Queen Hotel Sapa

... gave it a slightly mistical feel and as me,chris and our guide were the only 3 people on the mountain was so peaceful. At the end of the day we had trecked 28km downhill which really did our knees in especially as our guide was encouraging us to run down the mountain. So 2 days 44km and 16 moutains (twice) so very tireing, but so worth it.<br><br>had one more day in sapa to waste before the night train, so hired a moped to go and see ...

... moved in with her husband's family when she got married she felt<br>that she needed to keep wearing the traditional clothes because they<br>liked her in it and she respects the traditional culture.<br><br><br><br>After a day of<br>walking, we finally reached our homestay house &#8211; which is very<br>large. For awhile we hang out with the guides as they prepared<br>dinner and gossiped with each other. Although we had no idea what<br>they were saying, it was fun ...

... Present holiday<br>Mike &amp; Carla from Washington DC - travelling the world for a year &amp; 2 months into it. Mike is a teacher &amp; Carla a lawyer<br>Eduardo &amp; Carissa from Spain on their honeymoon<br>Lena from Germany who just finished studying engineering<br><br> <br> <br>Picked a bed each &amp; hopped in under our mossie net for the night<br><br> <br>

... for lunch in a barn-cum-cafe along a river, before setting out on the last leg of the trek to a village where we would be staying with some local people over night.<br><br>walking through the village it really was like a throwback to the ireland of a century ago. no roads to speak of, just rough tracks and muddy passages between paddy fields. free roaming pigs, chickens and water buffalo greeted us at every turn, and we were even passed at one ...

... English travellers as we'd met one night in Hanoi for the evening´s antics.<br><br>Hired mopeds as a group the next day out to 'Sliver Falls' waterfall. Was a great ride out there but not such a great one back.. two of the people we were with managed to hit a rut in the road and come off the bike, luckily got away with just cuts and scrapes though.<br>

... minority villages in traditional dress attempting to sell us things, I bought a very pretty silver bracelet. In the afternoon we continued our trek to the village in which we would be staying the night with a family. The weather was miserable which made the route really slippery. Eventually we made it to the village after one final leech check and changed out of our wet clothes. The house was pretty much a barn and we slept upstairs on ...

... way with Raj to the train station again to catch the train that runs the length of Vietnam to Saigon, but we were only going halfway - to the city of Hue. The train was the worst that we have encountered yet, very very basic, not very clean, and with plenty of cockroaches scuttling around in our cabin whilst we tried to ignore them by playing 20 questions. We both slept in our silk sleeping bags that night, pulling them close up to our chins.

... Luke and I went back and talked about the awesomeness that was the current situation and spoke of lessons to be gotten out of it. We both agreed that solo travel offered many things that traveling together couldn&#8217;t begin to imagine to offer. I&#8217;m a large advocate of the old saying "You get out what you put in.&#8221; and it&#8217;s never more true than with travel, as today&#8217;s happenings support. I decided to finally get out of the room and hike my ass off into the ...

... con el chico que nos recogió en coche en la estación de tren de Lao Cai.<br><br>A las 9 nos dan la habitación, que está genial y tiene unas vistas maravillosas del valle y a las 10 nos recogen para el primer trekking.<br><br>Andamos durante 4 horas y descansamos 1 hora para comer. La vista de los arrozales es preciosa y ...

... Again, not sure what was worse for him? The hugging or the burn? (Note, this is the clean version for any kiddies that may be reading, you will have to ask Luke for his version)<br><br>That night we arrived back in Sapa and had an eventful dinner at the Rose Garden restaurant. Whilst the food was nice it took us 20 minutes, 3 staff and our guide to order. I guess pointing to the hamburger and pasta on the menu was pretty confusing. I also didn't read the ...