Harrow Hoi An...and a quick harrow to Hué

21st May - Hué..st of time

We arose bleary eyed at 4.30am on our final morning at the Farmstay where Ben the owner had organised seats for us on a local minibus which would take us to Hué. Hué (pronounced hway) is not somewhere we really had much interest in going to but back in Hanoi we booked Open Bus tickets for our travel throughout the whole of Vietnam. Basically you get a little booklet of tickets that stop off at the main stops that most backpackers stop off at on their route through Vietnam. The tickets we bought had the following stop-offs: Hanoi - Hué - Hoi An - Nha Trang - Mui Ne - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Because we decided to go to the Farmstay in Dong Hoi we needed to get ourselves to Hué to get our next bus to Hoi An. We decided we would just stay in Hué for one night before continuing on to Hoi An.

When the minivan picked us and two other guests from the Farmstay it was empty. It was your basic 15 seater minibus. Yeah, 15 seater my hole. By the time we'd picked up the other locals there were us 5 from the farmstay and EIGHTEEN other Vietnamese crammed in - yep 23 people in a 15 seater bus. It was one of the more knee jamming, leg squished journeys of my travels so far! On the bright side it was cheap.

At 10am we peeled ourselves out of the bus and headed to a hostel - Hué Backpackers Hostel - sister hostel to the one where we stayed in Hanoi. This hostel was a lot smaller and we booked ourselves into a room just for the night. We were sitting in the hostel availing of the free breakfast when two people we knew from Hanoi wandered in - Kelly, a Canadian girl who was on our Halong Bay tour, and Martin from Denmark who I went out with on my second night in Hanoi. It was great to see some familiar faces. Myself and Zara were pretty wiped from the trip, but Dai and Martin decided to go and see the only thing there really is to see in Hué, the ancient Citadel. After a couple of hours myself and Zara decided to go and have a look and see if we could find them. We took a stroll in the baking heat (I remembered half way there that in my haste to leave had forgotten suncream) over to the citadel but well, forgive me for sounding uncultured but it was a bit shite. Old ruins housed within the old city walls. Even the ruins themselves were nothing special. We kept an eye out for the boys but couldn't find them so we wandered back to the hostel - stopping for a refreshing cocktail en route!This is actually the only picture I have from Hué which should say a  lot:

Soon after the guys arrived, we headed back to the hostel, had some dinner and hung out on the balcony of our hostel with a few other travellers, playing some of Dai's dance mixes. The next morning we got out of the bustling metropolis that was Hué and hotfooted to our next destination which we were way more excited about - Hoi An!

22nd - 26th May - Hoi An

The bus from Hué only took 4.5 hours so we arrived mid afternoon into Hoi An. As per usual when you disembark a bus we were all accosted by various hotels trying to get you to go with them to their amazing hotel! We hadn't booked anything, but we took a chance and went with one that offered a free taxi there. It was located beside lots of other similar hotels in the backpacker side of town and was cheap so hey that was all of our criteria satisfied so we checked in.

Hoi An is notoriously famous for its tailoring, and it's rare that anyone leaves the city without a heavier rucksack. There are over 400 tailors in the city and they will run you up anything from suits to ball gowns. The best item I heard about was Fletch - one of the Australian girls we hung out with in Hanoi got Pippa Midletons dress from THE wedding made - ha ha ha! Me, well I wasn't going for anything as swish, didn't think the next few months backpacking around south east Asia would call for any silk gowns!

