29 April-May 1 Sapa-Dien Bien Phu- Sonla

Things are very different in Sapa, North Vietnam. The town lies in a district were several of Vietnam's 50 plus ethnic minorities live. In Sapa you find the Black Hmong, and Red Dzou amongst others.

In the main street of Sapa you will find group of women/girls ranging from 5 to 50, they wear their traditional dress and follow tourist like a pack of wolves, their aim is to sell jewellery, embroided wall hangings, purses etc. There are a bit pushy, bit never in an unfriendly way. They laugh and joke along while trying to sell stuff. On the street corners you find throngs of young men with their scooters. Often these are the husbands of these girls/women; these men run their scooters as motorcycle taxis.

A girl walks past me and showed me some of her trinkets. I said I was not interested now. (I was holding a bunch of flowers at the time) "The flowers are they for your girlfriend? “, no, I said. Then they must be for your boyfriend! She said, and I laughed.

“No they are for my man friend" I said. She laughed. Eh ... just a minute. I explained that the wife of my friend asked me to get some flowers for my friend’s birthday. “Who is your Friend?” She asked.

“I have a good friend in Tavan” I said- she replied, “Is that the man with the bar? “ Yes” I said that’s him.” I have seen him” -- “Ok bye see you again”, and she continued her walk down the street. This was a few days ago. There are hundreds of these sellers on the streets as you will see in the back ground of the pictures.

Before ending our four days in Sapa we went for a ride in the area. Just outside Tavan, while struggling uphill to reach to main road which runs along the ridge, Paul B's bike stopped as a part had fallen off. We fixed the problem on the side of the road. Some girls walked past asking about the bike and wanting to sell something. After a minute I said, “Hey, I have seen you before! ““Yes” she said,” You are the man with the flowers!” We had a laugh. After the bike was fixed they asked where we were going and then ask if they could ride with us to their village. They said that they hadn’t sold much so could not afford a motorcycle taxi. They lived a few villages down the road which turned out to be a two hour walk for them. So off we went on our three bikes with two girls on the back, acting as a taxi for them. Their “village” was a group of houses built on the side of the hill. When we stopped, we had a bit of a conversation. She said her name was Sue. But actually more like Djew. And that she was 17. So I asked- “I take it that you are already married,” “Yes” she said, and “I have a baby”. She invited us to see her house where she lives with her husband plus his two brothers, plus her sisters, her parents and her grandparents. When we looked around this 1700 s museum type house you can only be amazed. I make you realise how well we live and that the word poverty is an overstatement in our country.

It was great to stay with Eddie and Hien and to celebrate Tommie's second birthday and Eddie;s birthday a few days later.Their house is finished. The story about Tommie is very special. For my new readers please refer to the story 2013 Singapore to Amsterdam without flying entry 28,30 and 32

They following day we left Eddie’s house left around 9.30 pm for our ride to Dien Bien Phu which is in the North West and remote part of Vietnam, however before reaching Sapa (15 km) Paul B bike stopped three times so it was high to get things sorted before continuing. I figured there was something wrong with the carbie so we pulled over in the old market place and set to work. At 1.30 we finally left but got as far as the town of Lai Chau about 80 km which takes about 3 hours. Google maps show the reasons why. Yesterday we left there early as we needed to reach Dien Bien Phu which is about 200 km and takes... 6-7 hours. These roads are at times just tracks and consist of many first gear 15 km/h very long inclines on a loose surface. Exhausted we reached the town and eventually found a place to stay.

Now for the disappointed of the today. The Laos border is about 35 km from Dien Bien Phu; it is a natural border which means we had to climb a mountain of 1200 meters. I think it took us 1.5 hours to get there, mostly in first or second gear, only to be told that we could not cross the border because our numberplates don’t start with “27” I have no idea what this was all about except that all vehicles in Dien Ben Phu carry a plate beginning with “27”. After discussing a new plan we went back the way we came and headed for the town of Son La 175 km away- a short distance but in the end we did not make it. At 6 pm we passed a large town 30 km short of Son la and called it a day.