Just arrived back from Sapa by overnight train at 6am this morning. Had an amazing time!

Left Hanoi on Thursday night and took overnight train to the mountains of Northern Vietnam, a small town called La Cai. We thne went by bus for an hour and a half way up into the mountains - quite a scary journey on tiny roads with sheer drops to each side. The scenery was amazing though, most beautiful place we have ever seen.

Arrived in Sapa town and were immediately surrounded by all the different ethnic tribe women who were at the market selling their goods in the morning and then about to make the journey back to their villages. There are 3 main ethnic minorities in the area who all have their own language, customs and traditional dress. We were introduced to our guide Khu from the Black Hmong tribe. There were 9 of us in her group. Although the tribes still live their traditional farming lives or make insence, tea, crafts etc.. 10 years ago they began to have tourists visit the area. They now open up some of their houses as homestays for a night and local villagers provide trekking tours. They really don't make much money from this at all but do it in order to show people this part of Vietnam and have some sort of control over where tourists go as prior to these tours people attempted to see the villages on their own which was not only intrusive but very dangerous with the terrain.

While we waited on the trek to start we had about 30 local women around us all wearing their black canvas coats with bright embroidery, carrying their baskets on their backs and the young girls carried the babies on their back. They were fasinated with Tess and she got quite scared. However once we started walking a few of them left so there were only about 12 walking with us and they picked up different plants and tied them into horse or flower shapes for Tess so she got quite friendly with them and started really enjoying their company even though they spoke very little English.

The first part of the trek was on a gravel path going down hill but then we had to start climbing up through fern which was taller than us then onto massive hills which at some points involved almost vertical climbs on rock. It was quite difficult for us but these girls do this every day from as soon as they can walk. Every so often we would come across very small children literally out in the middle of nowhere. It was really really hot but the girls had lots of water in their baskets for us and helped us every step. Even though we were hot and seaty and finding the climbs difficult no one complained as each view was better than the last and the girls were absolutely lovely. We passed chickens, water buffalo, pigs..all just roaming around in the hills. After about 3 hours Khu pointed out a beautiful clear blue river with a rock pool and a bridge that went over the top to a 'cafe'. This was where we would stop for lunch and just having it in sight made the last hour pass very quickly! We finally reached the cafe, which was really just a wooden shack with a few chairs. and a local man gave us bread, tomatoes, eggs and cucumber - it was the best lunh we'd ever had!! After lunch we had an hour in the rock pool which was absolutely fantastic! So nice to dip our tired feet in and cool down. After that it was another 2 hour trek to our homestay family in Ta Van valley.

The homestay was a wooden building with a mezzanine level which had mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling - not quite the Hilton but for us it was even better - we could have slept anywhere and it would have been luxurious! The building was joined onto the family home where the young couple (who's names we have completely forgotten) and their 1 year old baby Chai Lai lived. They had a pool table ()no idea how on earth they managed to get that there!), chickens running around with baby chicks and also 9 dogs - 6 of which were tiny puppies so the kids were delighted!

After we settled in (ie dumped our bags and grabbed a cold drink to sit out the front of the house with) we just sat and chilled out, played with Chai Lai, played pool and soaked in the incredible view. At 5pm Tess went into the kitchen and made the spring rolls we had with dinner. We ate outside and had somuch food which was all cooked in the family kitchen/living room/bedroom. It really was back to basics but just fantastic. After dinner Khu had us down shots of home made rice wine (similar to vodka but I'm guessing stronger!). Fortunately we were very sensible and only had 2 - unlike a boy we met the next day who had had way too much rice wine with his family! When the sun went down about 7 we went inside and in true Vietnamese style did karaoke! I think my lasting memory of Sapa will be having Black Hmong villagers singing Sweet Caroline!!

We all slept like logs and woke up at 6am to the sound of heavy rain - not good! The rain was torrential for a good hour or so which meant our trek would be very very muddy! Muddy is an understatement. The crops grow in stepped rows all down the hill, each step made of some sort of clay. Our trek back involved walking along these ridges of wet clay and mud whioch were only about a foot wide. It was really really difficult and slightly embarrassing that we were being held up by a girl about 8 or 10 on each arm who could easily run along the ridges! Had to make our way across a waterfall jumping onto slippy rocks then down the side of the waterfall sliding between rock, mud pool, clay bath and grassy patches. Lewie and Tess were fantastic, had no fear and didn't come close to falling one while the rest of us were slipping and sliding and screaming very two stpes. The girls thought we were hilarious (and no doubt completely useless!). Again we met random children - a group of 6 year old boys sitting at the top of a mountain guarding the buffalo, a 2 year old and 4 year old out cutting bamboo.. By the time we reached the big waterfall we were absolutely covered in mud and all jumped straight in for a wash (which was pointless as we had another 2 hours to go but was well worth it at the time)

Finally made it back to the hotel for dinner. Again we were surrounded by women all trying to sell their crfts to us - they followed us most of the trek and got quite annoying at times. While many of them helped us and were happy to for no money some were obviously just wanting cash although they never got annoyed when we said no, they were just quite persistent. I bought a few things from the woman and daughter who helped me all the way back through the mud etc - would have given them money for nothing as without them I reckon I'd either still be crawling through Ta Van valley or lying dead at the bottom of a waterfall.

The hotel staff fell in love with Tess (as they all have) and while we were sitting about having a well earned beer and a rest in the sun they had Tess up at the local market looking at the birds then down in the kitchen showing her around and playing with her while Lewie happily made full use of the free internet. Had dinner then got on bus to go back to town for the overnight train to Hanoi. About 20 mins into the journey down the steep incline with really sharp bends and vertical drops, we could hear a really odd sound which the driver couldn't as he had music on. As it got louder an Israeli guy who was part of our group looked out his window and saw that they tyre was flat. He tried to get the drivers attention but couldn't so then cars started beeping at us and pointing to the wheel. We must have gone about 8km before we could get the driver to stop - all this time hanging on for dear life and seeing ourselves going flying over the edge at each corner. The poor driver was stunned and much as a few people were quite annoyed (although quietly so - no one in vietnam loses their temper or shouts and this rubs off on even the most aggressive tourist) you could tell he genuinely didnt realise. However we were then stuck on the side of a remote mountain with a train to catch in an hour and a halfs time. Obviously at this point we forgot that in Vietnam this wasn't something to worry about - within 10 minutes a taxi, another hotel bus and a guy with a mini bus on his way to pick people up from the station, had all stopped to give us a lift - all for free, people just help each other out here and nothing is a problem.

Finally made it to the train - sharing a room with 2 Vietnamese kids who's mum and baby brother were in another carriage. Was just drifting off to sleep when we heard a smash outside the room door and a real commotion. Opened the door to find a rock had come through the train window - I thought it had been thrown at the train but the locals said probably not as the penalty for doing such a thing is really severe - more likely to have fallen down from an embankment or such like. Again though it just didn't seem to be a problem. The carriage guard just smashed the rest of the glass out and hoovered up and patched the window up with cardboard all while the train continued on its way.

Got back to Mike's hotel at 6am and had to wait until 8 for a room - couldn't complain about the wait as they were giving us the room for free today so we could have a shower, rest and sort out our luggage before we leave Hanoi. We were meant to be getting overnight train to Hue then staying there for 2 days but after having been to Halong Bay and back then Sapa and back we are a bit tired of being on the move sohave decided to do a longer train journey tonight - 15 hours instead of 11 then a 4 hour bus journey to Hoi An where we will stay for a week and be able to just chill and not be constantly unpacking and repacking for short trips. And we will have a swimming pool...can't wait!