We woke up excited for the days events! The hotel served breakfast until 10am and we rocked up at 9.50am, naturally. We ordered 2 pancakes this time and I was served French toast. (We thought we were being clever by ordering the same thing to avoid confusion, when you make something idiot proof, someone always finds a better idiot). They took it back and served us pancakes shortly after, which we devoured in minutes.

We went back to our room to pack for the next 4 days; Edd insisted on only packing 1 small backpack for both of us as he was convinced he'd end up carrying both of ours anyway. (I reminded him that I only had issues on the previous trek because I had a backpack, sleeping bag, harness, helmet and 3 litres of water). Nevertheless, we packed 1 backpack for 2 people for 4 days; it was a strategic operation to say the least. We checked out and left our big backpacks at reception for them to put into their storage room for us, we booked for the Sunday night as well as we were getting back early on Sunday morning and leaving the next day for Halong Bay, so made sense to just leave our things with them and bribe them with another night's accommodation.

I needed another pair of pants (trousers) and a warm top as I'd only brought one pair of pants along with me and nothing warm, on purpose. Edd got information from his hairdresser the night before about where to go in search of such things and had 2 locations point out: a street with lots of shops along it, or a shopping centre just further down. We decided to make a loop and headed up to the top of the street with shops along it. There are no real pavements to walk on in this city, they are there, but are used as places to sit and eat or sell food, fruit, scarves, etc so you have to wriggle your way past the hordes of people either trying to sell you stuff or people buying stuff (or sitting eating). We walked past these food stalls and I paused for a moment.. Edd turned and looked at me to gage my reaction. I pointed and he nodded. I walked away quickly. There were deep fried dogs in a neat pile on a vendors counter. Their eyes were closed; they'd been gutted, dehaired, but still had their tails. Edd and I are still unsure if they were deep fried or roasted, either way, I will never get that image out of my head for as long as I live.

To add insult to injury, we then walked past a distressed chicken on its back, it's feet were being tied and I knew what was coming next! The worst part about the whole situation was the noises it made. I blocked my ears and sang loudly, trying to not cry. Edd assured me it was just being sold as is, it wasn't being slaughtered on the side of the street; I was not as convinced. This is Vietnam and I'd just walked past a vendor that sold dog in a sandwich as an early lunch; we were in a country where the social norms were far beyond our wildest imaginations.

We walked down the street with shops along it and found nothing. The outdoor shops sell a large number of bags and jackets for all kinds of weather (all fake) and shorts and pants for men; woman, however, do not wear pants as far as they are concerned. I got irate with patrons trying to sell me mens pants, smiling and saying 'good, they good' when the knees were half way down my shins and they extended across the floor for another good 15 centimetres; this is other than the fact that I could fit 2 of me in the waist bit.

We made our way to the local mall and were greeted by a doorman, who opened the door for us and counted us on a clicker. Cartier was on our left, Gucci was on our right and Dior was in front of us; I turned to Edd and said: ' I think we're in the wrong place!' We consulted a map of the mall that only showed the stores on the floor you were on, so decided to take the escalators and find out if there were any 'normal' shops further up. We kept giggling as we were used to walking off an elevator and turning left to get the next one up; in Vietnam, you have to turn right, but we turned left every time, out of habit.

3 floors up, we found sports shops. The Adidas store was first consulted, they had 1 pair of legging, type things, but they weren't right; I also didn't like the holographic print on them, finding it a bit too busy for my taste. We then moved to the Nike store and found pants there they were perfect. We asked them if they had an extra small, just to see the size difference and the woman told us they didn't sell extra smalls. Edd then held up 2 extra smalls we'd found and asked her to explain what they were; she then rushed to the stock room to see if there were any more of the 'non existent' extra smalls. In the end we got the small as it fitted better and we paid. Edd asked for a VAT receipt and we spent the best part of another 30 minutes watching them try and figure out A. What it was and B. How to do it. Edd ended up going behind the till and doing it for them, explaining to them categorically that they needed to learn their own procedures.

