After a sleepless overnight train ride, we arrived in Sapa, a mountainous town in the northwest of Vietnam, close to the Chinese border which is the home of numerous ethnic minority groups. We were surprised by the number of women on the street wearing traditional costumes - more than we have seen elsewhere. The women are all very friendly and all want to sell you some of their handicrafts.

We walked through several of their villages and were struck by how basic the life and homes of these people is. They still build fires in the centre of their homes and use the smoke to smoke meat and corn. Of course, it also smokes everything else, so the insides of the houses are just black! Many of the homes also have satellite dishes out to be sure they receive the latest tv!

The women are constantly hand-weaving flax which they then weave into strips and dye with indigo to make their traditional clothes. Families also have numerous pigs ( Vietnamese pot bellied ones, of course - which love to be scratched and rubbed!) and dogs (which are meat, not pets), as well as numerous water buffalo which are used to plow the rice fields. We had several great walks through the rice paddies and villages and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the traditional way of life of these people.