Hello hello!

Sapa in northwest Vietnam is a mountain resort bustling with tourists. I didn't expect to see more rice terraces here. It's a squeaky clean and more developed version of Yuanyang in Southern China.
There are many ethnic minority groups living in the surrounding villages outside of the main town. Many women, young and old, come into town selling their wares. I was astounded at their very good grasp of English. They all crowd around tourists chatting happily away.
Monica and I were approached one morning outside a cafe/bar by a young woman. She was very friendly and asked where we came from, our names and how long we were staying in Sapa. We found out that she was 25, married at 15 and has 2 young children already! She laughed when we told her we were both unmarried and had no children. She then progressed to sell her handicraft to us. It wasn't long before another woman approached us too, carrying a really gorgeous baby on her back; also from the same village of Lao Chai. We ended up buying a purse from each lady.
We were hounded endlessly on the walk to a nearby village. Cries of "Hello hello!", "Where you come from?", "What you name?", "You buy from me?"(mostly in that order!) followed us. I fired my responses back just as quick: "Australia, Angela, No thank you!". They also had the "Maybe later you buy? Remember me, OK?" response. There probably was a compulsory crash course in business English in town.
View more pics here.