Day 47: Sapa

-We arrived in Lao Cai (check) at 5am and took an hour-long drive to the town of Sapa. The drive was beautiful as the sun was rising over all the rice fields. Sapa is half mountain town, half valley full of rice fields. It is absolutely beautiful.

The mountain town of Sapa:

-We were given time to take a shower at a hotel and had some breakfast before heading off for our 12km hike (which ended up feeling more like 5km and was on a very flat path, I don’t think that really counts as a hike). Women from the local villages follow you the whole way to the home stay just so they can sell you things. It’s actually quite annoying because they don’t leave you alone until you buy something and when you but one thing from someone everyone else wants you to buy more from them. Nevertheless it was absolutely gorgeous, we were super lucky with the weather.

Marco swimming in the river:

In front of some rice paddies:

 Some local children trying to sell bracelets:

Marco in front of the valley:

A local:

Some more views of the valley:

Where we ate lunch:

-We met some really nice people from England and Australia whom we went down to the river with for some swimming. A Dutch couple at our home stay had bought some gifts for the kids, just simple things like balloons, paper, stickers, and a jump rope. The kids went wild though and absolutely loved it. We all had fun trying to make paper airplanes and fortunetellers.

Living quarters for the night:

-In the evening we had a great meal and the most delicious fires cooked with garlic. We played some cards and tried some of the local rice wine, which reminded me of bai jiu.

Dinner with the group:

Day 46: Hanoi to Sapa

-Marco and I spent the day walking around the crazy bustling streets of Hanoi. The streets here are very thin but are full of motorcycles, cars, and people. We didn’t really walk anywhere in particular but just wandered around enjoying the city.  Last time I came to Hanoi I hated it, but this time I wasn’t as tired and hungry so actually enjoyed it quite a lot. We stopped at Daw… market and bought some cheap North Face backpacks for our trip to Sapa later in the evening. We saw the Old City Gate and the big lake here (name), stopping for lunch at a little restaurant with the cutest 2-year-old boy helping out as the waiter. The strangest thing is the people who come up to you on the streets asking if you want your shoes shined when you’re wearing flip-flops. One even offered to sew mine, even though they’re not broken.

Some views of the lake:

The old city gate:

-In the evening we headed to the train station for our overnight train to Sapa. We had two other Vietnamese men in our carriage, one very fat and very drunk. He would not stop staring at us playing cards, that is until he passed out and started snoring louder than I thought was physically possible without waking yourself up. Needless to say I got no sleep.