Sore and sorry in Sa Pa

Taking a well earned break on the edge of a rice paddy trekking in Sa Pa.....

I'll cut straight to the chase - I have two broken ribs (not one, but two) and an altogether hilarious experience with the Vietnamese health system (or lack thereof) under my belt - the resulting treatment following the diagnosis involved administration of hundreds of cups of tea and a vigorous application of Tiger Balm.... wow, I feel so much better. Not! At least I have some decent painkillers....

In all seriousness I'm fine, just really really sore, and the show must go on. Now I need to find someone to help carry my bag(s!) for the next few weeks, who doesn't expect sexual favours in return.... the worst is rolling over in bed at night - the broken ends grate against each other and I can hear it as well as feel it.... how did it all happen? Well.....

I arrived in Lao Cai on Thursday morning on the overnight train from Hanoi - which wasn't as hideous as it sounds. Very civilised actually, with bedding and actual airconditioning (that wasn't just "opening a window"). I barely landed in Hanoi before I took off again - I'll be spending a few days there in next week - I was hot, tired and extremely jetlagged so I found a cinema to kill a few hours before the train left. It was so nice to be cool for a while - of course, the movie was in English with Vietnamese subtitles, and "Angels and Demons" isn't exactly the most simple of storylines, so everyone was trying to explain the plot to everyone else in Vietnamese - which didn't make for a peaceful experience.

I've been really enjoying Vietnam so far though - accidents aside. Hanoi is a lot prettier and greener than I expected, and I spent most of the afternoon in Old Hanoi which is tiny winding streets with nice restaurants and cafes. The food is awesome - for about $3.50 you can get anything you like - and 10,000 times better than the Vietnamese we buy in Australia. Not game enough for the salads (Sarah you were quite right - and once you've seen someone cook in the gutter, using the water running down the gutter "cook it peel it boil it or forget it" applies even more so) though the curries, soups and stir fries are awesome. (And Sarah, yes, the breakfast provided on the flight by Dragon Air was Dim Sum! I joked, but it came true!).

I arrived in Lao Cai at the very uncivilised hour of 5am, and was met by a driver to take me about an hour away to Sa Pa, to begin the trek through the Hill regions with the local guide. Sa Pa is very small but pretty and quite Westernised by comparison to the Hill villages, a hub that caters to the small but steadily growing numbers of tourists that come through. A bowl of Pho for breakfast (noodle soup) and I really felt like I was in Vietnam. No Weeties here.

Street market in Sa Pa

I met Mai Linh - my guide, who was 18 and from one of the local hill tribe villages around Sa Pa. I'd done some research but was surprised to hear that these people don't call themselves Vietnamese - they migrated here from South China a few hundred years ago so refer to themselves as "the minority ethnic groups" - talk about self discrimination.... Scarily women form the hill tribe villages are often abducted and smuggled over the border and sold to the Chinese - that whole "one child and I want it to be a boy" policy in China has bit them in the arse and they are going to extreme measures. Mai Linh's mother is very worried that she'll be abducted - four girls have been abducted from her village alone in the last couple of years, and only one has come back.....

Mai Linh (my guide, left) and one of the villagers, who walked with us as we set off.....

Here are some of the hill tribe ladies in town for the market....

I was SO glad I'd booked a guide. To walk from Village to Village required negotiation through the rice paddies and unmarked tracks. We walked over 17km up and down and up and down yesterday over the mountains of the province and through three villages.... and I walked over a third of that with two broken ribs. There are no cars, only water buffalo everywhere, and small motorcycles....

Heading into the mountains....

Somewhere between the second and third village I was walking up a VERY steep hill - unbeknwonst to me it had rained hard the day before and while it looked dry, it was just a crust with a very slippery layer of mud underneath.... and I carry my camera slung under my arm. 1 + 2 = severe pain and winding. I lay there screaming for a while - all the villagers came running, and so commenced the first of many cups of tea. In the middle of nowhere though, no cars, only motorbikes, there was no choice but to keep walking - until I got to the homestay where Mai Linh and I were spending the night.... it wasn't so bad - I couldn't really feel it unless I breathed (ha ha) - but it's a bit sorer today.... but, the show must go on.... (and can you believe my farking camera is fine?!?!?). Be it known though, Vietnamese health system that Tiger Balm is useless. All of you can stop rubbing it on now - I'm done. Give me something with a narcotic, please!

