Go back to Sa Pa Day 1.
Go back to Vietnam.

Coc Ly Market.
In the morning, we took a 2.5 hour cab ride to a village of Coc Ly and its weekly market. A couple of local sticky rice specialties, a haircut for me and a touristy ride down a river through a scenic canyon and soon we were back Lao Cai on the Chinese border. Here we said ‘good-bye’ to Mao and killed off a few hours on more market spectacles while waiting for our night train back to Hanoi.
Photos

With the family of Ly Su (himself not in photo) with whom we stayed while in Sa Pa (Nov. 2018).

Breakfast by the fire place in Ly Su’s house. The night was quite chilly (Nov. 2018).

Leaving the valley for the 2.5 hour drive north up to Lao Cai and on to Coc Ly (Nov. 2018).

A propaganda poster in Lao Cai City (Nov. 2018).

On the way to the Coc Ly market (Nov. 2018).

Coc Ly village market (Nov. 2018).

Coc Ly market (Nov. 2018).

Coc Ly market (Nov. 2018).

Coc Ly market (Nov. 2018).

Coc Ly market (Nov. 2018).

Strolling through the market (Nov. 2018).

Hustle and bustle (Nov. 2018).

The omnipresent peace pipe (Nov. 2018).

Coc Ly market sights (Nov. 2018).

Purple colored sticky rice (Nov. 2018).

You can’t really screw up sticky rice and this variation was pretty good too (Nov. 2018).

A not-so-great (fried) sticky rice snack. I guess you can screw it up (Nov. 2018).

Coc Ly market (Nov. 2018).

More bong action at the market (Nov. 2018).

Strolling through the market (Nov. 2018).

One of the best haircuts I’ve gotten and an absolute bargain at ~2USD. Two styles available: Buddha and non-Buddha. Coc Ly village market (Nov. 2018).

…think Mao was urging the barber to go full Buddha on me (Nov. 2018).

Headed for a river float on a boat. Just outside of the Coc Ly Village (Nov. 2018).

Quite scenic (Nov. 2018).

Some tourist wankers (Nov. 2018).

…and their fearless guide Lo Mao (Nov. 2018).

A village we stopped in. Think the name is Den Trung Do (Nov. 2018).

In the same village (Nov. 2018).

Corn and kittens (Nov. 2018).

Den Trung Do Village (…probably; Nov. 2018).

A temple in the village (Nov. 2018).

A lotus flower pond in the village (Nov. 2018).

Hippos?

Views of China (town of Hekouzhen I think) from Lao Cai City (Nov. 2018).

Mao and Shirley looking across the river into China (Nov. 2018).

A quick dessert with Mao and our driver for the day (Nov. 2018).

Tofu and jelly – mostly tastes like sugar though (Nov. 2018).

A group photo in Lao Cai (Nov. 2018).

One more market – this one in Lao Cai while we kill time waiting for our night train to Hanoi (Nov. 2018).

Eels (Nov. 2018).

Grubs at the market (Nov. 2018).

And then it was time to head back south to Hanoi (Nov. 2018).

Settling in (Nov. 2018).
Go to Hoi An and Hue.
Go back to Vietnam.