Last Part Vietnam

Last you heard, I was in Hanoi eating snake hearts and pooping. I spent a couple more days there, but mostly just walking around the city. Ho Chi Minh has his corpse mummified there, but unlike Stalin, you don't get to look at it and they have a changing of the guards every now and again in front of the mausoleum. Also, there are all the ministries - on that subject, surprise, the biggest ministry was defense. It may have been on more acreage than our Pentagon. If not, it at least looked like a resort. Those defense strategists need their spas, but don't worry it's all inclusive. Moving on, I decided to go to Sa Pa.

Sa Pa, is about 8 hours away in the mountains. There is a little lake in the middle of the town and it's flanked on the east and west by hills. It also has a bit more "natural" architecture - as in, not the same 3 story, skinny, apartments with shops at the bottom. I found the town to be quite nice. It wasn't big, but still had enough to do. And the setting is phenomenal. The day that I got in, I ended up falling asleep for 3 hours once I checked into the guesthouse, (which, by the way was $5 and nice). The next day, I spent the day trying to find out how to get up to a tower overlooking the town. When I couldn't find it, I ended up walking the whole town to get to know it a little better. There is an obvious tourist street, but the rest of town seems more designed for the people that live there. I met someone who said that they had been to Sa Pa several years ago and it wasn't nearly the size it is today. I had a fantastic meal that included apple wine. The apple wine, like Vietnam's rice wine, has an ironic name. Why they call it wine, I don't know cause it's around 30% alcohol. The apple wine is home made and most places will serve bottles (reused Coke plastic bottles). I hated the rice wine that I had with the snake (though it wasn't home made), but I enjoyed the apple wine. I was still pretty beat, so I went to bed at a decent time.
The next day was quite nice, so I rented a motorbike and headed off into the hills. Up, to be specific. I had asked the guesthouse lady what to do on my own and she mentioned some waterfalls and walking about an hour up the road. Turned out to be decent advice. The waterfall was pretty, but they built a complex of stairs and shops around it, which also means $. Expect to pay for parking and "entrance", though it should be less than a dollar total. Next I continued up the road to see what else was up there. Had I continued on for an additional hour from where I turned back, I'd have made it to Laos. Satisfied at seeing the tallest mountain (3,000+ m) in Vietnam I head back to what turned out to be the entrance to the national park, including trails to said mountain summit (3 day hike). I just wasn't feeling hiking around to any of the nearby attraction except a little tower I noticed. After a good 200m stair climb, I reached some gazebo-esk thing. In the middle was a big metallic bell; the kind you'd see in a pagoda. Nobody ever came up the time that I was there, and I took the opportunity to do some meditation-lite. Meditation-lite being I sat up there, and just let myself be. I listened to my thoughts, then let them kinda wash away as I sat looking out over the jungle covered mountains. I closed my eyes and focused on what my other senses thought of the place. I didn't have a purpose for it, it was just nice to be alone in such a nice setting that I wanted to take as much of it in as possible without anyone thinking I'm a weirdo sitting around with my eyes closed, consciously breathing. After about 20 minutes, a group of flies decided it was time to bring me around, so I got up and hit the bell a few times before leaving.
On the way down, I stopped a few places to take pictures and at one location there was a couple dudes in orange jumpers with a guitar. They were Vietnamese, and naturally, I was curious to hear what they were playing. As I approached, I realized they were with a couple of foreigners. The foreigners (a guy, Martin, and girl, Sole) were from Argentina and it was Martin's guitar. They welcomed me and played guitar, and we talked about Argentina. I mentioned where I'd been and my future plans to live there for a little while. The Vietnamese guys turned out to be out there to work on the power lines, but were super curious to talk with some foreigners and a few more showed up. They didn't speak much English, but we all got our points across. They loved (as did all Vietnamese) my toe shoes.
That night I went to the same place for dinner. I don't usually do that unless it's sooo good that I can't help myself. What happened though ties into this universal energy thing. Last I mentioned, I was looking for some reading on it and had asked for some advice on what books to check out. Of course, I never heard from anyone, but I'll let that slide. Anywho, there were several open tables, but the owner sat me across from a girl who was by herself as well. My guess is that he assumed that I was single since I was alone and was trying to do some sort of setup (the Vietnamese don't like people to be single). I asked if it was OK and she said alright. Her name was Golden and was Australian. We got to talking a bit, and as things naturally proceed in a conversation between travelers, we started talking about our travels. I think it went this way because she asked something about what my friends would think about stuff, but I'm not totally sure. I told her they'd be surprised, especially cause I've never really been a spiritual person. She probed. I told her about my experiences with this energy that I don't understand. She laughed. She said, that she had no intention of eating at a restaurant that evening (she had planned street food). However, when she was walking by this place she suddenly felt like it and changed her mind.
