Dragon Mountain

We awoke to a very clear morning, suddenly out of our window loomed huge mountains that were completely hidden yesterday. This morning only wisps of clouds clung to their peaks. After breakfast we headed for Dragon Mountain at the top of which there is a perfect viewing platform giving panoramic views of Sapa and surrounds. To get there you need to climb about 1000 steps, fortunately the first sections is through a market so at least you can stop regularly to check out the wares, and boy were there some things worth checking out. The vast majority of the stalls were dedicated to herbal medicines, and the first thing that caught my eye was a stall selling horse penis, and yes I do mean real horse penis with the testicles attached. Check out the photo attached if you do not believe me. We also saw jars of rice wine with lots of different animals in them that supposedly give the wine different powers. Some had snakes in them, others had geckos, bees, worms, scorpions, really you name it, you could probably buy it in a bottle of rice wine or failing that dried ready for grinding and then consuming. I even saw tiger and bear claws for medicinal use!!

Snake and scorpian in rice wine


Lizard in rice wine

Once away from these stalls we passed through the orchid gardens where we decided to take a bit of a break and drink Vietnamese tea whilst soaking up the ambiance of the gardens, so green and peaceful set amongst moss covered rocks, whilst watching men playing Vietnamese chess. Then we headed further up to the European gardens, this time in a much more open area but none the less very well set out and cared for. Then the climb up the final section of the mountain. We chose to go around the back of the mountain first, through Cloud Yard, and by now it was getting very misty again. The mist had swirled in hiding the Dragons Mouth from view so we continued up the mountain to the final platform, arriving just in time to see Sapa and it's natural lake through a thin layer of mist before minutes later it was completely obscured. Having said that, we only had to wait a few more minutes and once again it was visible. The town looks well set out and the influence of the French is very obvious, not just in the architecture but the layout of the town. There really are some lovely buildings here. Finally we began the easier walk back to the bottom taking time to admire the different views on the way down.

After lunch we headed off north to the Red Dao village of Ta Phin. There are only about 3000 members of this tribal group who have common ties to the H'Mong and now tend to live in villages right next to each other and can intermarry. The language has commonalities though the Red Dao have their own written style which they still use. The women wear long wide legged trousers, again in deep blue of black with bands of embroidery towards the bottom. Over this they wear a long embroidered tunic and what makes them even easier to distinguish from other tribes is the large and apparently heavy red hat that they wear once they are married. Another custom is that they pluck out all their eyebrows before marriage and shave off the front of their hair. Obviously a very high forehead is the sign of something... maybe beauty, maybe wealth... Their babies wear brightly embroidered skull caps with beads and silver and bells fastened onto them.





We walked between a couple of villages stopping first to watch men making drums from wood, hemp , string and bits of wood slatted all around which they moved to tune the drum. We then popped into the school as our guide wanted to drop off something to his friend who taught there. All the kids seemed to be wearing traditional dress and were keen to work. At the end of the day we met them all coming home, a little silver pail that contained their lunch swinging from their hands. Finally we visited a cave that apparently if you have 3 hours to spare, and a really good torch you can walk from one end to the other.

As we walked back to the car the mist once again rolled in blanketing the countryside and indicating time to retire to a warm bath, perhaps a foot massage and a good dinner.