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Published: August 26th 2007
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This entry has been written a few months after we left Vietnam. The original was lost in a recent server crash hence we have just entered in point form as our memories are a little hazy!! The photos tell most of the story anyway! We arrived in the border village Lao Cai, nice and early around 6am after our overnight train. Managed to get a little bit of sleep despite the nattering and smoking outside our carriage door by the staff. We were hoarded onto a bus in the ensuing chaos and driven along the scenic road to the beautiful mountain village of Sapa. Fortunately we had a hotel pre-booked and so got to settle into our room and catch up on some sleep. Ventured out later for some brekky and a look around.
Sapa is a very cute little village and boasts some of the coldest weather in Vietnam. The area is inhabited by Hill Tribe people...mainly refugees from other Asian countries who have formed their own communities up in the hills. They still live quite traditionally and wear mostly traditional clothing (not just for the tourists either), the children are particularly cute in their outfits.
The people are extremely fit, walking up and down mountains tends to have that effect.
We spent the first day relaxing and getting ready for our three days up in the mountains. Our camera conveniently decided to break down on the night before the climb and we had to buy a disposable to take up the mountian. Hence our photos are not the best but the weather made for difficult photography anyway!
We had booked a three day trek with a local tour company to climb the top of the highest peak in Vietnam (actually the highest in Indochina) at 3142m. The first day was relatively easy walking uphill to our base camp. Made even easier by the fact that we were only carrying our clothes, water and some snacks. Our lovely porter staggered under the weight of kilos of food, tents and sleeping bags! Felt a bit guilty given the guy was tiny and had a wicker basket for a backpack.
The food provided as part of the trek was absolutely AMAZING! Our guide Jeoung, cooked up a feast...and did for every meal over the three days. We had spring rolls, noodle dishes, beef, chicken and
pork dishes as well as fantastic veges, all washed down with some heart warming rice whiskey. Way too much for all of us to eat!
The climb up to the summit the next day was pretty gruelling. We managed to pick the day with the worst weather and our bodies which were accustomed to extreme heat and humidity did not cope too well with rain and cold winds! Needless to say we made it to the top after about three hours of solid climbing, ate our lunch very quickly, took photos to prove we'd made it, and began the descent to get warm again! The trip down took about two hours of mud sliding and rock hopping....our knees creaking and groaning by the time we got to the bottom!
On day three we descended the mountain ranges down into the valleys and through some of the villages. By this stage our legs were a little like jelly. The hot showers and yummy noodle soup that was provided on our arrival back into Sapa was very welcome and we spent the rest of the afternoon trying out some of the local Bia Hoi...sipping beers watching the mist roll over
V for Vanquish
We made it! What an amazing view! the mountains..ahhh!
Slept very well on the train ride back to Hanoi....no staff chatting in the aisles this time! We spent two days in Hanoi before flying back to Bangkok and on to Heathrow. Visited the water puppet show in Hanoi which was great entertaining fun and paid one last visit to our favourite Bia Hoi spot. Our last night in Bangkok we did a bit of clothes shopping and reacquainted ourselves with the delicious thai curries. We were feeling mixed emotions. Both excited to be beginning the next leg of our journey and sad to be leaving south east Asia behind.
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