In the clouds of Sapa...

Just part of the 220 degree view from our porch at the Topas Ecolodge.


This is what it looks like on a clear day.


Fortunately we we able to see the incredible view from the top of this amazing mountain top where a Danish travel company built this ecolodge 8 years ago. Unfortunately we we engulfed by clouds soon after we arrived. It was a surreal experience being in the mist and being two of the four guests staying there that night. The other two were a couple. She was from Saigon and he from Johannesburg, South Africa and they met while both running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain and now they live in Sydney, Australia. I am surprised they hadn't been to Old Mystic...








These women, members of the Red Dao tribe, hang out just outside the lodge hoping to sell anything they can to travelers. Annie was an easy mark. They walked with us for half of our 1.5 hr hike. They wore us down - but we had a good time with them.


On the way back down the mountain through Sapa, on the way to the train in Lao Cai, we stopped at our driver's house and met his wife and mother and had a beer and tea and some candies.


They said the children next door were so excited that westerners had stopped. We had thought that they were the driver's kids- nope just the neighbors.


Driving from Sapa to Lao Cai to catch our train to Hanoi.


The views were incredible. I had been thinking about Heather Connell, the woman we met on our first day in Cambodia, and I Googled her film about the children of Cambodia called "Small Voices". Here is a link about her and her work. Please check it out -amazing... http://www.itmagazine.net/stories/feature-stories /category_human-rights-international-issues/small-voices-the-story-behind-the-film/