...but the fog is so dense you cannot even see 1oo meters down the street. We are in Sa Pa today, taking a rest day after a long 34km slog uphill from Lao Cai. The fog is truly lovely, with a distinct 'lord of the rings' feeling. The locals think we are pretty fascinating. While they have seen tourists before, not many are silly enough to make the trek up the mountain on bikes. For a few km we had a large following of kids, who got a real kick out of walking along side us. By this stage we were not moving very fast. They laughed a lot, and I'm certain we were the butt of some very funny jokes. We stopped off in a very small town for lunch - Tak Co, pop. 12 - where we ate, you guessed it, more pho. We opted for the pho with egg option, since our phrase book does not include the question 'what kind of meat is that?'; a key question in a country that eats dog and horse. The people we meet along the way love to practice their english. We are greeted with lots of 'hello' and 'good morning!'.
Sa Pa is in north west Vietnam, and is famous for the hill trips people, particularly the H'Moung. The 'thing' to do here is to go hiking into the mountains and stay overnight at their house, where they feed you, drink rice wine with you, and generally show you a good time. Our group is torn between going on a trek to see the villages or not. A a tourist, whenever you visit a place, you inevitably change the course of their lives. Not at an individual level, but the aggregation of visitors over time alters their course. Many of these places now rely on tourism as a source of income, so the flipside is that we would be supporting their economy. We are also uneasy with the idea of going to their village and 'gawking' at them or taking photos.
Our trip out of Hanoi was definitely a highlight. We got the opportunity to navigate Hanoi traffic on our bikes, which should be a new Olympic event. The thrill of joining the chaos of traffic and surviving to tell the story was quite the rush. We all arrived at the trainstation with huge grins. Our overnight train left Hanoi around 9pm, and there were a few nervous moments when we loaded our bikes onto the cargo train and were told we could not lock them. A VERY common question asked by locals here is 'how much are those bikes?', or 'those bikes look really expensive'. I spent a few sleepless moments worrying whether our bikes would still be on the train in the morning.
Tomorrow we have a 76 km bike along what is supposed to be the most beautiful area of Vietnam, including summiting the highest mountain pass in the country. The other side of the pass is supposed to be much warmer and sunnier. Looking forward to it.
You rule. Well done.
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