Farewell Sapa

We enjoyed a very relaxing day after the rigours of the past 2 days. No urgency to get up and get going so we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast then wandered the town checking out he market places and the shops. By now we must be giving off the vibe of old timers as the local Hill Tribe women generally left us alone. We received the odd "buy something from me!" but after a polite "No thank you" they stopped persisting and moved on to fresher targets.

Today we decided that we deserved a massage so opted for a foot and leg massage - 45 minutes costing the princely sum of just over US$4.00. We lay on a lovely soft recliner with a blanket covering us and for 45 minutes lived in that inbetween land of being neither fully asleep not totally awake. We left feeling somewhat dopey but with a spring in our step and wondered why we hadn't done this every evening we were here.

By 5pm it was time to bid farewell to Sapa and begin the hour long, very windy drive down the mountain to Lao Cai, the major city of the region, with a population of over 600,000 and well placed on the boarder of China enabling plentiful trade opportunities. The day had cleared significantly in Sapa yet the mist intermittently enveloped us on the way down. With dusk approaching the road was full of people returning home for the evening, many on foot carrying their field implements, some on motorbikes. As we rounded one corner a bird seller had set up his stall and the call of the birds in the evening filled the air. Smoke from evening fires wafted into the car, heavy with the scent of food mixed with lush damp undergrowth. The closer to Lao Cai, the warmer the weather became, but also the louder other traffic. Now we sit in a restaurant across the road from the train station, a cacophony of sound attacking our ears, from the blaring of loud speakers to the blasting of horns especially those of trucks that are so loud that they could pierce the eardrum. I look forward to the peaceful clickity clack of the train again and another peaceful night on the rails in Vietnam.