Sa Pa and my last night in Ha Noi

My time spent in Sa Pa was awesome! We were lucky enough to have blue sky for the entire trek. The trek was only two days and one night, we stayed in a village for the one night. It was quite an experience... The family that we stayed with was welcoming. After a long day of hiking through the rice patties we made it to the village. We got to make dinner with the family and then join them to eat. The family had 4 generations all living in the same house! As soon as we sat down to eat our elaborate meal, our guide started giving everyone at the table including the great grandma shots of rice wine. He kept pouring shot after shot and ofcourse you can't say no. By the end of the dinner all of us had about 10 shots of rice wine. I made it through the night ok. I ate so much food that it absorbed all the alcohol. It felt really good to connect with the vietnamese people with out having any scams or money involved. The next day we woke up to roosters crowing and delicous banana pancakes! After we got back from the trek we took a night train back to Ha Noi. Our last night in Ha Noi before going to Ninh Binh the group that I was with decided to really blend in with the locals and go to a restaraunt that only serves snake. When we sat down to order, they brought the live snake to the table and killed it right in front of us. The slit open the heart as the snake was still moving. The drained the blood into shot glasses with rice wine for us (not me) to drink. Then they put the heart in a cup as it was beating still. My friends drank the blood and one of them ate the heart. eeewww. They quikley grilled the snake and served us. I felt so sick. It's the same feeling I get when I'm walking through a meet market and I see bloody dog heads on a table and the body of the dog gutted ready to be sold for dinner.