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 apply for work. Problem is they all want you to apply online and that's a huge process. Each application can take up to an hour for just one office and Australia alone had 8 just for PWC, let alone the other big 3. Leanne spent the morning reading on the balcony, it had been a beautiful day with no clouds and both of us wanted to do some walking, but it wouldn't have been the most sensible thing to do.

Later the afternoon I was feeling better and also wanted to go out and view what SaPa had to offer, we headed for the souvenir market, basically an amphitheater with loads of stalls inside. The stalls are however very repetitive, mostly materials, lighters, dolls, silverware, wallets etc. Leanne bought a 'silver' ring with green stone for R11, it wouldn't last long but it was pretty. After walking up and down the numerous steps, my balance started acting up and we decided to make our way back to the hotel. We had come to a place where one could go to a village, but the security guards had stopped us and required us to buy a ticket. We decided to walk up to the market tomorrow, so walked down to the street below through someones back yard, filled with the most beautiful flowers in pots. Back at the amphitheater we purchased a chocolate ice cream, the best so far.

Back home I continued with the work applications while Leanne read, I joined her later and we had a few card games as we watched the clouds rolling in over the mountains. Later we walked to the market for a dinner of fresh fried springrolls, vegetable soup with noodle and Tofu. Back at the hotel we collected out laundry which we had handed in earlier the morning. Strange thing, they had put a few different coloured strings through each item of clothing, even our undergarments, this was to differentiate between various people who's clothing was all washed together - it left quite a hole.