Sapa

Immediately after getting back to Hanoi from our Halong Bay tour we boarded a night train to Sapa, a small mountain town near the China border in the north.  There are a number of indigenous tribes up there that all cultivate rice on these terraced rice fields, making the mountainsides quite picturesque. 

Here was the view from our nice hotel, the Cat Cat View Hotel.  It was very relaxing after our bumpy sleeper train without much sleep. 

Many of the above-mentioned indigenous tribes leave their villages each day to hock their goods to helpless tourists such as ourselves in town.  As soon as we arrived by van from the train station a hoard of women and girls started running after us, saying hello and asking us where we were from.  Little did we know they were being quite tactical - they were laying the groundwork for later saleswomanship.  When we left the hotel for lunch, they accompanied us up to the restaurant without trying to sell anything.  But then they waited outside the restaurant for an hour and as soon as we exited they started saying we had to buy everything from them since they had known us the longest.  This is Kate and her mom getting mobbed by these women.  When Kate finally refused to buy anything, one woman yelled at her, "Kate, you no good!"  Ruthless.

 After a night in the hotel we headed out on a trek to do a homestay in one of the indigenous villages.  This is Kate and her mom getting helped down the mudddy (VERY MUDDY) trail.  We did 13 km through two villages, led by our fearless local guide, Chi, a 21 year old who married at age 12.  She lived in one of the villages.

 Rice fields down in the valley.  Water buffalo are used to plow the fields - huge animals that were cool to see up close.  But that meant they also left huge pies all over the trails; had to be careful not to step in those steaming piles. 

These were the guides that helped Kate and her mom down the muddy slopes.  They're not very tall...

This was our host lady.  She made us an amazing meal - one of our top three for sure this trip.  She also force fed us (really twisting my arm) homemade rice wine.  We had to do a certain cheer before every shot.  It was quite entertaining.

And "More," she would say.  So again we'd sing the Vietnamese toast and drink more.  We made it 'till about 8:30 p.m. that night before hitting the hay. 

OK, that was Sapa, the only place we actually wore our fleeces and pants we dragged halfway across the world.  Until next post....