We had a bit of a shocker as we were planning on going to Sa Pa, which is in the Lào Cai Province in the North West of Vietnam, to go to the markets on Saturday. Sadly all the buses were booked so we had to change our plans and stay an extra night in Hanoi and go on Saturday night instead. So last night we got on our first sleeper bus which was interesting to say the least. Basically its a normal size single level bus with three rows of seats, one on top of the other which also fold down into beds. The whole bus was lit up with luminous blue and red lights and to wake us up in the morning the driver blasted out hard core techno music. We arrived this morning at about 6am and made our way to our hostel, guided by two beautiful women from the Black Hmong tribe, and we agreed to meet them again on Monday so they could take us up to their village. At 7.30 we managed to get on what we thought was a bus journey to the Bắc Hà markets (4 hours drive away), but instead we were on a tour which would take us to the markets, then the Chinese border and finally a visit to the Flower H'mong tribe's village.
We stopped off at around 11pm and everyone was watching the football
Buffalo auctions
Bun Cha (its a sort of noodle dish in broth with pork and various herbs)
Below is a temple on the Vietnamese/Chinese border
Border into Vietnam from China
China!!