Mountains and Minority Villages

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Well today has been FANTASTIC! Chung my guide and his wife who sold me the trip and my shirts are really very good people and well connected in these parts. About 10:30 Chung riding with me on the back and 2 great Aussie guys set off up into the mountains en route to some of the less visited minority villages - we all agreed that loadsa tourists is a bummer and the fewer the better! A nice sedate 20mph with a stop for a tea and short walk to take in the amazing views of stepped rice fields. The rice had been cut but the paddy fields still flooded as rice crops twice in a season before it needs replanting. On the road as well as the usual potholes, washed away bits of the road, people on foot and other bikes we also encountered water buffaloe, small black pigs, 2 fierce geese, ducks and several, dogs. I suspecy all will be candidates at some point for the pot. Chung told us they breed dogs for eating and they also eat cat and of course snake - he even knew the place where I had gone and confirmed it as 'very good snake' place - Matt one of the Aussies is well up for it!

My legs and arms were already killing me by 12:00 - a combination of a short walk and hanging on to the bike for dear life especially on the really rough dirt tracks they call minor roads! It's amazing where you can get a Honda 125 to go - even a 50cc will do most of the terrain and the locals are really used to it.

We met Red Hmong, Red Dzao, and Green something or others - the colours in the tribal names refer to the colour of headress the women wear. Again these people will try and sell you handicrafts but are not as persistent or annoying as their Hanoi counterparts. Another short walk to a waterfall and then the ride home. This scenery is beautiful and is always shrouded in a light mist at the very least. Conifer clad limestone mountain peaks, red earth washed down by the rivers(alluvial clay for the geographers out there), the clear air and uncomplicated living - this is why I cam here - shame no camera! Matt and Scott have promised to send me a Facebook link so I dowload some of theirs.

We get back to Sa Pa at 16:20 and Chung arranges a cheap second hand digital camera for tomorrow and a cheap Nokia with SIM - these will replace what I had stolen ata fraction of the cost I paid for the ones I had originally - lesson learned - don't backpack with expensive kit - you don't need it!

Tommorrow Chung is taking us all up Viet Nams highest mountain by motorbike - Mount Fan Xi Pan which dominates the villahe of Sa Pa - hence yesterdays comparison with Fort William (and Ben Nevis).

Noticing that I was in agony and very stiff Cghung takes me to a very respectable massage place - I sat in a huge wooden tub full of hot brown water - full of medicinal herb extracts to draw the toxins from my body and then and hour being massaged and pummelled by an extremeley beautiful slip of a girl - Vietnamese in massage the nasseur climbs up on the table with the recipient - boy was that an excercise in self control. Bounding out of there an hour later I went back to Mimosa and had Grilled wild Deer with Lemongrass and rice and one beer. Chung reckons a month of good walks an hour a day at least and no beer and I will be a lot slimmer! I think it's coming off already :-) More biking tomorrow and now for a good nights sleep!
Roger and out.

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Comments

[davanna]

hi from hull
Hi Nige, Great blog mate, loads of great info there for us to pick thru!! keep it up nad we''watch your progress. We fly into bangkok 5 jan 10 but we'll speak before then about meeting up. stay safe mate and ENJOY Cheers dave