You may have already guessed by the lack of recent blog activity who's turn it is to write a blog. However this time it hasn't been due to sheer laziness, but more so that my role of being Head of Logistics has taken precedent, since transport in China is a challenge to say the least (but not for the reasons you would expect). Anyway that's a another story, for another time, in a later blog.

So Sapa, apparently one of the coldest places in Vietnam, is most easily accessible by overnight train then a short minibus (or by overnight bus for those who like a bit more risk in their lives). Needless to say we took the train, which was compact but fine - we were in a 6 bed sleeper with locals. However the little girl who had to get up to the top bunk with her mother would probably disagree, she kept saying in a nervous voice (well what I can only assume) is that 'its too high'...of which the other Vietnamese in our room had a chuckle out of each time!

Winding up the road to Sapa is very scenic and it's amazing to see how inventive they get with their rice paddies on the mountain side. There are many hill tribes in this area so it is notoriously known for trekking. We have already heard stories from our Mexican friends who trekked and stayed with locals - Sara didn't really fancy the bugs crawling over her face at night! However we still got to see some of the tribe women and children who come to town each day to sell their handmade goods dressed in their traditional garments.

As a more energetic alternative to trekking, we rented a motorbike for the day. To pay respect to the coldness, we went with the highly fashionable shorts and hoody look...Gok Wan has nothing on us. So we first ascended further into the mountains to see the Silver waterfall and beyond...though beyond was in the clouds so no visibility and raining. Therefore we gave up and came down the valley through the various tribe villages (obviously nothing like the 'tribes' in the welsh valleys!) On the way we passed numerous wildlife, but the most entertaining were the buffalo who were intent on staring us out. I had to stop and get off the bike to try get closer to take a picture!

After a hard days exploring it takes it out of you...my bum was particularly numb. So to treat ourselves we picked out a cute little restaurant. On the way there we bought another cliche travellers bracelet from a couple of local tribe girls before taking the obligatory photograph. Turned out the cute restaurant had a relatively cheap 4-course set menu...a challenge I was willing to accept! The food was very good and it's even better that I am travelling with a woman who can't always finish her food.

Later we went on to this pretty cool bar which had board games and of course a pool table. After beating all the locals they rang their friend in who instantly wanted to play for money. I refused as feared I was getting hustled, but it proved a bad decision as I beat him also...its good to be modest. It got better though as they bought me food and gave me a free beer to watch the football! The only downside was both England and France qualified that night...make what you want of that!

The following day we had to return to Hanoi for the final time via the reverse minibus and train journey; surely uneventful you would think...but you would be wrong. We headed to the minibus for the 45 minute journey over 3 hours before our train left. They said they would leave in half hour - after us threatening to go with another bus, then them attempting to pacify us by driving around the block, they kept insisting that we would be 'leaving now'. We left over 2 hours later when no one else could physically squeeze in. Out of principle of them continually lying to our faces, we only gave them 80% of the price ($4). A couple of miles away the driver stopped the bus and refused to move until we paid (as well as an Israeli couple who had agreed a cheaper price prior to getting on the bus). We initially refused and he even attempted to pull me and my bag off, but we didn't budge! Realising we had little time to argue, we ended up paying the extra $1 as in the grand scheme of things it would have cost a lot more if we missed our train. We arrived with 10 mins to spare but luckily we were given tickets for the following train, where we were upgraded to a 4 bed soft sleeper which we had to ourselves.

Not to over generalise, but we have found that people have tried to scam us more in Northern Vietnam than anywhere else. We don't mind being hassled but it's the continual lies and how in-genuine some people are that is disappointing. It's a shame because if you can avoid the scams (or have money to spare) it's a great place to see!

Xx