Well it's been a long time we since we've updated the blog but it's not been as easy here coz the net is not so good but seeing as it's almost time to leave we thought we'd try before we move onto the next destination! You'll have to wait again for the photos coz we still can't put them on here sorry! x

So we arrive in Lao Cai (27th February) at 5am "fresh" from the overnight train and then take the scariest bus ride up the mountain to Sapa, the fog is so bad it feels like we are floating in the bus, the turns are on a hairpin but it's ok as it's perfectly acceptable to overtake on those turns, even though you can't see anything!!!!

There are a few breaks in the fog and the scenery is amazing, the paddy fields cover the hillside and from this distance they look so green and lush and it's really something to see at this time in the morning. It takes a terrifying hour but we arrive just after 6am to Sapa and our hotel and even at this awful hour there are street sellers out, "you buy from me" they are women from the minority H'mong villages and they trek hours to get to the town to sell. The clothes they wear are handmade by them and covered in elaborate embroidery, their hands are also blue because they use indigo to dye the cloth and it stains their hands.

We check into our rooms and then walk back up through the town where we get a traditional breakfast from a street stallé, we have steamed rice in bamboo, sweet potato, pork skewers and beef wrapped in mustard leaves, all cooked over a pan with some charcoal in it and a grate on top whilst we sit around it on teeny plastic stools, its really good! They also have fertilised eggs there which they crack open and roast the little chick fetus on the BBQ too but we decide not to eat it as even our Vietnamese guide doesn't eat them! Mattie is a small bit tempted though!

After breakfast we trek up the mountain through an Orchid garden, which is not in bloom and some other gardens too. There are loads of minority people along the way including the smallest old woman who sprints alongside us for ages, they are super persistent, I wonder if they would make good salespeople back at home? There are also a lot of small children out selling which is sad, some of them look as young as two or three, there are also older ones and their English is amazing, most of the women can speak perfect English and some of them can speak other languages too. We found out from our restaurant friend in Hanoi that the children speak such good English because the mothers bring them here as small babies and they are constantly listening to it so they pick it up really easily. Even our guide is impressed by their English as it's better than his!

When we get to the top of the mountain the view back down at the gardens and town is stunning, well worth the walk. Mattie heads off up in the other direction for a few minutes coz there are ostriches up there, from the pictures he took they look massive!

In the afternoon we walk around the market and the town, we're like old fashioned horses with blinkers on because if you get caught looking at something even out of the corner of your eye you're surrounded in seconds, buy from meeeeeeeeeee! We get some crazy sweet rice cake things and banana fritters from a street stall which are yummy and sit in the square to eat them, the weather is really good today. We're lucky for a while but soon get accosted by two H'mong women, we tell them we don't want to buy anything but they don't mind and stay to talk to us, their English is great and they know so much about Western life, of course all the popular questions come up, how old are you? Are you married? But we're used to it now, they are sisters and the younger one has a baby tied onto her back (it's so cool how they do it and very secure) he's only 14 months old and runs around with no trousers on and is a right little escape artist but funny. They tell us lots of things about their way of life and we discover that we will trek through their village tomorrow.

In the evening we all get together for a group dinner and then we buy some drinks from the shop and sit out on our balcony just watching - the 6 hour trek is tomorrow.

