Sapa, Vietnam - 12May07

Fading Love Market

The initial plan was to go trekking. However it rained. So Laksmi and me just sat at our huge balcony and chit chatting.

When the rained wasn't as heavy later, we went to the market again. i really wanted to eat some street food if i could. The market here was equally lively as any other in Vietname. Tonight, there would be a Love Market in front of the church. Last time, this Love Market used to be a place where tribal girl and boy meet their partner. But nowadays, it becomes another night market for handicraft shopping.However due to the market tonight, we saw nmore tribal people today, with their different but equally colorful costumes.

Then we trekked to the radio station. The scenery was good on the top of the hilll. We could saw the lake and Fansipan Mountain too. But later we met Janjaque again. He went to the trekking trip and he said the rain stopped there. So i was kind of dissapointed not making to the trip.

Today, we got a beautiful sunset from our balcony. The rain stopped completely in the late evening and many people came out from their room to take the picture of the sunset.

Lakshmi's left at 6.30pm and we bid farewell. i then went to a tour company to book a market trip cum village visit for tomorrow. At least this would make up for me not able to do the trekking.



The eatery in the market.
Lakshmi took some noodle but nothing for me.
No vegetarian food. :(



We took a short trek to Sapa radio tower.
Supposingly, we should be able to see the Vietnam's highest peak, Fansipan, at 3143m.
However the fog was too thick to see the background clearly.



The views of the valley from the radio tower.



It used to be the "Love Market" at Saturday night , where the tribe people meet in front of the old church, to find their life partner. Eventually it becomes merely the business ground for tribe people to sell handcrafts to the tourists.




MONEY MATTER:
1.)Food: 64000D
2.)Sights: 30000D + USD 10
3.)Accommodation: USD 5
4.) Others: 12000 D

Sapa, Vietnam - 11May07

Beautiful Valley

i met Lakshmi in the train and we ended up traveled together then (i lost her email address also. i lost my small note pad in Hanoi later). She is an American Indian on a two months assignment for an NGO in Hanoi. She speaks a bit of Vietnamese and she is really too good in bargaining. Learnt a bit of her haggling technique then. :) i am glad to have someone i could talk in 'normal' to travel with. Most Vietnamese i met don't speak fluent English so the topics of conversation is limited.

We did a trekking to Cat Cat Village. It was scenic but the return way was a up hill and quite tiring. We met two Vietnamese students at the village. They approached us to ask for donation for disabled people in Vietnam. At this stage of my trip, i kind of know that, 8 out of 10 times when people approached you, they must have some kind of 'agenda'. :)i made a small donation. i remember Laskshmi said, the merely two months in Vietnam was making her to lose confident to people. Everyone here kind of up to something when they approached you and would always want to charge you as high as possible because you are a 'rich' tourist.

The tribe people selling sourvenir were very persistant and they would follow us all the way just to sell us something. Most of the time are things they we really no need. Lakshmi bought from one old lady and she ended up been surrounded by many other. All asked her to buy something.

Again, i met Janjaque at the trek. So we decided to have dinner together. Meeting some old same faces and some new friends in the trip have became the 'ritual' of my journey.



Train cabin, reclining seat.
Most tourists get a sleeper instead.



The tribe people and the hill.



Cat Cat Village, 3km south of Sapa. It is a steep and very beautiful hike down. Well, the hike back up was quite a difficult task.



The tribe people were trying to sell some kind of handmade belt to Lakshmi.



Sunset from the balcony of our guest house.





MONEY MATTER:
1.)Accommodation: 40000 D
2.)Food: 78000 D
3.)Others: 90000 D
4.)Sights: Cat-Cat Village Entrance - 5000D