In the mountains

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To get to beautiful Sapa in the mountains you need to take a sleeper train from Hanoi that arrives around 6 am. You awake to a completely different world- green, quiet and foggy. The place itself is a former French hill station and is now popular for hiking.

We booked ourselves onto a one day hike. After meeting our pint sized guide who we thought was 15 (she was 20!) we set out in a small group which increased exponentially as we were joined by local Hmong and Zai villagers who seem to be happy just walking along and occasionally try to sell some stuff. Some were pretty hard core but we got off lightly. Anyway the embroidery and jewellery they were trying to sell was pretty hard to resist particularly since they were so beautifully dressed themselves. A typical sales pitch went "what is your name?" "Where are you from?" "How old are you?" "oh that's very young" "how old is your mother?" "oh that's very young" "Want to buy something off me?"
By the time we got to the top of the mountain we'd picked up quite a posse the only problem being that if we stopped quickly there was a mass pile up and much giggling.

The first leg of the walk was pretty easy going but some way down the road the question was aked whether we wanted the easy or difficult path and the latter was chosen. This path led us along a ridge with amazing views of the valley with its rice paddies and water buffaloes. The descent was pretty tricky but we managed to stay on our feet which is more than the German girl in front of us could say!

Shortly after our return to Sapa the place slowly got covered in a thick mountain mist. Very atmospheric but a bit damp. Hopefully we can get the hotel staff to light the fire in our hotel room; we'll keep asking until they do (or light the table and chairs!). Tomorrow we have a day hopefully to hike and then onto the night train to Hanoi and then onto Ninh Binh (Halong bay on land we've been told).

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