Sapa

Friday, March 20th

It always seems to be foggy/smokey in the morning here, although we have seen photos taken on clear days with snow on the nearby peaks.

After another "feeding frenzy" breakfast, this time with Japanese rather than Germans, we had a relatively late (9:00am) start to our program. First, a 5km walk through artichoke (we think) fields to several Red Dzao villages.

As usual, there's always a group of women who become your shadows until they get bored with you ignoring their "where you from?" and "you buy something".

Apparently they grow the artichoke (Actiso in Vietnamese) for medicinal products.

Many of the fields are used for this crop when there isn't enough water to grow rice.

Today one village was harvesting some of its crop.

And a buyer from a local company was weighing and tallying the crop as it was loaded onto a truck.

There's always a school, and the Government subsidises attendance for poor families. The boys did what males do best in this part of the world.

While the girls practised a folk dance under the direction of a very inappropriately shod teacher (well, Prue thought so anyway).

We passed the remains for a hospital built by the French a century ago and destroyed by the Chinese a few decades ago.

And everywhere more terraces.

In the village there was a drum factory - the main structure made from a hollowed out section of tree trunk.

It being coffee time, we found a place selling coffee and it turned out to be an oasis, which inlcuded a very newly constructed Homestay (basic rooms and bathroom with full pension).

Selling a variety of local fire water, wine and "medicines", some with the odd cobra inside.

Vietnamese filtered coffee with condensed milk for Prue and Lam our guide, black coffee for me (no latte on the menu).

They also sold a large variety of medicinal herbs and spices.

And there was a little museum with a drums (from the factory down the road), traditional clothes...

...and a Red Dzao "rain coat"!

Of course, the WiFi was also free.

Unusually, we passed a few geese - this one almost dancing through the field.

At 11:00am in Vietnam, the children go home for lunch, and the mothers usually do the "pick up".

While the men stand around playing cards and gambling!

I'm not joking - this placed offers free accommodation for gamblers!

I need a hair cut - but not this kind of hair cut.

Just when you think you've seen everything on a bike, something else comes along to surprise you.

Back in Sapa for lunch, and for some reason the H'Mong ladies were allowed into the restaurant grounds to accost the customers as they arrived.

That's our car out the front - both Lam (guide) and Wing (driver) also get a meal whenever we eat.

After lunch we went north of Sapa to visit a waterfall (impressive enough even in the dry season).

And across the road they're selling something that looks like a mushroom, sort of...

While the local ladies keep cool while they display their wares to passers by.

The road continues for another 10km or so to the top of the pass - probably the highest in Vietnam. There were cyclists coming down ad we were going up - it looks like a great road to ride, botk by bicycle as well as motorbike.

In the distance to the left is the highest mountain in Vietnam. You can walk there in two or three days, and they'll even rent you porters. But it looks like a tough walk in extremely rugged terrain.

Apparently there are plans to put a cable car there - all of twenty kilometers away!

The descent on the other side of the pass is supposed to be over 30km long! This road goes in the direction of Son La and eventually to Dien Bien Phu. It also forms a loop that brings you back to Hanoi via Mai Chau (see earlier).

We were dropped back in Sapa at the new market which was winding down for the day. Unfortunately, it's a bit cavernous and a certain sameness in the stuff each stall is sellng.

We walked back to our hotel, passing some fine examples of Vietnames "tube" houses.

Past the local football field(s).

And past the lake - and you think LBG has an algae problem!

We had our evening G&T on the hotel terrace overlooking the valley and the mountains, now shrouded in the usual smoke haze. When it finally got dark we were able to see some lights on the highest peak where construction of a char lift is already under way. At the moment, all building materials, including bags of concrete, are carried by porters!

We had a nice dinner overlooking the main street where the traffic had suddenly disappeared.

The reason - the main tourist street is closed to all vehicular traffic between 7:00pm and 11:00pm each Friday and Saturday night - yay!