Day 36. Sa Pa to Hanoi.

I arrived back in Hanoi at 5:30am this morning. My bunk mates last night were a couple from Vail, Colorado and a young gentleman from Kyoto, Japan, who is now living in Hanoi. He was quite concerned about my relatives in Tokyo! Mike, kai and natsu, i hope you are hanging in there! The couple were on their way to Halong Bay next and then to Bali. Bonnie and I had done Halong Bay on our trip here, where we sailed around the bay in one of those sailboats with the big orange sails. They cooked us a fresh fish and shrimp lunch right on board the boat, as we anchored amongst the giant limestone rocks. It was a remarkable experience (although, as Bonnie would attest to, it was a bit cold).

Yesterdays trek through the village was wonderful. The fog cleared up barely enough for me to capture some nice photos of the countryside.









While they usually do much of their field work with buffalo...


...many of the buffalo died last year during a very harsh winter, and they are forced to doing a lot of the field manually...





...while others watch the children....





This man was making an irrigation pipe....



...while this man makes stone souvenirs..this is of course one of the bigger ones!


I had the opportunity to chat with these four "friends" while I strolled through the village. The one to the far right spoke very good English (better than my educated male guide from Hanoi :-).


They were all married, including the very young girl on my right. The girls generally don't go to school...only the boys. These women considered themselves lucky, because they had very good husbands, who do not have mistresses, as many men do. (hmmm, men are similar around the world, hey?). I of course bought a few trinkets from them, which is what "friends" are for :-).

After leaving the village, I went back I to the town of SaPa for lunch, and a stroll around the town, during which I came upon a funeral procession.....






Also walked through the market...



But as you can see, it started getting foggy again, so returned to my hotel for tea.

Will spend a half dY at the spa today, before flying to Myanmar (Burma).

..Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Đông Du,,Vietnam