Dai, relieved not to be roped in to shopping hit a bar by the river, and me and Zara excitedly made our way to find a tailor! Well, unsurprisingly in a city with 400 tailors it didn't take long to find one. We had literally stepped out of the restarant where we left Dai, and the owner lady asks us where we're off to, we tell her we're about to go get clothes made and well what do ya know her sister's got a place. OF COURSE SHE HAS. We decided there was no harm in checking it out and this lady was mental! She was this tiny little Vietnamese girl, no more than about 35 and she was so much craic. Me and Zara had rough ideas of what we wanted but she had about 15 photo albums full of everything from jumpsuits, to evening dresses, to trousers, shirts, tops. I mean we were there for hours! We both chose a few different items - me, I went for 4 jumpsuits (couple of casual ones and a few for going out) and I had also brought along a pair of shorts from home, that I wanted to get replicated in different colours. The whole lot came to about $100. Shoppers of the world, get yourself to Hoi An ;) Zara picked a few dresses and got a few tops and shorts made. Everytime we'd stumble across a picture of something we liked, we'd go "ooooh should I maybe" and her answer was always the same "WHY NOT!!". We had such a laugh with her. She took our measurements and told us to call back the next day. I know - you wouldn't get that kind of turnaround at home eh!?

Afterwards we went back to fetch Dai, and well after being left alone in a bar for hours whilst we got our shop on, was a little tipsy! He was there playing cards with two British girls who were also on our tour in Halong Bay - Helen and Kayleigh. Also whilst siting there, we saw another two familiar faces - Silvi and Jill from Canada who we went trekking in Sapa with! We all arranged to go out together that night and made plans to meet up later. I know it sounds crazy, but you would be surprised how often this happens! Most travellers are doing the same countries, and similar routes so you're constantly meeting people who you've met before...more of these to come.

Anywhoo we headed back to our hotel to chill and get ready and went back into the Old Quarter to meet up with the guys. Hoi An is basically divided into two parts - the Old Quarter - which is absolutely beautiful and the new part of town where most of the hotels and guesthouses are built and located. Hoi An used to be a big trading port back from the 15th to the 19th Century (thank you wiki) and the Old Quarter is full of small little buildings and pedestrianised streets. I apologise in advance but I don't have any pictures of this...epic fail I know. Anywhoo, back to our night out, in the meantime, Zara and Dai had met two guys they had met in Thailand - Andy and Steve who would also join us. We decided to head to a place called the Sun Bar - one of the guys who hung out with us that night in Hué recommended it so we thought it was as good as any! When we got there it was empty enough but that didn't last long. Most of the bars in Hoi An have a similar layout - big pool table in the middle and a computer beside the bar for you to choose your own music - I was in Heaven! We got the tunes going and the drinks in and we had a great night!

Kayleigh, Helen, Jill, Silvi, X, Zara, X and Me

Dai at the pool table

Me and Zara...I will always look albino beside her!

Remember when I siad that you're constantly meeting people along the way that you've met before...well there we were all having a gay old time in Sun Bar when the door opens in in walk a group of about 6 Canadians (again with the Canadians, I know!) that were ALSO on our Halong Bay tour! Like seriously, this was just getting plain ridiculous now, so we all hung out and had a brill night!

Silvi, Kayleigh, Jill, Me and Zara with the Canadians

The next morning was a little less fun. Instead of being woken by the banging of our heads, we were literally woken by the banging of the walls. It turns out, that "taking a whim" on the accommodation didn't work out so well for us! At 7am in the morning, the room beside ours in our hotel was literally being gutted! They were sledge-hammering the walls down! I kid you not. We were like "WTF is the hammering?!" After about 3 minutes, we realised, despite our best efforts we were not going to be able to sleep through the hotel being fucking gutted, so trouper that he is, Dai threw on some clothes and popped down the road and just got us a room in another hotel. By, 8am we were sound asleep again in a new hotel!

The next day, we decided to hit the beach. There are two beaches in Hoi An - An Bang beach, which is smaller and used by a lot of locals and Cua Dai beach which is larger and busier. You can cycle to both beaches from the town centre so we decided to hire a bike from the hotel for a 20,000 dong (bout €0.80) and hit up the quieter of the two An Bang. Although the day was a little cloudy, it was a nice way to spend the day relaxing. Steve and Andy, Zara and Dai's mates from Thailand also joined us to kick back.

