59. HANOI & SAPA.

link: post 37 - Gooood Mooornniing Vietnam!
























A short walk from Sapa takes the Vietnamese across this bridge into Yunnan, China. Foreigners aren't allowed to cross over.

 






Trudging 'thru a Hmong village, 'thru mud and dung - the Simple Life is not for me, no siree!

 

 Black Hmong and Flower Hmong - indigenous to Sapa

Ethnic goods look good


















Ethnic good looks

 

Halong Bay, on a chilly wintry morning is ethereal

 









 

Love the colonial French architecture. Like other colonialists, they escaped the heat by living it up in the hills

 







Our guide, who regaled us with stories about his Viet Cong relatives when they fought their colonialists....the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum in the background...

'tis the season to get sloshed - with a good Vietnamese Dalat red



The water puppet show is unique to Hanoi. These puppeteers control their puppets from behind a curtain, standing waist-deep in water, and in winter too. It was beautifully executed.