We arrived at Sapa at around 6 in the morning after an 8 hour overnight train ride, the train is pretty spot on actually (unlike India) and so had a good nights sleep. We were lucky enough to get the early train, this should have ment that we arrived in Sapa early and had time for a shower etc, ufortunatley no bus moves in Vietnam untill every seat is full. As such we had to wait for an hour and a half for the next train to come in so the seats could be filled (which was pretty cold). Apparently the drive from the station to the hotel (about an hour in the bus and 1300m up) was beautiful, as usual i was fast asleep and missed the views, this seems to be a trend for me.. mind you i love sleaping more than views so i'm not too upset. The hotel was nice, we arrived had breakfast and checked into our room. We were supposed to go on a 6 hour treck followd by a stay in a homestay (local hut) but Nic woke up with the flu so we were lucky enough to change out trip itinerary which meant that on the first Day we could check into the hotel room and just do a 2 hour treck to a local village and back again. I left Nic in the hotel under two duvets with a heater on. This little treck was a good introduction into trecking and was a great experience, i have some cracking photos which at some point i'll put on the site. We met some of the local people (I think the local greating here must be "you buy from me?" or "where you from?") who apparently originated from china (which is 40km away). The landscape is also amazing which every mountain being carved into rice paddies, it's hard to believe that the landscape has been changed so much (and been the same for the last 400 years). I got back to the hotel (armed with Tiger balm and loads of flu stuff from the local pharmacy) and Nic seemed a bit better. so ready for the big treck. Next day (around 9.30) the treck started, or at least would have started if nic had a pair of propper shoes, the guide (zang) suggested that she put on a better pair of trainers to treck in (despite nicolas argument that the ones she had on matched her trousers, these guides just don't uderstand...), she ended up doing the treck in a pair of wellies as this is all that was abvailable (she is not a propper member of the cook family, we are strong believers in the power of Wellies). The treck itself was great, not too much to explain just a long walk (muddy walk) with amazing views. it wasn't that hard actually just very interesting. We arived at the homestay at around 4pm. As we weren't leaving till 9.30 the next morning and there was nowt to do i decided to get drunk. We were greated by the family of the homestay (from grandad to grandaughter), the grandaughter took a shine to me and decided to teach me her version of martial arts (very similar to Max's), she was a great little girl and very good at "head, shoulders, knees and toes". With my added booze filled confidence i went out on a little night time treck of my own (with headtorch) and managed to find andother homestay with entertainment (local dancing) and so the night ended up being a good crack. Met loads of other travelers (i think that after a month i can now be classed as one) who were amazed my my one hand clapping and my twisty arm trick (i won't ruin the surprise if you haven't seen it but remember to ask me when i get back). Woke up the next day (after a pretty cold nights kip ) with a hang over and another 5 hours of trecking. It started to pour down which made the going much harder (luckily our guide took us the easy route), the combination of a cold nights kip and the rain brought back Nic's flu so it must have been hard going. By the time we arrived at a homestay for lunch she was pretty delirious and didn't know what was happening. all her stuff was soaked and her "waterproof jacket" was soaked through. Needless to say within 15 mins of arriving for lunch i had her changed into my dry clothes and sitting in front of a fire with a cup of tea. This did seem to perk her up after a bit but i did feel sorry for her. And basically that was it, i'm sure much more happened but the pictures will speak for themseves. Devlin even said that she would do something like this again (though i think she was delerious at the time). The train journey back went without incident, we shared our carrage with a couple of lads (picked up a top tip, if the pillow is a bit minging put a t-shirt round it. Good hey) and checked into our hotel in Hanoi about 5am. Tomorrow Ha-long (a coastal resort) then the overnight bus to Hue (12 hours). Cheers, Matt