The Indian Contractor visits Vietnam and China on a Shoestring

I woke up to find people leaving the train. I wondered why no one woke us up. Our cabin consisted of the two of us, a vietnamese, and one japanese. We got off the train and there were lots of people offering shuttle services to Sapa. We decided to buy our return ticket first but we were unable to do so because return tickets can only be booked from Sapa. So we took the bus to Sapa and payed VND50,000 for the both of us. Rumours have it that the locals pay only 10,000 but we did not have a choice. The minibus dropped us outside this hotel called Darling. Mind you, this is not the mid range hotel on thacbac street, this ones a cheaper imitation hotel on the other side of the main square. We were unsure first but the price of $6 a night for two people was irresistable so we went in and took a look. The rooms were adequately clean and there was hot water. That fulfilled all the criteria. I asked her if there were any other "taxes" and the lady (who was pregnant) said no with a genuine smile and assured us that $6 is all we have to pay for accomodation. I took her word for it and walked over to the balcony and the view of the mountains was superb!

After breakfast, we decided to visit the first village called Cat Cat a few kilometres from Sapa town. This village were inhabited by the black H'mong people who also venture into the sapa town market to sell their handiworks. Most of their items for sale include embroidered bags and dresses. At night some of them add items like marijuana and hashish to their lists. I was approached on atleast 4 occassions with words like "brother, you want hashish, marijuana, i give you cheap". But lets not generalise hastily. There are many out there who are poor and hardworking. Many of them make a living by selling whatever their hands can make. But a few go astray and engage in illegal activities. They're what I call, "Dress vendors by day and drug vendors by night!"

Nearly all the vendors are ladies and they have green colour hands which is the dye they use to colour the fabrics. This is also a good reason for you to wash the purchases seperately from your favourite white t shirt. They bleed voraciously!

The trek to cat cat village was a pleasant one with some remarkable views of the mountains. The temperature was getting considerably warmer from the 18 degrees that it was when we reached the hotel. As we reached the village we found terraced farms and huge buffaloes. The smell of buffalo poo wafted on the gentle breeze as we walked on the roadside foliage. the steep and winding road through the village brought us close to many of the tribal people.And this is where I discovered something strange. Most kids had scars on their faces and it looked like they had taken a fall. And it was strangely coincidential that the scars were always close to the eyes on the forehead. I wonder why.

As we clicked away with our cameras we did not realise the passage of time and distance. And after a few hours we were back at where we started. And at one of the uphill climbd the winds were strong. So we madea few more pictures here. The blue skies in the background looked nice.

It was past lunch time so we walked back to Sapa and decided to find the railway booking office. some of the offices have been relocated in Sapa hence our lonely planet map was getting us lost the moment we set foot into sapa. Only the church by the square was in its original postion it seemed. We finally found the place (fansiphan hotel) and booked the ticket. We took the hard sleeper due to financial concerns. This would be one of those descisions we would regret making. Worse still the guy writing the ticket for us ended up writing the train number wrongly on my ticket. So we had two tickets with same departure time, beds in the same cabin but different train numbers! This would create another hoo haa at the station on the day of the departure. We settled for lunch at this nice restaurant called Sunshine or something. The food was cheap and fantastic! The pho and rice dishes were really nice.

After a late lunch we reached the hotel at 5pm. We thought of ending the day early, but both of us fell asleep by the time this descision was made. we woke up at 9pm and decied to go for dinner at the same place. After dinner and shower we fell asleep again.