Sa Pa

I took a few of the days I had left in North Vietnam before Kevin's arrival to travel 12 hours north to Sa Pa, a village in the mountains near the Chinese border. The overnight train was uneventful and we arrive in Lo Cai, the village bordering with China, for our bus to Sa Pa, which took us up windy mountain roads to a beautiful, picturesque village, overlooking terraced rice fields leading down to lush farmland in the valley below. For for first time since being in Vietnam, I was not herded into a hotel and was able to choose a guest house of my own and soon found myself in a cozy room with a balcony facing out into the surrounding mountains.

While tourism hasn't quite taken off yet in Sa Pa - thankfully - there are definitely signs of its impending arrival, with guided treks to the surrounding villages and hoards of colorfully dressed women from the local villages imploring you to purchase their wares. Unfortunately, I had been convinced to pay for my train tickets in cash instead of credit as I'd planned and I found myself in Sa Pa without enough money to spend as freely as I'd like. Eventually though, I did buy a few things from the girls and found that it was much more fun just to sit and talk with them, than it was to walk by repeating 'no thank you' twenty times to each one who approached.

The woman from these villages are married at 15 and 16 and many of the young woman I met had babies on their backs and older children at home. They all began their conversations with the parroted demand "buy from me, buy from me," but once they realized that you weren't going to buy anything, many revealed a much more comprehensive grasp of the English language and would talk to you about where they were from and how they made their crafts and fell easily into the teasing, playful banter of young children. After just two days in Sa Pa, a few of the girls remembered me - "you were the one who helped me read that email yesterday" or "you're staying at the Queen guest house" - and it gave me a brief glimpse of the joy that would come out of being a more longterm part of these girls lives.

After a brief, but very enjoyable stay in Sapa, I again boarded the overnight train, this time heading south and made my way back to Hanoi to get a shower and some rest before meeting up with Kevin Friday evening.