Hey there.. . . . We got to Sapa after an hours mini bus ride from the train station and guess what, It was raining. . . . ! and it continued to rain for the next few days! It was also freezing up in the hills, so I was glad I had held on to a couple of my fleeces and a pair of trousers. . . .

The weather tried to dampen things for us, but we were persistent in not letting it stop us doing things. Claire chilled out for a bit and me and Nick popped out for a coffee and some breaky! We then picked Claire up from our lovely, damp smelling, ceiling leaking, crappy hotel room and headed off to one of the local minority villages. It was only a 3 to 4km walk, but the tracks were a little bad. . . We also got followed the whole way around by one of the locals, who towards the end did her sale pitch (like they all do) "You buy from me?" we didn't want anything, but Claire did give her some money as a kind gesture. . . I think Claire would like to give them all some money, but there are so many, you just can't?!?!

We chilled out in a bar on the way back to Sapa village and had some hot soup, which really helped with the cold. . . . . It felt a bit weird there as the weather was very much the same as back at home. . . ! We did purchase some cheap ponchos to try and keep some of the rain at bay, but that didn't seem to help too much as you just sweated and it got wet underneath. . . . . .

That night we had a couple of beers and a really nice curry before calling it a night and wrapping ourselves up in our duvets to try and keep warm! The following day, we were up earlyish as we had booked a tour guide to take us to some villages further a field, some 20km trek. . . ! On poking my head out to check the weather, I was not surprised to see that it was still raining, even more so than the previous day. . . the tour guide arrived and didn't look too impressed about having to go out in it, but we chucked on our crappy rain coats and headed out. . . .

What a great day and experience. . . We got followed all day again by some of the locals and met up with another local, who the tour guide knew. . . It was funny really, as her English was a lot better than his, all learnt from talking to tourists. . . . She was great fun and helped with the tour! We visited 3 villages in total and trekked through some dreadful terrain, our guide only had trainers on and fell over 3 times! Lol. . . The third and last village we visited was where the girl lived and she offered for us to visit her house. Which said yes to and what a surprise, I mean, I know they live very basic lives, but blimey, they had nothing. . . It was literally a big shed. . . We met her father and step mum and little brother, who she loved very much and her father even played to traditional music for us around his little fire. . . ! I took a short video clip of it, so when my blog page lets me upload again, I will try and post it. . . . !

We got a jeep back to the village at the end of our walk, which was a bit of a godsend actually, as we were pretty cold and wet. . . . Once back, we gave all our dirty clothes and boots to the hotel and they said they could get it all cleaned up cheap cheap! Happy days! It's just to easy. . . . ! We then wrapped our duvets rounds us again and just out for an hour or so. . .

Later on, early evening we headed out for a hot drink and found a really nice cozy restaurant with a roaring open fire, so decided to camp out there for a bit. . . ! We had some soup and then had a few beers, we ended up staying there til late in the evening and got chatting to a nice Dutch couple. . . After a few beers, we got onto the wine and were joined by a group of 6 Germans. . . I was a little tipsy (I think) and was chatting for ages with one of them. . . . ! They left and we continued drinking with the Dutch couple. . . It was all going so well, until Claire needed to pay a visit to the toilet, the lady kindly move the table for Claire to get passed without realising the in was two tables together and her expensive camera with huge lens was perched on the edge, so yes, you can imagine, it fell. . . Aaarrrrrrrrggghhhh. . . . . ! And no, it didn't bounce to well. . . ! It fact, the lens broke in two! Doh. . . ! So after a lot of apologies, some talk of insurance and who's to blame, etc, etc. . . It was all resolved by ordering another bottle of wine! Well sort of. . . . ?

After there we popped into another bar with a pool table and had a couple of beers and a game of pool. . . We also played a game with an Aussie guy, but I think me and Nick may have been a little rude to him. He was a bit of a k*** though, so I think he deserved it?!?! The evening ended shortly after and we headed back and passed out in our cold, damp, stinky room!

The following day was a very chilled out affair, we got checked out at around lunchtime, after a good lie-in and then found this very nice English pub and had some great food. . . . We were heading back to Hanoi again that evening on the night train and once back in Hanoi, we were planning on heading straight out again to Halong Bay, the weather looks like it may be improving so fingers crossed I can get a bit more sunshine before I head homeward. . . . !

So, bye for now people. . . Will let you know how I get on in Halong Bay. . . This trip is nearing the end now. . . . Boooooooo!