here, there, everywhere

My first day in Sapa (which began at around 5 am when my night train pulled into Lao Cai on the Chinese border) was mostly spent wandering around the town, which is small and apparently quite prone to heavy mist, which gave everything a nicely surreal, isolated feeling. You can't really see them in this photo, but the two girls walking away are two nine year old Hmong girls who found me within ten seconds of me stepping into the street, and who sold me several bracelets and earrings. Sapa is famous for its proximity for several ethnic minority hilltribes (it feels weird to type that, but all the guidebooks term them as such?), and even on non-market days, there are lots of Hmong women and children plying tourists with cheap scarves and jewelry and noisemakers. They are incredibly good salespeople, and I'm a big pushover to begin with, especially when the bracelet seller in question is a tri-lingual nine year old who offers to give me a tour of the town with her friend; I didn't realize quite *how* good they were until I got back to my hotel and spilled out so many earrings and bracelets that it looked like Schliemann's excavation of the shaft tombs at Mycenae. So you all are getting earrings and bracelets for Christmas, all of you. Even the boys. Sorry.

Also, did I mention it was really misty? It was really, seriously misty.

After wandering around the town, I walked up the mountain in the middle of the town, which is populated by a variety of gardens (cloud garden, rock garden, orchid garden, "european" garden) and would - on a clear day - probably afford much better views of the mountains. As it was, the mist made it seem much less crowded and it was a nice place to explore for several hours.


Also, the mountain was inexplicably populated by two ostriches, who occupied the "Ostrich Garden" near the top. As I was watching - still somewhat dumbfounded at having turned a corner to find myself making eye contact with an oddly imperious, ENORMOUS bird - the two ostriches made a majestic loop around their cage in perfect sync and then suddenly, the larger of the two kicked its friend to the ground and jumped on it in a full body slam. I think I love ostriches now.

As cool as the ostriches were though, my favorite part of the mountain was coming across this small shrine which was tucked into a large rocky cave. It wasn't on the map and there was no one there, so I have no idea what it was a shrine to, but behind it was a small grotto, also carved into the rock:

My new happy place :)

Anyway, I have more photos of my second day there - which is probably much more interesting than arbitrarily violent ostriches and grottos - but am still at the mercy of internet cafes at the moment and so will post more later.