Sa Pa to Ninh Binh

Good morning,

The night train to Lao Cai was surprisingly
uneventful. It was a noisy night but I slept
reasonably well considering it was a hard sleeper :)
From there, I took a bus through mountains and rice
paddies to Sa Pa. Sa Pa is surrounded by mountains,
the tallest in Vietnam being right nearby, and many
ethnic minorities. I arrived on a Sunday to see the
market. The place was swarming with Black H'mong
which are an ethnic people who'd come to Sa Pa for
market. I had a wander around and spent most of the
day hiding from the rain.

My second day, I hiked to Cat Cat and Sinh Chai
villages nearby. These are also inhabited by ethnic
minorities. During my trip, I met up with a Korean
who works in Vietnam. We chatted and then had lunch
together. Our lunch was delicious - Vietnamese hot
pot and we were given "wine" to drink. Wine is in ""
because it was like drinking straight vodka. Mine had
bees at the bottom (good for women) and his had
snakes. It's comparable to the tequila with worm but
they fill the bottle with whatever item it is. I have
photos to show later.

My third day, I went to see Tam Bac waterfall. I
hired a motorbike to drive me the 11km. During the
drive, it was raining, cloudy and cold but when we got
to the waterfall, there was a short break in the
clouds and I got some good photos. I had also
planned on hiking Fan Si Pan mountain while in Sa Pa
but the weather was horrible (cold, damp and wet every
day with near constant cloud cover). It wouldn't have
been worth the effort. I left earlier then I'd
planned - I just couldn't get the dampness out of my
bones or my clothes.

Took a night train back to Hanoi this morning and had
quite an effort getting myself organized at 5am. I
missed a step and fell off the train, scraping my arms
and legs beautifully. I then planned to take a train
to Ninh Binh but the lady at the counter said there
wasn't a train there. I took a cab to the other train
station; no train so a motorcycle took me back to the
original train station. I then had to renegotiate a
price to the bus station. I didn't get on a bus until
almost 9am this morning after spending twice as much
as the bus fare to get to the bus station!!

I'll be spending a few days in Ninh Binh and then
heading further south. It's been described as Halong
Bay with rice paddies instead of water and so far, I'd
have to agree.

Talk to you all soon :)
Sarah

Tug - I have the photos on CD but every internet cafe
I've checked here doesn't have a tray for the CD.
I'll send some soon....I promise :)

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