That evening, we went back to this one restaurant that was cheap as chips, right beside the main bridge in Hoi An and very tasty and decided to pop down to the nearby Aussie Bar (ran by a Vietnamese couple naturally ha ha) for a few beverages. Me and Zara hung out with the owners at the bar whilst Dai took on Hoi An's finest at pool. We had a great night, and me and Zara had a great laugh with the owners.

Teaching them how to make baby guinness obv!

Owner making his version!

We had so much craic that at the end of the night, the owner goes to me "don't suppose you want to come work for me tomorrow night?". Work, eh? "What would this entail?" I asked. "You ride around with me on a motorbike and we had out fliers to westerners to come to the bar with drinks promotions. I'll give you ten dollars and you and your friends can drink for free all night afterwards". Well I don't know about you but that seemed like a pretty sweet deal to me! "I'm in" I told him.

The following night, true to my word, went back to the bar and off we went. We went all over the city, it was so much fun spinning around on this motorbike. Any westerners we saw walking along, I would hop off, give them a flyer and tell them they'll get free drink when they get there! Those of you who know me know that chatting to people isn't exactly difficult for me so it was definitely one of the more enjoyable jobs I've had! What do ya know, it's funny how this free drinks thing attracts customers eh! By the time I clocked off at 11pm and arrived back at the bar well it was jammed - and because I'd chatted to everyone that was there, everyone was like "heeeyyyyyy" when I walked in!! Twas brilliant! So I got my $10 and helped myself, Zara and Dai to as much drink as I wanted for the night (did I mention this bar doesn't close til 5am!?). Boss man himself was delighted with me as our bar was definitely the busiest in Hoi An that night, and he tried to convince me to come back and work there when I'm done travelling - he said I'd have a free place to stay and all my meals!!! So that's the future sorted eh ;)

Me on the boss man's bike

Otherwise our time in Hoi An was spent cycling out to the other beach Cua Dai beach and picking up our clothes from the tailors. They all came out brilliantly. Would really recommend Hoi An to others, and pretty much everyone I've met that's been there has really loved it. It's the city that's got everything - it's really small so you can walk all around it, it's got amazing shopping and clothes making, good nightlife and two beautiful beaches...what's not to love!?

Blurry Hoi An Bridge by night

Harrow Dong Hoi

18th - 20th May - Farm Life...without the manual labour

We arrived back from our night train in Hanoi at 5am on Friday the 18th May. We were all a bit dazed and confused and found solace on the massive bean bags located on the "chill out" floor of the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. We launched our tired selves on these beanbags and grabbed a few extra hours sleep until about 9am. When we woke, feeling a little more human we had breakfast and spent the day doing a few housekeeping necessities (you've seen the pictures...so to say our clothes from trekking in Sapa were somewhat in need of the laundry would be quite the understatement).

That afternoon we said goodbye to the last of our Halong Bay friends, Phil the German. He had spent the last month travelling by bike from the south of Vietnam to the north and after selling his motorbike would now be heading back home to Germany to study. Me, Zara and Dai on the otherhand, were FINALLY going to be leaving Hanoi behind us to continue our journey south through Vietnam. Next stop on our (incredibly loose) itinerary was Dong Hoi - 600km south of Hanoi, 11 hours by night bus. That evening we repacked our bags, with our fresh mud-free clothes, and boarded the most bizarre night bus to date! At this point in our journey I had yet to experience a night bus so I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't expect what I now refer to as Discobus 2000. The bus, from the outside looked like a large coach. However on the inside, it was organised into three rows of "sleepers", with two aisles in between. Each row of sleepers had a top and bottom bunk. The sleeper seats themselves reminded me of bumper cars, the way they wrapped around you, it's so hard to explain. And to top it off the whole bus was luminated with bright coloured lighting. Hopefully this pic will give you a better idea:

Zara, Dai and Me up top on Discobus!

