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Published: March 1st 2014
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1st mar - Saturday
From the outset we were determined to visit Sa Pa and for good reason. It's stunning beauty has surpassed our expectations. The view from our hotel balcony, taking in the high Mountains and the lower hills and valleys in the cloud base below, are breathtaking.
We leave with much regret but our schedule is now too tight to linger. We are going by coach to visit Can Cau near the Chinese border in the northern Highlands. It is renowned as a horse and buffalo market with traders travelling across from China to buy and sell. The local people are the Flower H'mong Tribe, as apposed to the Black H'mong who we met in Sa Pa.
Our journey, as usual, is not without incident. We leave the hotel
at 8am with two Black H'mong guides in a transit van , we being the only passengers today. Our main guide is the young girl who has taken us trekking for two days, her name is Lai, she is nineteen, and speaks excellent English. Within twenty minutes we stop as she is violently ill with travel sickness (we have witnessed a lot of travel sickness during
our trip) and refuses even our offer of a choc chip cookie to help, so she must be desperately ill. The journey is to take over three hours, so we are full of sympathy.
One hour into the trip, another drama. The mini-bus breaks down. We transfer to a convoy of cars carrying a group from Boston U.S.A . The journey is not for the faint hearted, as the roads are still poor, with hairpin bends and sheer drops but the views are fantastic. We were told that few Westerners visit this area, but on arrival we notice there is a queue of mini buses and cars trying to park, all filled with small tourist groups.
When we exit our air conditioned car, we a surprised to be hit with temperatures well in the mid-thirties, and a maelstrom of scents and colours assault our senses from the general market, that grew up around the live stock trade. We passed many men leading teams of horses homewards, bought this morning. There are two views as to what their fate will be; one is that they are strong beasts, to be tethered to work the paddy fields, the other, that
they will be slaughtered and their carcasses used to produce Tiger Balm and other glues and medicines. We prefer to believe the first view!
It's too hot and dusty, and due to us constantly being harangued to buy things, we tell our guide we want to leave. Trouble is, no transport. After several calls by our guide she manages to get us back to Bac Ha for lunch by loaning another company's mini bus and driver . Our lunch is varied and good quality but cut short as Lai manages to get hold of the American's car and driver to whisk us back to Lao Cao, whilst they Lunch, hope they like a lot of food as it is at least an hour each way!
Enroute, whilst Leo dozed,Paula witnesses the aftermath of an accident between a heavy lorry and Cyclist, it was harrowing and we fear fatal, but we are genuinely surprised we haven't seen more!
We are booked on a sleeper train departing 1935 hrs for Hanoi, which means on arrival at Lao Cai we can chill out for a few hours and catch up on our blog. Paula notices we are actually closer to
the Chinese border here than when we were at the Market, in fact if our train was to head in the opposite direction, first stop would be across the border. Maybe another time.......
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Marilyn
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Hi you two!
So pleased that you enjoyed Sapa and we went to the smelly market too on our last day in the area. Hope that you enjoy Hanoi. Love M and A.