The hill tribes of North Vietnam

We are sitting in an internet cafe up in the hills far north of Hanoi on the Chinese border. There are local tribes people waiting outside for us to come out so they can try and sell us something. Our favourite is a little girl called Lee - she is 7. We speak a bit of the language now which helps to dissuade them. There are hundreds of motorbikes passing by beeping their horns and people are shouting as it is market day and the town is heaving.

Yesterday we hired a motorbike (!) and drove to a little minority village further up in the hills. We had a puncture half way up and 2 minutes after praying, a man came up beside us and took us back to his garage and only charged us $1.40 to fix it. We arrived at a village called Ta Phin who are Red Doa people, where a storm of 50 women rushed up to us. We had a coke and chatted for a while and when we came to leave all 50 of them pushed their wares on us. "You buy from me!" "NO, you buy from ME!" 50 of them all around us. We got away with 2 bags and a horrendous purse, climbed onto the bike and literally drove through them all to escape with our lives!!! Very stressful at the time, but certainly an experience... Having a rest day today. :)

We are stopping in a hotel/restaurant owned by the Samaritans - a christian organisation who train minority young people in the hotel/restaurant business. It is a safe, calm haven for us in a world of madness. I think it is the noise that is most stressful here - never ending. It starts with the Voice of Vietnam blaring at 6.30 every morning and is constant.

We are really enjoying it tho'. Going on a tour tomorrow to see some more local tribes before returning to Hanoi to head south.