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After arriving back in Hanoi after a few spectacular days in Halong Bay, we embarked on the good o'l night train and headed up north to Sapa.
Before heading up to Sapa, we spent the day walking around Hanoi. Beautiful city, tons of people, not a cloud in sight but EXTREMLEY HOT!!! I think it was the hottest day so far on our trip. We heard rumours it was in the low 40 Degrees! Every hour we were looking for some sort of A.C. to cool us off.
After a good day in the heat, we got on the night train. After a fairly comfortable sleep, we woke up in the mountains of Sapa at about 530am. Everything was very organized. We had a mini van pick up our group right from the train station and drive us straight to our hotel where we would stay the following evening. There we showered and prepared for our trekk.
Our group consisted of 7 foreigners; the three of us, 2 Brits and 2 Koreans. As soon as we took off to leave, we had a huge group of locals girls walk with us for the entire day! Some were young,
some were old but they were all dressed in their very unique outfits which is characteristic of their local tribe.
They ended up being very nice. They were a huge help with Gen and Lisa as one of the mountains we decended was very steep so they gave the girls a good hand. Lisa ended up becoming good friends with her little girl and she learned a lot about their culture and their life.
Now about Sapa. Sapa is located right in the mountains. Everyone living in this area has some sort of ties with rice production. Everywhere you look there are rice paddies. Right from the top of the mountains going all the way to the bottom. This has been by far one of the most impressive things we've seen to date. They construct and work on these rice paddies using no machinery. Pure physical labour and the help of many water buffaloes. They have the most complex irrigation system which just blew my mind when you look at it.
At one point, our guide told us we were 30 Km from China so you can get an idea of where we were.
We trekked
for about 5 hrs on our first day. Not a very hard trekk but super impressive scenery. We ended up staying at this famillies house in one of the local villages. There, we met up with another group which consisted of a couple of French and another 2 Brits. At night, we ate a huge feast of local food. Throughout the whole meal, we drank and drank and drank tons of Rice Wine. Their rice wine is more like a weak whiskey shot but still...very potent!
After a great party that night, we woke up with a bit of a hangover, ate another huge meal and embarked on out 2nd day. Same thing as the first, stunning scenery, great trekking through villages, mountains and rice paddies. We finished the day super satisfied and still blown away with this place.
Our final day, we spent it walking around Sapa, chatting with local people and doing a bit of shopping before leaving on the night train to Hanoi. All in all, we ate like kings up in Sapa and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.
We arrived back in Hanoi at 430am. No hotels were open so we took a
seat by the lake (which is directly in the center of Hanoi) and watched all of the locals do their EARLY morning exercises. Tai Chi, walking, running...really cool to see.
Last night we went and saw a Water Puppet Show. Very traditional Vietnamesse, a bit cheesy but still, very cool and fun to see. After that, we ate a great cheap meal and went for some Bia Hoi which is their locally brewed beer. A full pint costs a huge 20 cents. We were out to the wee hours of the morning. It was fun to see the streets totally empty because during the day, it's a battle to cross the road and walk long distances. Needless to say, today we are hurtin!
So now we are finishing up our last day in Vietnam. The month has gone by faster then you can beleive. Tomorow we fly to Bangkok and head south to do some scuba diving, snorkelling and enjoying some of the best beaches in the world.
Pics to come later...
Cheers!
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