We arrived back in Hanoi from our Halong Bay trip at 5pm and after a quick shower and meal with Phil and Sarah we headed over to the Hanoi railway station to catch an 11pm train. The station was incredible as you have to walk across the railway lines to get to your train. After the buses in Vietnam, which have been great, and the trains elsewhere in Asia which have been great, to say we were disappointed with our train would be somewhat of an understatement. The whole train was absolutely filthy. Now the strange thing is that we paid the same amount for our train ticket out to Sapa as we did for our train journey back and yet the train home was positively 5 star compared to this one. Take a look at the photos to see the difference.

We emerged from Lao Cai station to a cold and misty morning and jumped straight onto a minibus for an hour drive up the mountains to Sapa. I would like to say that the scenery was beautiful but unfortunately we couldn't see it for the fog. After some breakfast we headed off on our trek. We started in one of the villages of the Black H'mong tribe called Ta Man and were immediately surrounded by about 10 women of varying ages, from at least 3 tribes, all asking us questions about where we came from and how old we were and what our names were etc. This is a very good selling tactic as they attach themselves to you and create a connection so that when it comes to the point of sale you end up buying something out of guilt. David actually managed to get off scot free whereas I, as the only female in the group, didn't. It was in fact a quiet pregnant woman with a small child strapped to her back who won the battle for my attention - she was 30 years old, had 3 children with another on the way, her husband looked after their water buffalo and chickens whilst she did this every day. The women walked with us all the way over the rice fields and through the forest for about say 5km until we reached the next village which I think was the village of the Red Dzao. I ended up buying a little bag from her for the equivalent of 3 pounds.

Again during this first leg of the journey the views were non existent because of really poor visibility. As we started to descend into the valley things did start to improve slightly. Our next stop was a home belonging to a large family of the Red Dzao tribe. The funny thing here was that, as the family is getting so big, they are having to extend by building a new house in their back garden. Traditionally the houses were made of wood but wood is too expensive for them now so they are building their new house with bricks but not bought bricks, oh no, they make their own bricks right in the middle of their living area. The males use their motorbikes to go down to the river where the women are filling bags with sand, they then bring the full bags back up the hill driving right into the centre of the house to dump the bag next to the guy making the bricks! In our photos you can see me talking to some of the newer members of the family after we had given them some rice cakes.

In the afternoon we went into another home this time of a Black H'mong family. There was no sign of the male of the house but the lady was extremely welcoming to us all and when we showed some interest in the costume she was wearing she disappeared into the back of her home only to emerge carrying one which she then proceeded to dress David up in. I filmed this on our camera so I'm going to try and post it as a video on the blog. The women of all the tribes bind there legs with peices of velvet tied at the top with colouful ribbon - we assumed it was for warmth but we were told it is to restrict their calves from getting too muscly. These women are walking up and down hills every day of their life and a big calf is regarded as unattractive so they bind their legs to try to prevent this from happening. This women was 28 and had 4 children although she had at least 6 in her house that day - all with snotty noses and dirty faces and clothes which I think is an unavoidable situation in the muddy environment they live in.

Our accommodation for the night was in a village called Ban Ho - unfortunately to get to this village we had to walk through a building site. Just next to the village they are building a hydro electric power station, a huge dam and all the road infrastructure required for such a project. The face of this village is soon to be changed forever - at the moment they are pleased because they have received financial compensation for the inconvenience, loss of land etc. but in the long run we'll see. Our hosts were very friendly and gave us some fantastic meals (pancakes and honey for breakfast - yummy!!!). Their house was really interesting as it had been built around some natural rocks - in the kitchen their cooking area had a huge stone backdrop and their TV was balanced on a smaller rock in the living area. The boys all slept on an open mezzanine level but being the only girl David and I were given a private area partitioned off from the owners children which was very nice of them. The next morning they were preparing for a group of 27 students arriving so during our breakfast 3 live chickens were dropped off in a small cage. As I was putting on my walking boots I heard crys from some of our guys in the kitchen telling us to come and see this - in the time it took me to put on my boots one chicken had been killed, plucked and placed in a cooking pot of boiling water along with its blood.

The second day had far better weather for seeing the sights and views but the heat was not so good for walking in. The village being centred around the river is at the base of the valley and we were being picked up from a village at the top so it was a steep uphill walk to the pick up point - I, as per norm, held the group up but in my defence I was the only female (OK that's no defence) and probably 10 - 12 years older than the rest of the group (apart from D obviously!). In addition 4 of the boys had just finished 2 years national service in Singapore so they were bouncing fit. That said I made it up just like them I was just a bit slower and had a slightly redder face!

When we arrived back in Sapa we were given 2 hours to wander around before we had to set off back to the railway station for our overnight train back to Hanoi. Sapa is an interesting town - it is set high up in the mountains but is a mix of 50% tourists and 50% local villagers trying to sell you their wares. You have to have quite a strong constitution because every few feet you are asked if you want to buy something by women from a variety of villages all dressed in their traditional costume which, having been up in the hills, we now know is what some of them genuinely wear on a daily basis.

Whilst on our travels David has been asked, on a virtually daily basis, if he wants to buy drugs - I on the other hand have never been asked and why not? What is wrong with me? I was therefore delighted in Sapa when a wizzened old women dressed in her traditional hill village costume asked me if I wanted some opium. Now obviously we always decline as we both value our freedom and our life but still it was nice to be asked if only to shatter the long standing joke that I never do!