9/10/09 Sapa Saturday

We woke up and packed an overnight bag for a later visit to Sa Pa in the mountains near the Chinese border in North Vietnam. The towns name means town in the clouds but we were hoping for good weather so we would get great views of the terraced hills and farms. We left the rest of our luggage in the hotel as we would be back there after a couple of nights away. We strolled into town calling in at a couple of stores on the way to buy a few souvenirs. We bought a china tea service and some chopsticks and a bamboo plate and then went to the post office to investigate the post situation. When we got there a very helpful lady gave us a box and some paper to package our things in and another guy gave us some polystyrene too. We packed our stuff the best we could and went back up to the desk where the same lady handed us some forms to fill in Vietnamese so pretty impossible. We filled them in with the help of our phrase book the best we could then the process came to a standstill. Our parcel got placed on the floor behind the desk at this point with no labels on it!! They carried on serving dozens of other people before us and while Liz was on parcel watch Phil tried to get things moving. Eventually they weighed our box and we payed for the postage at least. The there was another delay with the box still unlabelled so Phil went behind the counter to write on it himself. The post lady then arrived to selotape a label on as well. The box was sealed with tapes and we left. if that box makes it back to the UK it will be a miracle. We have already sent ourselves quite a few souvenirs from our travels so hopefully they are turning up. After the stress of the post office we went over to visit the Ngoc Son pagoda. Just outside it a young blind man was sitting selling flutes. We had a chat with him and he was so friendly and happy despite having so little and being blind. He played us a traditional Vietnamese tune and we bought a flute from him to help him out. Phil was upset for quite a while about Phongs quality of life having to beg a few Dong from tourists as he had no other options open to him. After speaking to Phong we visited the lovely pagoda on the lake and walked around it taking some photos of it and some locals playing chinese chess there too. We caught a cyclo to the Temple of Literature which is one of Vietnams oldest universities and had educated some of the countries most outstanding scholars, philosophers etc. It is a series of courtyards used for quiet contemplation, and a temple at the far end commemorating famous students. There was a courtyard full of stone stellae carved with the names of all the students who had past exams there. It was a lovely place with really nice architecture and Eastern features. Our cyclo driver had waited for us outside and we had a beer with him in a locals bar (30p per pint) He drove us back to town and we got out by the lake to find somewhere for dinner. We went to a nice resturant overlooking what looked like an even better locals cafe. We had really nice food though and thought maybe we would try the other place another time. We had to return to the hotel as we were being collected by a guide to take us to the train station. He arrived bang on time and put us in a taxi for the 10 minute journey to Hanoi station. We arrived at the station and were escorted to the platform and waited ten minutes for the a/c to kick in before we boarded the train. We found our berth in a cabin for 4 people, Phil on bottom, Liz on the top bunk. It was really comfortable and we soon settled ourselves down for the night. Another two Vietnamese passengers joined our cabin and we all went straight to bed to try and sleep before we arrived at Lao Cai station at 4.30am the following morning.

