Mountain Air at Last!

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Oh my gosh! Sapa is beautiful! The weather is cool (bordering on cold in the morning and night.) It was such a relief when we found that we weren't sweating through our clothes anymore. Right as we got off the bus, some of the natives (they're like American Indians in the US) came right up and started talking to us. Their English is pretty good and I can't believe how friendly they are (although they might just have wanted us to buy some of their little knick-knacks.) In the morning, we explored the market, where we found everything from leechee to dolls to roasting pigs. Then we went on a hike through the mountains where we could see where the natives lived and how. They live in really poor conditions-small rooms but huge families. They marry young-one girl I talked to was 19 and already had one baby. They all look young too: that 19-year-old looked about 13/14. It's crazy. Anyway the scenery here is absoloutely amazing. (I'm having trouble getting pics up-hopefully I can get them later) Surreal. My cousin said it reminded her of the set of the Sound of Music. Plus there are the rice fields and bamboo growing everywhere. And you can see the clouds because it's so high up. Then we saw waterfalls. That was the most movie-romantic spot I've seen. Definitely my favorite place so far. Our second day there wasn't so great. It was raining and we liked an unpaved path, so we were slipping up and down hills (believe it or not, I never fell down completely. Then again one of the people who lived there was holding my hand for part of the time. But still.) It could have been fun except that we were tired and it was getting hard to take pics. It gives you an idea what the native peoples have to go through though. Doesn't really suit me though. Our shoes were nasty by the time we finished our 3 hour hike. You picked up mud along the way so the shoes are heavy and sticks in the ground even more. Looking back, I guess we had a good time...in a dirty way...er sorry, didn't mean for it to come out that way...

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Comments

[sarah]

wah! i wanna be there with you except for the dirty part! it sounds so pretty the way you described it and the picture...absolutely breathtaking!

[kc]

"IM GOING DIRTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (quote frm-guess who-kiwi! thats what it made me think of! lol!) anyway, it sounds awesome! i wanna b there...and trust me, i no exactly what u mean by mud making ur shoes heavy and hot hiking and getting tired...pretty expirenced at all that...! lol...