Sapa.

Last night, our friends from Canberra (Gail and Pete) and my family got on an overnight train from Hanoi. It took us eight and a half hours to get to Sapa. Sapa is located at the top of Vietnam in the mountains.

The traditional people who live here are called the Hmongs. The Hmongs live in small villages, each is a different tribe. There are 5 different tribes, the flower tribe, the black tribe, the white tribe, the green tribe and the red tribe. All the woman and children go out every day to try and sell things to the tourists.They dress in their traditional clothes which are colourful and thick to keep them warm. The little children are so cute. We saw really young children with tiny babies strapped to their backs and they were just running around playing.


How tiny are these kids with even tinier babies on their backs.



These girls were so cute. They were playing in the market place and we had to join them.



Everyone is trying to sell you something.
They all say, "You buy from me. Buy from me."

On the first day we met 2 really friendly lady Hmongs. Their names are Song and Pai. Pai is 25, and is married and has 3 children, and Song is 22 and also is married and she has 2 children. After a while, they wouldn’t leave us alone telling us stories and making us laugh, so dad and Gail had to do a pinkie promise that they would buy from them tomorrow.  

Song and Pai

We then walked through the markets (their grocery store). There are lots of fruit and vegetables, dried food, and worst of all a whole section full of dead animals and animals being killed and cut up, including dog, fish, eels, cows, chickens, pigs and other things we couldn't work out...

That night we stayed in a hotel called  ‘Sapa Rooms ’, it was a nice room with 1 king sized bed, and a small double. Dad and Mum got to share the king bed while Maisy and I got squashed into the small double. There was also a TV with a dvd player, so when the adults were having dinner Maisy and I watched 2 movies we hadn’t seen before, Planet 81, and the 2^nd Shrek. They were both great movies, even though I fell asleep during Planet 81.

That night I was sick with a bad cough and I couldn’t fall asleep again after I woke up in the middle of the night. I had a very bad sleep, but the next day was excellent.

Mum will tell about it in her blog post. Happy Birthday Mum.xxxx

Love from Charlotte.