Bamboo Sapa Hotel

... the start point for our trek. The first day would be a 15km trek to the Red Dzao Village where we'd spend the night. Unlike the trek in Chiang Mai, which was up all the way, this one was up, down and around! It didn't help that it had rained the previous night, so I stacked it within 10 mins of starting! Again we got to see some more views of the valleys and also the rice paddies. Unfortunately they had been harvested a few weeks before so wasn't as beautiful as it could ...

... that's it that's all, beubye kid". She swore at me in her dialect with a stubborn and defiant look, and went back to her "Buy from me" whining to Pierre. 20 minutes and half a kilometer later, with everyone else in our tour group laughing at Pierre, i had to step in and rescue him again. I pulled out 2,000 dong, gave it to her and waved her beubye. She practically spit on me, gave me an absolutely filthy look and left us alone. Unicef would not be proud of ...

... get to the first village we have lunch and meet up with other
tourists. What we've noticed is that we still haven't seen a male
H'mong.




All the H'mong
guides are female because only the females learn English. The H'mong
women are the breadwinners in the family – they are the
businesswoman. They sell goods (traditional garments and purses,
fruits etc.) at the markets and they learn English. As Sho, another
H'mong guide ...

... soooo close to these sheer cliff drop offs. Water was also rushing across the road in places as it came down the mountain & I had visions of being swept over the mountain!!!








Checked into the Lotus Hotel for $6 a night!! Our cheapest yet! No air con but you don’t need it here and there are ...

... to the ambience and of course the cuisine laid on by our homestay owner. Even still we had a lovely night relaxing and putting the feet up after all the walking!
Day three we head for silver waterfall, a bus is laid on today thank god! About 200 steps up we finally reach the top and get some fantastic views. We stop close to the waterfall where Ping shows us China in the distance, only 60km from this stretch of road. Unfotunately we don't have the time ...

... I had a pack of food and water, and I was ready to walk until I could go no further. I had been confined to a room for the past two days so my legs were yearning for exercise, this was the perfect outlet.



Mopeds drove by, locals coming up from the valley floor always made it a point to smile and wave. A tour bus flew past me as I was nearing the place where walkers get off of the main road and get onto a rock path that shoots straight down to the bottom. They ...

... up going to a club which turns out to be a gay club!!! (ash you would have loved it!!) Had a big argument with some motorbike driver who tried to hit one of the girls we were with and threw stones at her!! (this is Vietnam guys it was the dudes out here do, again ash you would probably get on well with them, a lot of common ground between you and them) Anyway being the man i am i stood in and told the guy to **** off and not hit women ...

... and tacked on several hundred dong. The driver actually locked the doors and forced them to pay the ridiculous rate before letting them out. The faulty meter is a really common trick so keep an eye out for it.

There were several things we wanted to do in Hanoi but since we felt the other towns were a priority we had to make the tough call to miss out on seeing it.

Sapa

We arrived in Sapa by the afternoon and had made some ...

... hanging with a Hmong family....

That night as usual we headed to the Hmong sisters bar.... Phil had brought some cakes with him (they sell amazing cakes in Sapa!!).... once midnight struck, it was officially my 29th birthday... so of course, what else could you do but have a massive chocolate cake fight?!! I felt 9 again not 29!
It was great fun, and the local girls gave me some bracelets etc for my birthday... I think I got to bed about 2am....

So on my ...