The countryside from Lao Cai to Sapa is amazing enough to keep us awake all the way there. Lush green bamboo forests hug the sides of steep hills, interspersed with precipitous paddy field terraces.

Instantly we like this place and check into a room with a mountain view & en-suite. Happy days.

The room comes with free breakfast and being rather hungry we opted to take advantage right away. Helena has an amazing pancake with banana and chocolate sauce and I have a great omelette with toasted baguette and dairylea. French influence is already apparent.

After settling in we go for a walk around Sapa town and instantly meet one of the many Black H'Mong people who befriend you and try to sell you their wares. These are hill tribe people who are originally from Laos and made their way to Vietnam as refugees. It is hard to dislike these predominantly happy, smiley people who have a charm about them that puts you at ease. Essentially they are a Vietnamese version of "looky looky" men but it's hard to be annoyed by them, anyway Helena gets ripped off by one for a 55,000VND lovelly gold coloured copper bracelet.

We have an early night and the next day try to venture by ourselves to some of the local hill tribe villages. There is a toll to get down a road to a H'Mong village so we attempt to find the local way down. After dodging packs of hostile dogs, traversing some farmers fields and crossing the odd river we don't find the village we are after. We find the road below the toll booth but there is a ticket inspection to drop into the village called Cat Cat and we don't have a ticket. We opt instead to follow the road to another village called Sin Chai and hope to get to Cat Cat using the valley bottom trail. We pass stray pigs and children herding buffalo and turn down many offers of motorbike backies to wherever we're going.

After 2km we arrive at Sin Chai and it's slightly uninviting presence. Children playing through run down buildings are the only noise and pretty much the only sign of life. Wooden huts with satellite dishes and veg patches for gardens seem to make up majority of the housing. We don't stop long and try to find the trail back to Cat Cat. We fail miserably to located the trail and end up walking back to Sapa via the road.

Another early night (there is a pattern) and we are up ready for some walking. We're picked up by our guide Zoo, his brother Lung and a porter who is called Porter by Zoo although we think his name is Lung too. We're transported by a squeeky tyred 4x4 to the Tram Ton pass. Armed with bamboo walking sticks Zoo sets off at a rocket pace through steep forest with a floor covered in wet roots and rocks. The pace is relentless and we're starting to worry if we should've opted for the 3day/2night option.

Fortunately the pace did slow a bit and we figured the inital pace was a test. Not sure if we passed or not but we were happy that the pace was a bit slower none the less. After crossing a bamboo dam and skirting up the side of a river we eventually arrived at the 2200m camp and ate lunch with a German called Christoff who was hot on our heels.

Next stop was the 2800m camp which was about 2.5hrs away passing steep rock, mud, ladders and scrambling. After discussing our options we opted to push on for the top that afternoon. The next 300 metres of ascent should've been easy you would've thought but the route drops 600m from the camp before rising to the summit of 3143m. We arrived on the cloud encased summit 8hrs after starting. Tired but elated and really glad to have spent the day walking through the countryside we returned to camp and much needed food.

Porter served up chicken, pork with mushroom, fried tofu, veg and rice. It all tasted great. In the candlelight I picked out a lovelly piece of chicken thigh and popped it into my mouth. It was slightly tougher than usual and after inspection it turned out to be the chickens head. I left the chicken pickin' to Zoo after that.

After dinner we bedded down in a metal hut on raised wooden planks in sleeping bags which had a slight smell of urine to them. My bag was slightly too short and too narrow in the shoulder and I instantly broke zip down the middle. Helena was suffering was a chesty cough which wasn't being helped by all the damp in the air.

In the middle of the night the heavy rain started hammering at the metal roof sounding like a band of vuvuzelas. At least with the noise of the rain you could no longer hear the squeeks and squeels of the rats that were somewhere close by. Next the lightening and thunder started. Did I mention we were on a mountain in a metal shed? The door to the shed flung open in the wind and lightening flashed through the open door illuminating the interior. All that was missing was a silhouette at the door and I would've bricked it. The rain was heavy and persistant enough that at times like this you start to wonder about stuff like "how deep are the foundations?". After about an hour the storm passed and the rain eased.

Up at 6am with not enough sleep we put on our wet and muddy clothes, ate some noodle soup and off we went in the pouring rain down the mountain. At the 2200m camp we had a very early lunch (9am) of fried noodles and then set off down to the pass. The rain kept coming and often the paths seemed to have turned into streams helping to clean some of the mud from our trainers. We were soaked through, only armed with cheap ponchos. Further down we reached a river where we had walked up on the dry rock next to it but now this was 3ft under water which made for some good Ray Mears bamboo stream walking.

We arrived back at the hostel after catching a ride with two optimistic Dutch fellas (oh dear). Showered, fed, watered and relaxed for the rest of the day and most of the next. With aching muscles and joints we just chilled out waiting for our sleeper bus to Hanoi.

Andy + Helena

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