Sapa, Vietnam

A quick taxi ride took us to the Hanoi train station, where we boarded an overnight coach to Lao Cai. We could only get a four people berth, so we shared the cabin with a couple of Vietnames. It was a long 9 hr. train ride, but we managed to get some sleep and got woken up at 5am. In Lao Cai a bus from our hotel took us up the mountain to Sapa. The town is at 5400 ft altitude and is quite interesting. There are three different ethnic tribes represented there, the most prevelant being the Black Muong,not because of their color of their skin, but the color of their costums. We took a hike down the valley to the little tribal village named CatCat. The scenery was stunning, lots of terraced rice fields. The colors were not at their best, as we were at the end of the dry season. The rain will make them emerald green and is a sight to see, we hear. Unfortunately in the afternoon the fog settled in and we couldn't see a thing, it felt like being back in Highlands!!We did see Mount Fransipan, SEAsia's highest mountain at 10,312 ft.


This morning we took a 3 hr.bus ride down the mountain and up another to the Bac Ha weekly tribal market, one of the biggest of it's kind in north Vietnam. It was a sight for the eyes. Never seen anything like it. The women wore this multi layered very colorful costums to the market and were trading and buying anything from food to cows and plows and of course their handy crafts, which I was most interested in. The village was only about 14 miles from the Chinese border and the people were very similar in looks to the Chinese. The big tribe there is called the Flower Muong.
Now we are back in Lao Cai waiting for the night train to take us back to Hanoi. Then one more night there and home we go. I think we are ready for it!