High in the hills…(in Vietnam)

And just for a change of scenery, here are some pics of my trip to Vietnam last year.  Most of these are from the trip north to Sapa where we went on an overnight hike and stayed in a homestay where much rice wine was consumed.

view from below - we'd been at the top just minutes earlier

terraced rice paddies near Sapa

curious local kids at the window

river flowing through a village close to Sapa

Vietnam was beautiful, my pictures don’t really do the scenery justice (though they’re not to bad by my standards).

Vietnamese rice wine is lethal

Today we completed our trek in Sapa.  Considering last night’s efforts on the rice wine, today’s shorter trek was actually seemed harder.  Yesterday we walked about twelve kilometres up and down mountain sides.  I’ve got lots of pictures of terraced rice paddies, one of which I actually managed to stick one of my feet in this morning when I overbalanced.  Who says altitude, a cold and the after effects of serious drinking don’t mix?  The homestay was lovely but between ten or eleven of us we managed to polish off over two litres of the local home brew.  Much merriment followed (as did pictures). 

It’s quite cold up here in the mountains and almost all my warm clothing now has mud on it.  It’s also not a relaxing experience trekking in northern Vietnam due to the fact that each group usually ends up with nearly double the amount of people trekking when the local ethnic women decide to tag along and occasionally try and sell you stuff.  They can be quite persistant.  Tonight we catch the night train back to Hanoi and a number of the group leave over the next two days as the tour ends.  I’ve got a few more days in Hanoi so will have to decide if I’m going to be lazy and stay in the city, or think about doing a day trip somewhere.

You buy, You buy…

I’ve now been to Ha Long Bay.  We had a lovely overnight cruise on the bay on fantasticweather.  The boat we stayed on is like a floating hotel so each room had twin beds and and ensuite (yeah we’re totally roughing it).  Because it was sunny we were able to sea kayaking and swimming in one of the sheltered harbours.  I had a great time exploring on the kayak and the swim was good, if a tad chilly.  It was definitely one of the best boat trips we’ve had on this trip (along with the Mekong Delta). 

After we returned to Hanoi for a few hours, we boarded the night train for Sapa.  The train actually goes to Lau Cai and you catch a bus to Sapa – it’s about an hour away.  It’s lovely up here in the mountains again.  A bit hazy and cool but sunny weather all round.  A few hours after we got in from the train we all went on a couple of hours hike to the bottom of the valley (and back again) to visit an ethnic tribal village (and see a waterfall).  I suppose it’s good practice for the overnight hike tomorrow.  Sapa has quite a few tourists which means that many local tribeswomen come up the valley to wander around town selling you things (mostly bags).  Every time you leave the hotel – you buy, you buy; where you from?; what’s your name?  Never tell them maybe later because they will remember you.  Nevertheless there are some lovely things for sale in Sapa, so I’m definitely going to do some shopping before I leave.