Darling Hotel Sapa

... my way to the village without a map. <br><br>We truned off the main road road and passed some H'mong villaes where I took some photos. At one point we passed the ruins of an Abbey where some nuns had lived for a few years in the 1940' s but left because of the lack of security. Sometime later the place was set on fire and now the shell remained. Why they came to this remote area was hard to understand and there was no other information available. <br><br>As we went ...

... got to meet a lot of minority groups as well. The Mung and Zaow people. Very interesting and fun people to talk to. Even though they want to sell you things all the time, and sometimes if you don't buy from them they will try pleading. I still bought some stuff, but than just had to run away. Ahaha. <br> When we got down to the waterfalls we were taken back by their beauty. It was pretty neat. We went swimming in the cold ...

... mountain pass in Vietnam. Again the views were spectacular along the way, we also stopped at the Silver Waterfall. From there we headed back down through Sapa and down to the Cat Ca minority village, passing a Pink Floyd Cafe on the way!! It was then getting dark, and some of the roads were dodgy so we headed back. We then went out for dinner and had an early night knowing we had a long trek ahead of us the next day.<br><br>Our guide met us at the hotel and drove us ...

... br><br>We saw small local children outside at school dancing, it was so cute, but man they needed a bath and some clean clothes! <br><br>The whole region is mainly rice terraces which is impressive. They live such simple lives, it's so incredibly different to our lives. The marry around the age of 15 and usually start having children within a couple of years. And they are all so small and look so young! They dress very traditionally but reminds us of South ...

... it here and there are big doonas on the bed. Had nice hot showers &amp; went over the road to the Highland bakery for some cake, hot chocolate for me &amp; latte for Nath. Ended up staying there for dinner &amp; using the WIFI, before having a walk around town at 9pm &amp; heading home for bed. bumped into Mike &amp; Carla from the USA again &amp; caught up with them.

... ou pour l'ecole sur leur velo, les habitants de ces montagnessont pour la plupart representants d'une des ethnies minoritaires peuplant la region depuis des siecles et le demontrent par leur costume traditionnel intemporel.<br> Les H'Mongs noirs, majoritaires parmi les monorites, se distinguent par la noirceuyr de leur costume. Indigo tres fonce dont les femmes gardent les traces de la teinture sur les paumes et autour des ongles. Une jupe de grosse toile, veste brodee ceinturee ...

... was the only 4 wheeled vehicle in the basin that I had seen all day. The guys spent some time taking turns holding the stick with me showing off the pig, then we threw it in an empty water bottle box, and took off. I offered to help pay for the pig and got laughed at. They said that they wouldn&#8217;t allow me to pay for bc I was a friend. Great people. I got to know the guys a little better on the way to town. They were all about my age, they all live in Hanoi, one grew up in ...

... jumped by a bunch of street thugs while they were playing basketball back in his hometown. This was not his first encounter with "casual violence" and he finally got fed up with it so he moved to the South Pacific. We talked for quite a while about our travels and our home countries while we trekked.<br><br>We hiked through the mountains and over rivers until we finally reached a small village where we would stay the night. We were told it was a homestay but it turned ...