Chilling in Sapa

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The people are perfect, the scenery is perfect, unfortunately the weather isn't. Arriving in between winter and spring was a bad idea on our part because of the cold. You people from the lowlands might not know, but Sapa is 1600m above sea level and surrounded by higher peaks - this means that when it's cold, the cold air and mist sink, causing Sapa to be shrouded in icy fog. The locals and most tourists seem to be doing fine, but being Singaporeans, I have been leaving the hotel room wearing no less than 3 t shirts, my hoodie, and gloves.. and even then, I am freezing!

People travel here in droves to enjoy the unparalleled scenery. Most join up with tour groups but being the cheapskates that we are (unwilling to part with our cash - anything from US$15 for a day tour up to US$30 for an overnight homestay in one of the local hill tribes) we decided to wing it on our own by 1) Walking 3km to the Cat Cat Village and 2) hiring a moto driver to take us to the Silver Falls. Just to give you an idea of how cold it is, while riding on the moto, water started to condense on our clothing, eye lashes, hair.. we were pretty wet by the time we got there haha.

My beer-count here in Sapa is definitely the lowest of the entire trip. So far it's only been 1 Bia Hanoi for me, and zero for YL. Instead, we've opted for much warmer beverages like coffee (LOTS of coffee), Milo and uh, Vodka 😊 It's ridiculous.. drinking beer in Sapa is like eating ice cream at the north pole.

And because it has been so cold, we've been sleeping more than ever. It's just too cold to do anything! Hence the lack of pictures (losing the camera has a lot to do with that I think). Don't you just love the high quality of disposable cameras? Ours even came with flash!

Yup, last destination of the trip. We're catching a soft seat train back to Hanoi and then home sweet home. See you guys back in Singapore!

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Photos

Hill Tribe Girls!
My 2 friends from the H'moung tribe. Check out those cool clothes! The cute 11 year old next to me is called Ah, and her friend is 15. Had a ball of a time chatting with them and their friends.

On the mountain
Taking a break to see Fansipan Mountain (highest peak in Vietnam) but we couldn't see a thing because of the thick fog. Our moto driver is taking the picture

Silver Falls (Thac Bac)
About 13km from Sapa by moto, absolutely worth it! The most beautiful thing we've seen here in Sapa

On the way to Cat Cat Village
Lovely scenery, rice terraces everywhere!

Comments

[andy]

the adventure is about to end.. tales of asia beckons!