After arrived back in Hanoi from Halong Bay we jump on a night train to Sapa. Unfortunately we booked very late and ended up in the hard sleeper cart which is as bad as it sounds....
The upshot was that we met Emily from San Francisco. Being far more organised than us she had already booked a guide for her trek, and to say we gatecrashed her trek wouldn't be far from the truth!
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| The night sleeper train, Alan and I were on the top bunks where we had about 2 foot of head room and a bed made out of wood! Very comfortable! |
We arrived in Loi Cai at about 5am and caught a mini bus to Sapa where we then went for a delightful breakfast!
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| Me and Emily with our waitress at breakfast. |
After breakfast we met our guide Ling who is from a minority tribe called 'The Mon'. We left our bags with her sister and then began the trek.
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| Picking up some sugarcane. |
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| Alan trying out said sugar cane. |
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| Sapa is absolutely covered by rice paddies, the result makes for incredible views. |
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| Emily getting some help from the locals. |
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| Grabbing some lunch |
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| The two brothers trekking! |
We stayed the night at a homestay where we were treated to a lot of home brewed rice whiskey which was horrible (I've tried to be polite when describing the taste of it, unfortunately the taste doesn't really have a lot going for it).
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| Having one last shot of rice whiskey before heading out on the second day of trekking. |
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| A woman dying her clothes. |
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| Walking along a rice paddy, it was very easy to slip off and come to a soggy end, luckily we all avoided that fate... somehow. |
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| Lot's of people struggling along a thin ledge that we had just negotiated - there were plenty of screams coming from that direction! |
We finished our trek and hopped back on a night train to Hanoi. This time we got a soft sleeper...
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