August 11 – Continued

After leaving Bac Ha Market we drove another hour and off
the main road to a trail leading to a small village on the Chay River . The majestic terrain was very different from
the miles of sculptured terraced rice paddies that we had seen in Sapa. These
mountains seemed higher and were more lush and wild with steep dips down to the
valley below. Most of the rice paddies
were located in the flat valleys and there were, what appeared to be, sections
of corn growing high up of the mountain slopes. 
With the constant mist hovering over the mountain tops, it was really
breath taking.

Our driver dropped us off about a mile from the village and
Tiger, Bill and I walked through the peaceful countryside on a narrow dirt path
past simple wooden houses, enclosures housing the family prize water buffalo, a
young school girl deep in thought, children selling something on the
roadside…..it would have been lemonade in the States…I marveled, again, at the
simplicity of all this and, at the same time, the majority of the houses had
satellite dishes which presented such a stark contrast against these wooden
shacks. And….more evidence of the ever
present modern world even in this remote little village, I spotted a young
women sitting on a rock by the river who appeared to be texting on a cell
phone . I guess in this day and age, it’s
inescapable.

As we approached the river and the main portion of the
village, which consisted of a few short roads of houses, there were a few more
elaborate houses and several built up on stilts that were quite
impressive. Maybe the town mayor lived
in one of them. At the end of the road,
where more children were playing on the rocks, our boat was waiting to take us
back down the river to our van. It was
lovely traveling down this quiet river with hardly anyone in sight although we
did see some scantily clad young, buff, men, who were working from a boat on the river
bank….more of a treat for me than Bill. 
This was a wonderful way to end our amazing two day excursion into
another existence and, even though we had more adventures to come, I was a
little sad to be leaving.

En route back to the train station that would take us,
through the night, back to Hanoi, we made one final stop along the river where
we could see China on the other side. 
There was a small Chinese Buddhist temple on the Vietnam side that was far
less elaborate than the others that we’d seen but beautiful, none the
less.

We got a bite to eat close to the train station before
boarding the train and, thank heavens, our return overnight trip was uneventful
and quiet and we were able to get some sleep. 
We arrived back in Hanoi around 4:30 a.m.and werer greeted by the tour
guide on the Hanoi end who took us back to our hotel where our luggage was
being stored. We were being picked up at
about 8 o’clock to drive to where the next leg of our tour would begin….Halong
Bay. We wouldn’t be able to check in to
our hotel room, where we would stay for five day after the tour ended, but they
did feed us a great buffet breakfast and we were able to sleep a little in the
lobby before our next adventure.