Bac Ha 3 Feb 2008 The day of the the Battle of Bac Ha, as we now refer to it, started as any other winter day in Sapa. Cold, wet and foggy. By nightfall, sitting on the night train to Hanoi, we knew that we had cheated death and survived, and that a relatively harmless aspect of modern Vietnamese society can be extremely dangerous when mixed with a motor vehicle. Social drinking. I should have known it would be a trying day when I braved the icy morning for a run to the bakery, only to find it closed for Tet (Chinese New Year, still 4 days away). As I ran back to the hotel to meet our minibus to Bac Ha, I was amazed at how the fog had doubled in thickness overnight. When the
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