Honestly, felt like I was in a bumpercar

As if this wasn't random enough, when the bus started moving they suddenly started playing Clubland music throughout the bus accompanied by videos from what looked like clubs in Ibiza from about 10 years ago. We all just looked at each other like "wtf is going on". After not sleeping in a bed for the past 3 nights I decided there was only one thing to do...valium, sleeping mask and earplugs. Night y'all.

I was woken at 5am by Dai in the "sleeper" in front of me, he'd just been told that we would soon be arriving in Dong Hoi. The bus itself was heading for Hue, so we were the only people who would be leaving the bus in Dong Hoi. Our reasons for stopping in Dong Hoi were to go to the Phong Nha Farmstay. This is a small farmhouse ran by an Australian guy and his Vietnamese wife - Ben and Bich. They have built a small guesthouse located in the real Vietnamese countryside with 10 rooms, surrounded by paddy fields that they harvest. Bich's brother also built a large dorm in his house next door which offers more affordable accommodation for backpackers like us just looking for somewhere to crash.

The place looked absolutely idyllic. After hearing from some others that it was quite small and therefore quite popular, we had booked our beds here before leaving for Sapa a few days previously.

We emerged from the bus bleary-eyed and tired at the crack of dawn, on the side of the road in a very empty and quiet Dong Hoi. Upon booking, Ben the owner had given us a phone number to ring to let them know where we had been dropped off and they arranged a pick up for us. I called the number, getting the address of where we were from a nearby hotel sign. After a few rings, a disorientated "hello?" greeted me from the other end of the line. I gently explained who I was and that we were instructed to call to arrange a pick-up from our bus. "That booking was for yesterday" I was informed. "Eh" I replied, "I'm sorry if there's been a mistake but we definitely meant to book it for today, is it eh still possible to stay?" I was told to give them a few minutes to wake up and call back.

"Balls." I turned to Zara and Dai and explained what I'd just been told. We looked at each other and almost began to laugh. Here we were, sitting on our rucksacks at 5am on the side of the road in this one-horse town in the arsehole of nowhere in Vietnam, possibly having nowhere to go and nowhere to stay that night. Frankly it was all we could do at that stage! I'd love to tell you some longwinded tale of how we hitch-hiked with some interesting Vietnamese farmer on his tractor -esque story but well, the situation was resolved with a quick phonecall - the farm were able to organise a pickup and our booking could still stand, we just had to wait 15mins. Phew.

We arrived at the Farmstay itself, and all the good stories we'd been told were confirmed within seconds. This was the view from the front porch of the farm:

The farm itself was also really pretty. It had a large pool out the back, and there were plenty of hammocks for lounging in, in the common bar/lounge area, and a menu with lots of tasty food for an affordable price.

Apart from the peace and quiet of staying out in the country after a hectic week in and out of Hanoi, our main reason for visiting this region of Vietnam was to go to Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park, which is home to the world's largest cave - Paradise Cave. Every second day, Ben and Bich organised trips to the cave which included visiting other areas of the National Park itself also. When we arrived at the farm we realised that today was the day they would be doing a trip there so we wiped the sleep from our eyes, grabbed a quick breakfast and headed off in a minivan. The views of the Vietnamese countryside along the way were simply stunning:

Our first stop was at Paradise Cave itself. At this point we did not know much about the cave apart from the little blurb we read in the lonely planet so we weren't quite sure what to expect. Little did we know what we were in for! After the short trip to the cave, we emerged from our mini-van, we followed the other tourists and began a short, but steep hike up to the cave in question. When we walked through the entrance, what greeted our eyes was staggering:

I know it is the world's largest cave so y'know it should be pretty big, but the vastness of it was crazy. And to guide you through it were these crazy staircases that reminded me of the moving staircases in Gryffindor in Harry Potter!!

The cave was so large, it took us a good 40 minutes to walk as deep into it as we were permitted. Within the cave itself the various stone formations were so impressive - if my primary school geography serves me right the stalactites and stalacmites were all over the place!

