Rainy, wet, and cold Sapa

After coming to the foggy Sapa in the late afternoon, I was hoping for better weather (cloudy or something), but weather turned rainy, windy, foggy, and cold! So not much sightseeing in this very small town. That is why I am on the net again.
I attempt to hike in the rain and wind, but I wasn't feel too great and turn back after about half an hour. I got a little sick for couple days.

Sapa is becoming a touristy town, but nothing compares to China.
The town has lots Hmong and Dao people from near by villages who come here to sell tourists trinkets. They dressed in their traditional cloth. Due to the weather, I have not had the chance to take any pictures.

The pace of life is pretty slow here.
Unfortunately Vietnamese also adapted honking from the noisy Chinese as well. They are just a little less noisy.

I visited a village market in Bac Ha (3 hours from sapa). The market is where flowering Hmong come every Sunday to trade, buy goods and selling some trinkets to the tourists. Mostly non-staged.

We also visted a village home near by, not too interesting but did learn a little about the Hmong people in general, which is good. After the visit, our boots are coated with a thick layer of mud! so I paid 1 dollar to have someone clean it back in Lai Cao like many other tourists.....

After five boring hours waiting for my train from Lai Cao to Hanoi, we went to get on the train and was told the what we thought was ticket wasn't, so we were in a panic looking for someone who spoke English to explain what's going on, did we get scamed? luckily, there is a person from the ticket agency who exchanged our paper for real tickets.

The sleeper train is much cleaner and nicer than I expected. It even have a clean sit down toliet! I got a good night sleep (middle bunk). Although I think a Vietnamese American from another compartment was up at 3 or somethig talking loudly on the phone to his coworker or something, then talking to his booki about making bets on SF 49ers and Denver Broncos, how rude! Just can't seem to get away from rude people.

We arrived in Hanoi just before 5AM and got on back of couple moto bikes and headed for Old Quarters. Of course we could not find the place we wanted stay in the dark, so we stop by a hostel and wait till daylight. O, we met another rude person on the way........

But the weather was nice and new day and new city Hanoi....