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Published: November 21st 2006
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SaPa sales girls
These little stalkers were waiting for us outside our hotel in the mornings, and took us back at night. We were told that other than trying to sell us stuff they are also learning english off us so they can be tour guides later on. Things to pack for a weekend in SaPa: sunscreen, rain coat,hat, thick jumper, waterproof shoes, thongs. At last we have found somewhere that changes its weather faster than Melbourne! Words like amazing, breathtaking, dramatic and relaxing do not even begin to describe where we went over the weekend. After an overnight 10hour train trip from Hanoi to Lao Cai (5mins from the Chinese border) we went on a hair-raising 2 hour bus ride up, up and up to the mountain village of Sa Pa. Its the central place of trade for the Vietnamese minority ethnic groups, that still live in very traditional ways in the tiered rice paddies.
We stayed at Cat Cat Hotel (which had two hungry cats, ironically), and were treated to 3 days and 2 nights of clear blue skies (with clouds every hour that took the heat away) and warm weather during the day, but cooling down nicely overnight. We stayed up in the edge of a mountain overlooking valleys of rice paddies, so high up that we were caught in mists of clouds swirling around us. Very surreal.
As soon as we stepped off the bus we were greeted by a group of 7-10
year old local H'Mong girls, who suprised us with perfect English questions! " whats your name, where are you from, how old are you (oh , so young!), any brothers and sisters etc" After breakfast we were shocked to see the girls waiting for us out the front of the hotel, and they proceeded to follow us around town, chatting away and showing us all the places to shop and eat. So helpful, we proclaimed. Little did we know that they were laying the perfect groundwork for some serious selling later on. For the next 3 days, no matter where we went, our little friends came with us, saying "you promised, you buy from me, Im your friend Claire, how bout you buy nice bracelet for your mum/sister" and they would produce multiple little bracelets and pencil cases. Guess what presents everyone is getting when i get back home?! They did such a good job, how could you deny them?
The older H'Mong girls (14-20) act as tourist guides if they speak english well enough. Our guide, Sho, (as in, Show us the way) took us for a leisurely walk 5km down to Cat Cat village and the waterfall
there. She also showed us how to jump the fence so we could wade through the water, which was awesome. Not so awesome was the 5km hike back up the hill. I had no problems accepting the motorbike rides back up, but was stuck with typical fit little physios who enjoy walking up mountains. Not so much fun.
After waiting 45mins for cocktails we enjoyed a $4 banquet and 750ml bottles of the local $1 beer (not very tasty) It was great to sit up on our terrace balcony and actually see the stars which have been absent from the smoggy Hanoi skies.
On saturday we walked for 40mins down the road, ate some sugar cane, then trekked for 4 hours like mountain goats down the side of a mountain. We eventually reached the little village of Lao Chai, where we had a great lunch, albeit the hassles from the locals begging you to buy their stuff. We left that village dong-less! Luckily there was a minibus waiting to take us back to the hotel, otherwise I'd still be walking now!
After a 2hour hike up to the the radio tower, we spent the rest of sunday
The short cut
on the way back from cat cat waterfall we took a shortcut; i swear the majority of it was vertical climbing! literally eating. We had lunch at the hotel from 12-2.30, then went into town for the last bit of souvenir shopping, then sat at a french cafe eating citrus tarts and italian hot chocolates from 3-5. So much for having a healthy weekend!
On the overnight train home, Ange turned 21! Her parents musnt have any idea about the 4 hour time difference because they rang at 3am singing happy birthday. We got back to Hanoi in time to have birthday breakfast on the lake, then headed off to clinic.
Had such a strange night after that. Ali, Cath and I were enjoying 20cent beers on the street whilst the others girls were getting ready for birthday dinner. The sky was looking quite ominous and black, but it was so nice to be outside that we didnt move even when the first droplets of rain hit. Ange and Belle met up with us, looking ridiculous in giant blue ponchos. What on earth are you wearing, we said, its only a little shower.
We dawdled down to the restaurant, stopping to look at a jewellery store, when what can only be described as a flash flood occurred. The
More hotel views
the only problem with the views was having to climb 151 steps to your room, absolute bugger if you leave something behind! girls had there ponchos, and we had our beer coats on, so we headed out and ran to the restaurant. Unfortunately our beer coats were not waterproof, and three of us were drenched, with subsequent denied entry to dinner. We had to make the decision to buy new (but very ugly) vietnamese clothes, or get back to the hotel, change, and then go to dinner. We decided to get changed at the hotel, and put on jackets and ponchos then get a cab back to the restaurant. Stupidly we caught the smallest cab in the world there (think it was like your toyota starlet mum!) and after about 500m it got flooded and couldnt move any further! Try to imagine what came next, three girls wading knee-to-hip deep down the middle of a street in downtown Hanoi, with rubbish and god knows what else snagging our legs along the way! Adding further insult was the locals and tourists hanging out of dry hotels and shops filming us on their cameras. Nice.
Anyway, Ange had a lovely birthday dinner, followed by seeing the Water Puppet theatre (very random show, especially after the champagne at dinner). Back to clinic this week,
Bevvies on beer street
2000 dong equates to about 17cents Oz, and the beer is nice and cold. Only problem is the donut lady who always manages to convince us to buy lots! thinking of going for a day trip to Minh Ninh this saturday to get out of the city.
Hope all is well, sorry for the massive blog, maybe just look at the photos?
Claire xoxo
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