After a reasonable nights sleep I woke to discover my ipod was flat as I had fallen asleep with it playing all night long, without a charger I wasn't listening to music on the train later. After some very nice breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit we made a rough itinerary for the day. A couple people in the group weren't feeling too good so we were going to take the easier route instead of the hard mountainous route for todays trek. I will admit I was a bit disa...

Arrival in Lao Cai was very early in the morning, we came out of the train station all weary eyed from a rough nights sleep to be greeted by the usual mass of people asking if we needed a taxi to Sa Pa. On first impressions Lao Cai is just another town full of hotels and neon flashing lights, but looking above the buildings and past all of the random lights you see the hills and mountains in the background and remember why you made the train ride. A short transf...

Once I had booked my tour to Sa Pa, I happened to be sat in reception and I heard that there was going to be a tour to Snake Village tonight. I had been struggling to find some people to come along so I jumped at the chance to get there tonight with some people from the other Hostel. A short journey by minivan and we had arrived in Le Mat (Snake Village), you knew you were pretty close with all the carvings and drawings everywhere of snakes...the first thing on ...

After yet another early start (I really think this needs to be re-evaluated as part of the tour) we were on our way back to Hanoi. Once again it seemed to take forever to get back. This seems to be a trend here with slow travel from A to B. However, it was also a slightly uncomfortable journey back as they managed to cram over 26 people into a small minibus...folding seats all the way down the aisle so no getting off in an emergency from the back! We arrived ba...

I woke up to a little bit of a shock this morning, after waking up before my alarm and turning over there was the German guy completely naked on his bed, luckily his back was facing me...but still! Everyone seemed quiet at breakfast this morning, those who made it to breakfast that is, I don't recall seeing everyone. Oh well. After breakfast we transferred onto another boat to go to the island where we would be spending one night in little bamboo huts on the beac...