Dang Khoa Hotel Lao Cai

... all his toes. We laid it on thick and saucy (the rolling eyes and shaking head) and the poor girl turned white and couldn't apologise enough times. Quite honestly, the setup was dangerous and that sink was a disaster waiting to happen so why should we do any jailtime for it, huh?<br><br>The hills of Sapa are truly stupendous. For generations, the hill tribes have been farming rice and indigo on the mountains, making for rows and rows of terraces of rice ...

... snakes, geckos, centipedes and other interesting bugs and reptiles in either rice wine or some kind of solution. Each concontion is used for different purposes though each is equally as gross as the other. Snake in wine, for instance, is the organic, all natural version of Viagra. The one with the giant centipede is the indigenous version of A-535 rub for painful joints and broken wrists. Hey, whatever works!<br><br>We met quite a few travellers who ...

... couple of tumbles!<br><br>Our trekking crew consisted of 5 other people: an Aussie couple, a Vietemese woman thats been living in the States for the past 15 years, a chinese guy, and another guy from Vietnam who just finished his doctorate degree at University. We had some laughs during the trek and spent the night just taking it easy playing cards. There's nothing better then playing Texas hold em ...

... It can get a bit trying after a couple of days. <br><br>I took a little trek on my own on Sunday, through Cat Cat village, which is an easy walk down a valley to the most spectacular waterfall (found another random person to take my photo), but then I decided to lose the rest of the tourists and head a bit further and up the other side of the valley. <br><br>Luckily I found my way back to the road, and the very welcome sight of a ...

... du riz alors les paysans sont tres actifs dans les champs.<br>Nous avons fait la connaissance de Qiu, une paysanne de l ethnie H'Mong et de sa petite fille July en mangeant au milieu des locaux dans un marche le premier jour. Elle nous a servi de guide pour un jour et nous a emmene vers une cascade pour se baigner. Seul au monde, c etait extraordinaire! Les routes sont parfois traversees par des chutes d eau et c est asez sport de traverser avec ...

... transfer to the actual town of Sapa itself. <br><br>Arriving in Sapa we took a shower in one of the local hotels, dropped off our big bags (no use while trekking!) and had a bite to eat for breakfast. Our guide, Ling (probably murdering the spelling) then met us at 8 to take us trekking around the area. We started off pretty easily walking through the rice paddies - that are all like stairs here, as they need flat ground but the terrain is all ...

... and an occasional bamboo bridge. Two suspension bridges stretched over the river that had to be crossed twice, always an interesting feeling bouncing up and down on those. I came to a fork in the road, one lead back to Sapa, one lead West to several Black Hmong villages in the basin below Mount Fansipan. <br><br><br><br> Surrounded by monstrous green mountains on both sides I continued on the path out of Cat Cat village and away from the tour groups. I passed families of Black ...

Today we had a much shorter hike than yesterday. We trekked through some more amazing scenery, including a beautiful waterfall. At one point, we passed a family's home and were eagerly greeted by some of their children. A few of us gave them high fives as we passed. They really brightened up our already amazing day. Toward the end of the trek, we stopped at a deep river and took a swim in the cold blue waters. It was a welcome relief from the scorching heat.<br><br>We ...

... to other countries or even parts of Viet Nam where things get ugly if you don't buy anything. The women that picked us up at the bus stop basically &#8220;claimed&#8221; us and wouldn't let any other women talk with us and even went so far as to give us hand made bracelets to identify us as &#8220;theirs.&#8221; It's all quite surreal since you're surrounded by huge green mountains and can see fields and fields of rice paddies below.<br><br> Since ...

... the same tour that we took. The company seems to be operated by locals and our guide who was 8 months pregnant took us on a full day 12 klm hike into the villages. She was great and of course earned a nice tip.