Cute kids in abundance... no contraception here, by the look of things.....

The hill trek was just fabulous - I have never seen so many rice paddies - hundreds of acres of hillsides covered in rice terraces - and all to feed the families that own them (and it's still not enough to feed themselves....).



I was lucky that it is rice planting season, so I've gotten to see whole families working with their water buffaloes in the paddies, and it's school holidays so there were local kids everywhere - generally looking after the little babies while their parents worked. The villagers were really friendly (and yes, like anywhere, some of them just want to sell you something but for the most part were genuine).....

......and it was a real experience to walk through the villages and see how the hill tribes work, live and eat.

Typical village house amongst the rice paddies.....

....and the views kept getting better and better.....

Working the rice paddies.....

It's ridiculously hot low in the valleys but nice and cool up high - so I was actually enjoying walking uphill until the Great Accident. It's very tropical so there were so many butterflies it was like the butterfly enclosure in the zoo, they kept hitting me in the face and Mai Linh nearly swallowed one (which was pretty funny).

The family I stayed with in Ban Ho village were really nice - they didn't speak a word of English, but boy, they could cook. I was very spoilt - beef with lemongrass, tofu with tomato, pork with mushrooms and fried watercress... pancakes for breakfast and a big bowl of noodle soup for lunch. Like in Peru it stuns me that you can cook so well on a wood fire on the ground.... The fruit is abundant and fabulous and I don't know what any of it is, but it's lovely. Their father works in the fields all day, the mother sews clothes to sell (all by hand, of course) and the three sons aged 17 - 23 are studying - one is doing medicine so they're pretty proud of that. My bed was a comfy matress on the floor under a mosquito net, and a lullaby to the sounds of the pigs outside ounking (well actually underneath where I slept to be honest - insert paranoid swineflu type thoughts!), geese honking, ducks quacking, frogs in the rice paddies croaking and other general strange animal noises....

Mr Vang A Sins home, and my home for the evening.... given it was a genuine bona fide family home, I didn't take any other photos as it wasn't really appropriate, esp. at meal times...

Of course, I didn't have ENOUGH adventure yesterday, so of COURSE I got stranded in Ban Ho village. A truck full of poles slid off the mountain and blocked the road, so my transport couldn't get through, so I got to sleep for three or four hours this afternoon. The road still wasn't open, so we had to take a motorcycle each to the scene of the accident and climb over the wreckage (which consisted of the truck on it's side and across the road, the contents of the truck strewn over the road and down the mountain, a crane and some other type of mechanical lifting device) to get to the other side and walk up the hill to meet the car. OF COURSE it was pouring with rain (which is why the truck slid off) so OF COURSE there were no motorcycle taxis operating, so old mate had to phone some random friend to take us, and OF COURSE the road was bumpy and incredibly windy (is that how you a curvey road? not like air blowing? I've totally forgotten English), every bump of which was incredible agony and I couldn't see for the rain so I was laughing maniacally on the back (what else is there to do really?) while the motorcycle driver was wondering what crazy tourist he had..... I've never been so happy to get in a car in my life.... and I'm hoping that the overnight train isn't too bumpy tonight..... and thank GOD for Analgesia! Yeah!

We rode up the side of this mountain on a muddy dirt trail in the pouring rain..... no wonder the truck slid off.....

So anyway not to blow my own trumpet (Mel Rice - get it out - I know you're dying to in my absence - be ba bap ba ba ba bap ba ba ba ba) but I'm pretty happy I managed to trek over 6km with two broken ribs in the middle of nowhere, and tolerate a motorcycle ride on 4WD terrain with same.... I think however that that is enough adventure for one trip, and may the rest of my time in South East Asia be fun but comparatively serene... I betcha glad you took 10kg off my burdenous backpack now for me, Sarah Louise Londrigan...

Off to Ha Long Bay next, via Hanoi, for a couple of nights on a Junk (which I'm hoping is a boat).