Sa Pa, Vietnam - Ban Ho Homestay (Same, Same but Different)

The second day of hiking was a little interesting because of the rain - not the day you want to be hiking 15km up and down dirt (mud) paths. Needless to say we were slipping and sliding all up and down the trails. What was funny as well is that the village women followed us for the first few kilometers - still trying to sell us their goods. While we were slipping and sliding down the mountains, these girls and mothers with babies on their backs were almost skipping down the mountain as if there was not rain or mud at all. In fact we had to use them at some points to kepp ourselves from falling. It was humbling for us to have to grab on the 12 yr old girls and mothers to keep from falling. When the rain did actually let up, the mud was just unbelievable - it really didn't matter what shoes you were wearing because they each had about 1 inch of mud caked on - see shoe picture above. Ban Ho was less touristy than Tan Van and with less women selling. The food was even better the second night and so was the happy water. As you can see from several pictures, the locals use water buffalo to plow their rice fields.