sapa

NOTE: technical difficulties in vietnamese internet cafes are preventing us from uploading pics so readers will have to suffer through more prose.

after a 3hr bus ride from halong bay to hanoi we sprinted to our hostel, showered in the communal bathroom, changed and made our way back for our overnight train to sapa. i was a bit leery about the overnight train after my experience in india. turned out to be grand, we slept like fat babies and, upon arrival at 6am, took a van to sapa. sapa is a village in the mountains quite close to china and home to the black hmong people, who looked like a cross between native americans, vietnamese and chinese.

it rained the entire time we were there. at times, heavily. during our 14km trek into a local village, we were pretty much soaked head-to-toe as waterfalls poured down from the hills onto the roads, making them nearly impassable. cath and i were joined by a friendly aussie, mitch, ceig, our black hmong tour guide and 5 young village girls who followed us the entire time in hopes we'd buy something from them (which, we did). we splashed in the puddles with the little girls and threw water on each other.

despite the rain, maybe because of it, the hike was fantastic. we were truly immersed in the natural landscape, which was awe-inspiring, a postcard everywhere you turned: mountains shrouded in mist loomed over a rice paddies in patchwork patterns. a swollen river rampaged through the middle and village men fished with nets on long poles. (didn't see them catch anything so maybe they were just doing it for our benefit :)

it was very cool to see authentic village life though one wonders how long it will remain as tourists will inevitably change the very thing they're going to see. one oddity was seeing the black hmong teenage girls hanging out in the streets filled with shops and restaurants, touting their goods. shouldn't they be back in their villages? as tourists, especially in poor asian countries, we've constantly questioned whether our presence and spending power are having a positive effect on their lives. its a complicated subject. i digress.

the next day, we hiked to an amazing waterfall, which was raging due to the heavy rains. we took another overnight train back to hanoi. i actually lost our train tix but the angels were smiling on us as the family sitting next to us in the cafe had 2 extras on the same train. "and, hey since you're on your honeymoon, you can have them for free"

indeed, it seems the gods are smiling on us and our trip. for this, we're grateful. it's been an amazing few weeks though quite removed from the real world. i'm happy to report that cath has proven to be a robust travelling partner and we're doing a fine job of celebrating our high points (many) and being patient and helping each other during the inevitable low points (few, fortunately).