Okay...but before I get to the description of my beloved Sapa...let us talk about getting there!
I almost missed the night train!!! I rode on a motorbike with my big pack in the front with the driver while wearing my little one and carrying my slash-proof purse! The van didn't stop at my hotel!!! We had to catch it...I was squeezed into the van with some other lucky souls...we were very late by then and we had to wait at a train crossing...all the while I was thinking there goes my train! The van was parked like a mile away and I had to pack all my stuff myself. We waited and waited...finally I got my ticket but nobody else did!!! Very fly by night feeling to it all. I finally got on the train...which was made for little Asian people!!! I felt like a moose...I finally got to my bunk which was very dirty! I wrapped myself up in my hoodie while I slept...and it was a good thing that I wasn't tall because my bunk wouldn't have had anymore room! I did meet some very nice Dutch ladies that said that the rest of Vietnam was very different than Hanoi...good news!
I slept off and on the entire ride north and finally arrived in Lao Cai at 6am...I found my bus company and was off in a bus all by myself until 6:30 two couples came on (one couple was from Malaysia..very nice) ...7:00 nothing...7:30 nothing!! We had to wait for the other train!!! We finally left for Sapa from Lao Cai around 7:45...the ride up to the hotel was amazing and scary...at times it was just one lane!!!! The rice terraces run up the whole side of a mountain..so lovely!!!! I took a lot of photos, more than on my last trip. As soon as we hopped off the train we were all mobbed by little Hmong women!!! They loved my pink hair!!!!
Don't worry more to come!!!!
