Sapa

This is going to be a long post.

Sapa was one of my fave spots so far. We took an overnight train there and spent one night in the village, then another overnight train back to Hanoi.

The cool thing about sapa is how pastoral it is. There are staggered terraces of rice paddies every direction you look, with small cottages and shacks interspersed between, and the Himalayan mountains looming thousands of feet in the air above.


The mountains have been carved out into terraces to maximize the amount of rice grown. The weather is cool here (relatively, it's still in the 80s), so the locals can only grow one harvest of rice a year, as opposed to three harvests in the rest of the country. The terraces allow them to maximize their crop output.


This is me, in case you forgot what I look like.


These are more Hmong people! They pestered us to buy trinkets from them in very clear english. Most weren't actually fluent - they'd just memorized some phrases. The vietnamese language is highly phonetic, making it easy for them to mimic American accents in a fairly convincing way.


Open air market in sapa. This was the fruit area. I'll show you the meat area later.


Scorpion wine.


This is our tour guide, Kroon! I think he thought we were too goofy at first, but he warmed up to us by the end. Note: he's not the blond one, thats Val.


Purdy.


Those are the Himalayas in the distance.


This is a young child sweeping. I always found sweeping kind of fun.


A pig! I chased him.


Path down to the Hmong village.


Oh one other thing. There are wild dogs everywhere in Vietnam! This is a cute wild puppy! Hmmm. Why would there be lots of dogs around? Read on!


More snake wine! No lie, right next to it was TIGER TESTICLE WINE! I took a pic but it didn't come out.


Rice, up close and personal.


If you can make out this sign, you should read it. The English translation is hilarious.


Like waterfalls.


A chained one legged monkey. It was sad.


We walked about 6 miles in bonecrushing heat. Good adjective, me!


Danielle approaching the buffalo.


Val gets an asthma attack and takes a ride back to the hotel.


Ok. I should have warned you. I have been alluding to this all post but this is a dead dog being prepared to be eaten.


A decapitated cow.


Sunset in sapa!