it was cold and rainy.
We boarded the night train for Sapa at 8:30 pm and were pleasantly surprised at how lovely it was. Old and wooden cabins with a little chandelier to add class. My roommates were so interesting - a Swiss couple who are travelling half way around the world. (They had already done the other half over the last couple of years). The spent the last few months in Iran and Turkey and came by Cargo ship from Dubai to Singapore. We discussed all of our experiences late into the night and then went to bed. They slept and as usual I did not. The motion of the train was lovely but it was extremely noisy. The trip was 9 hours and we pulled into the Loa Cai station just before 6 in the morning and were met by a bus to take us the 45 minutes up into the mountains to Sapa. This tour thing is sooo easy with someone else making the arrangements.

Tried to check in after such a long day and night but ....nope, not til noon and my trek was leaving at 9:30 - a 12 km hike down into the valley. I had booked a tour that included a homestay - a night with a Hmong family but apparently that message had not reached Sapa. Oh well, I was wondering if I was lucky because the weather was so cold I wasn't sure I wanted to be camping in the cold rain.
Luck was truly on my side when I saw Remco come up the stairs - he was part of the group I was hanging with in Hanoi and if he was there it meant that three others from the group were there too, And we were all on the same trek that day - they had come the night before so it was great for me.
The weather was cold, the rain held off and the clouds moved through now and then but we were afforded a few hours of relatively clear skies to allow us to take in the amazing scenery and take some photos. How beautiful these mountains are with their sculpted tiers of rice paddies and intricate system of irrigation. Water buffalos and pigs and chickens were roaming through and the area belongs to the Hmong tribe of indigenous people. They still operate in traditional ways, very few of their children go to school and they mostly earn income creating handiwork - woven cloths they make into blankets, purses, wall hangings and clothing. Beautiful stuff - they take the bark from the trees and walk around while they are pitching their products to the tourists, strip the bark and separate it and spin it into thread all at the same time. They then dye this thread and then weave it, embroider it and then sell it when they are lucky. They are very forceful with their sales, but not aggressive or nasty when you don't buy. This is unlike most of the rest of Vietnam. In Sapa town they are everywhere - walking into town in the morning with their baskets of trinkets and hit up every bus and a like locusts the minute a restaurant or hotel door opens. the form a siege and compete for your attention. Very interesting outfits and adorable kids running around. The things they sell are quite beautiful all handmade - much handwoven with hours and hours of bright embroidery.
On the trek, they walked with us the entire time, helping us across the streams and just hoping someone would buy something from them. They live very simply in little huts in the mountains, have lots of children and are very poor. Remco, the two Esther's and Adam and I had a lot of fun on the trek, joking with the Hmong girls.
After the trek we hit the market to discover more disgusting gross things and were not disappointed. Everything was spic and span - really clean at this market but they were selling everything freshly killed or were killing it on order. They had water buffalo, goats, pigs and black chickens - the skin and flesh is black all the way through - they call them African chickens. Huge live fish they were cleaning while still alive - brutal, but the most brutal were the dogs - for the squeamish do not go to the very end of the pictures...... yuck. Adam wanted to eat some, just for the experience, but all they had left were heads, and people were buying those. Dog meat is very popular. the dog meat seller told him to go and get one and he would butcher it for him. I went back to my Hotel at that stage as I had seen enough.
I hit the bed pretty early as it had been 24 hours since I last slept. Through the night a huge storm developed - unbelievable lightning that I could see from the wall of windows on two sides of my room. I have two balconies that are looking at different views and if it wasn't so foggy it would be amazing.' The lightning lit the entire room and I could see the bolts. Much less thunder than I am used to but far more lightning strikes. Then the rain started and it was monsoon style, and I saw a river develop below me. After that the winds started and blew one of my patio doors wide open. it was already freezing and I was thinking of those poor Hmong, in their little huts in the wet and I stopped whining. I was happy not to be 12 km away sleeping with them.
Today woke up to fully socked in town - deep fog so thick we could not even see across the street so were disappointed with that but happy we had had one great day for pictures. We headed out on a shorter hike to different part of the mountains and really did not see any vistas as it stayed foggy and rained on and off. We did hike through Bamboo forests, to a waterfall and through tiny villages of other tribes. Still we had lots of fun and I was very sad (again) to see them off on the bus for the night train.
As I have said before you do get attached because of the amount of time and experiences you share in a short time. Tomorrow is a free day here for me so I might rent a motorbike and driver to take me up into the mountains if the sun comes out.
I really need to see the sun soon.