28th March - random comments - Sapa

Thursday 28^th March

I spent a few idle moments yesterday going through the comments on this blogsite, and I have deleted nearly all of the anonymous ones – I do hope nobody is offended… Some of them were so very strange…and they all wanted me to look at websites re the following arcane topics:

payday loans

haemorrhoids

canine haemorrhoids (yes!!)

weight loss

alternative medicine

chemical toilets

ephedrine tolerance

gambling

All so random…I also get quite a few comments from someone who is very keen on making pizzas…they seem to be in direct competition with the many who want me to Lose Weight Now!!!

I am quite fascinated to get these comments but…I will keep deleting them if they don’t seem to be making any real sense to me.

Today is my last day at work…I am just a bit overwhelmed so I will try to keep my brain clear and not write about this just now…

Sapa continued - 2008

Pete and I had a beautiful dinner at Cat Cat View Hotel, then Quinn, who had cooked our steamboat dinner the night before, asked if we would like to go for a walk with him.  He was such a lovely boy, so bright and handsome with his spiky hair and big smile.  We were very flattered that he wanted to spend the evening with us; he is only 22.  I thought maybe it was to be a guided tour to the night market and that he would want money, but no, he just wanted to link arms with us and chat, and maybe ask Pete if he had a job for him on the farm in Tasmania… The market on the village green was just packing up.  We had seen it before; dozens of stalls all selling sparkly tatty plastic crap from China… Not sure who buys any of this stuff or why but everyone there seemed peaceful and happy.

The next morning we were up very bright and early to catch the bus to Bac Ha Market, nearly three hours away way up on the Chinese border.  On the way through Lao Cai, the town where we first arrived in the highlands on the night train, we saw a man, wearing a loincloth, lying very stiffly on the ground.  At first I thought he was made of wood; then we both realised he was DEAD!  With a crowd of people looking down at him, not particularly alarmed.  I was all agog; I have never seen a dead person.  (Well I live in Tasmania - where would I see a dead person??  I never take up the invitation at funerals to peer into open coffins, and we don’t usually have corpses in the street.)  “Why would he just drop dead?” I asked; well Pete didn’t know, our German friend Jurgen didn’t know, so I started thinking aloud (bad mistake….) “He didn’t look very well, did he?”  “Well no,” said Pete, judiciously, “He could hardly have looked worse!”