Cat Cat Village

 After breakfast in our hotel yesterday, we set off by ourselves down the road to Cat Cat village, a few km south of Sapa. Because there's a narrow winding road that tourist vans can negotiate and it's not too far from town, Cat Cat is very touristy. However, it was a nice walk down the mountain and back up.

 The clouds are always drifting through the mountain passes. It was sunny and 22C most of the time unless a cloud was passing through.

 The yellow building with red roof is the village school.

The villagers use bamboo pipes to direct water off the mountain onto this carved out teeter-totter thing. When the weight of the water forces one end down and the water spills out, the other end with a little post attached goes up and then comes down again to pound grain in a fixed bucket. This seems to be a simple, smart way to use the water power to pound grain all day.

 There were hundreds of steep steps down to the river.

 There is a pretty waterfall at the bottom of the valley, even though this is dry season.

 In an old abandoned French hydro station at the bottom, local teens do traditional dance for all the tourists.

We did the waterfall tourist pose.

 On the way back, we crossed this suspension bridge over the ravine.

 The bridge swayed but was quite solid.

It was quite a hike back up the mountain. We only walked about 8 km in total yesterday but it was all steep. We've really enjoyed the north of Vietnam, especially here in the mountains with all of the local people, water buffalo and pigs. The fresh mountain air and clean water everywhere is a really nice change from the polluted city of Hanoi.
It's interesting to see all the local tribes whose lives are changing very fast. I can recognize Red Dzao, Flower Hmong and Black Hmong people by their clothing. They used to be afraid of tourists who all have cameras and backpacks. Our guide the other day told us that, in the past, the people did not like pictures being taken, especially of children, because they thought that the tourists were stealing the spirits of those photographed and taking them away. That would lead to the death of those photographed. Now, they're quite happy to be photographed if they can sell something. We always ask permission before taking a photograph of anyone.
Development here is a double edged sword. The local people can earn money through guiding, selling handicrafts and providing homestays but often it's "Viet" people not "local people" according to our guide, who benefit the most from this. But the 6 local ethnic groups have no political or economic power so they have no control over how the area is developed. For sure, it is getting different from what it used to be.

When we got back, the hotel staff had moved our packs for us from the VIP room up at the top to the deluxe room down lower, as agreed. The view wasn't as great but it was good enough to enjoy drinks on our balcony.
Last night we enjoyed dinner at the Nature View restaurant down the street. We had chicken and wild pig. Once again, really good food and beer for a total bill of about $11.
This morning we're packing up. We check out at 11 and leave our packs in storage at the hotel. We'll wander around town or the countryside, get an early dinner and be back at the hotel by 5 for the minibus to Lao Cai. There we'll catch the night train to Hanoi. It leaves at 8:15 pm and gets into Hanoi around 5 am or so. Then we'll somehow get to the airport and catch our flight to Hue in central Vietnam at 11:30. The flight is only an hour and ten minutes so we should be napping in our hotel in Hue by mid-afternoon.