Sapa, Vietnam

Weather wise today was worse than yesterday!  It poured off and on all morning but then let up and that was the signal for the locals to go out.  The traffic noises and voices yelling in the streets were crazy!  The owner’s 10 year old son came about 11 to my room telling me my new room was ready and he would take me there.  I was already packed and in no time moved in just a few doors down-

My room is pretty much the same-

except it has a heater but no electric mattress blankets.  The wonders are always interested in the bathroom and most Asian bathrooms are like this.  There is no separate shower area so the whole floor gets wet and stays that way.  There are sandals at the bathroom entrance so your feet don’t get wet.  It’s very annoying-

I wasn’t paying until I knew for sure the heater worked so I went for lunch.  I decided I better try pho which is a Vietnamese soup consisting of bone broth, rice noodles and spices.  Mine also had chicken, the gnarly rooster who has been crowing at 4 am outside my bedroom window the last 15 years.  I’m not crazy about most soup but when in Vietnam-

I still don’t like soup!  From there I went searching for a good egg coffee-

This one was really good, I think with a little cocoa added and super sweet.  Maybe that’s why I liked it!

On the way home I stopped in another place. I was on the lookout for a restaurant with enclosed walls and heat, something a bit hard to find in Sapa even though they get a lot of days like this, just not usually in March!

I stopped at a very nice looking place and had an iced coffee and a slice of banana cake which was mediocre.

I came back to my room and the heater was working so I will survive the night!  

For now there’s nothing to do but read my book and drink wine.  Later, I decided to go out for supper but first wanted to pay for my room. I saw on booking.com I could book it for 305000 dong and the crazy woman wanted 350000  I pointed this out to her and we had quite a translation conversation going on.  It was a difference of $2.58 so I decided I didn’t want to find my stuff out on the street when I got back so paid her what she wanted.  I went back to the same place I had been this afternoon and had sautéed H’mong sausage with a peppercorn sauce as well as salad and sticky rice.  I thought I should try something local, it was ok-

Walking home, I saw the lights clearly on the lake for the first time!  It would be awesome to be here with good weather-

I catch a bus to the Hanoi airport at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon.  I’m looking forward to being warm!

P.S.