Last Day in Sa Pa - 2

Our weather in Sa Pa moved in and out very rapidly. Colorado has quickly changing weather patterns but this was something else. In the space of 15 minutes we would go from wearing just t-shirts to adding another shirt, a fleece, and a shell, only,to strip back down in the next 15 mins. This set up some dramatic lighting which my skills and camera are unable to capture, but I hope you can get an idea.

On our travels today we met a nice retired couple from Grand Junction CO who were just wrapping up a 3 month tour and heading back home. He was born in America, she is Chinese and they have travelled much of Asia on extended excursions. About an hour later at lunch Riley expressed to us - "When I grow up, I want to be retired."

We found the most fabulous tasting locally grown almonds at the market our first day here. They are subtly sweet with a hint of cinnamon. Patti ate about half a kilo yesterday and did not suffer any food allergy reactions so we went back for another kilo today.

Today we proudly displayed our 'Proofs of Purchase' from yesterday to the local ladies that insisted that we place a buy order with them.

Still, some of them would persist and give us a hard time 'Why you no buy from me?' But my kids have a nice way of saying 'no thank you' it sounds like 'cohm gam ung'.

The Water Buffalo in Sa Pa are like the John Deere tractor in the Midwestern United States. Well, maybe not so much alike, but equally important in the prosperity of a farm and both produce noxious gases. These animals were surprisingly docile and very used to being around humans which we discovered when their small group passed through our small group.

On the way down from Sa Pa to Lo Cai we passed a bunch of mopeds on the side of the road and a half chopped up water buffalo carcass. It seemed be a meat market, roadside style. It gives new meaning to 'road kill'. This, as with many other things, happen just to quickly to capture in a pixel image so this word picture will have to do.

Before we boarded our train from Lo Cai to Hanoi I asked one of the ticket counter staffers where the bathroom was in my best Vietnamese. He did not stare at me like I was American or something, but pointed me to the way. I happened to see monitor and saw that he was running that exclusive version of Microsoft Windows that is XP-7. On the screen it said 'Windows Sev7n', just like that. Then it flashed the XP label as he was shutting it down. Must be some Microsoft skunkworks project right here in Lo Cai.

All Sa Pa images are now posted in the linked 2014 Bac Ha & Sa Pa folder.