From the mountains of SaPa to the Beaches of Nha Trang

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We celebrated Bill's birthday by overindulging (again) in good food and drink. After our strenuous but enjoyable hike we had an excellent night's sleep.
After much discussion, the committee reluctantly decided to take one more trek. Our sore legs soon felt better as we encountered new and interesting things. A water powered rice husker, soap stone carver, the beginnings of a communtiy house being built, a vat of cardamum juice that we tasted, meters of cloth drying after being dyed by Hmong women using indigo plants. Cat Cat was an very interesting village. A beautiful water fall was waiting for us at the end of the village. 1200 feet down and 1200 feet back up. We were offered motorbike rides to the top but opted to walk inspired, courtesy of Lynda and Roger, who were singing marching songs and show tunes between gasps. We took a "short cut" straight up the hill and thought we were doing quite well until an older Hmong lady sprinted by us. We, of course, had to revitalize ourselves with a cold beer break 3/4 of the way up, a perfect spot for supervising the construction of the foundation of the house down below us. You know these arm chair supervisors. Arm chairs of course being the little plastic lawn chairs that we usually buy for children!! As Bill said, you have to be careful not to take it with you, on your behind, when you leave. In the afternoon, we visited a museum and SaPa town market, sore calf muscles being the order of the day. Evening brought us back to Lao Cai to catch the train for our overnight trip to Hanoi.
Our 5am alarm was Japanese music that Bob described as train brakes locking up. We arrived too early for our taxi, so spent some time having coffee from a street vendor lady, again in the little chairs, with an early morning mist coming down. A dog surprised Lynda as he came out for his early morning territorial marking almost taking the legs of her little chair out from under her.
Off to the airport with a smooth flight to Nha Trang. The sun was shining and the air was warm and moist. After inspecting several hotels, via motorbike taxi, Roger and Bob found the one with best value. Trust them!
We enjoyed walking down the beach in the afternoon, stopping about every 500 meters for, of course, cold beer, fresh coconut juice and margaritas. Evening found us at a French Bistro enjoying fine wine and french cuisine. A walk in the warm air along the beach on the way back to the hotel made it hard to remember it was February 20th.
The committee has assembled on the roof of the hotel by the pool to enjoy the ocean breeze and view and to decide our next adventure. Talk to you soon.

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Photos

Construction Project
beer fueled supervision with gusto

The Sizeland I T Department
Working on Brenda's Computer