After we emerged from the cave, we had lunch with the group from our farm, then we travelled into the park itself and took a quick dip in one of the lakes within the park:

After that we went to another area of the park which wasn't too interesting, but on our journey back, all of a sudden the van driver stopped whilst we were travelling down the road, jumped out of the van and started pointing towards the tree covered wall across the roadfrom us. We all got out of the van to find out what the hell was going on when we realised he was pointing to monkeys jumping in the trees - I managed to rummage my camera out in time to grab a quick shot:

He's the black blob amongst the greenery!

It was really cool! This was the first time I'd seen monkeys in the wild (I think...) so it was exciting to see them just out and about and not in some cage!

That evening, when we we arrived back at the farmstay we were thoroughly shattered! It had been a long long day between nightbuses, caves and monkeys so we had a nice dinner at the farmstay and just hit the hay.

We had only booked to stay two nights at the farmstay, so the following day myself and Zara decided to take advantage of the pool and chilled surroundings of the farm and have a thorougly lazy day! It had been a hectic week or so in Vietnam, and we had blogs to write, and a pool to lounge in! Dai, not being quite as lazy as me and Zara rented a bike and headed out exploring with some of the other travellers staying in the farmstay. We had a lovely day, just chilling around the pool and got some writing done on the blog.

We had a really enjoyable time in Dong Hoi - it was nice to escape the hustle and bustle and really get a feel for what rural Vietnamese life and countryside is like. Next stop on our journey would be Hoi An, and well that was a WHOLE different kettle of fish...

Harrow Sapa!

13th - 15th May - Hanoi

Well it won't surprise you to know that upon returning to Hanoi we were all rather shattered, battered, bruised and well in need of some serious recovery! Unfortunately, coming back from our escape to Halong also meant we would have to say goodbye to some of the mega friends we had made on the trip. First to go were Chets, Jabba, Rick and Lewis who were leaving the following day.

The following day, after the first decent night's sleep in a bed we'd had in a few days we were all feeling a little fresher. Wanting to do something fun with our day myself, Dai, Zara, Phil, Gary, Jim, Bel and Glenn decided to hit the Waterpark to wake us up and have a laugh in the Sunday sun. Apart from another harrowing taxi ride (driving wherever, WHENEVER...regardless of what's coming alongside you, or more often directly towards you), the waterpark was surprisingly impressive and we had a right laugh. There were about 7 or 8 decent slides, some of which you had to do in pairs, some which required tubes etc. Here's a pic of a few of them and who I think is me coming down one of the slides:

Les Slides

Weeeeeee!

After spending the afternoon going down all the slides, some multiple times, we headed back to the hostel. Fletch and Ash from Oz and Jim and Gary were the next few to leave the Halong bay crew so to see them off, myself, Bel, Glenn, Dai, Zara and Gunnar decided to join them on beer corner. Now I'm not just making this up, there is actually a place marked on the maps of Hanoi called "Beer Corner". Now it ain't nothing plush - it's basically an intersection of a few streets, where little restaurants put these tiny plastic chairs outside their establishments around make-shift tables. "Why would you choose to drink there?" I hear you express. Because the beers are 5,000 dong my friends. 5,000 dong is €0.19. Question answered? Okay. lets move on :)

We are not giants. They are midget stools!

We had a few drinks in beer corner, they ran out of beer (what do ya expect!) so we adjourned to a nearby bar to continue the farewell drinks. Yes, we were drinking purely to say goodbye to our friends ;) In this bar we made a discovery, which personally I believe rivals even CERN's recent Higgs particle revelation! That is the drink, which will be furthermore known as the Gunnar. Let me explain. We were all ordering our drinks, most of us naturally going for the cheapest drink on the menu when Gunnar orders a Gin and Redbull. The waiter looked at him with the same confusion as the rest of us. "Do you mean a gin and a separate can of red bull?" he asked. "No" Gunnar replied, "in the same glass". Appalled, and with reason we all thought, the waiter skulled away, no doubt questioning what kind of heathen would order such a concoction. We were all like "WTF Gunnar, who the hell drinks Gin and Redbull together?! "Oh just wait and see" he assured us. When it arrived, naturally we all had to sample this madness. What can I say - delicious. No lie - go out and order it next time you're feeling flush (this would probably cost near a tenner at home wha!)! We christened it "the Gunnar" because hell, only he would come up with this!

