Snakes on a Bus! - Leaving Sapa

I forgot to mention this in my earlier Sapa post but thought it was worth posting. We thought the title of this post would be a worthy sequel to Samuel L Jackson’s movie "Snakes On A Plane". We were heading down to Lao Cai train station from Sapa, along the hilly and winding roads. About half an hour into the journey the driver and the representative from Handspan Travel decided to stop, attracted by a roadside merchant. It turned out to be a snake... tied to a branch. Not a dead snake either! The guy was selling it as it’s a bit of a delicacy. They cut off the head and drain the blood to drink then cook the body in a stew. The snakes become more active during rainy weather conditions making them easier to catch. The merchants and our driver worked out a price while I took a few last photos of the local scenery. The driver and the rep attempted to tie the snake up with some vines to the base of a chair in the back of our van - next to our luggage. Despite assurances the snake was non venomous we elected to put our feet up off of the floor for the duration of the journey - no snake related mayhem ensued.