Sa Pa

We arrived in the middle of a rainstorm and were left with a very limited view of the surrounding mountains. We'd reserved rooms at the Sa Pa Summit Hotel, the "only hotel restaurant with a view of Fan Si Pan mountain," but we had no view at all. It was socked in and we were soaked for most of the first day. The second morning started off looking exactly the same way.

When the sky finally cleared up, though, and we went on our trek to Cat Cat village, we got an amazing view of the hillsides. The mountains were spotted with the famous tiered rice paddies. All the rain has made the area incredibly green and it was wonderful to get out of the city and into the fresh air.

Stuart snapped this photo of one of the women that accompanied us on our trek. Her name was Danh and she's from the Black Hmong tribe. Her English, along with almost everyone we met, was excellent. She was fun to chat with and after a day and a half of asking me to buy things from her, I finally did. I bought two mouth harps (nyoo zee was how she pronounced the name, but I don't know the spelling), some silver earrings, a silver bracelet and some of the little fabric wrist ties that everyone who goes to Sa Pa comes home with.

We visited inside the home of a family that lives in the village, watching the children play outside for a bit before entering. They sat there laughing and giggling while they shared a bowl of rice. All four girls, ages 3 or 4, had pierced ears, but only two had actual earrings. The other two had strings tied through their ears. There were 15 people who lived in the house, including grandparents and babies. There was an enormous wok in the kitchen used to make rice wine and in the back yard was the squat toilet/outhouse, pig sty and chicken pen. They also had some strange animal that looked like a duck and chicken mix. So, we called it a chuck.

We did a little shopping while there and though we didn't buy any of the Buddhas, we sure enjoy them. Audrey snapped this shot at the shop where I bought my purse. I had looked at it the first day, but didn't want to pay the $2 asking price (man, I've gotten cheap), so we went back the next day and no one was there. It was a pay-off moment when the kids just suggested I leave the money at the table since no one was around. Quite proud that neither of them even seemed to think that simply taking it (which would have been incredibly easy as no one was there and no one outside questioned us). Yeah, I've done something right; my kids have morals. It's a cute purse style and I'll be copying it as soon as I can get my hands on a sewing machine again.