Fog!

Hmong women in Sapa
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Ah, the joys of the "soft sleeper"!  Four people crowded into a tiny little cubicle with 2 sets of bunks.  Not a lot of sleep was had that night!

We arrived at the town of Lao Cai about 7 am, were met by the appointed tour representative, bundled into a bus for the hour trip up the mountain to Sapa.  It looked for a while as though the weather might improve - we've been in constant fog since arriving in Yangshuo nearly a week ago.  Nice views of rice terraces, but as we reached the hiltop town of Sapa the fog closed in again - visibility down to about 50m max! It does mean that the hordes of ladies selling ethnic souvenirs don't see you until the last minute!  Got deposited at our hotel, had a shower and breakfast and went out to explore the town.  It's a central point for a number of ethnic minorities - Hmong, Dzai and others - beautiful clothing with lots of needlework and tastefully set off by the ethnic gumboots everyone seems to be wearing (although a few of the older folk are in the authentic plastic sandals!). We actually thought that given the weather up here it might be better for the women folk to wear longer skirts or indeed trousers, but short skirts are all the go with velvet leggings tied with braid.

Fog, Fog and More fog! Trying to find the Hmong in the fog!

Loads of kids want to sell you stuff! - near Lao Chai village
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Spent a couple of hours traipsing around the market stalls and were accosted by numerous Hmong women wanting us to buy from them.  Keith succumbed to their wiles and bought a jacket and hat!  He will be all set for the next ethnic fancy dress party we are invited to!

After lunch at our hotel (set menu - included in our tour cost!) our guide collected us for our walk to Cat Cat village 3kms down the hill! Of course, Wendy was absolutely thrilled to know that it would also be 3kms uphill for the return journey!  (Wendy doesn't enjoy 'up' - she is very good at 'down' and excels at 'flat' but 'up'?)

Red Dzai woman - Ta Van village
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The fog thinned a bit as we headed downhill and Keith was able to break out the cameras at last - capturing rice paddies, water buffalo, people working the fields and a group of women working on needlework in their house.  At this point we were pleased that we had declined the 'homestay' tour option at this time of year... doors, beds and hot water seemed to be lacking.  We were shown how the Black Hmong people use plants to make indigo dye for clothing and also the incredibly labour intensive way that they polish the hemp cloth  to make a shiny fabic for special parts of their clothing. 

Where we trekked - Lao Chai valley
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We continued down the valley to see an old French colonial hydro plant - the building was very impressive but sadly not in use - before the 'up' part of the journey began.  It was interrupted only by a herd of buffalo (well, 3 buffalo actually) that decided they wanted to walk down the same path.  We wisely gave way to them, adopting the Vietnamese approach to traffic - "If it's bigger than you, let it go!".

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and we leapt out of bed to enjoy it (poetic licence!)  We were headed off on a longer trek this time to the villages of Lao Chai and Ta Van villages.  We were joined by a French girl and two lawyers for our trip.  We walked downhill from Sa Pa into the fog once again but after a couple of kilometres we encountered a group of children selling bamboo walking sticks.  Keith (aka macho man) declined but Wendy (very wisely as it turned out) took up the option for the walk/slide downhill.  The track downhill was very muddy and slippery with several sections being almost impassable.  Of course the local Hmong children were just skipping along in their plastic sandals/bare feet or ethnic gumboots which just made us feel even more old and decrepit!

We managed to get below the fogline eventually and the view was quite breathtaking (when we could take our eyes off the track that is!)  Rice paddies as far as the eye could see, a clear fast flowing stream and Black Hmong people going about their daily lives.  Many of the men were walking up to the market in Sa Pa with heavy loads!  Keith was in his element recording events on video and taking arty photographs at every opportunity.  Unfortunately he also managed to secretly videotape several sections of Wendy's slide downhill but this will be available for viewing only by an elite group as it was most inelegant at times!  However, the trusty stick did the trick and both of us managed to stay above the mudline (unlike many others!)

At various points along the way we were met by groups of Black Hmong women and children and the refrain "you buy from me?" will stay with us for some time.  The children were absolutely gorgeous as they engaged us in conversation, obviously practising some of the English conversations they had learnt at school.  I was delighted to know that I am very young apparently and that Keith is most handsome and has a beautiful wife. They seemed very interested in my position in the family also!

The track continued beside the river for some distance before we arrived in Lao Chai village for lunch.  We ate heartily and enjoyed a visit to the local restroom ( a hole in a concrete block with a couple of blocks on which to stand!) before moving on to Ta Van village some distance away along the muddy track.  Ta Van is a community of Red Dzai people who have a quite different language and dress to the Black Hmong.  Apparently the languages are so different that the groups must converse in Vietnamese if speaking to another group.  We visited the school at Ta Van and although it was Saturday we found the children there using the insides of an old battery to reblack the board.  The classroom had only one lightbulb and the school in general had almost no resources that we could see other than desks and chairs. Keith though was pleased to note that some things never change.  'I love you' was written in whiteout on one of the back desks!

We returned from the village on the back of a motorbike with Wendy sandwiched between Keith and the driver (no room for helmets!) giving us both an attractive windswept look when we arrived in Sa Pa.  After a lengthy stint of shoe cleaning we went by bus to the train station for our return overnight trip to Hanoi.

Despite the cabin being less salubrious than our journey to Sa Pa, we both slept surprisingly well and awoke to banging on the cabin door minutes before arriving in Hanoi on schedule at 5.30am.  Although we had to wake the hotel staff up to get into our hotel at this hour, they were more than happy to open the door for us and then return to sleeping on the floor!

After a bit of pottering around we caught a local bus to the Museum of Ethnology for the afternoon.  This was a pretty interesting look at some of the cultures of the minority tribes, including a selection of traditional houses built in the grounds.

Next stop - Halong Bay.