26 July: Sapa

It had rained the whole evening and still continued when we woke up or should I rather say were woken up by our Vietnamese neighbours, they have no concept of volume! The evening before the TV was on full blast and this morning they were up before 06h00, screaming at each other, not because of a fight its just how they communicate. Anyway, we had to be up early, we headed to the market for the usual, Pho Bo, then to the tour agency. We were on our way to the Sunday market at Bac Ha, about 2 hours drive from SaPa. For once we were picked up last, although we had to squash in at the back between two other very large French. On the way back at least we had better seating, one of the Europeans refused to sit squashed in and went to sit in front with the driver. Spoiled!

Arriving in Bac Ha, we were given 2 ½ hours to wander around, we had hardly set foot out of the bus, when John and Barbara walked past us! We chatted with them for a few minutes before they had to leave, on their way to catch a bus to SaPa. The market was a bit chaotic, divided into sections of touristy souvenirs, materials, fresh vegetables, meats and an eating area. The eating area was definitely the filthiest we had seen so far with raw meat lying around everywhere, flies buzzing overhead, I even saw them cooking dog!! (I steered Leanne in a different direction )

The market was abuzz with locals and tourists. The locals dressed in their traditional clothing with skirts, tops and head wear all extremely colorful. Everything from blue, red, pink, purple, orange, yellow, green and so on. The clothing looked like it had been made from different colour strains. One of the colourful bags caught Leanne's eye and she bought it at half its original price. Ironically, one of the girls in the bus asked the guide about the bags, seeing as she had bought hers in Hanoi, his reply was that most of them are made in China and only sold here. The problem with the market was that everything was very repetitive, no new initiatives, every stall had exactly the same the whole market through.

A little out the market we found a large field with a sizable array of small horses. Most likely used to transport goods and people from the hill towns to Bac Ha. We went in search of a nice restaurant with reasonable prices, this turned out harder than we thought, Bac Ha really was a tourist town. We selected one on a whim, sat down and ordered a plate of rice, vegetables and chicken which we shared, at least we got two banana's for desert when we left. Walking back slowly, we stopped along the way for an ice cream. The bus arrived and we headed for a house in which one of the kings had stayed. It had been built in 1921 in the French Chinese style, nothing to awe inspiring.

From here we headed for a small village on the outskirts of Bac Ha, there we did a circle route around the general farm area and few houses on it. The guide was able to give us some insightful information regarding their farming and the times. For instance, it takes about 4 to 4 ½ months for the rice crops to ripen. In SaPa they only get one crop a year due to the cold, further south its 2 and in the Mekong delta they can get as many as 3 crops a year from a rice paddy. For the first time we were also able to see the rice as it matured on the leaves.

Finished with the Bac Ha tour we drove back to Lao Cai, another 2 hours on the bus. Arriving there we were off to the Chinese/Vietnamese boarder, literally only a bridge over which you walk. We were even able to see the funny Chinese writing, just waiting for us. Our guide decided to stay a little longer than most of the other tour agencies, 3 of which had come and gone in the time we were there, he obviously got some incentive from the restaurant as it was a hot day and everyone was buying cool drinks. From there it was to the train station to drop off some tourists heading back to Hanoi, we drove around for a little longer so the driver could try to fill 3 seats which had opened, no such luck. From there it was all the way up to SaPa, along the magical path.

Arriving in SaPa we headed straight for the market, first buying springrolls at a street stall for a large discount. The lady where we ate even warmed them up for us and gave us some soya sauce. (We had become regulars there). We had the usual one dish of noodles and another rice both with vegetables and tofu. Afterwards we shared some tea with the lady, before walking to a shop to buy water and oreo cookies for the next days trek.

Back at the hotel we were in for a surprise, all the hotel staff were sitting at the entrance door. We were invited to join them for drinks and food and before we could say no or anything else, shot glasses with the terrible rice wine appeared. The wine tasted like spirits and has an uncanny ability of keeping you warm on a cold winters night. We sat down while she rolled each of us some fresh springrolls and shared a few glasses of the rice wine. The one able to speak English talked to us, while the rest all reasonably tipsy giggled. One of them said something in Vietnamese to the English speaking one, Leanne knowing it was about us, inquired from her. Turned out it was about our Oreo's. We opened a pack of the cookies and passed it around, actually helped a lot to take some of the rice wine aftertaste away.

During the drinking and the eating she shared with us that she was drinking because her boyfriend had left her. According to other people he wasn't really that good to her, but she "loved him". He had apparently been walking hand in hand with another girl and she confronted him after which he left her. According to her she had lost 2kg in 2 days due to not being able to sleep nor eat. She had also resigned on the day due to her boss being nasty towards her and was now going to study in the village to become a tour guide. Quite a funny time we had, a real and true vietnamese love story :-)

We really had a nice time with them and they couldn't stop thanking us for sitting down to enjoy the drinks, after the 4th or 5th we got up and headed to our room. Most of them had also gone to sleep although they needed to steady themselves as they climbed up the stairs. The internet was once again not working, on for a minute then off again. We went to bed to get some shut eye before the big days walk.