When we arrived in Sa Pa it was foggy, wet and pretty cold, so I was glad I had stuffed all my warm clothing in my small bag at the last minute along with an extra scarf. After a nice warm shower we felt a little better and were ready for our first visit to the towns of Lao Chai and Ta Van. As we walked outside we were immediately approached by the first of the local minorities, the Black H'Mong women, dressed in interesting looking outfits, with little black hats and black leather "legwarmers". Some spoke good English (the better the English, the more likely they'll be successful in selling their wares I'm sure ..) and all first conversations pretty much went like this: "Where you from?" (Holland) "Oh yeah, I know this, what's your
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