Gunnar, with "The Gunnar"

After a couple of drinks, we retired back to ole Hanoi Backpackers and crashed for the evening.

The following day I arranged to meet up with Bel and Glenn, the next two friends to head back home, for them, to Singapore. But before that we had planned a day of fun in Hanoi! I wanted to try out some good Hanoi street food, and the night before at beer corner, Bel mentioned that they had had some really good sticky gluttinous rice with pork in a place not too far fom our hotel. Well those of you who know me, a food that actually has "gluttinous" in its description had me hooked from the start! Zara and Dai also joined us for some food. To try and describe the meal - it came in a bowl, it was this special type of sticky rice that I hadn't had before - even in China, over which they put shredded maize, then sprinkled spring onions and your choice of meat - we went for pork - all topped with a fried egg! It was actually amazing!

Street food on the way!

Mightn't look much...but amazing!

After lunch, I headed off with Glenn and Bel for a little walking tour of our own of Hanoi. We wandered all over the city taking in different sights of the city. Some of my favouites were, this pic I took:

This guy is actually reading the daily paper! I thought this was brilliant. Basically that's just outside the local newspaper office, and they put up the daily newspaper on that board so that each day the people who I'm assuming may not be able to afford the newspaper can come and have a read of it!

Next up just a cool picture of this street that just sold lots of birds:

Next up, an amazing fruit stall - at this point I had sweet F.A. clue what most of these fruits were. Bel explained a good lot of them that she knew. There was everything from dragon fruit to rambutans, and loads others (now that I'm a further along in my travels I've tasted most of them - we really are deprived in Ireland / UK with our limited amount of interesting fruit!)

Whilst I'm on the food discoveries, this one's for my fellow caffeine fiends:

We walked all over Hanoi, and had a great time. I have to give kudos to Glenn for putting up with mine and Bel's magpie-esque attraction to any shops of interest! Especially when after visiting one bookshop in particular, we all spontaneously started humming this same cheesey Vietnamese song that had been on in the shop as we walked down the street! The one took a couple of days to remove from our brains! Here's the three of us taking a sitting break:

Yes I'm looking a little "special" in this one...

Yes, sitting break. No joke this particular day was definitely the most humid day I have experienced whilst travelling so far. It was mental. Hanoi in itself was horrendously humid causing you to sweat just by existing. In Hanoi, you'd have a shower and before you've even dried yourself you're already sweating, hard to really feel clean! It was crazy, but this day was by far the worst. Hence the big shiny head on me above. Glenn and Bel seem to be pulling it off a 'lil better than me!

After our walk I returned to the hostel to live in the cold shower for about an hour. That night we returned to beer corner, but this time we left before the beer did. Knowing that the following day we would be heading to Sapa to begin our trek, we all had an early night after saying farewell to Bel and Glenn, and crashed for our last night in Hanoi Backpackers Hostel.

The following day, after catching up on some writing (this thing doesn't write itself unfortunately), and Zara and Dai decided to check out the Army Museum. There were lots of aircraft and remnants from Vietnam's wartorn history but to be honest the place wasn't very well laid out and it was hard to fathom which wars the various items on show were from. The most exciting part of the trip there would actually have to be the transport. Now if I haven't mentioned it already, Vietnam and particularly Hanoi is swarmed with motorbikes. It's not cars you have to look out for on the roads, its the bikes. You see whole families riding on one little moto. So when we decided to go to the Army Museum, we decided screw it, we'll take a moto taxi. Now Zara and Dai had already ridden a moto in Thailand but for me this was venturing into the unknown. I was bricking it! Nevermind the fact that I hadn't been on the back of a moto before but in Hanoi the motos rule the road, and it's a constant game of cat and mouse between the drivers for whose right of way it is! So this journey was a bit daunting. However, it had to be done, so on I hopped with my driver, and off we went. Well. Much like jumping in the sea it turned out to be a hoot! I loved zipping around, weaving in and around the traffic, a total thrill! This experience totally outshone the army itself, which should say a lot!

