So we left Hanoi with a one wy train ticket to Lao Cai before catching bus to SaPa, we'd organised a 2 day trek covering a total of 28km. We got to SaPa, dumped our heavt bags and set of at 9:30am for the 1st day.
The vistas were spectacular, the only down side was the amount of tribal women there were walking around trying to sell you things. I ended up buying two bags, after being broken down over a number of hours.
On our one and only night in the area we stayed at a home stay in a village 14km away from SaPa. Te food was great and as an added bonus the landlady (Tam) came and sat with us, encourageing us o do shots of local Rice wine!
On the second day more walking was on the agenda! The weather was not as good and by the end the visablity was terrible. We got back to the Hotel and then headed back to Lao Cai on a local bus in the hope that our passports had been delivered to Pumpkin travel company!
SaPa definately was cool but you can see a big impact that has been made by the tourists that go there, from the constant selling to the new roads that are being carved into the mountain side, on the other side though this once poor area is devloping rapidily due to the tourists, with new schools being built etc....
Anyway, SaPa finished we decided that we were going to head down to Dien Bien Phu to cross over to Laos, against the advice of a number of people including the tour company tht sorted out the SaPa trip.....