We knew we could get a knock-off jumper/fleece type thing at one of the stores along the street and made our way back to find one. It was significantly colder in the north and I was not going to be able to skive Edd's jumper off him, he'd need it. We initially looked around for a fleece, where a large number of stores again, only sold mens. I'd ask if they had that (pointing at a fleece) in a small/ladies and they'd avoid the question by offering me every other jacket in their shop. I would then point at the fleece again and then they'd reply, small, yes small, 'You no like?' some other random jacket for the Arctic they were holding up. I'd ask again and they'd say the fleece was a small; I agreed it was a small size, if you were a giant. The interaction would continue until I got irate at the avoidance of the customers request and ask: 'Do you have that (pointing at the fleece again) in a ladies small, yes or no?' They would reply with: 'No' and then we'd leave. The Vietnamese were very good at pretending to selectively understand English when it suited them.

We walked past a bar/cafe they advertised having all day Happy Hour. We decided to pause our hunt for a warm top and have a drink. It had just gone 5pm when we sat down and they menu read 'Happy Hour 3pm - 5pm' we asked the waiter if we could still order a drink as it had only just gone 5pm, but he showed us his watch that was 5 minutes faster and said no. We then consulted the price of the drinks at normal cost and decided we weren't prepared to pay the normal prices, so we left. The advertising was misleading, they were lucky they weren't in England.

We went back to the same place we'd had dinner the night before and ordered a G&T and a beer. The G&T arrived in a completely different glass and the tonic was flat; Edd sent it back and a new one arrived, but it didn't taste like tonic. I then decided it was the lemon flavoured fizzy water that we'd bought previously when we couldn't find limes. It was drinkable and Edd couldn't be bother with sending it back again, after our breakfast being a disaster as well, we'd basically spent the day sending things back at least once.

We finally made our way back to little stores in the street that sold knock-off outdoor wear and bought a soft shell jacket. I wanted a fleece, but Edd convinced me a soft shell was wind proof as well, being in the mountains, it was possibly going to be a better choice. With 3 days of rain predicted for Sa Pa, I needed all the warmth and protection I could get!

We were advised to go to a restaurant called Little Hanoi, by one of Edd's friends that had been here 10 years earlier, at the off chance they were still open. We were 3 minutes walk away and made our way to the restaurant. The restaurant was indeed still open and we enjoyed a delicious meal, ending it with a shot of rice wine on the house from the owner. If I had any germs before, the rice wine murdered them on the way down!

We then needed to get a taxi to the train station as it was quite a walk away from where we were and we were running out of time. The first taxi wanted 400 000 Dong for a 2km ride and Edd colourfully told him no. He stopped a number of other taxis as we walked in the direction of the station, asking them if they'd go according to their meters; after about 5 attempts, a taxi driver agreed to a meter payment and we jumped in. He also knew where to go, which none of the other drivers did, even though Edd showed them our map and pointed at the station on it. He charged us 40 000 Dong and dropped us off at the right part of the station (behind where we'd bought the tickets), legend.

We bought some banana's for breakfast the next day and hopped onto the train. We were going cattle class, with the locals and were booked into carriage 5, bed 2 and 4. Edd spotted the fact that we only had 2 settings on the little table: 2 bottles of water, 2 little packets of biscuits, 2 toothbrushes and 2 refresher towels. He then walked up and down the carriage inspecting the other rooms settings and came back smiling: we had the room to ourselves!

We left at 9.50pm and got ready for bed; Edd only just fitted in the bed and we giggled at his head touching the top and feet square on the bottom. We had just started dozing off when the train stopped; I'd gone to the bathroom and thought I'd locked the door, but they didn't really make any sense, so I wasn't completely sure. A conductor/guard invited himself into our room, looking for beds with 2 people behind him. We knew they didn't have tickets as they not only were on the hunt, but would have noticed that I was sleeping in the wrong place, opting for the opposite bottom bunk instead of sleeping on the top one we'd booked, above Edd. They then started moving our bags that were on my original bed and Edd asked them for their tickets, knowing full well that they didn't have any and hadn't paid for the journey. They then quickly deposited our things back where they found them and scurried out; 6 weeks into our travels, we knew how this lot worked. Edd then locked the door.