That evening we would depart Hanoi to head to an area in north Vietnam known as Sapa where we would be going on a two day trek. After the hectic week we'd just had between Hanoi itself and Halong bay we thought a good trek out in the fresh mountain air would do us the world of  good and give us a chance to see some of the beautiful Vietnam scenery. To get to Sapa we took an overnight train to Lao Cai.

Back on the night trains!

16th - 17th May - Sapa, Northern Vietnam

We arrived into Lao Cai at 5.30am. From there we were met by our tour who brought us on the bus journey to Sapa town from where we would begin our trek. We stopped off at a local hotel, where we had time to to have a cold shower out the back of the hotel! Oh this is the luxurious life I'm living folks, don't you worry! After our rustic shower, the group got together and we met our guide - Hien. He was a nice Vietnamese guy around 30ish. He explained the route we would be going. The first day we would trek for 12 kilometres. That night we would stay with a local family where we would have dinner that evening also. Then the next day we would trek for 6km. Our group for the two day trek consisted of 11 people - there was me, Zara and Dai, 2 Canadian girls - Jill and Silvi, 3 Canadian guys - Yonni, Zach and Jason (remember whaat I said about the Canadian infiltration of SE Asia!), a German guy called Sylvain and 2 Danish girls - Tenna and Anna.

Sapa is a popular location for people to go trekking because, apart from the amazing scenery it is also home to 4 different ethnic minorities of Vietnam - Hmong, Dao, Tay, Giay and a small number of Xa Pho people. These minorities still live traditional lives in this area of Vietnam. As we setted off from the hotel, and walked through Sapa town to make our way into the hillsides where we would be trekking we were approached by a group of ladies in traditional dress from what I *THINK* was the Dao ethnicity. They started talking to us - they had limited English, and just asked us a few standard questions about where we're from, and what age we are etc. We soon realised these ladies were going to walk with us for the whole trek. At first we were a bit dubious, as no doubt they would want something for this - but my god, did we need these ladies help as the day went on...

The lady, or girl I should say, who walked with me was called Tone (well that's what it sounded like - that's definitely not the correct spelling) and she carried a baby tied around her back! She was only 28 I think, and this was her second child. She told me that we would reach her village by lunchtime. She said that each day she walks the 8ish kilometres to Sapa town from her village, then does the trek route back - all to make a little bit of money each day from tourists like us. She told me that they make all their own clothes - here's a pic of some of the ladies who joined us on the trek:

They're not big smilers...

Anywhoo, once we moved off the road into the dirt-tracks of the hillsides, we soon realised that we would definitely benefit from the company of these little, yet mightily strong ladies. They held our hand as we slid along mud tracks going deeper and deeper into the Vietnamese countryside. And I mean it was SLIPPY! As it had recently rained the dirt tracks were really muddy, so especially on the downhill parts, it was messy to say the least! I, naturally fell on my arse numerous times - much to my lady Tone's delight! ha ha ha!

Apart from the slipping and mud, the views were amazing. Most of the countryside is covered in paddyfields for harvesting rice - although these looked a lot different to those I'd seen around Yangshuo in China. Here's just a few shots of the scenery we soaked up during our trek:

Man plowing his rice with a water buffalo

We stopped in Lao Chai to have lunch. This was where we would say goodbye to all of the lovely ladies, without whose help we would have undoubtedly ended up on our asses a lot more frequently. They didn't ask for money but instead opened up the big baskets they'd been carrying on their backs and tried to sell us some of their crafts. We all bought little wristbands, and I also bought some earings they had made. Others bought little purses and bags. It was a good experience walking with them and getting to speak and spend time with their minority up close.

