It only seemed to rain while we walked!

Trip Start May 08, 2008
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14
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Trip End Ongoing


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Monday, June 23, 2008

Trekking in Sapa was okay really. We opted for the four night package, the first and last nights being on the overnight train to/from Hanoi. Of the other two nights, one was in a hotel and the other in a homestay. The train was fine in both directions, and the hotel was decent too. I'll never forget the managers complaint that he couldn't do something for us (leaning over lazily with his chin on his hand) because he was too busy...expecting 100 guests. Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to figuring out how we can be so busy expecting something, but there you go.

It truly did rain each day until we stopped walking with the subsequent rain drying things out very quickly. After our first day in Sapa town (visiting a waterfall and going to some strange park) we met our guide, Nems, in the pouring rain and set off. Both days we only did about 10 km so it wasn't too tiring but the slippiness of the path took away a lot of the potential enjoyment. Nems was a bit odd. He talked constantly about love and romance. Like most Vietnamese he loves Westlife and all that crap ballady so-called music....what's worse is that he seems to believe the lyricsc! Ridiculous. And yet inspite of being on the whole time about some girl in Bangkok that he loves he couldn't help himself from staring at any western woman who passed. He even introduced himself to some as Cassanova!

We really enjoyed our homestay with the Binh family. We helped a little in preparing the dinner, probably the best food we had in Vietnam, but only after trying to catch some fish for our dinner. No joy there and we finished without a hook as I lost it somewhere under a rock. Later a group that were staying in the neighbouring house came down for karaoke.....torture. The westerners were bad enough but at least they were having a laugh. Their guide and ours kept putting on love songs and singing seriously along to them. They love their karaoke in this part of the world.

Anyway after a second day walking in the rain we were happy enough to finish up and return to the hotel for a shower, before hightailing it back to Hanoi. Arriving at 4.40 am was a bit of a bummer but I've already covered that in Hanoi!
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