Sapa - trekking

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After a blissful 6 hours on a gently swaying soft bed we were woken to the conductor singing "coffee, tea, morning coffee, tea" shortly before we pulled into Lao Cai at 6.00am. We were then bundled into a minivan for the 45 minute trip from Lao Cai to Sapa, which is all uphill. Sapa has a slightly faded alpine feel to it, and the temperature is around 15 degrees cooler than anywhere else in Vietnam which makes it very pleasant indeed. In Sapa we were shown to our hotel, Hotel Auberge, given breakfast and had a shower before setting off with an elderly German couple and our Black Hong guide, Yioaw. I have no idea if that's how it's spelt but that's how it sounds, I know because I originally thought it was Miaow which had her in stitches. Yioaw is 20 years old with 2 children and has learnt sufficient English from talking to tourists to enable her to become a guide for the hotel, a job for which she is very happy. But she has big plans, she hopes one day to build her own guesthouse. I hope she makes it, she certainly has the determination. Our trek for the day was a very sedate 6km trip, to Cat Cat village, a very picturesque place beside a waterfall. There are something like 27 differs ethnic groups in the mountain area here, each with their own language, customs and clothing. Today I think we encountered Black Hmong, Flower Hmong, Red Dao. The afternoon was spent catching up on sleep and wandering around the steep streets of Sapa.

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