Travelling into the beating heart of Vietnam - how to wash dishes at restaurant

Don't let anyone
Even your most trusted best friend.
Tell you the night trip from Hanoi to Lao Cai, the capital city of northern Vietnam
The western side of the border with China is one of the great railway trips in the world, even if you are on a carriage called the Orient Express.
First of all, in four narrow shops
Berths cottage is really just comfortable enough to get some reasonable sleep, especially with constant banging on the door
Is it a window or a shutter? —
Outside the train, it tilted nearly 400 towards the station, where a driver would go with us to our real destination. . .
Sapa town.
Secondly, after all, it was an overnight trip to start and end in the dark, so all you see is the caves of Hanoi and some crumbling side lines.
There is not a glass of champagne here, and there is no taste of small wine, although you can pick a bowl of cheap River powder from many vendors before leaving Hanoi.
In addition, suggestions on Hanoi station.
Make sure you have a guide who knows exactly which train and which car you are on
They will take you to the carriage, not just the station.
Finding the cabin you are assigned may need to climb over the track and weave on other trains.
But I am very happy with this trip as it is the only realistic way for Western travelers to reach this very distant, charming corner of the world, and it seems that it is mainly occupied by ornate tribes
Among them, black Miao, red jujube and flower Miao
A few months out of China --
Twenty years ago, serious young European backpackers did some real hiking.
Strangely, Sapa reminds me of some of the big towns in the Yorkshire valley and the Lake District of England --
Many shops sell walking boots, bars sell beer, and restaurants sell all kinds of food.
Yes, it's easy to see Sapa as a tourist curiosity, but in a way that's what it has always been like --
The French colonists set up a hill station in early 1920 as a relief to the suffocating summer heat of the Vietnamese low.
Our trip was organized in Sydney through a selective tour, and the end of Sapa seems to have been controlled.
The driver met us early in the morning outside the station and was perfectly arranged to sit in a very comfortable big car, the hotel in sunny mountain Sapa is modern and clean and comfortable. . .
Great location for a relaxing stroll from the town's bustling restaurants and market areas.
The rising sun provides a glimpse of the mountain terrain and confirms this by walking directly from the street to the hotel's sixth floor, with the lower floors cascading along one side of the mountain.
The view of the restaurant and terrace, over the valley, towards the highest Fansipan mountain in Vietnam, provides a spectacular backdrop for breakfast as we prepare our rooms.
We spent our first day in town and relaxed a bit because we knew that the next day would bring more exercise in our head, mostly walking, into the surrounding countryside.
There are many things to see and do.
Clothing and handmade stalls on the market are mainly run by women from ethnic minority mountain tribes, mainly Miao and jujube with various color beliefs
Red, black, white, green/blue, depends to a large extent on the main clothing color, but it is completely different in culture, all wearing intricate woven materials.
Very pleasant walk around Ho Sa Pa Lake, you can easily understand why wellto-do —
Businessmen and Communist Party officials --
Choose to live in a bank.
The Sapa Cultural Museum is worth an hour or two. Restaurant-
It is wise to have a lot of options, but my suggestion is to stick to the local price, the price is cheap, the nutrition is rich, and most of them are good.
Cuisines such as Italian cuisine
What are we thinking? —
Nothing seems to come except disappointment and higher costs.
Although Vietnam has close ties with France, wine, like all parts of Vietnam, is problematic. But the beer —
Such as Hanoi and 333 ('ba ')-
Rich, cheap, very suitable for drinking.
The next morning, we met our guide, a young red jujube woman who got married a few years ago, with several young children and living nearby with her family.
We set out with our driver, but soon started walking, never one person, always accompanied by women and children eager to practice English, yes, hoping to sell some trinkets, or get a tip from their local knowledge.
However, this is not a troublesome thing. it is certainly not a troublesome thing in Beijing and Shanghai.
The countryside is an eye. opener.
We all see beautiful pictures of the intricate terraces of the rice fields, otherwise the lush green hills will rise, but until you get close, you are fully aware of the work and skills to grow and harvest daily food.
In this part of the world, this is what it is. The north-
The west corner of Vietnam is a poor country.
This is a colder, more fertile place than the Mekong Delta, and at thousands of kilometers south, usually only one crop of rice can be harvested a year, not the three of the latter.
This means that the possibility of surplus sales is much smaller, thus getting rid of the cycle of survival.
Obviously, the work required is much more laborious.
We walked through many farms and stopped to buy some very colorful local weaving, some delicious River powder for lunch, and a can of Hanoi beer to wash away the dust.
Wherever you go, they make the most of the flat space, such as drying rice on the side of the road.
No matter where you go, the emphasis on education is very obvious.
These people know that the future lies in the citizens of tomorrow.
A highlight of our stay in Sapa was a visit to the Can Cau Saturday market, driving for hours along some dodgy roads, but it's worth strolling through so many stalls selling so much food, clothes and tapestries --work.
Our guide bargained for the vegetables to take home.
We are just immersed in the atmosphere and overwhelmed by such a fanatical scene.
At the same time, there are constantly livestock on the mountain that are sold, exchanged or just appreciated.
Then go back to Lao Cai, where we have time to look at the bridge, which is the entrance to China, and eat a few plates of pork and vegetable noodles before heading to the station for an overnight return to Hanoi, wipe my shoes clean.