SaPa - Saturday and Sunday

Saturday - Well our luck truly ran out today. We woke to thick fog, you couldn't see past the balcony and unfortunately more serious, pouring rain. Our trip out to the countryside was cancelled. Hoa from Ethos travel emailed me to say that the whole region was the same, and basically we wouldn't see anything if we went out.   What a shame as we only have tomorrow and we are back to the station tomorrow night to catch the train back to Hanoi.

It continued to rain all day and we basically stayed in the hotel except for a couple of forays out for lunch and dinner.  SaPa is such a small place and we saw all the sights to see yesterday. All there is to do is eat, as ususally you would be out in the countryside or trekking.

Comfy hotel, nice room with heating and an electric blanket, heaven..

But that's the game here, we are up in the mountains and the weather changes by the minute.

So what are we going to do today then. Hopefully the rain will stop later and we can get down to the town. But it didn't, it got worse and colder.  We had dinner, had an amble around till it got cold, and watched pirates of the Caribbean III back at the hotel.  Very silly it was, but quite enjoyable. Read a bit, played some games and that was it.

Sunday

It got worse today and we woke up to snow. All the locals are ectastic, they get snow about once every ten years. Suddenly SaPa became full of people from Hanoi, wrapped up like snowmen, giggling a lot and taking loads of species.  Unfortunately for us it meant another day of hotel. We are destined not to visit the hill tribes.

Caught the girls from the hotel playing snowballs outside.

It hasn't turned out how we expected, but that is the way it goes. My knees are better from the enforced rest.

We've had lunch and are huddled by the fire keeping warm and sipping ginger tea. The fire has a couple of fire pixies, who scramble under the bricks, and come out every so often looking a little. A mother and her 3 month pup who are both very entertaining and so sweet.

 

We are now waiting for our transfer down hill to Lo Cai. Hope it won't be a slide down hill all the way. We are leaving a bit early to ensure we get there in plenty of time and will probably have to hang around, but at least we will be there.

Some thoughts on the hills.  Didn't see much countryside, but it is easy to see how hard it must be for the hill people. There are about six different tribes of people who rarely inter mingle. There is 26 languages spoken, not dialects, but separate languages.  The Hmong people sided with the Americans during the American war, not the Vietnam War, and they were trained as fighters.  So of course after the war ended the Hmong were treated with great suspicion.

You have a circular problem with the Hmong people here. They do not want to mix with the Vietnamese, okay you may understand that, but they seem to keep themselves to their traditions, which is okay but very static.  They take their children out of schools, as they don't see the point, therefore the do not learn to read and write.  To get anyway here you have to do that. So they cannot get jobs, or improve their lot.

Some other awful facts. Life expectancy for men is 46 and women 51. The biggest killer is cancer, mainly caused by inhaling wood smoke constantly and pneumonia, which after the last few days I can fully understand.  They live in damp housing in the hills without heating or ventilation for wood smoke.

On the upside there are a few small co-ops here pushing for education and better health care, but I think it will be an uphill, no pun intended , struggle.

We were talking to our waiter last night and he told us that the government want to double or triple the number of tourists in SaPa and there are building works everywhere. He wasn't very happy about it. Not sure I would want to come here if this happens.  The government also want to ban Hmong women selling their handicrafts on the street. Yes it can be irritating but it is their livelihood. How are they going to survive. And a slight bitch, where are all the Hmong men, it all seems to be the women out in the cold and rain with their wares.

I just elt they had crap lives, and they looked so cold and bored. It didn't seem much of a life huddled in a doorway in the pouring rain last night. But then I would have been on this particular night.

They get cold and rain here every year, but don't seem geared up for it, evening the main part of town. None of the restaurants have any heating, so you have to wear your padded jackets in them. You can see from our balcony, that only about an inch of snow has fallen on the roofs below, but it doesn't melt because the houses don't have heating.

So end of rant. The transfer will be here soon and we will catch up again back in Hanoi.