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Other entries in Tả Van

Cutest kids in the world

I was woken up on the train at 6am to find that I was the last person still on my carriage...why the hell didnt anyone wake me up?  Nevertheless, I stumbled off the train to meet the bus driver who was supposed to meet me at the station to take me to Sa Pa.  He wasn't anywhere to be seen at first, but after about half an hour, when I was starting to contemplate a taxi, he showed up with the name Mr Kevin on his sign.  I was so shattered after an awful nights sleep on the train that I couldnt keep my eyes open for the entire journey to Sa Pa - although the journey only lasted one hour. 

Sa Pa is a nice little town perched on the top of a hill in northern Vietnam at an altitude of around 2000ft.  It is well known for its rice terraces and many ethnic minorities, all wearing different clothing and various size earings.

We were dropped off at first outside the hotel we were meant to be staying at, only to find that is was full, so we boarded the bus again and headed to the southern end of town to a much nicer and less crowded hotel.  Turns out we arent staying in a hotel tonight anyway, but in a small ethnic minority village called Ta Van.  We got a free breakfast out of it anyway, left half of my stuff so I wouldnt have to carry it around for the next two days and at 9.30 we met our guide Soo.  She was really friendly, but she looked like she was about 12 years old (turns out she was 18 and married twice), had the longest hair I have ever seen, was less than 5ft tall and she wore this really cool traditional dress like the rest of the women in the area.  My group consisted of myself, Monika from Germany and Steffen and Inge from Belgium.

We started walking out of Sa Pa on a road through some small suburbs of some sort when I saw the most horrific thing of my life to date.  As we stopped off to buy some cheap raincoats, a small boy (no older than six) ran out from behind me and was smashed head on by a motorbike.  It was awful.  Not only did he get hit by the motorbike, but his leg obviously snapped on impact and went really floppy, then his shirt got caught on one of the pedals and he was dragged along for a further five metres!!  The hard little bugger didnt even cry, although this may have been down to shock, and it was quite upsetting at the time, but we had to move on in order to get to the next village, so I never found out if the little critter was OK or not.

We walked further down the road in gale force winds and sheets of rain and got completely piss wet through.  Me being a clever bugger forgot my fleece and was also freezing to death (I dotn remeber my hands ever being colder).  After about half an hour we turned off the road on to a wide muddy slope with water running down it.  This was going to be entertaining.  To my surprise, the first and only person to fall on this leg of the trip was the guide, and she did it in style, going arse over tit, spinning and sliding down the mud and left like a upside down turtle with me having to help her back to her feet and almost falling over myself in the process.  She didnt live far from this area, so she told us to walk on down to the next hut while she went home to get changed as she would have to wear these clothes for the next two days.  At least when we got under some shelter I managed to take some pictures for the first time that day,as rain had seriously hampered this beforehand.

At midday we finally finished walking down the muddy slope and crossed over a rickety bridge into the small village of Lao Chai where we were to have lunch.  We had lunch in one of Soo's friends huts and it was surprisingly good (baguettes with ham and cheese, etc) and despite many warnings I rattled my head off of the roof not only once but twice in the process.  As I left the hut to take a few more pictures I caught my head on the drainage pipe, knocking it off the roof and thankfully catching it before it killed a gaggle of 8 year old girls.  As part apaology and part because they were so cute, I bought a little bracelet of each of them, costing me a total of 50p, and got a nice photo of them as well.

After lunch we walked on for another 4 or five kilometres to another small village called Ta Van, where we would be staying the night.  As soon as we arrived, we were hounded by middle aged women trying to sell us everything from bags to pillow cases, and they were cheap, but I have no room in my bag for these needless souvenirs.  Along with these women were three more little girls selling bracelets.  We left our guide back at our gaff and went for a walk down to the river and were followed by these little girls and their crazy mother, who on hearing I was single tried to set me up with every caucasian woman in site (very embarrasing).  They were good company though and didnt push too hard to try and sell us things, they just seemed to be having a good time.  We got down to the river and decided to head back a different way through the rice paddies (due to the kids navigating) and it was quite a good laugh.  I think I got a few good snaps as well since the rain had slowed considerably since the morning.  The girls said I was 'pretty', but I told them I only had eyes for their mother (the crazy one), but unfortunately she was married with five kids!!

When we got back to the village, we were cooked pancakes which were pure pukka and then had a whopping dinner of local dishes, all cooked by our trusty guide Soo, who incidentally was first married at thirteen, divorced by fifteen and re-married by sixteen.

After dinner we had a few beers, went for a piss at the outdoor latrine right next to a huge water buffallo and then hit the sack at 8.30pm as there was actually nothing else to do!

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