10/10/09 Sa Pa Sunday

The train arrived into Lai Cao station, 3km from the Chinese border, at 5am. We were met by an escort who directed us to a bus for the ride to Sapa. The weather was really misty and we couldn't see a great deal. Sapa was originally a French Hill station back in 1922 and is now the base for trekking trips to see the mountain villages and minority peoples of the surrounding areas. when our bus pulled into Sapa it was surrounded by village women in traditional clothing. The villagers are called H'mong and depending on the area they are from and clothing colours they wear are called different H'mong. There were Black H'mong in Sapa and also some Red Zao all carrying baskets of wares to sell. Liz poked her head out of the window to see what was being sold....big mistake. Once we were off the bus we were surrounded by several of the villagers asking "what your name?, how old you? how big your family? where you from?" We found it all quite funny and they started to pull handicrafts out of the baskets and saying "you buy me? I your friend? I walk with you so you but me?" We went to the hotel to wait for our guide for the day and the women all stood outside waiting. We were booked to go on a jeep safari into the villages to stay in a homestay for the night so thought we were pretty safe. When the guide turned up there was no sign of a jeep and the other people on the tour were expecting a walking trek. We had all our luggage with us and no provisions for a days walking so we queried it with Vy the guide. He went to check with his manager and when he came back we heard the phrase "same,same but different". In Vietnam this phrase is used to explain when you don't get what you are expecting. They tell you it is same, same but different and not to worry you will get the same but it will be different!!!! Good logic we think. We had to carry on with all our bags on us, the guide did offer to have our bags taken on for us but we didn't want our belongings to disappear so we kept them. We only had trainers and not all the walking gear we had carried round the world with us as we hadn't known we would be trekking!! We started walking with Belinda and Adam, an Australian couple and a mother and daughter from Vietnam. we had a contingent of villagers walking with us past the checkpoint and down into the villages. The path was really slippy and the air was wet and it was raining slightly. LIz went flying on some slippy mud but was ok and kept going like the trooper she is. All the villagers were being really friendly and helping us all and making animals out of reeds for us. We had quite a nice time with them all and eventually reached the place where we were stopping for lunch. Then the trouble started! We were surrounded by all the women who had walked with us and they started a hard sell of their wares claiming "I help you, you buy me. I walk with you, you buy me. We all bought a couple of things for a little money from a couple of them but then got " It not fair, you buy her, you not buy me, you buy two, you buy from my tribe too" It was terrible as it seems each tribe sends out a crew of saleswomen to sell to the tourists. There is no cooperative situation so each needs to sell their own stuff. Without buying about 14 pillow cases we stood no chance of pleasing them all. Anyway after a bit of strong refusals from us all they left us alone, only for the women from the next leg of our journey to arrive and wait for us to finish lunch. We ate lunch of bread, eggs, ham and cheese and started walking. We all said we had no money and wouldn't buy anything at the start so they didn't folllow us too much. We walked through some villages with animals and children running about. It as lovely to see the way the traditional lives in the mountain people led. We passed rice paddies and many water buffalo grazing in them. We were lucky enough to be invited to see the home of one of the villagers who was walking with the Vietnamese mother. the home was simple but had three seperate rooms with a kitchen, living and sleeping area. The H'mong people use indigo plants to dye their clothes and handicrafts dark blue. There were huge vats of it and cloth hanging around the property drying out. We passed the shop and workshop of a stonecarver who had collected stne from the local area and carved it into intricate designs and jars etc. They were really impressive and we all wanted to get some but were led away by Vy before we could .We decided to head back later so we could buy a couple of things and support the talented young sculpture. On the walk we passed several "homestays" which were all very smart and new and more like guesthouses. Ours was more of a home with two beds for us to use. Belinda and Adam were staying too and we sat outside having a few beers as the sun set. It had stayed dry for most of the day despite there being thick cloud and not much in the way of views. We went for a walk to see the stone carver again but were turned back to make it in time for dinner. While waiting for dinner a black H'mong lady called in to sell us some stuff and she was really funny saying she was too lazy to follow tourists about so just came direct to the homestay. We had a great laugh with her and Belinda bought a couple of hair bands but then we declined and eventually she left. We sat down to the table and the hostess put down about six plates of food for us. It all looked great and the four of us started to tuck in. Then the two females from the homestay joined us. We all threw our chopsticks down in embarassment as we felt so rude not to wait. They were both very forgiving and realised we had made a genuine mistake so we all got tucked into the delicious food. After dinner Vy joined us and the hostess opened a bottle of local moonshine, rice wine, and gave us all a tipple, then another and another until we were all pretty tipsy. We had a great laugh round the table drinking the terrible tasting stuff but it would have been rude not to !!! The chairs and table were as tiny as those in Hanoi and Phil managed to broke one ! After the table was cleared a load of local men arrived with a pipe to smoke. You see people smoking the bong pipes everywhere in Vietnam and its social to share it round a table. We all had a go but Liz ended up choking on it as she is not a natural smoker. Weirdly our guide took off about 11pm and left us in the care of two young lads which Phil called d*** and Dom, he seemed a bit odd to us and that just compounded the theory. We all stayed up pretty late having a laugh with the locals and plenty more to drink before bed.

