A Trip To The Market

Today saw the longest journey of our trip, a 9 hour coach trip north to Hoang Su Phi, close to the border with China.

Fortunately there was always something fascinating to see as we travelled through cities, towns, villages and rice fields. The first thing you notice once you get away from the Hanoi suburbs is how few private cars are on the roads; most people travel by motorbike, the rest of the traffic is commercial trucks and the occasional public bus.

Houses and shops are mostly plain, functional boxes (apart from the occasional ornamental roof) with untidy concrete yards and life seems very simple.

After a couple of hours we stopped in a small village where a busy market was in full flow. The locals seemed as curious and delighted to see us as we were them, smiling and greeting us and happy to talk through our guide. This lady saw my camera and beckoned me to take her photo, striking the pose as soon as I raised the camera.

The extra shows the typical way of transporting the shopping home. We saw motorbikes piled so high you couldn't see either bike or driver.

After another two hours we stopped for coffee in what appeared to be a garage workshop and another two hours saw us having lunch in a back street restaurant by a fish farm, a set menu of an array of dishes fragrant with herbs and spicy with chillies.

After lunch we climbed higher into the mountains where the roads became narrower and more unmade and the cloud turned to thick mist as the road twisted above dizzying drops (see other extra) before we turned down a single track lane and descended into a remote valley at the bottom of which was a traditional village. The ecolodges which is our base for the next two days was a mile beyond the village and accessible only by a wooden rope bridge across a river.

We seem to have quite an adventure in store.