Sapa

I flew from Danang to Hanoi and arrived around 10am at my chosen hostel rather than check in I decided to book an organised 2 day trip, through the hostel to the northern town of Sapa. I spent the day chilling around the backpacker area surrounding  hostel to kill time before taking the sleeper train to Lao Cai (a city in the north of vietnam) a further 1 hour bus journey and I arrived in the mountain town of Sapa which has become a destination for travellers who wish to trek through the hills and meet authentic Vietnamiese tribe folk.

My schedule consisted of around 5 hrs treking on the first day to a home stay located at the bottom of the valley of which Sapa sits at the top of. This would have been a lot easier than planned however the previous days rain made the descent very hard and muddy work. We were also accompanied by the local tribes woman who had to help us on many occasions (they made the walk look easy even in their flip flops and traditional dress). However there was a price to pay for being helped and at lunch we were bombarded by them with bracelets, bags, fabric and even babies. It was a relief to make it to the homestay which was really good and looked out over the rice fields and hills of he valley. However it kind of lost its nostalgic feel when I discovered the wifi, tv, beer fridge and local bar which was pumping out rhianna! We were treated to rice wine and local food before hitting the hay.

The second day envolved a smaller trek to a waterfall... which was in full flow as it rained all day. We returned to sapa for a shower before returning to Lao Cai for the return night train to Hanoi. The trip on the whole was amazing and it was good to get out and do some physical activity and sweat out some of the beer from Hoi An.

Pics FYI.