Date: 1st July 2011 Place: Sapa Weather: Slightly cloudy Arrived at 5am and were picked up from the train station with a sign saying Camel Evans instead of Carmen. We then had a wait in the carpark for another train to come in so we had a mess around with people trying to sell us bread by offering them 1000dong for ages and they just kept trying to sell it to us (they wanted 10,000dong). When we set off and were going up the hills it was stunning. All the rice fields were perfectly tiered up the hills and they were everywhere. There were little villages everywhere and loads of women walking around in colourful tribal outfits. Sapa is amazing!! Really pretty and quaint and very ski resort feel about it. We arrived at our hotel and had our breakfast and then had to get ready to go on our first trek. There was a group of 7 of us altogether and as soon as we head out of the door a load of tribal women joined us. For the rest of the journey they would ask us about ourselves and then give us help when we needed it. I thought they were just part of the tour at first and there to guide us. The walk was really nice. We went down the rice paddies and stopped at the guides mother's house which was so tiny. It was a shack with one bedroom in it, a living room and a kitchen which was basically a stove on the floor. They had pigs outside though which I guessed would be dinner in a few days. A lot of our walk was really muddy and I needed a lot of help from the tribal women to keep me up. When we got to lunch though I found out why they had offered me a lot of help. They wanted us to buy things from them. I did want a little bag and a bracelet but they wanted way too much for them. Two Irish girls who had just started travelling actually bought a bag from them for 200,000dong when we had bartered them down to 30,000 for the same bag! I bought a bracelet from one of them 5000 dong since she had helped me a lot. The homestay we were stopping at for the night turned out to be really nice. Some other women tried to sell us stuff whilst we were there as well but as soon as they approached me I just said no thanks and turned away. It seemed to work well J. We had a feast for dinner and then Zi bought us out some rice wine. We played a couple of games and learnt a bit about their culture. It turned out they were mostly catholic which I was shocked about. The age they mostly got married at was 16 but Zi was 19 and not married and this was seen as old. When a man wanted to marry a woman they would be 'kidnapped' by the man and taken to their home for three days where the woman would speak to his mother and sister and at the end of the three days she would decide if she wanted to marry him or not. They also never kiss, even after they are married even though they have sex. Date: 2nd July 2011 Place: Sapa Weather: cloudy again with a bit of rain Zi made us a great breakfast of banana pancakes today. We then had the choice of whether or not we wanted to go the really muddy way or the road way. Since I hadn't been able to handle the mud from the day before without falling everywhere I decided to take the road way. It was an easy walk and we finished at the stop we were having lunch. The worst part of the walk was a rickety bridge over a really fast river. Zi and Bong kept jumping on it so it rocked everywhere! I was so thankful to be on the other side of it when I got there. Some people from our group paid to go over another bridge to see another tribe but I decided to wait behind because I couldn't be bothered with them trying to sell us stuff. Whilst we waited we had loads of huge butterflies flying around us. One landed on my shoulder and stayed there for ages. We saw the group that had gone the muddy way come down a really steep hill next to us and they said they had had mud all the way up to their knees. When lunch was finished we only had to walk back to the top of the hill where a minibus would take us back to Sapa Town. Back in Sapa Town most people in our group were checking out and going on the night train back but our trip had been down backwards because there wasn't enough room in the hotel for us the first night. We were given a really nice room and chilled out for a while watching TV. After dinner we met the Irish girls and went out to have a drink. It was really cold out and raining which made it worse. Everyone was in their winter clothes but I didn't have anything like that so was in a little summery dress, I got some looks! We ended up in an English style pub where we all had a beer each. There wasn't much to do after that though so we just went back to the room and ended up watching Nightmare on Elm Street. Date: 3rd July 2011 Place: Sapa Weather: Sunny Since we were going walking again today and also a in a few days time climbing mount kinabalu, I thought id buy myself some walking trousers and a rain jacket. I was in the right place because they do loads of cheap fake The Northface stuff. I managed to get some decent trousers before our walk down to a village called Cat Cat. It was a steep walk down but the village was quite sweet. There were water contraption things all the way down the paths that would fill up with water and then tip out. It was apparently used to squash the rice when the lever would go back down from tipping the water out. At the bottom of the hill there was a waterfall and a few shops. I was most interested in a couple of puppies playing together. Lucy and I decided to trek fast up the hill back to Sapa Town to get some practise in for Mount Kinabalu. It was hard work and was really steep but we did it. We even managed to get a bit of shopping in before going back to the hotel to have a shower. After lunch we went with Sam to a shop where we had reserved a couple of The Northface waterproof jackets which we could use when we went up Kinabalu. We then just had a wonder around the markets and sat in a café waiting for the time when we had to get our train. The hotel gave us a packed lunch to take with us just before we got on the bus to the train station. We weren't as lucky with our carriage this time as Sam was in a separate one and they were both full. There were a few Brazilians, an American and a Vietnamese person in our room. They were playing cards so I had a game of bulls*** with them and then taught them s***head. Date: 4th July 2011 Place: Hanoi Weather: Not sure actually because I was in an airport all day The train stopped at 4am and we then had to barter for a taxi to the airport. We decided to go then because Sam was getting a flight too so it would save money for all of us to go together. We managed to get one at the price we wanted in the end but we got swapped from one taxi to another just down the road for some reason. When we were stopping a Scottish guy asked me if I had seen a Vietnamese girl on a bike because she had just robbed him. He was in such a state because she had taken his camera which had 6 weeks worth of pictures on it. I felt so bad but the Vietnamese laughed at him. I hated that and it made me feel really nervous and vulnerable because it was so early in the morning. On the way to the airport we also nearly got T-boned badly at a junction because they just don't take any notice of traffic lights over here. We were literally inches away and Sam shouted at the driver saying to slow down. When we got to the airport I finally felt safe and was a bit disappointed that Vietnam had ended on a downer since I had loved the country so much. We decided to head upstairs where they had internet whilst we waited to check in. We sat there for a few hours organising Mount Kinabalu which were supposed to have done about 6 months in advance. Thankfully we managed to get the last 2 beds which I guess must have been a cancellation. It was sooo exciting being in an Airport and going to be flying after all the different transportation we had experienced over the last 3 months.