I came to find out that she had had a similar experience during her travels. A Reiki master in Peru had commented on her aura and that had sparked the same interest in this thing as mine. Now, the jury is still out for me on coincidence. It seems that people don't want to believe in it. I'm not convinced. With the experiences in my life including educational ones, I'm more in the randomness category. That being said, I believe in free will and this energy thingy. Even if randomly we were put in the same vicinity, we were still being drawn together and free will allowed us follow that to make the meeting possible. Maybe randomness and things happening for a reason don't have to be mutually exclusive. After all, there are patterns (short and long) in randomness (esp. at infinity). Getting back to the point, we talked about this energy thing and she gave me some guidance on where to look at Reiki stuff in particular. I was seeking, and somehow someone who just went through a similar thing and could provide the first baby step were "subtly pushed" together. It does seem hard to call these things coincidences though. After she gave me some recommended reading I bid her ado and went home to get some sleep.
The next day I planned on taking the moto back out, but it turned out to be bad weather, so I just milled about town. One thing about Sa Pa that can be quite annoying is that the people from the surrounding villages come into town to sell shit to the tourists. They dress in traditional garb, which I later found out they wear at home too so it's not just to get whitey to buy crap. I'm pretty good at saying "no", and usually I will be left alone after the first time I say it. However, I met a woman named Cho Cho (you'll laugh if you speak any Spanish). She caught me on my way to lunch, and as all the village women do, they follow you. They don't stop after you say "no". They will walk with you, breaking down your will till you cave. I don't have that problem, but Cho Cho didn't seem to care. She spoke decent English (I'm guessing thanks to the Christian missionaries in her village. I smell a catch 22. Better English, loss of tradition - because it's evil to Christian's - that English tourists would rather see) and she joked with me about stuff. We saw a guy crash a moto and she joked that he was drunk, either that or he had a serious concussion from the accident. I stopped and got some lunch and Cho Cho took off to look for someone who was actually going to buy something. Later, she came running up to me when I came out of the ATM. She tried her usual tactics, but I think she knew it was pretty futile. Again, I bailed and again we met up later at some point. Mostly, she'd joke with me and some try to playfully guilt me into buying something, "you think I rubbish woman! you bad boy". By this point I had warmed to her and actually didn't mind her following me around. I decided to go to a place that had happy hour beers cause I felt like seeing if there were any travelers around to talk to. I stopped in there and pawned Cho Cho off on a couple of girls sitting outside the place. To my surprise, when I came back out to see if Cho Cho was gone or harassing them, she was still there and all were having a fun time. I sat down and told them she'd been following me the entire day. After a little while, it was decided that we, and another girl who showed up, would go to see Cho Cho's home the next day. We also decided that we should get to know one another a little bit, so we all went and got a late dinner and sang some karaoke with it.
The next day, we headed about 2 hours down to her village by motos. She showed us about and we spent a few hours talking with her and part of her family and just generally sitting around in front of her house looking out over the rice paddies that filled the valley. Her family was awesome, her house a little depressing - though it had satellite TV - but the view and the gardens made up for it. She showed us how they die their clothing and the plants she uses to make things. Meanwhile, her daughter tried to sell us things. I did buy a little musical instrument for cheap from her. I felt that, since Cho Cho took us to her home and spent time with us instead of peddling and harassing the other tourists, and did so without expecting compensation, I ought to throw her a small token of my appreciation. Being that she couldn't get me to buy anything earlier, I hoped that it would mean a little more than just me giving them money. I also told her I'd try to get her the pictures I'd taken of her family.
Anywho, that was the jist of my time time in Sa Pa. That night I took the night train back to Hanoi so that I could fly to Thailand the next day. The only thing of note from that is,
TIP: if you can climb, take the top bunks on the sleeper. You can store day packs above the door and therefore they are a bit safer. Also, you won't get stepped on by people going to their bunks. The soft sleepers are more expensive, but may just be worth the extra $5-10.
Also, I had a strange convo with an Italian, who initiated the convo by slapping me on the shoulder - while I was sitting on a bunk reading in my compartment; he was in the hallway walking by. At first I thought he was going to try to pickpocket me, but after about 20 minutes of him jabbering on about places he'd been, I felt safe enough to take my hands out of my pockets. I still can't find my wallet... Just joking.