28 July: Sapa

I woke early in the morning, not sure whether it was a child screaming, but some others speculated it was most probably a cat. It was somewhere between 04h00 - 05h00 as it was still dark outside, the rain had started falling and was pounding the roof just overhead. I got up just after 07h00 and joined the Australians and Irish group outside. We chatted while the others steadily joined us and coffee sachets were distributed for all.

Breakfast was banana pancakes and a type of deep fried banana in doug, there was no shortage of food and all helped themselves graciously. We had forgotten our walking sticks and for some or other reason both of us felt today was the day we needed them most of all. We had had the opportunity of buying bamboo walking sticks along the way, but not acted on it. We talked to our guide and he soon arranged one for each of us from the homestay family. We gathered our bags and said our goodbyes, before heading off to our next destination with the rain showing no signs of diminishing. We walked with them a little further before turning off and heading up the mountains, many of the others walked down to the river as this was said to be the easier route.

The road was a narrow dirt road leading through the rice paddies, this however soon changed to a clay trodden, mud drenched slosh path, with people slipping and sliding everywhere. We walked slowly, not eager to camouflage ourselves with our surroundings. The muddy path, changed to a slippery clay walkway leading down to the river, this was a particularly slippery and in my opinion dangerous section, as one slide would ensure you slide down 20 meters with half exposed rocks sticking out all the way to the bottom. Luckily there were local women everywhere wanting to hold your hand and help you on, mine constantly wanted me to step in the river with my shoes, she probably thought they were no different to her slip slops.

We finally made it to the river without an incident, most of the others weren't so lucky and they joined us with dark mud patches covering their clothing. The bamboo walking sticks really helped with the balancing going down! There we met up with some of the English girls who were waiting for the rest of the group. Our guide took us a few meters to the river and showed us a cane bridge just opposite the metal suspension bridge, one needed to pay 5 000 dong each to cross it, so we settled for the photos.

We walked back to the English and asked them to take some photos of us at the waterfall and the surrounding area. There was a nice little bridge over the stream from the waterfall that we wanted a photo on, but the guide said that we needed to pay to stand on the bridge so we just took photos on the rocks. After that we said our goodbyes (again) and told our guide that we are ready to go. Now he said that we had 2 choices - cross through the water (almost knee deep) or walk over the small bridge and pay! Well, we just had no words to explain what we felt except the very big urge to strangle our non english speaking guide!!! So we crossed the bridge without any photos...

The pathway remained muddy, but not as slippery as the one we had just completed, our companions who had helped us earlier, had left us after we said we didn't want to buy anything. It was now up to us to ensure we didn't slip. At least the rains had subsided and we could remove our poncho's. The road continued at much the same level for about 3 km, before ascending steeply towards the tar road. From there it was 3 km to the town where we sat down at a road side restaurant for a lunch of (again) 2 minute noodles, fried egg and vegetables. After lunch we rested for about 45 minutes before starting on the last 3 hours hike, the rains had started again, so it was on with the poncho's again.

This was the most difficult stretch of road for the day. The town was located reasonably high up on the mountain and our destination was a village down in the valley where the river ran through. It was a far distance to cover on foot, but the problem was more the angle of decent, it was obvious before we started that there would be a fair amount of slipping and sliding.

The road our guide had chosen leading down was a horrid pathway, more likely to have been a dried up stream. Now with the rains, you needed to be very agile to step on the slippery boulders and not in the rushing water flowing over the stones between your legs. We reached a section of the road where we walked along the sides of the rice paddies which had extremely thin walking ground on which to step. The scenery changed again, this time not for the better, the road became near vertical sections of clay. There were Dutch hikers in front of us but they slid down further than the area they walked.

The walking sticks were an amazing plus, but still my feet slid out under me and I landed squarely on my back. My poncho drenched in mud we continued further down, by now we had come to a section which had been excavated and built up for construction purposes to build a road. There was a steep section and it was almost impossible to scale it without slipping down. Leanne had managed well up to now, but now she had to climb down the sheer 8m cliff with small foot holdings. The first foot holding was located at a section where water was streaming down, inevitably your shoes would become soaked once placed in it. She slowly descended stepping in the foot holds, holding my hand with one hand and the guides with the other. She made it down most of the way before slipping and sliding a meter before she good grab a pipe sticking out to stop her. The guide assisted her onto the path again, but even from there getting all the way down was horrid and one inevitably became dirty.

On the construction path we walked down to the village, the road was terrible resulting in a swish swash with every step through the mud. I felt such pity for my shoes! We walked along the road for another 2km before reaching the village and crossing the bridge to our accommodation. At least the rains had stopped, we headed first to the taps to wash our shoes, they were covered by the thick red clay and we were concerned that it may stain the material if we left it. The guide not wanting us to use the tap, brought us a large basin and brushes to clean the shoes. After finishing I went to dispose of the basin with its dark brown water filled with mud and clay, on the way to the garden my feet slipped out from under me and the basin I had been carrying landed on my upper body and face. I may have been dirty before, but this was ridiculous! Unsure of what emotion was suitable, half laughing it off, while the other half was scolding my clumsiness, I went and showered in the cold water, washing both myself and my clothes.

It had been a long day and not the most pleasant nor the easiest trek, but it was over, both of us were clean. We sat with the host family and the guide drinking some tea before dinner was served. It was a feast to say the least, similar to the previous evening: Tofu and tomato's, dishes with beef, Chicken and pork, all with different types of vegetables, even springrolls and of course rice. The women each had a few bites before excusing themselves and the youngest son, the guide and us remained. After another bowl of rice the son too disappeared. Between the guide and us the food literally disappeared before our eyes. Off course there were rice wine again and we toasted all around quite a couple of times and we made a pretty decent dent in it. After dinner we enjoyed a beer with the guide chatting about where we had been and other random topics. The family we were staying with consisted of the parents who owned the house, their three children, one whom had recently married and his wife. He also told us in his words that Vietnamese me are "lazy" and that women do most of the work. After work the men usually gather at friends or watch TV while enjoying some rice wine, interestingly very few men are considered drinkers. Everyone had left so we said good night, before heading to bed, the earliest yet, 21h00!