Monday, Oct 24 - Sapa

This morning we arrived at the train station at 5:30 in the morning.  Oh the sleep deprivation. The drive to Sa Pa was a little less than an hour.  We stopped at a hotel for breakfast.   Right after we got there a busload of Europeans arrived.  The breakfast room was an outright zoo. 

We then headed out to visit one of the ethnic villages nearby.  The area is home to the Hmong peoples, of which there are three, the Black Hmong, the Red Hmong and the Flower Hmong.  The differences are primarily in the color of the dress (with the Flower Hmong have a variety of colors).

The area is beautiful with steep valleys, rice terraces and towering mountains.  Tom, our guide, indicated that the area is socked in with heavy clouds over 200 days per year.  We had some haze and low clouds but generally we could see well.  It is really beautiful here. 

Tourism is big business here and every place we stopped we were mobbed by women wanting to sell their wares.  

When we finally headed on our walk into the valley they followed us for very long stretches trying to make a sale.  Very persistent and it made it a bit uncomfortable at time.

We stopped at the home of some Black Hmong where they showed us how they make thread from jute plants (all done by hand), a bit of weaving and how they rolled out the fabric to make it thinner.  Several of us tried rolling the fabric (shades of working out at the gym).

The hillsides, villages, and valley were beautiful...

And the people interesting.

There was also a lot of livestock that we saw along the walk.

Our guide decided to have a bit of fun with a cow patty in the middle of the road.

We also saw a "contraption" that used irrigation water to raise and drop a "hammer" that was used to grind grain in a container.

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Watch the grinder

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We ended back up in Sa Pa for lunch where it started drizzling.  Mary and Paul decided to stay in the hotel and rest while Tara and the other Mary went to another village and to see a waterfall.  Due to the rains they indicated the waterfall was brown from the soil runoff and the steps were slippery.

It was early to bed to try to catch up on sleep before an early checkout tomorrow.