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 transfer later and we'd arrived in Sa Pa, a little hill side town not far from the Chinese border. I would have added quiet in there but there seemed to be new hotels being built everywhere on the mountain side and construction work started very early. A shower and some breakfast later, I met everyone who I was going to be trekking with. A nice Australian couple from Perth, a girl from New York (who I met in Snake village a couple nights ago), a guy from Singapore and a French guy who for some reason had his own guide? Before I came to Sa Pa I had been warned about the local women who walk with you on your trek but all the time try and get you to buy some of their traditional hand made items. The warning seemed a little over dramatic until we started walking through the town and turned a corner....there were at least 30 of them all waiting on a corner and a guy blew a whistle as though it was the start of the race to get to us first. At least 15 ladies came running towards us to accompany us on the first day.

Trekking started with a walk along the main road and for a while I was getting worried that it was all easy road walking which is not what I had signed up for. A while later we went off road across the fields and through the rice paddies, it was a nice leisurely trek until we came across the woodland...there was so much mud that I almost lost one of my shoes after treading on what I thought was solid ground. We slipped and slided everywhere trying to climb up the rocks to the next field. The ladies with all of their trinkets assisted us in walking the trail, they do this every day so it's no wonder they know where to tread! But you cannot help but wonder whether they are just being helpful in the hope you'll buy something. A while later and we're walking down another hill towards the lunch stop village, the scenery was breath-taking, it was so beautiful just to see the low lying cloud sweeping across the peaks of the mountains. In fact I was paying so much attention to the clouds and hills that I almost walked straight off of a bridge where lets just say...the drop was not small and if I lived I think I would have broken quite a bit!

Lunch was in a small village before we set off walking towards our home stay village. It had been raining for most of the day which is typical for this time of year in Sa Pa. Rainy season makes everything so healthy and green looking, although I couldn't help but think the 'flasher mack' I bought from home was NOT waterproof! Arrival in the home stay village was about early afternoon and it was nice to stay with a traditional family for the night. Their home was simple, made out of wood and had the family rice paddies at the back. Which were frequented by the most vicious ducks who seemed to hiss every time anyone walked near! We stayed the night in the home stay and were treated to a very nice home cooked meal and were given some 'Happy wine' which is basically rice wine but the guide said it was dubbed Happy wine because it makes anyone happy afterwards! Sleep ensued not long after that and I was glad I had been carrying my jumper around with me for the past 7 weeks as it got cold very quickly!

The photo is one of the views which almost caused my accident!