Sappa, The jewel of Vietnam

Man alive have we been busy . We arrived back in Horrible Hanoi, from our cruise and jumped straight on the Orient Express Train... - destination Sappa... I tell you, this backpacking malarkey is a walk in the park ... After much jostling and total chaos and a walk across 10 railway tracks .. no platforms here, we finally found our carriage and our cabin , and were both praying it really was only for 2 as per our ticket... We had heard horror stories of the 4 berth cabin, with people smoking all night and on their phones and being charged for bunks they had n't used.. We were very surprised..  wooden panelled cabin with two single beds, duvet, pillow, fake vase of flowers.. Don't get me wrong it was no Pullman carriage but this is Vietnam and it was fine...After a fitful nights sleep !! ( kept thinking someone was going to gas me and steal my things ) even after Brian's complicated man trap he had set up , which involved a kind of cats cradle of string around the door... SAS training .. we arrived at Lai Cai and hopped in a bus to take us the 40 mins up the mountain !! a very hairy journey .... lots of S bends... a local girl in front of us was extremely bus sick !!! and I very kindly gave her my sick bag stolen from the plane , and gently slid the window shut ... didn't need that in my lap at 6am thanks very much .....

Anyway the journey was just eye watering.... felt like we had arrived in heaven, we were dropped off in town and hiked our way to our 4 star hotel ... followed very closely by two local village people ( no they were not doing YMCA ) but they were wearing some crazy gear !!! and carrying wicker baskets on their back.....they just follow you.... very very closely, when you stop they stop... they try and chat " where you from, how old are you " but thats about it..
Our hotel is like an Alpine chalet and or room has the most amazing vista over the mountains and valley which is stepped with paddy fields some 100 steps high... they look like a wedding cake all tiered and very lush green.. after the journey we relaxed on our balcony in the boiling sun, mooched around the town , with our new best local friends and booked a trek for the following day .... i love it here...

The next day with bottle of water we were ready for our 16 km trek .. I was really excited.. whilst we waited for the other two trekkers .. the village people made there move and were trying to befriend us.. the mini bus arrived to take us to the start and we were closely followed by 20 motorbikes with a villager on the back, wicker basket blowing in the wind.. we were in hot pursuit and I felt like easy meat for the predator ... When we got to the start before the door had even opened they made there kill.. they had already decided who was there victim, and two villagers per trekker were allocated... after ignoring them for 10 mins and trying not to step on them as they all jostled for position it was clear they were joining us for the whole 16km !!! once that had been established we all relaxed and they were great fun, there English was good considering they had never been to school and could not read or write... they told me loads of info on their village, life, farm and were a real help climbing up and down the paddy fields.. the trek was awesome.. paddy fields, waterfalls, suspension bridges.. they smiled and helped us the whole way.. I got Dong and Meung two lovely young girls.. Brian got fatty fatty boom boom and a toothless old hag who kept hoiking and spitting the whole way round, but he seemed entertained... He spent a lot of the time looking through his binoculars which the villagers had never seen before and when they had a go there faces were a picture.. we came to a group of boys and Brian let them have a go... there faces were a pure elation they spent a lot of time looking at the mountain which through the naked eye had never seen before.. it was a lovely moment. We carried on walking in the boiling heat through villages with pigs and chickens and water buffalo in the houses !!! many kids just playing with sticks and leaves , amazing .. it was fab ..

All the way the villages were picking flowers for us and making things out of grass and being an absolute delight, we knew the score and would have to buy something at the end, but for a few quid they were very much worth it... we bought from as many as we could and after an almost tearful goodbye we hopped in our bus with much waving goodbye and made our way exhausted back to Sappa... From being pesky bees at the start they turned the trek into pure honey.. I wish them good luck for the future in there very contented simple way of life..  Our last day in Vietnam and the best one ... Back to the hotel for a quick shower and the 10 hour journey on the sleeper train for our flight to Cambodia... Goodbye Vietnam..