After lunch, we continued our trek for another 6km. This was a lot easier than the morning's trek as the path was more gravelly and less slippy - still the sun was hot! As Sapa is located in a mountainous region, it's a lot cooler than in Hanoi, so when we set off on our trek it was quite cool and cloudy. However when we all sat down for lunch, we realised the sun had come and bitten us on the ass - lots of sunburn on display.

By the afternoon it was no longer hiding and was beaming down on us! By the time we reached our homestay, where we would be spending the night we were delighted to find out there was a lake just down from the house and all 11 of us descended upon it to cool down for an hour!

We were staying with a local family. They had a separate wooden building beside their main home - which was a simple building, which had two floors. On the top floor, where we would all be sleeping in one large room, they had lots of thin matresses with mosquito nets over them - there was one for each of us. Simple lodgings, but perfectly adequate. After we returned from literally "chilling" in the lake, we sat down for dinner.

The food was really really good! Much like China - the food is simple - either a vegetable or meat stirfried with a few flavours but it's so good! We had noodle dishes, rice dishes, tofu dishes, chicken, pork - we had lots!

Lady of the house preparing dinner

After dinner we thought, in our naiivty, that we would have a couple of beers and hit the hay. Well, it seems the man of the house had different ideas! We were all just sitting around after dinner when all of a sudden out he pops with what look like two water bottles "Rice Wine - DRINK" he demands! Well we couldn't be rude, so as he lined up a shot for each of us, we just all looked at each other, and just took the shot! Trust me it wasn't nice - but hey at least we haven't been rude, and we all obliged! Oh well, as if that was it! Sure the second we drank it the bottles appeared again! Long story short - about 3 shots later we'd finally drank all his rice wine and he was delighted!! As for the rest of us - well it kicked us up a gear or two I'll say that!

Trekkin group - post rice wine

It was around this time that we started playing games! It was all fairly tame until Dai remembered this game he had played before - now I'm a bit hazy on the rules, but all I know is the forfeits were to get your face painted - with SOOT! It all went downhill from here... here's some photographic evidence...

Zara, Jill and Me

Yoni, Hien, Jason and Jill

Nobody escaped unscathed!

The night turned out to be such a laugh and the whole group got on like a house on fire! Still, we had more a-trekkin to do the following day, so I was...wait for it... THE FIRST PERSON TO GO TO BED...at 11pm! Well there's a first time for everything right...

The following morning, we woke up albeit tired, feeling good and looking forward to the day ahead. For breakfast, we were given pancakes with banana, lime and condensed milk! Oh yes that's one thing I should mention. In Cambodia, and throughout a lot of Asia - they don't use UHT or regular milk (never mind me and my skimmed wha!), they use condensed milk - in everything! So if you order a white coffee it will come with a blob of condensed milk sitting in the bottom of the cup and when you stir the coffee it turns it milky - and incredibly sweet! So although this seemed like an odd concoction of ingredients to have with pancakes we were plesantly surprised and used them to fuel the trek ahead!

As we set off on day two, the first 30mins were by far the toughest as it was all uphill - and steep! After this intitial climb, we trekked for a few kilometres through a bamboo forrest - which was acually a lot easier, as although what was udnderfoot was tricky at times and still steep, we were able to hold onto the trees for balance! When we emerged from the forrest we reached a waterfall. Because of the time of year there wasn't a lot of water but the views were amazing! Here's a few pics:

After getting to the top of the waterfall, we took a different route back and before you know it we were finished our trek. We had a simple lunch of Pho - Vietnamese dish of noodle soup with vegtables before a van came to pick us up and bring us back to Sapa town. We returned to the hotel where we showered before beginning the trek the day previously and freshened up before getting some food, and returning to Lao Cai where we once again boarded aan overnight train back to Hanoi. It was an amazing couple of days made better by a great group of people. Definitely something I'd recommend people making time for if travelling around Vietnam.