25 July: Sapa The alarm didn't go off until much later, but the builders managed to have us up and awake just after 06h00, there wasn't much sleeping after that. We got up just before 07h00, finished and headed for breakfast at the market. There was a new restaurant overlooking the market that we had decided to try today. So far we had tried quite a few different market stalls, but we already had a few favorites to which we regularly returned. Breakfast ...

24 July: Sapa Today I felt a little better, my eyes were starting to function correctly and I wasn't as nauseous, but my balance was still a little off. We decided to go out and find some bread in the market just to get some fresh air, sitting in the market we drank a coffee, before returning to our room for a breakfast of bread and banana. I spent most of the morning trying to contact different audit companies in Australia, New Zealand and the UK to app...

23 July: Sapa Today had nothing on the agenda, I was still sick and much more than the previous day, still feeling dizzy with blurred vision. It didn't take long before I got nauseous and had to run for the bathroom. A little later we moved back to our old room, with internet and hot water, they had been unable to find the mouse in their search, but assured us it was there no more. Leanne arranged for a baguette, butter and jam, although she wouldn't let me...

22 July: Sapa We slept like babies, not because of the lovely bed or the clean room, which just made us feel good, rather it was from pure exhaustion of the past 3 days of travels. We had traveled 7 hours on the first bus, 9 hours on the hard seat of the boat and 14 hours on a bus again yesterday, 30 hours in 3 days! At around 05h00, a Vietnamese man knocked incessantly on our door and after it was obvious he wasn't just going to go, I got up and opened the...

21 July: Lao Cai The bus was leaving for Thai Nguyen at 06h00, so we were up at 05h00 finishing up before walking to catch the bus. The bus came past just as we arrived at the street corner where they stop. We got on and paid the 50 000 each and were on our way. The first leg of the journey lasting just under 4 hours went unhitched, the road was winding and we drove at an average of 40km/h to cover the 160km to Thai Nguyen. We even made a pit stop along the...