To the mountains in Sa Pa

Headed to the mountains for our last few days to see a bit of countryside and farming life of Vietnam. Arrived in Lai Cai in not the best mood after not much sleep on the train, I wasn't too bad but Damien being 6'7"-bloody-tall didn't sleep very comportably, as usual we were hastled by bus drivers who you know are ripping you off, as with all the tourists, not feeling like walking around for an hour with our bags to look for the local bus, we sucked it up and payed the 200,000d $10 to get up the mountain to Sa Pa (later finding out the local bus is 25,000d just $1.50). Though the view going up was breathtaking with tiered rice fields, buffalo etc and a lot of crazy truck drivers going way too fast, the view was so great I didn't even have time to be car sick.

Walking to our hostel we were already being swamped by the local Hmung ladies who dress in traditional gear and sell hand made, hand woven, hand died crafts like pillow cases, blankets,  braceletes and bags etc.

Being followed

They are all making something or twining hemp together wrapping it around their hand to make yarn while they walk around trying to sell to you. They speak English though learning it from talking to tourists, hence they only know basic small talk, although they are annoying as they don't get out of your hair once you've acknowledged them though they are a good source of information about the place and you can always find a translator. Best to totally ignore them though.

Stayed at Sa Pa Hostel which was great, $16/night for both of us, amazing view, spacious room, really friendly people EXCEPT for the bed, it was soooo hard we hardly slept. We ended up moving to another hotel paying more the last 2 nights however those beds wern't much better.

The hostel

The view from our balcony a great place for breakfast

We decided to spend all of our last few days here (5days) just to relax and really get to know the place. The 1st day we just walked around the town checking out the markets, restaurants and amazing views.

We were followed by one Hmung lady for 5 hours trying to sell us a trek to her village, we ended up escaping to a cafe up high to get away! Though by the end of the day we were seeking her out calling her 'our lady' to buy stuff. She also gave us a lot of information about how they make their fabrics and their way of life so was a good tour guide really.

She stayed on the st waiting for us

Ended up having a late lunch/early dinner AMAZING and accidentally had a few beers and pub crawl. Next day was a lay low kind of day watching movies.

BEST meal so far in Asia, followed by rice wine shots YUK

We hired a motorbike each and cruised around the mountains past little villages, more buffalo, naked kids playing, waterfalls with girls washing their hair in one and again INCREDIBLE views. Going along some pretty rocky roads my bike couldn't handle and kept stalling without me even knowing so I was free falling  down the hill most of the time.

 

 

 

Got me some fresh water, but was soaked as well 

These kids watched us the whole time then poked his tongue at me when we rode off 

 

These guys saw us taking pictures and invited us in for tea, no English needed 

We were invited to lunch by Hmung ladies and joined 2 Russian girls who had been trekking for 4 hours in tongues. The ladies were wearing so many layers, traditional jackets for the tourists, carrying babies and blankets, they stripped off as soon as we arrived just wearing dirty T-shirts etc. It was great to see how they live, a wooden hut in the dirt with pig huts and chickens. The babies were rolling around in the dirt playing with tin cans etc and pretty dirty, just such a different way of life.

Being invited for lunch

Swimming pool

 

kitchen sink running from the mountain

 

Next few days we did some more walking around, eating at restaurants, making friends SHOUT OUT TO TIM if your reading this your a mad dude!!!!!! saw a waterfall (pretty sure I had 200,000d $10 stolen from my bike),

and spent a half day on a motorbike ride around some amazing mountains and views with a mate Josh. I'm feeling a lot more confident on the bike now and loving it more and more. 

We always ended up at the same BBQ stall owned by a man and his wife, late at night and had way too many shots of Apple Wine (very potent moonshine).

NEXT we had the dreaded 'sleeper' bus back to Hanoi. At first I was really excited to sleep on a double bunk bus, though it was pretty quick that I realised what we were in for! Very squashed in on an extremely windy road I had to hold on tight just to stop me falling out of the top bunk and Damien thought he would fall through the window! After we were down the mountain we hit some very bumpy roads and bounced around all night pretty horrible, TIP always pay that bit extra for the train! We arrived, with the 4 tourists being told to wait on the bus while the Vietnamese people got off the bus first!! Just a weird experience, or course we were in no mood for the taxi drivers hassling us... BUT we survived and found our hotel eventually. We though HCMC traffic was bad, Hanoi is a thousand time more hectic, you can't even walk down the walkway path as its a parking lot for all the motorbikes so you end up walking on the road, a little scary at times!!!