"On Sundays there is a fascinating market attended by all the tribes: Tay, Nung, Dao, Flower H'mong, Giay, Ohu La etc - it's a great opportunity to see the local life style as thousands of people gather to sell produce and socialise. It is a riot of colour as everything from pigs, ducklings and wooden ploughs to scarves, gaily embroidered bags and jewelry are exchanged. The main that you will see is Flower H'mong, the mostclourful one in Vietnam.
After an early lunch we retrace our path back over Bac Ha pass and descend to Coc Ly where we walk ~ two km to board a long boat for a relaxing two hours on the Song Chay (Blue River), passing limestone cliffs and water buffalo on the waters edge. We return to Lai Cai town - literally the end of the line in Vietnam. The town was destroyed in the Chinese Invasion of 1979 (and subsequently rebuilt) andteborder crosing was closed until 1993. Thewe can look across the river to China. After a shower we change prior to dinner, then board the overnight sleeper train to Ha Noi."
Janet buys a silk sleeping sheet at the market for two bucks (that came in very handy later that evenng on the train), while Richard gets his ears lowered for a buck-fifty (three times the going rate for the locals).
Afterward, back over yesterday's pass, we get dropped off at the mouth of a paved country road that quickly becomes rugged red dirt (which later caused a frenzy amongst the shoe-boys at our afternoon hotel) en route to the Song Chay river passing through an ethnic village just before the "dock". We spend a pleasant hour going up then down river before disembarking at the village where we lunched yesterday, only to have another multi-course lunch. Around 3:00pm we arrive at the Thein Hai hotel on the station square in Lai Cao. No sooner have we alighted from the vans than shoe-cleaning boys seeing the red dirt on our Keens - one grabs a shoe, then a second grabs the other and it's not clear who is going to give them back and who should be paid - almost to the point of causing an internatonal incidnet. Anyway we spend a pleasant few hours there, shower and rest, the after a small meal we board the Hanoi sleeper at 6:45 pm. Several bridge players rediscover the pleasure and play until 9:30 pm after we all fall into somewhat tortured sleep.
We hear that there are 5 inches of snow in Vancouver, so we are grateful to be spared that! TTFN.
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