Sapa

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We have taken it easy today and just done the one mountain/village walk! We visited the Red Sao village, the village of our guide. She took us to meet her family and it is really humbling to see how the tribes people live. We met her cousin, who you will see in photos below, and her 4 month old baby. The baby is in fact a boy although he is dressed in a pink hat. It does not seem to matter what the children are dressed in as long as they are warm. It was strange to see that although they live in total poverty they still have satelite dishes!!


You're right Ann it is cold and although it is damp luckily it is not raining. The mist is really thick and heavy. The temperature is about 2c but the dampness makes it seem colder. Simon is not feeling the cold as much as me, thank goodness I brought my thermals!

We are travelling back to Hanoi tomorrow night on the overnight train, the temperature there is about 24c, not subathing weather but certainly warm enough to walk around in shorts and a t shirt, you need a jacket in the evenings though. I don't think that our tans have progressed at all but this should improve the further south we go. Saigon is 31c at the moment :-)

The turnaround when we get back to Hanoi is pretty quick. We arrive Sunday morning at 5am and go to the hotel for a few hours. We are then visiting the Thay Pagoda, it is not visited by many tourists but seen as the most reverent of all Pagoda's by the Vietnamese. We then return to our hotel for a few hours before we then board the overnight train to go to Hue. The train departs at 7pm so we will have plenty of time to sleep! We will probably update the blog again in a few days as I am not sure that we will get any time to do it before we get to Hue.

We are spending New Years Eve on the overnight train, not sure if there will be a bit of a party or not, if there is I hope that they do not wake us up, we are pooped!!!

Happy New Year to you all, we hope that you have a great night and lots of love to everyone.

See you all soon

Lots of Love

Nikola & Simon xxxx

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Comments

[mum]

amber
no worries, amber is as usual ruling the roost she is happy as larry, hope Grand-Dad agrees with that, all my love to you both love MUM

[Linda]

Hello!
It's been great to hear your news as you've been progressing along your adventure! We had a lovely first Christmas with Tommy - he predictably loved the paper more than any of the gifts! Keep the news coming and enjoy your sleep on New Years Eve!! Love from us all, Linda, Barry and Thomas xxx

[anonymous]

We cannot believe everything you are doing you must both be shattered but it sounds amazing!!! Happy new year to you both,can't wait to hear more about what you're doing. Lots of love Charlotte and Sim XXXXXXXX