Sa Pa

Drinking on night train with 2 Vietnamese guys - as you can see it was very cosy!
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After a few 2000 VND beers in Hanoi, Kev & I boarded the night train to Sa Pa, armed with a bottle of Hanoi's finest vodka. Once we located our cabin, discovered we were sharing with 4 Vietnamese and a tree (yes someone was taking a tree with them to Sa Pa) and watched an episode of Father Ted on the iPod, we decided to make our way out to the carriage hallway for a drink.

We were only standing there about 5 minutes before we got chatting to a Vietnamese tour guide who was on his way to China with a tour group. At one point he was on his phone trying to figure out if we could go ahead to China with his group but luckily for him we needed visas prepard in advance! After a little while one of his group members who was a 60 year old Vietnamese scientist joined us & we didnt leave for the next 5 hours. It was such a bizarre night and so much fun. Different people were passing us by as we sat on our tiny plastic benches & wandered from one carriage to another......some were giving us curious looks  and others stopped to join for a bit. For my first night train experience on this trip it certainly didn't disappoint.

The kids were jumping on us, giving us high fives and going crazy to see the pics we took of them.

Local tribe ladies that I walked for a few k with one day - they had excellent English
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Arriving in Sa Pa itself was not the nicest as we had an hour drive on some seriously scary roads & with a vodka induced hangover & little sleep I was glad when we finally arrived & located a hotel. I think I would have slept anywhere at that point, so much so that I failed to notice the cockroaches all over the hotel when I woke up a few hours later.

Sa Pa itself is a mad little place way up on this plateau with some stunning views. Unfortunately for the few days we were there it was overcast but it didn't deter us from renting a motorbike & taking off to see the local Mong tribe villages. Of course I didn't drive...I was perched on back on camera duty! We were only out of the town a few minutes when we decided to ditch the map & ended up stopping at random places, walking down dirt tracks and across foot bridges & literally walking into peoples homes instead of trying to track down the different tribes. One particular house was incredible - the lady outside waved us in and once we came inside people appeared from everywhere, both young and old. They sat us down and put what I assume was tea in front of us and just stared at us. Part of the fun was not being able to understand each other. After taking some photos & purchasing a braclet from one little girl we said our goodbyes and left.

Sa Pa Market
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Once back in the town we passed a school with kids running riot in the schoolyard so in we walked and the kids literally went nuts. The kids were jumping up on us, giving us high fives and going crazy to see the pics we took of them. There was no sign of any teacher so when one of the girls grabbed my hand and let me upstairs to her classroom we followed. A swarm of kids came after us, it was something else. I couldn't figure out what was going on though as in some classrooms we peered into kids were sitting down reading unsupervied, but then everywhere else kids were literally jumping on each other and us. At one point things started getting a little crazy and we didn't think we would make it out alive. Eventually we made our way out of the school - for a short while we had felt like celebs!!

Chicken Hot Pot - all the good you see is mine!!
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On my last day I walked to Cat Cat village which is a fair trek down hill in the heat. Although it was good to see how they live and the waterfall at the bottom, I enjoyed going off the beaten track more the previous day. All over the village, ladies from the various tribes around are hassling you to buy from them so you can see what they look like - going to the villages where they live you are just harrased into buying from them.

Even though Sa Pa is extremely quiet and laid back we did manage to find somewhere to party....continuing on my roll since getting to Vietnam. The English bar called Red Dragon was fairly happening one night as a couple from our guest house who played in a band done a session but as that closes at 11pm we had to move on to Tau Bar which stays open late - how late depends on the managers mood I figure as one night he shut at 1am and the following it was 3am. Local Mong tribe girls were in there playing pool one night, which apparently is a frequent thing. All in all Sa Pa is a great place - I would highly recommend it.

Kids we passed on the road
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So I left Sa Pa alone, this time alone, without Kev or a bottle of vodka, where it was back to Hanoi for one more night....!