The two characters you see above became our travelling companions for the next week or so and the arrangements worked out fantastically. After a flight to Hanoi we were able to book a four berth sleeper cabin to the mountain town of Lao Cai, the end of the line and jumping off point for Sapa, thus avoiding sharing with strangers. As always in SE Asia making the arrangements was seamless although a whole cabin wasn't available when we booked. This wasn't a problem though as the ununiformed chap who tried to steal our tickets at the gate was in fact exchanging our seperated berths for a single cabin. We were all highly excitable by this point especially as Beth narrowly managed to escape having the credit card swallowed by an ATM, (she swears it was in there for a full five minutes with no hint of return). The cabin itself was pretty good and quite spacious considering it had four of us in it and after watching Sophie get lary on two cans of Tiger beer and making progressively more and more silly noises whilst playing 'UNO', we finally went to sleep in relative comfort. When we arrived in Sapa we made a beeline for the tour agents who were surprised that we wanted to head straight out onto a two day hike that very day.
This walk was completely awesome, (meant in the very British way & not the overused US way). The views of surrounding mountains and layered paddy fields, soon led into mountain paths and we felt like we were completely immersed in the 'real' Vietnam.
There are many hill tribe villages in this part of Vietnam, most of them living in the traditional way as they have done for the past 100 plus years. The only difference being that they obviously rely heavily on tourists for their income and don't let you get any peace. Even up here in the mountains of Sa Pa there was no escape from the women selling shite.
We walked and chatted and passed through villages of different tribes, the differences between them are highly noticable, even to us uninformed tourists, and they're sometimes highly dramatic. The Black H'Mong for example are the ones who hassle you in huge groups whilst you're perched precariously on the edge of a water & buffalo shit filled paddy field. They do it in good humour though and actually help by holding your hand to lead you, you just have to be careful that they don't surrepticiously slip a crap tin bangle on your wrist whilst doing it and charge you a fiver. The women dress in beautiful black traditional costume with little leg 'putteys' which are apparently supposed to 'bind' their calfs to stop them becoming too muscular and unatractive from all the walking they do. They were all very sweet and highly persistent and took a scarily intense interest in our Sophie.
We stayed in a 'Homestay', i.e. the home of a local, belonging to a member of the D'Zao tribe, a delightful woman called 'Zum'. Her home was a delightful place set just far enough on the outskirts of her village to feel set apart and peaceful. The view into the valley, (though mist covered), was wonderful and we sat drinking beer contentedly until an army of Black H'Mong got wind that Sophie was in town and descended on us en masse.
The D'Zao are a much less 'in your face people'. They look down on the H'Mong for the way they pester tourists and spend the money they earn with no sense of saving. The D'Zao by comparison have learnt to use their money & resources well. Their homes are decorated well and often filled with antique furniture of the kind you'd pay a tonne for in a fancy shop in SoHo. They also like their telly & karaoke.
So, dinner was cooked up by our guide, (a veritable feast of incredible Vietnamese food), and then Zum cracked open the home made rice wine. It was at this point that things get a bit 'hazy'. Following a series of toasts to just about anything, (the host, the ladies, Zum's dead husband, the men, Zum, Simon eating fish), Zum would pop behind a suspicious looking curtain and reappear moments later with yet another bottle. There was truly no escape. Beth started babbling to our guide, I waxed lyrical about the differences between living in the East & West, Simon played with the TV and Sophie played with the dog. Through all of this Zum just kept refilling our glasses and giggling away to herself. It was an outstanding night. None of us can remember how we got to bed.
Here's our hostess laughing at some insightfull, witty and not at all drunken comment Beth made.
Our second day was undertaken despite foggy heads, (which I blamed on the mist and air pressure), and heavy feet. Again we strolled through some breathtaking scenery pausing only every thirty seconds so Beth could snap away at the landscape or at a passing butterfly or goat. Our reward at the end of this second day was a wee river that ended in a stunning pool of water into which we all tiptoed to swim. Well, Sophie did. I fell on my arse on a particularly slippery rock, Simon stood in the cold water talking himself into swimming and Beth doggy-paddled about avoiding the rocks. Sophie & I did eventually swim around the pool and found a wee little waterfall around the corner.
That night we treated ourselves to Shepherd's Pie at the 'Red Dragon' a worryingly realistic English pub jammed incongruously in the middle of Sa Pa's main street.
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