We got an over night train to Lao Cais from Hanoi and the cabin was surprisingly nice, very clean looking which made a change as our last train experience involved mice!! Didn't get much sleep on the journey and arrive in Lao Cais at approx 5.00 am where we haggled our way on to a bus to Sapa. We arrived in Sapa and it was really cold and very misty, could see about 10 meters in front only.

We found a hotel Mountain View which really did have amazing view and then took advantage of the bad weather to catch up on some sleep. That afternoon we spent most of our time arrange tours and booking our train back to Hanoi and finding a cheaper hotel. We wondered around the small town which was very quaint, it was amazing to see the different tribe people who come to sapa in the day to try and sell their goods to the tourists. The traditional clothing they wear is amazing and some very colourful. Its also fascinating to see the women carry their small children around on their backs whilst working.
We also wondered through "european gardens" and climbed a hill to a view point to look over Sapa which was really lovely.

The next morning we were picked up early as we were heading off on a challenge to climb Fransipan Mountain, which is the largest mountain in Indo-China (China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) at 3143 meters high. We took a private tour so there was just us two, our guide and a porter to carry the food. We started trekking at about 8h30 and arrived at our first stop for lunch at about 11h00 at a little cottage (hut type thing). The climb was really hard, and as we were both just wearing our sandals as we had no boots we got very wet and muddy feet which made things a tad more difficult!! I honestly could not believe how hard it was, after 3 months of not exercising who was i kidding!!!!

Lunch was well earned baguettes and cheese and fruit and we had a nice hour or so break before carrying on to reaching 2800m where we were to stay for the night. The trek just got harder and by the time we reached camp at 15h30 we were both shattered, our legs felt like jelly and we were ready for bed. We relaxed for a bit with 4 others who were also doing the trek (and annoyingly were far more fit than us) whilst the porters and guides prepared dinner. It was a huge spread or rice, meat, veg and was very welcome. By 18h30 it was absolutely freezing and even having added a few more layers of clothing we all succumbed and got in to our sleeping bags and went to bed in our very uncomfortable hut. The night was very long and cold, even Chris had feet like blocks of ice and non of the group got much sleep.

Up early and had a beef and noodle soup breakfast before continuing the trek to reach the summit! After 2 hours of pretty much rock climbing, me falling over and numerous tantrums in which i Didn't want to carry on we finally reached the top of Fransipan. It was fantastic, except for the fact that it was so misty you could see about 1 meter in front of you, and neither of us could see how we would manage to climb all the way back to the bottom before night fall! In total we trekked for 11 hours that day including getting to the top and then making our way back down, with 30 mins break for lunch as we wanted to get back before dark. This we Didn't achieve, the last 30 mins was in the dark and by torch light only, was you can imagine i was really not impressed by this point and both of us were in pure agony. We managed to get back to our mini bus at about 19h00 and it was not a minute soon enough. When we got back to Sapa we checked in to our new hotel (which was a mission as there were quite a few steps to get to our room) and then after having very long showers in which we still could not remove the mud from our feet we went to bed. The next day was a right off as we both struggled to move let alone walk, every single part of our bodies hurt, so most of the day we spent in a little cafe "baguette and chocolate" enjoying coffee and cake and trying not to move very much. That night we got another night train back to Hanoi where we will stay for a night before flying to Chang Mai.