Tea at the temple

What are lovely sunny Sundays made for other than going for a nice stroll? Well in the olden days I was usually recovering from a hangover and curled up with the Sunday papers on the sofa. I do miss the papers but not the hangover.

This Sunday in Sapa the sun made a very welcome return, it has been another misty week here and I even forgot there were beautiful mountains out there which made a reappearance from behind the mist and cloud on Saturday. A few of us from Sapa O'Chau set off this afternoon up the hill from the Cafe to escape the busy town. The views were of course amazing and it was nice and quiet once you left the honking of the buses behind with only the occasional motorbike to dodge. We found ourselves on some kind of farm and then strolled our way back to the road and along to a temple we had seen on the way past.

The farm and ever amazing views

Some ladies were having a nice quiet cup of afternoon tea and they invited us to join them. They were very intrigued about the two children we had with us. Jenna one of the long term volunteers here has a four year old daughter with her called Makayla and Shu who runs Sapa O'Chau has a six year old daughter Ngoc Chau. The two of them are either the best of friends or not on speaking on terms as all childhood friendships seem to be. Anyway, they both came along with us for the walk and having a small Vietnamese child accompanying four western 'tourists' raised a few brows on the way but these ladies were especially interested. Of course none of us speaking Vietnamese meant that six year old Ngoc Chau had to be our translator! Bless her she did a good job.

After tea at the temple we strolled back to town and to the Cafe where some new volunteers had turned up. It's great to see that the word is spreading about Sapa O'Chau. I'm leaving in a couple of days and whilst I am excited to move on and see new places I am also really sad to be going. Sapa is beautiful, the people here at Sapa O'chau are so welcoming and I have made some most excellent friends. If I had longer than four months I would definitely be here for a longer stay, you never know though I may just come back!