Happy Birthday Sean!

We had heard Sapa was known for its incredible scenery and our hopes were up staying at the 'Stunning View Hotel', but luckily it didn't disappoint. After travelling for so long to get here and then having to wait 6 hours to check in, we couldn't wait to get to our rooms. Unfortunately the first room we got was on the side right next to a building site so a lot of the view was blocked and it was incredibly noisy. The hotel was full that night but they were happy to give us a different, much nicer room for the following 2 nights at the same price. We've found most hotels to be quite accommodating in this way, often we've been given much nicer rooms than we had originally booked or extra nights at discounted prices.

Breakfast with a view

After finding a huge cockroach crawling around our bags that night, then losing it, then finding a giant spider whilst looking for the cockroach, we couldn't wait to get to the other room.

The next day the weather was horrendous. It none stopped rained pretty much all day, making the visibility almost zero over the hillside, so our plans to do a trip were postponed for a day. It was Seans birthday the following day so we desperately wanted to do something, luckily the weather picked up so we booked one of the tours to see the amazing rice terraces that cover the hillsides and explore 3 of the local villages.
Quick side story - All throughout Sapa are these local village women and children who constantly start conversation asking your name, where you're from, and if you're shopping. They're very very persistent and often follow you as you walk to try to get you to buy something from them. It quickly becomes very annoying when they literally don't leave you alone and no longer than a minute after you leave one woman another will start the same dance again.
So you can imagine what we were thinking when we started our trip and a whole group of women started walking with us, asking our names and where we were from. We began the steep descent down the hillside and it turned out to be much more of a hike than we expected, and because of all the rain the ground was so incredibly slippy! A lot of the hillside is clay as well so when it was wet, it was impossible to get a grip on to. It turned out to be so funny as our irritation of being followed quickly changed to being so thankful these women were there! They must do these walks multiple times every day up and down the hillside from their village to the town, so not once did we see any of them slip, but as soon as they saw everybody in the group beginning to slide around in the mud they were so helpful and would quickly grab our hand to balance us and help us down. The majority of the group were girls our age and younger so you can imagine how much help was needed. Saying this, even Sean was like Bambi on ice as his shoes had zero grip. It turned out to be so funny just watching everyone sliding all over the place but it was such hard work. We stopped for lunch for an hour, at which point the women made their moves trying to sell their handmade crafts. During this time it started chucking it down making the next half even harder. How we didn't end up completely covered in sloppy mud was a miracle! Although Sean did end up with a nice splodge right on his bum and I almost lost my trainer at one point. The next part was through a bamboo forest and then a steep climb back up the hillside to the bus back to the hotel.

That evening we were about to go out for dinner when the receptionist at the hotel desk as us to sit down to talk about some of the trips. We thought it was quite stange but did so anyway. We had been talking for afew minutes when suddenly afew of the other hotel staff started singing happy birthday and brought out a whole birthday cake for Sean and even iced his date of birth on it! We were so surprised. They then insisted we all sat around together and had a piece. 

Right next to Sapa, is the highest point in Vietnam, Fansipan Mountain. We'd heard that you could do a 2 day trek up, or for the brave you could do it in one day. We weren't even considering it as it was too expensive for us both and I really didn't fancy it anyway but Sean loved the idea of doing it in a day so he decided to use some of his birthday money and go for it. 

Over to you Sean...

Thanks for that kind introduction there Alex. Hi there, Sean here speaking. So at 5 in the morning I was picked up from the hotel, legs still aching from yesterday's hike. After a short drive to the base of the mountain, 9 of us were ready to tackle it. At first it started off as a nice trek, walking through the woodlands and rivers with little climbs here and there which was a bit of fun but it was unfortunate that it was raining already. After 2 hours of this steady trek we hit the first camp where people stayed if there were doing the mountain in 3 days. We were all happy to carry on and things soon started to get harder. The inclines were a lot steeper and more frequent. This carried on for about an hour a a half until we got to the second camp where we stopped for food and a little breather. Blisters stared to appear on both feet at this point :/ We were all freezing from being wet through, especially one guy who only brought a vest along. Wall set off again and after an hour or so fatigue stated to kick in. Luckily some of the others started to feel it before hand so I didn't look like the one who we had to stop for. Blisters hurting, sweating when moving, freezing when stopped, shattered, raining still, slippery, everything just felt a million times harder. Eventually we made it to the top to find 300 plus steps which we had to climb. As we were walking up the people who caught the cable car up seemed to find it amusing seeing 9 tourists climbing the stairs wet through, dirty and struggling. When we got to the top we all got a picture with the plaque and collapsed to the floor for a rest. We then had a choice either take the cable car back down, which took 20 minutes and $30, or enjoy a lovely hike all the way back down. So me being as tight as I am decided to take the hike (plus I seem to love doing stupid things). Turns out only three of us took this option. It was a lot easier to get down than up but my legs just didn't have any energy left and my blisters had turned into small gashes on the side of my feet. I just cried to myself at the back thinking why didn't I just take the cable car. But all was not lost, eventually the end came into sight and we were awarded with medals! Oh how we felt like heroes! Heroes that could no longer move.

Food then bed.

Back to the studio Alex.

The next day we were saying goodbye to Vietnam and moving on to Vientiane, Laos. We had to get 2 buses, totalling around 24hours. Reviews online called it the journey from hell but we really didn't find it bad at all, probably one of the best we've had actually.

:)