Thursday 28th May
The train arrived in Lao Cai station at around 4.40am! This was very very painful. There was a minibus there to meet us at the station but we had to wait around for the next train to arrive. We eventually left around 5.30am. Sapa is just over an hour drive from Lao Cai so I caught up on a little extra sleep!
We arrived at the Sapa Summit Hotel and there groups on Hmong women waiting outside of the hotel eager to find out all about us. We checked in had a shower, had some breakfast and set off on a short trek at about 9am. The same ladies who we had seen at about 7am were waiting for us! They seem to pair you off with one of the Hmong women so that they can try to sell you soveniers later on!
The weather in SAPA is a lot cooler and quite cloudy but the rice paddies are still pretty impressive!
We had a morning walk then back to the hotel for lunch. Absolutely enormous portions of food. I think they think all westerners are very greedy?! Of course I still managed to eat nearly all of it. No chance of me losing any weight.
In the afternoon we had a bit of a snooze and had a wander round SAPA town and the Market.
We were in a group of 6 with one guide though a lot of other people were there as well with different guides/groups. There was a French couple and the Deborah and Maddy, the Oz mother and daughter we had met on the Halong Bay trip. They are really good fun and we all had dinner together at the hotel in the evening - more very generous portions.
Off to bed for an early night as the next two day trek will be harder work and we are all still tired from the train.
Friday 29th May - Sapa
We started off at about 9am and trekked through till about 4pm. Stopping for another generous lunch at a little cafe/restaurant on route. We opted to stay at the homestay for the second night and although it was more like staying in a basic hostel with about 12 other people it was good fun and we did get to meet lots of other travellers who had travelled from the South to the North so we got lots and lots of good guesthouse and travel tips. A really good mix of people. We all had dinner together and after dinner we were treated to lots of the homebrew - local rice wine! Potent stuff but it helped us all to get to sleep. It was actually quite cold in the evening! Welcome relief.
Sat 30th May
Everyone was up realitively early and no one really had a hangover which was a pleasant surprise. They made us pancakes for breakfast with lots of bananas, pineapple and honey - absolutely fantastic. We trekked for the morning to a beautiful waterfall, had a quick lunch and were picked up and taken back to SAPA town. I had a really good coffee and tart whilst by boots were being cleaned! How lazy am I but it was very muddy as it had been raining quite a bit.
We got a minibus back to Lao Cai in time to get the overnight train back to Hanoi. This time we were on the same train as the rest of the people we had met and swapped so we could be in the same cabin as Deborah and Maddy. Early to bed again as the train arrives in Hanoi at about 4.30am! Argh.
Love to all x
