After a 10 hour arduous night train to the Sapa Mountains, in a tiny cabin with hard mattresses and 6 to a cabin(!), we were woken at 6am with a woman at our door shouting 'Coffee, coffee'! This was our cue to get up and get out of the train...
Bleary eyed we followed the masses to the exit where we were met by about 20 men trying to get us on their mini bus to Sapa, eventually we got one for $3 (Believe it or not - a rip off- despite it being a 1.5 hour journey!) As our bus ventured into the Sapa mountains it became clear how beautiful this place really was, hilltribe people walked along the side of the road and the mountains were a 'quilt' of rice fields, each field immaculately cut out and bright green in the early morning light.
Once in Sapa we loaded our backpacks onto our backs and trekked down a small hill into the town, we were met with various hotel touts, one of which was for the hotel we had seen reccomended in the Lonely Planet so we followed her to the 'Pinochio hotel' and checked the room - we climbed up the 6 flights of stairs to the balcony rooom, which for $8 per night wasn't bad considering the view from the front door!
After a well deserved sleep we had some brunch in the 'Happy Sapa' and went for a walk to 'Cat Cat Village', a tribal village about 3 Km south of Sapa and situated in the middle of the mountains. It was a nice little village with people in traditional clothing, and everywhere sat girls and women sowing the articles (which they would later sell to us in Sapa). On our way down we encountered two girls from another nearby village, after making friends with us and walking all the way down the steep hill, they made their move and starting selling us their embroidered bags...I had to buy one - it was a pinky promise! A nice souvinir to have I suppose:)
Cat Cat Village had a nice Waterfall where we sat for a while, and then walked up the one million and eighty five thousand steps (it seemed!) to the top of the hill where 2 little pot bellied pigs came to greet us! Very cute :)
That evening we decided to avoid the tourist restaurants and had some dinner in a restaurant where loads of locals dined...The meat was laid out in a glass case as we walked in and the chef excitedly asked if we wanted to see the meat before we sat down, once we sat we ordered a 'beef hot pot' which the couple beside us were eating. Soon a stove, a large plate of green stuff, a plate of meat and a pot of boiling items appeared our table - clueless we watched what the couple beside us did and copied their every move in eating this dish...the waitresses all giggled at these foreign people trying to eat their dish with chopsticks, but all in all it was nice! Stevie even found some scales in his bowl which he thinks was snakeskin although it could also have been chickenfeet skin! At one point the electricity went out, but I guess this is pretty normal for round here...it all added to the experience!
The next day we rented some motorbikes to get some more freedom and to go out and see the hills, we headed up to the 'silver waterfall' where we sat with a women at one of the stalls and had lunch - rice cooked in bamboo shoots and pork kababs with spices, followed by lovely Sapa Tea, possibly one of the nicest meals I had since I came to Vietnam! Afterwarrds we headed up to the 'Tram Ton Pass', the highest pass in Vietnam - with some truly spectacular views!!
Afterwards we went to the other side of the village and drove down through the hills of rice fields, unbelievable how beautiful this place is! Upon our return we drove past what we thought was a stick - turned out to be a massive bottle green snake! Crazy... After two nights/three days in Sapa we decided it was time to get the night train back to Hanoi and on to 'Ninh Binh' - which shall be our next entry.
