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Back early this morning from Sa Pa, an overnight train journey from Hanoi. I appeared to be double booked on the train - there were about 15 vietnamese train officials all shouting at each other so somone somewhere is probably going to get it....ended up in what amounted to be the store cupboard with a bed. Even laying down my head was about an inch from the ceiling - like sleeping in a wendy house. Incredibly, I slept really well - once the train staff had stopped laughing at me.
Anyway, Sa Pa was a really cool place - in the mountains so much cooler temperature. They have all this mist and light rain, it was quite refreshing. Went on a long walk to these different ethnic minority villages. A lot of these peopleare originally from China, speak different languages and actually look different too - more like native americans or south american indians. They are, of course, up to speed with western ways when it comes to selling stuff (one woman walked with me about 5 miles in the hope I might change my mind about buying something) - they make their living (outside of rice farming) by selling ethnicky stuff like tablecloths, bags and silly hippy hats that make western people look really stupid. They let you gawk around their villages so it seemed only fair to buy some things although clearly these are going to end up in other peoples front rooms when I get home ( and then probably only when I visit though).
The bizarrest thing was seeing two ethnic girls from the Black Hmong (don't ask how you pronounce it) in full tribal get-up playing pool in the one of the bars in Sa Pa - they beat everybody they played making me think they spend a lot of time in the bar!
Still, really beautiful scenery and when you go to thevillages its like things haven't changed for hundreds of years - dirty kids, pigs in the back yard, dogs everywhere - people still walk to the market everyday to buy stuff like horses, thats a lot of walking. Water buffalo everywhere to work the fields too - got excited when I saw the first one....I'll add some pictures.
So leaving Hanoi tomorrow evening, heading for Laos. Going to some water-puppet show tonight and booked into a nice hotel, they're even washing my man-bag - I'd been wondering what the funny smell was that seemed to go with me everywhere when I realised it was my bag - going to need a new back-pack too as mine is on its last legs.
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