SAPA village trek-Of The Overland Trip:HK-Shenzhen-Yunnan-Vietnam Feb-Mar 06

(Edited from an email to M at the Lao Cai Railway station on 7th Mar06.. continued)

TREK TO LAO CHAI -TAVAN VILLAGES

The next day the weather was fine with the sun coming out though there was still a lot of fog. Had wanted to walk to the valleys myself but was stopped at the ticket booth (yea, u hv to pay to go to the villages! ), they insisted i hv to hv a guide else they won't sell me the entry ticket! So i walked all the way up back to the hotel & they got me a Black H'Mong girl to bring me for the trek for 8USD. i was looking out for Zi but didn't see her. i got this girl called Za, pronounced 'Ya' instead. She claimed she's 16 too and knows Zi. Ya is a very pretty girl with rosy cheeks, flawless skin and v clean appearance. She speaks much better English than Zi, is more mature in thinking though still mischevous n she's certainly much more professional n considerate than Zi where leading the trek is concerned. i must say the terrace fields here are also beautiful works of sculpt but really nothing compared to those in Yuan Yang.

i had a great time with Ya who brought me on a route different from the last we took with Zi . We walked into the paddy fields instead of on the mainroad n though it was quite a difficult walk, the views and the people esp. the children we met along the way were worth it. She showed me the schools & hospitals of the Zao people and explained the customs and life of the H'mong along the way. i really liked her a lot. :) She said girls in her village go out to find work at a very young age or help out in the fields when young, education is not a priority for girls but i must say her English, picked up on her own through tourists, is really impressive. Indeed, i met girls at ages of four or five, already selling handicrafts to tourists along the trek, without any adults in sight, and they spoke good English too! (much better than some of our Singaporean hawkers, ok?) She also said girls in the village at her age are mostly of marriage age and people of my age in her tribe and village would be a grandmother by now, hmmm, can't imagine me a grandma though many would say i'm already as grumpy as one, ha ha. And she's given me her email contact! Yes, the H'mong guides mostly hv email addresses now !!



Finally saw Zi outside The Royal in the evening. She saw me too but didn't seem to recognise me. I didn't call out to her lah, just in case she has no idea who i am. Afterall, she only has yr pic :)

COC LY MARKET cum BOAT TRIP

Just came back from the Coc Ly mkt plus the boat trip along the Red River. The long drive there, the relatively much smaller mkt, with the same kind of Flower H'mong pple and the boring river trip was all together not very worth the effort n cost (USD20). Think i should hv just stayed in Sapa to enjoy the town. The market and the church square were interesting with some stalls around and old tribal ladies hand-sewing away.

my one hr is almost up, hv only just enough VND for 1 hr access. So bye for now!

Greetings from LaoCai