You no buy, you no good

I just got back from a three day trip to NW Viet Nam, the town of Sapa. It is one of the picturesque villages, with steep valleys enshrouded in fog and terraced rice patties. The first day apparently we got lucky and it was beautiful. The fog cleared away enough at times to let the sun shine bright over the entire valley, and it got rather warm. The view from the hotel was amazing, especially considering the room only cost $7.50 total. The second day, we went on a trek to minority villages and stayed in a "homestay", which meant we stayed with a minority village family. We sat around the cookfire while they cooked our meal, and the grandfather even shared his tobacco bong with me. I've only smoked a cigarette once, and a hookah several times, but the hit from this bamboo bong was really strong. At first I didn't think it was just tobacco, but they assured me it was. We ate with the whole family too. That meal was the best meal so far, and afterwards we all got drunk on rice wine. I was talking with a woman I've met on the trip about trying cold duck blood soup while I was in Viet Nam, and she asked the family where I could try it (she speaks vietnamese). The family said if I bought the duck, they would make the soup for me, and then we could have duck the next morning too. I said yes, of course, so I had cold duck blood soup for dinner. It was really very good.

The trek to the village was rather treacherous at times. We were walking on the narrow strips of mud between rice paddies, and up and down mud covered slopes. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. The second day, the rice paddies and hills were even muddier and harder, still a lot of fun, maybe more fun.

Today is a day of rest for me, I think I'll get a massage, maybe buy another paid of pants. Tonight we are going to try to go to the snake village and try the cobra meal (drink snake venom, eat beating snake heart, snake meat cooked many ways).