Date: 3rd July 2011

Place: Sapa

Weather: Sunny

Since we were going walking again today I had to go out and buy myself some walking shoes. I was in the right place though thankfully because they do loads of cheap fake The Northface stuff. I managed to get some decent ones 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. They were so cute and I kept thinking they were about to fall over into the river. There was also a monkey in a cage which I felt really sorry for. Everyone was poking at it and gave it sweets but still in its wrapper, I know they are normally clever enough to take the food out of the wrapper but it might not have been and could have choked.

Carm 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. I had the top bunk this time which was a bit claustrophobic. In the night I was in a half sleep state and thought I was trapped in a box again so started hitting the roof and even leant over to the bed opposite me and leant on the girl by accident when I was trying to find a way out. I woke up then and realised what I was doing and where I was.