Today we booked a trekking tour through three remote villages in One of Sapa's many valleys! It cost £13!

We woke up and showered and packed our bags so we could check out of the hotel, they looked after our luggage for the day though! We went to get croissants from the French bakery nearby though, beaut! Forgotten how much I love French food!

At 9:30 we got picked up by the minivan and we took a 40 minute journey through the mountains! (after already waiting 30minutes for late comers!!!) We passed three epic waterfalls already on the way, that spill water over the road and down to into the river!

We got to the dirt track and began our trek! About ten local village women joined us for the trek, getting to know us and helping us find our way, in the hopes of us buying their handmade bags, clothes and jewellery at the end of the day! We walked downhill for thirty minutes passing more wild buffalo casually soaking up the rays of the sun, chewing some grass, livin' the good life... Until the KFC van gets here that is! We passed a huge marijuana farm where our guide showed no remorse telling us that it was normal and that everyone in the villagers smoke it, even though it's strictly illegal in Vietnam!

We arrived in the first village, Lao choai, where there's hardly anything there! Spread across the full width of the valley the ethnic minority's here work there land on sloping terraces seen as the land here is mountainous! The staple food is rice and corn! It's so nice that the crops are so well maintained and from a distance it looks like one long staircase leading up the mountain!

After an hour and a half more trekking, we arrived in the second village, Ta van this is more of a derelict town! Theres a closed down old hospital building that looks like something from Jurassic park, where I intend on spending the night if I have to walk much further! :(

There's a primary school which was closed to the students for summer holidays but open for us to walk around and take photos, it only has four classrooms each with about 10 desks! Children only go to primary school here, after this they'll have to either move to Sapa to go to secondary school if they can afford it, which most cannot. Or, as most do, begin working the land from the age of 12! Sad times!

There's so many children wandering about here too, playing in the dirt track wearing dirty clothes! I just want to give them a helping start in life and leave them my iPhone so they can use the 3G to start an online business or something! Get those handcrafted bags on EBay and start making real money!

We later stopped at someones house for a sandwich! I think it was a home stay place, where tourists can pay to spend the night living with the locals and have their meals cooked etc! We weren't interested in spending the night, a day tour through the villages is sad enough!

It was beautiful eating lunch here though, looking out at the amazing scenery in front! However, slightly disappointing that we're eating Philadelphia and Ham sandwiches when we're surrounded by miles of Rice and Corn fields, Banana trees, Sweet potatoes, Bean's and Chayote that are exclusively grown here in the village! They also have a good supply of big fat healthy buffalo, pig, duck and chicken! Someone pass me my machete and just let me catch my own lunch! (don't tell Annie though!)

After an hour or so here we began trekking to the third and final village, Giang ta chai! Home to the ten local villagers trekking with us! This was THE funniest moment of my life as it is rainy season so we had to trek through mud pools! Like actual Shrek the ogre Mud pools! The guide knew where it was safe to place our feet and were we couldn't, it was scary business as one wrong footing I could end up waste deep in a slick of mammal s***!

I only slipped over about 16.3 times and Annie only fell over about 20 something times, she's getting so much better at this! The more I walked the more mud would get caught in my pumps though so it made it harder and harder to walk, I kept sliding all over the shop! That awkward moment when a woman carrying her baby son on her back has to hold your hand to keep you balanced!

I was getting used to knowing where to stand after 30 minutes when we arrived at a bamboo forest! Finally some shade! My arms and the back of my neck have burned in the sun! I had to hold onto the bamboo canes for fear of falling the treacherous downhill slope to the river!

Stepping over one of the mud pools, I put one foot as far out in front of me as I could, and then had to reach to grab a small piece of bamboo root to pull myself across, the root came out of the ground in my hand and I fell right into the mud pool! Only ankle deep though before One of the women came to my rescue and I held on to a tree above me! I could feel my foot sinking further down into the quick mud! Survived without a scratch though, but I could do with a new pair of pumps! They were completely covered in gunge, I was squelching the whole way home!

On the ground I saw a HUGE-A-MONGOUS tarantula With the longest spindly legs you've ever seen! Never have I ran so fast! The women all just laughed at me and spoke to each other in Vietnamese, pointing to the beast! Clearly they're just used to cooking this sort of critter but where I come from, this kinda thing is lethal! I wasn't sticking around!

When we got out of the bamboo forest it was another twenty minutes to a bridge that took us over to the other side of the river and back home! The women were then pestering us to buy there clothing etc but we have no room whatsoever ever in our rucksacks even if we did have money on us, which we didn't!

We then waited for a heard of wild buffalo to cross the bridge, they roam around and do as they please! And then we had to wait an hour on the roadside for the bus to take us back!

We got back around 4, dirty and tired! We cleaned ourselves up in the public bathroom and then went for a stroll around the market for an hour before our bus back to Hanoi!

I bought Lee an engagement ring seen as we're getting Married when we're in Hanoi, I don't even know how this even came about but she's so cute I thought I'd buy her it as a joke :) I haggled the guy down to £1 so I went to give him a 50 note but I gave him a 500,000.00VND by mistake! (£15) For a piece of fake silver! He wasn't going to say anything either!

We also tried fried banana, it was so tasty, very odd though, and VERY sweet!

We then walked to the bus station and they let us on straight away this time maybe because it was raining so I managed to check my seat actually worked this time and get comfortable!
Annie slept in the bed behind me, and only a few hours after we set off I managed to get straight to sleep, an eventful day done!