The many became the few as we slipped and sled ever onwards to our goal, we were now joined by 2 Austrians, 1 German and our ever talkative Scotsman friend. We settled in for lunch when the onslaught began, wave after wave hit us relentlessly as the parents rested the children were sent in. The intentions of our trekking companions were now clear as they had reached their destination - sell sell sell!!!! Scarfs followed bags, followed bracelets, followed hats, th...

Oh Sapa, exactly what the doctor ordered! A heavily interrupted but not completely dreamless sleep on our favourite mode of transport the sleeper train we were ferried via minibus to Sapa Sumit hotel. Greeted by a characteristically chatty Scottish lad from our cancelled Halong Bay excursion and a collection of ethnically dressed Vietnamese tribal ladies we donned Wellies, walking boots and ponchos and headed off down the mist covered mountains. The sounds ...

We were greeted us was a concouphony of characters, a bunch of mis-fits if we did ever see one. Two Dutch male divorcées, two young American teachers, 6 Argentinian blokes, one elderly Indian bloke (soon to be known as Mr India), one elderly Chinese woman, two Aussie blokes and us. We sat there sharing stories and surveying the damage with the two Aussies who sensibly enough were there just for the trip to Cat Ba island and would unfortunately miss the end...

It all started so well. We were greeted early by an exceptionally friendly and well spoken Vietnamese lad. We we're joined on the tour by the usual dozen other tourists. The weather was poor but we were in a good mood. With a 4 hour journey ahead of us we settled into a game of cards. With about an hour left of the journey, we received the devastating news that the tour had been cancelled due to the bad weather and with that the bus began to turn around heading ...

Having made it through the night we awoke to minor devastation, the gentle hum of mopeds outside showed us signs of life and breakfast was served as planned. We donned our ponchos and mounted hotel bikes. The weather was much calmer than during the night but Nari's presence could still be felt. Within seconds we were surveying the damage, trees missing branches, gardens missing trees, houses missing roofs! Everyone and their dog was out in force already busy swee...