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We arrived in Sapa and got ourselves a bit confused. The hostel said they would pick us up from the station, and we wondered why they weren't there. Turns out that they aren't psychic and we had to give them a time and place as there were numerous drop off locations, silly us. This resulted in us being surrounded by the local Hmong women and asked, 'you want to trek? Come with me, buy from me.' And also us walking to the actual bus station before we decided to give Andy a ring. All in a days fun :) So he gave us some directions and met us half way. Good to see him again after all this time. The Mountain view hostel was really lovely and new, and our room Base Camp had the most amazing view over the valley. I woke up in the middle of the night and the stars were amazing!! And to see sunrise as well, just beautiful. We got some lunch and spent the afternoon chilling out, browsing the shops then having quite a few catch up drinks.
Next day, we got a motorbike and went to love waterfall. There was a lovely walk to it and it was a really pretty waterfall. We wish we had brought our swimmers and towel to cool off and sunbathe. Afterwards we climbed upto the bell tower with beautiful view over the valleys. Instead of heading straight back, we drove through the town and just kept going up and up. Driving through little villages, trying to avoid hitting the random pigs on the road, being amazed by seeing a while buffalo and being aww'ed by the little kids waving to us,so cute. As we didn't really know where we were going and with the chance of running out of fuel, we headed back down the way we came. A really lovely day trip, never thought I'd say it, but I really enjoy the bike trips.
The next day, we did another motorbike trip, this time with Chess and Nick. We started at Cat cat village. A Hmong village that tourists are welcome to walk through and see the locals in their day to day life. We had to stop Chess from trying to catch the piglets. They were having some sort of special celebration, so many of them were drunk on rice wine or 'happy water' and we saw animal guts pinned to the fence and blood spilled over the ground, yuk. As we walked on down, we saw a beer commercial being filmed by the waterfall. We walked skittle further but it was soo hot we just had to stop for a beer, all in a days fun. We did a lot more driving, lots of it bumpy, lots on steep gravel roads, went to Ta Van. The scenery throughout the day was just breaktaking, the green rice paddies just amazing, as it was just before they were going to be cut. Next we drive through a village and saw a horse being gutted, yuk but it was made all better by finding the cutest puppies, we had to stop Chess stealing them. On the way back, we drove over the pass we hadn't finished the day before, and it was such a nice drive. We got to the top and tried unsuccessfully to take some jumpy pictures (about ten times), and saw a beautiful sunset on the way down, which also consisted of me accidentally jumping in a puddle of mud and splashing Kenny. It was like part of the Hai Van pass all over again, all the windy roads. And Kennys Vietnam adventure was complete by me getting a picture of a live pig on the bag of the motorbike! What I love most about Sapa is how the animals live in harmony, just wondering along the side of the road; Buffalo, Cows, Goats, Pigs, Chickens, Geese, Ducks and Horses. We got some good pizza with everyone, then headed to the Hmong sisters bar for a few drinks.
On our last day in Sapa, we did a trek into the National Park. We had been putting it off the whole time as we were there as Kenny was being lazy but I eventually persuaded him. We left at 9.30am getting to the starting point at 10.15am and the Hmong ladies were ready and waiting for us. I had heard that they would be invaluable on the trek (even though they are in flip flops) and how much others had paid to buy stuff from them at the end so I was prepared. We hiked upwards into the clouds, crossed streams and pretty rivers, villages of the Hmong and Red Tzao, saw a few cranky dogs, near got crashed into by a charging pig, saw wooden water instrument they use to wash their rice, got made a heart from grass by my 60year helper Hmong lady Sim (they choose you at the beginning and stick by you). The way down was more difficult and slippy but I had my hiking boots on so I wasn't too bad , those in converse struggled a bit more. But she did certainly guide me down the easier paths. So at lunchtime, they let us know they were leaving, so we bought a purse and bag from them and got our pictures taken with them, only then realising how short they were. Their clothing is just beautiful, and it was strange seeing them taking off the black bandages from their legs and seeing how white they were, or the reason that they were combs in their hair, to keep their bum length hair from falling down. We had lunch by the river and saw the most beautiful dark green butterfly's with blue spots, I love butterfly's and photographing them. We did some more hiking through the rice paddies, see the clovers in the water, the pretty purple flowers, and the buffalo bathing in mud. The only unfortunate was going downwards and grabbing onto the bamboo tree stems for support and they were covered in tiny invisible spikes that I didn't notice until about the third tree in, soo uncomfortable and I couldn't see them to get them out :( But the situation was made funny by Kenny falling on his back with his legs between mine and head facing downwards, no idea how he did it! We eventually reached the van 19km later and we were exhausted. But even they way home provided entertainment, seeing the kids walking home from school and seeing what we had only ever seen on postcards; 6 people on a moped!!
When we got back, we went for dinner at a restaurant a few doors down and had some amazing food, tho I slipped on the mat on the way out. I am very clumsy. Luckily didn't hit the dirt. Our last night concluded with a few more drinks, Andy has got me into spiced rum and coke, definitely a new favourite.
The final day saw us do a little more shopping for warm clothes for trans-Mongolian train, all the hiking gear is soo cheap. Then a sandwich with Andy at the hill station, then Chess walked us to catch the Sapa express. Bye bye Sapa and our friends, we've loved it xx
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