Up Toppa in Sapa

After no sleep on overnight train...
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The overnight soft sleeper train from Hanoi dropped us red eyed and half asleep at the Lao Cai train station at 5.30AM.  We were immediately shuffled onto a minibus by a "minibus gangster", who after grabbing our backpacks off us demanded 200,000d/pp for the 35km bus ride to Sapa town.  The normal cost for the ride is 35,000d/pp, however, he knows that travellers aren't going to argue with him for fear of being left at the station in the seemingly middle-of-nowhere.  Something to watch out for if you're making your way to Sapa.

Charlotte and Thuyen
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Aside from the minibus extortion, everything else about Sapa was excellent.  We checked into the Lotus Hotel and scored a 130,000d penthouse room with a nice view of Sapa town and the surrounding mountains.  We grabbed a quick breakfast, booked our trek & homestay for the next day, and Charlotte caught up on some much needed rest while I had a wander through the Sapa town market.  The souveniers and stuff at the market were pretty cool: fabrics that are hand-died and woven by hill tribe women that would literally hike 7km up the mountain everyday to sell their goods.  What caught me off guard however was the meat selection.  It had your regular chicken, beef and prawns for sale, but also had dog, snake and other mystery meat for those that wanted something more affordable.  I passed on the dog but vowed to give snake a try before we leave the country. To end our first day, we rented a motorcycle and cruised down the mountain to get a better view of the rice terraces.  The roads weren't exactly roads and the guard rails were non existant -but the scenery was incredible. Unfortuntely we did not take any photos because we couldn't figure out how to get the camera out of the under-seat compartment (duh). We got some dinner at a great Vietnamese restaurant and got some rest before our hike the following day.

Malaria or hangover?

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Day 2 in Sapa was incredible.  We hired a guide through our hotel to take us on our trek.  She was 22 year old Thuyen, who gets mad props for being half our size and twice as strong and fit as either of us.  She led us down the rice-terraced mountains and through the valleys that are home to a few hill tribes in the area.  17km later we were sitting in the village of Ban Ho, in a seriously traditional Vietnamese bamboo-floored house with our overnight homestay family and Thuyen.  The dinner conversation was a bit awkward at times because they only knew a handful of English words, and we only knew "Happy New Year" in Vietnamese; however, after couple of bottles of home-brew rice wine and a peculiar-tasting fish-bone soup, we were all speaking the same language.

View from Lotus Hotel balcony
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At some point during her sleep, Charlotte accidently rolled off the floor matress and outside the mosquito net.  She was convinced that she had contracted malaria from the mosquito bites on her ankle, however, a cup of tea and a cigarette later we were pretty sure it was just a hangover.  We got a frightening motorbike lift back to Sapa from the homestay father and son.  No helmets and three to a bike is no way to go cruising up the switchback, deteriorating mountain roads. Two girls on a bike in front of us had their tires slip out from under them on a hairpin turn and were about 1m from a 200m drop-off...guess that's just the way they roll in Sapa.  We booked another overnight train to Hanoi (at another extorted price) and headed back to Lao Cai.