28th February - Sapa/Lao Cai Village/Ta Van village

The morning of the trek has arrived, we get some croissants from the bakery across the road from the hotel and set off at around 10am. As we're leaving we pick up a group of H'mong women who are all conveniently heading back to their village which just happens to be the same way as we're going! It doesn't matter too much as they're really helpful along the way and point out lots of interesting things. The trek starts off easy on a road but soon descends into steep rocky paths down through the paddy fields. The scenery again is beautiful and we're lucky to have such a good day. Along the way there are wild boar and water buffalo just roaming freely, and loads of piglets, chicks and baby ducks too. It's like the whole place is just one big free farmyard! Along the way to Lao Cai (our first stop) we walk along the river where there are some local children fishing with fish traps, they're hard to explain but the traditional way of catching fish here. It takes three hours to get to Lao Cai and when we arrive we are mobbed by sellers and our own group turn on us!! You buy from me, I helped you!!!! We have to cross this crazy rickety bridge to get to where we're having lunch, in the picture Matt took I look terrified, I am, as halfway across there's a big hole and it sways and there's nothing to hold onto and all the sellers are following us, I wonder if it can take all the weight? Lunch is bread rolls, bacon and laughing cow cheese triangles?! Whilst we are sitting having our lunch we see a car go across the bridge next to the rickety one and it visibly bends and springs back up as the car crosses - fun!

We carry on the trek to the homestay and lose the entourage, thank god. It takes another hour to get to the homestay (so much for the 6 hour trek?) and we're all glad to arrive, it's a traditional wooden house with a mezzanine floor. We will stay upstairs where there are loads of mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets. The family stay downstairs. The toilet is a squat one and is outside, so is the shower. Some of us leave our stuff and walk down to the river which is close by, it's really beautiful and the rocks are massive, Mattie has fun jumping around them like the big kid he is!

When we get back the woman cooks us chips with garlic, which are so good, then we have the most amazing dinner and the family join us, of course there is a bottle of rice wine which is super warming stuff, I'm not so keen but Mattie has a few shots! The food is so good there's spring rolls, pork, chicken, beef (all with different stuff), tofu, vegetables, and there's loads of it, like loads and loads!! The most amazing thing is it all came from the kitchen which is a small room at the back of the house with a fire on the floor and a grate over it, crazy!

After dinner we just sit outside talking and drinking beer, as the dark comes so do the most humungous moths I have ever seen and they keep trying to land on us. We go inside and sit in the kitchen (on the teeny stools of course) with our leader and the local guide and drink green tea out of teeny cups, they do drink like 10 cups though! Then we go to bed as we have more trekking tomorrow. The homestay is good but it's little disappointing as we thought there would be more interaction with the family but this is just a way to get an income for them and they have loads of people come and stay with them all the time so it's nothing new.

1st March - Ta Van/Sapa

In the morning I wake up and am absolutely desperate for a wee, I didn't want to go in the night coz it was outside but also because the rain hammering down on the roof was deafening. When I get outside I can see that the rain has brought the fog with it as again I can barely see my hand in front of my face. We have breakfast which is banana pancakes with honey, the food is in abundance again and we cannot finish the huge stack even though we all give it a good go. After breakfast it is decided that the weather is too bad to carry on with he trek so we head back up the road and get a bus back to Sapa, where the weather is also rubbish and cold so we just stay in the room watching films on HBO for the rest of the day!

2nd March - Sapa/Cat Ca/Hanoi

The weather is not much better today but after lounging around yesterday we decide to trek to Cat Ca village, it's downhill all the way but you know what that means for coming back! Again the scenery is amazing and the village feels a lot different to the others we've seen, eventually we reach the bottom and are rewarded with a waterfall, it's really beautiful after all the rain the day before so we spend a while there taking lots of photos. We see from our map there is a trek which will take us on a big loop so we decide to continue walking, of course the map is not that reliable so we end up going to far and come to a point where you have to cross the river, we turn back and climb up the side of the mountain a bit till we find our way again until eventually we have to walk over yet another crazy old swaying bridge!!! The walk back looks tough (all uphill) and by now we've been trekking for almost 3hours but we decide to walk back to Sapa anyway, it's not too bad, I think I must be getting fitter with all this exercise and it takes us just under an hour to get back. We're all hungry and a bit cold now so we get some Pho (noodle soup), mocha and croissants! It's so cold so I buy a scarf, our haggling must be improving coz we get it for less that half of the original asking price.

The weather gets worse so we head back to the hotel to get our stuff ready for the overnight train back to Hanoi.