Vietnam - Part II: Sapa

As planned, we booked our trip to Sapa, a village in the mountains near the Chinese border.  The trip to Sapa involves an overnight train to Lao Cai, about 9 hours, and then 1 1/2 hours on a bus up a windy mountainous road to town.

An hour or so before we were to leave, we checked the internet to see what was happening with the weather.  We discovered that there had been a lot of flooding and landslides that killed 70 people in Lao Cai, so we marched into the cafe we booked out tour through, and with a little persuading, as they denied any problems, canceled the tour (and got most of our money back).  What smart travellers we are!  

Not so much.  We worked out the next day that the news about the landslides was two years old.  Oops.  We re-booked the tour to leave the same night.  It all worked out well in the end as it poured rain on the day we missed and the two days we spent in Sapa were the best they'd had.  The countryside was lush, green and beautiful. 

The local H'Mong village girls have all learned to speak impressive English just speaking to tourists.  A typical conversation would go like this:

Them: Where you from??
Me: Canada
Them: Oh, Canada!  Whas your name? 
Me: Katherine
Them: Oh, pretty name. How old are you?
Me: 34
Them: Ahh, very young! 

The girls were all lovely.  They would spend hours following us around and chatting, though it was always a bit disappointing when they begged you to buy something in the end, business was finished.  They'd find us the following day and do it all over again.  They're the best sales women I've ever encountered! 

B met a H'Mong girl named Chu a few years ago, who's now 14, when he was last in Sapa.  They reunited and we all spent an evening playing pool at the local bar.  It was a little surreal playing doubles 8-ball in Sapa, Vietnam with four, under 15, village girls.  They loved it as much as I did I think!

We did two treks while we were in Sapa, the first to a waterfall and a lovely (cold) swimming spot and the second day through the rice fields and through some villages.  I don't think my words will do the landscape justice so I'll attach some photos instead! 

Still no swimming pool....