The Fresh Mountain Air- Sapa

I took the night train from Hanoi to the Lao Cai Province in northern Vietnam and caught a bus up to Sapa. Sapa is a beautiful, cool, and misty city located in the Haong Lien Son Mountains close to the border with China. The hillsides are terraced with rice paddies and the local people (H'mong, Tay, Dao, etc.) are working both the fields and the tourists very hard. At first, I thought that it was wonderful the way they would come up to make small talk. However, by the 2,000th time I was asked "what your name...where you from...how old are you...you have boyfriend...you buy from me?" the charm wore off. Apart from the constant selling (which I don't really fault them for as I'd be doing the same thing if I were in their shoes), they do seem like really lovely people. The first day in Sapa I joined up with a small group and we hiked about 15 miles through the fields and, in the evening, settled in a small village at a local homestay. The host cooked up some amazing food and served some absolutely atrocious rice wine as well. That night, it poured down rain and, in the morning, it was determined that there was no way to easily get out of the village to the main road by foot as we would have essentially been trekking up steep mudslides. So, we set about the village recruiting enough motor bikes to get us out. The ride through the mountains on motorbike was fantastic! I definitely think that if I return to Vietnam I would like to see the country that way. Only next time, I'll be sure to find a helmet! (Sorry Mom, I know you're not happy about that part).