11/10/09 Sapa Monday

We woke up, the girls feeling pretty rough and Adam still drunk. He had gone to bed somewhere other than his bed and couldn't think where he had been!!! We sat outside the house playing with the local children who were all fascinated by the cameras and video. Their little faces were funny looking at themselves on the camera screens. We went to the stone carving shop before breakfast and bought a couple of bits then headed back to eat. We had a huge pile of pancakes and honey then after about an hour waiting we finally set off. d*** and Dom set off with us following feeling pretty rubbish except Phil who annoyingly felt ok. We walked along a few mountian paths, through a bamboo forest and to a high viewpoint where a man was sitting making chopsticks from bamboo. Next we walked to the top of a waterfall where we sat for a while until it rained again. We walked into a valley where there was a rattan bridge and all attempted to walk over its woobly frame. We had lunch next to the bridge and d*** and Dom disappeared again. Some Red Zoa women came along to sell us some more stuff. The one was realy tiny and reminded Phil of his Nan. He bought a hat from her and we got a few photos. After lunch we started to get bored and cold sitting in the same place and realised the boys were asleep so we woke them up to get moving. We were pretty certain that they had taken us on a shorter route than they should have as our walk that day had only been about two hours instead of five...cheeky b*****s!!! When we eventually started out it really started to rain heavily and we were all soaked through by the time we reached the end. The torrential rain carried on until we got into the jeep back to town. We drove through several torrents across the road and it was a pretty hairy journey back. Once back in Sapa we walked to the Bamboo hotel reception to get booked in and it was flooded so we carefully waded to reception. They tried to put in their temporary rooms but we refused and were put into the Holiday Sapa instead, as we looked at the hotel Bamboo we realised it barely had a roof and was in a real state of disrepair. Thankfully the Holiday Sapa was in abetter state and we got showers there before going to meet up with Adam and Belinda before their bus out back to Hanoi. We had a drink in a bar only just opened called the Mountain Bar with a lovely owner who was asking our advice for ideas on the new bar. Belinda and Adma left and we went off into the town to look around the markets. Ther were some amazing sights in there, dog meat, various sea food in big bowls swimming and drowning in the shallow water, grubs, unidentified foods and all manner of other clothing, souvenirs etc. Fascinating. We went for lunch by which time it was really foggy again and the bamboos damp dining room wasn't too inviting. Our dinner was delicious though and we went to bed really early feeling shattered from the evening before. It was great times with Belinda and Adam and a shame we wouldn't see them in Hanoi as they were flying home.

13/10/09 Sapa Tuesday

We woke up to torrential rain again. It hasn't really stopped raining since we arrived in Vietnam but thats because of the typhoons we think and hopefullly it will improve. We had a trek to a nearby village of Catcat to go on today but we both felt unenthusiastic because of the b****y rain. We met the guide anyway and he was so up for it we went along. We bought ourselves some brollies in the town, walked through the markets and set off down into the village. The guide pointed out where the views would have been (look what you would have won!!). We walked down a road and then left it to join some steps and a path to a small museum showing the old agricultural things. We had a go on a hand mill and then went to a waterfall next to an old power station. It isn't used anymore and now a local traditional song and dance troupe use it. We went in to see the show and Liz was dragged onto the stage to have a go at bamboo stick dancing (generation game style). The powerstation was built by the French in 1925 for the villlagers but they now get cheaper power from China. We then walked back up to Sapa by which time it was dry again. We had a drink in the Mountain bar again then walked through the markets again. We had a late lunch in the windowless dining room at the bamboo and then waited for the car to the station. Our lunch was ok but there were prawn and banana spring rolls!!!! The car arrived and we shared it with three French people. The drive to Lao Cai was pretty hairy as the Vietnamese drivers overtake anywhere even the blind bends. Anyway we arrived in one piece at a resturant over the road from the station where we waited a couple of hours for the train time. We boarded the train , sharing with a Vietnamese man and a pretty camp Jaopanese chap who we chatted with before settling down for the night.