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We got picked up from Hanoi at 21:30 and dropped off at the train station..not really having a clue what was going on but we got shown to a 4 birth sleeper cabin. We spent the night chatting with a couple from England and managed to get some sleep. It was meant to be an 8 hour train but being Vietnam it was 12. We weren't really sure if someone was meeting us the other side but luckily we had a sign with our names on. A mini bus took us to the town of sapa..it was a lot more built up than I envisaged but apparently this is due to the French building hotels for holidays during the war (sapa remains quite cool all year round compared to Hanoi).
We had time for a very quick breakfast an then met our guide and 2 young girls one kiwi one Ozzie (Tina and celleste) the hike started straight away.
We walked for 6km down the main road before we found the trekking path several ladies from the black ha'mong tribe joined us (mainly cause they wanted us to buy things from their village) but they we're friendly and informative they spoke such fluent English which they've picked up just from walking with tourists. We walked down the South east end of sapa alongside the muonghoa valley to Y Linh ho village of the black Hmong people and ate lunch..traditional fo (noodle soup). The trekking was long but cool things to look at a long the way it was so hot we had a really sunny day. Our guide asked if we smoked at all which we replied no..he said of that's a shame of you did we have ganja growing everywhere. Turns out that's legal here..I have photos of the plants growing. We then trekked to the tavan village where we we're to spend the night at a home stay with local people. It was so surreal a mountainous village 15km down surrounded by terraced rice fields with pigs and buffaloes everywhere and they had a shack for a bar which we sat in..and she announces they had wifi..very odd. We had a few drinks there then went to the next bar which had a Dutch owner..never seen someone grin so much and we are certain we saw some kind of bong that was making him so happy.
We then went back to eat dinner with the family..so much food! They also thought it was appropriate to bring out the "happy water" this is local rice wine that the farmers drink..wow. They give it you in shot glasses..blows your head off it's 50%. I had 2 and couldn't do any more. Mart bless him was going head to head with the godfather(that's what we called him he's head of the family)..think mart did 20 shots before we called it a night. Beds we're simple with Mosquitos nets-made sure that was closed up..I went to get something out of my bag and a frog jumped out scared the life out of me!!
Following day we had breakfast whilst listening to the soothing sound of a pig being slaughtered..we then hiked all uphill to a waterfall where we sat for a while at the top and admired the stunning views of fanispan mountain an the terraced rice fields. We then hiked down to the river and sat with our feet in for a while. We then followed the river front dodging the buffaloes and making sure you didn't fall into the field fields. It was then the last 4km up hill to where we we're being collected out the valley. Mixture of heat, aching from the day before and altitude and we we're done in by the time we reached the top and extremely sweaty. Had lunch with the most amazing views of the mountains. We then got collected by jeep and taken back to main sapa town.
Today had definitely been a bandana kind of day.
We we're dropped at the hotel for a shower yay (the home stay had a shower but bugs came out whn you turned the water on..I opted for wet wipes). We went for a walk around the town before dinner..I've decided I want to buy a super real north face bag (there so cheap here) but we're going to get one in Hanoi, so we spent some time searching for one of those. Was so strange as we we're in a normal looking town you forget your so high in the mountains and the clouds rolled in moving past you making everything misty and cold. Dinner at the hotel was amazing I swear they like fattening tourists up!
Half way through the night I was woke by the loudest storm sky was full of lightening and the rain..sounded like the end of the world..but woke today to sunshine although a little chill in the air.
Last day we we're collected at 10am to go visit ca ca village. We walked down and went through watching them weaving cooking food and making rice wine. We saw where they planted the indigo for dying the clothes, it's traditional for them to dye your hands blue using the plant leaves so we now have blue hands! Stopped at a beautiful waterfall for a while. Today we we're with German, Chinese, Australian and Dutch people so many life/travel stories we're swapped over spring rolls.
Relax at the hotel then collected at 17:30 to go back to Lao cai to catch the train back to Hanoi!
Then thats it. Vietnam done! On to Laos!
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