colin northcraft's blog

wow sapa was amazing but for some reason bloger wont let me post any oft he increadible pictures i took. they are all on facebook if you want to lok there. i did a three day tour with three australians. we spent one night in a hotel and one night in a homestay in a little village outside of sapa. we took the overnight train to lo cai a town on the chinese border and then caught a bus the last two hours up the mountain to sapa. we arived at our hotel that had promised the best veiw in town but it was too foggy to see anything. that day we went on a smal hike to the nearby village of cat cat and saw the waterfall there. the next day was a more serious hike. we woke early and had breakfast at the hotel; it was still to foggy to see more than a hundred feet. our guide met us and we began walking out of town on the road. after a couple of miles we stopped at a small rest area were little girl were selling bamboo hiking sticks. i scoffed at them, "i dont need a stick." but after looking over the edge at the trail head i took that back. i bought a stick for 5000vnd and began the long slippery hike down the muddy trail. with the help of a 53 year old hmoung woman i was able to keep my feet under me and my ass of the mud which is more than i can say for most of the westerners out hikeing that day. once we reached the valley floor i found a shop i a little village selling rubber galloshes, the prefered footwear of the locals, and that made the rest of the hiking much easier. we stayed the night in the home of a local tribal family and in the morning the fog had lifted enough for us to look up at tghe giant mountain we had desended the previous day. that day we hiked up to a water fall and through the terraced feilds on trails so muddy and slick and narrow i couldn't help but wonder if anyone had ever fallen of the side and died. but it was all worth it for the increadible scenery.
that night we took the overnight train back to hanoi. i spent the next few days walking around that beautiful city until the rest of the H2H riders arived on sunday night. we have been on the road for three days now and i am really enjoying the ride.