Sapa

Arriving at the station to embark on an overnight journey to the town of Hue, we were given a reminder of the slings and arrows that independent travelling can throw at you. The train is delayed, said an earnest young woman from the train company. There are floods in Hue. It cannot travel tonight. Oh, so by delayed you mean....cancelled? Yes, and here is a wad of dong to buy back your ticket. Also in the makeshift waiting room were other passengers waiting to travel to Sapa, in the northern mountainous regions bordering China. Reasoning that there were unlikely to be floods in this area, and that it would be disappointing to wake up in Hanoi when we had hoped to be somewhere else, we decided instead to board the overnight train and go north instead of south.

Our train cabin was shared by a charming young couple who seemed to be on their way to that universal destination for lovers, a minibreak away. We clattered and shunted our way through the night, and then suddenly there was a knock at the door - "Lao Cai!" - and we emerged blinking into the 6am light. A minibus took us up to the town of Sapa, and we started to breathe in the cool, fresh air- a welcome change after Hanoi. After finding our hotel room had panoramic views across the valley, we congratulated ourselves on the way things had turned out.

The following day was spent walking through the valley and down to the villages in the company of a guide, 17 year old Cho, and several of other women from a neighbouring village. These women, dressed in their traditional attire of indigo blue cloth and rich brocade, are the real reason everyone comes to Sapa. They come from the Hmong tribe and proudly define themselves as Hmong rather than Vietnamese. Every day, these women walk the hilly miles into Sapa, descending on tourists with cries of "Buy from me, buy from me!" Tiny and smiling, they are persistent but charming sellers, looking incredibly young to Western eyes- most of the girls we spoke to were 13-15 years old but looked much younger. Cho led us from our hotel down the road and quickly off onto steep and muddy tracks. We chatted away to the girls, their surprisingly fluent English giving us the chance to learn about their lives. Cho lived with her parents, having finished school at 17, but for many children work in the rice fields and selling in the markets becomes more important once they get to about 10. As a single girl, she wore her hair in a pulled back ponytail, rather than winding a braid of her around her head and fastening it with a comb- this would signify she was married. Another girl carried her three-month old baby on her back, rather than the straw basket the others. Aged 24, this was baby number three, aged just three months old. The women were sure-footed every step of the way, unlike me - after a couple of near misses, the Hmong ladies decided it would be much simpler if they just held my hands down the steep bits. Feeling slightly ridiculous, I nevertheless thought it better to accept their help rather than end up in the mud... and with each woman maintaining a vice-like grip on either hand, I didn't really have much choice!

Cool and misty Sapa has been a welcome break from the heat of Hanoi - tonight we are throwing ourselves back into transit with the overnight train back to Hanoi, then an early morning flight taking us to Hue. Early romantic plans about travelling the length of the country by rail may now have fallen by the wayside... we're looking forward to the beaches of Nha Trang and Helen particularly wants to work on that traveller's tan!

Love H&J