From the far

We finally made it to Sapa, in the glorious mountaineous region in the north of Vietnam near the Chinese border. It was a little bit of a struggle to get here due to a slight mix-up at our hostel last night when two English girls somehow accidentally instead of us got on our tour operator’s bus to the train station. Two and a half hours later, after waiting around at reception and asking where on earth our bus was, we finally figured out what must have happened. Our hostel had to call us a taxi to rush us to the train station. We got on the train and handed our new tickets with seconds to spare before the train pulled away. So much for an organised tour. We splashed out on this so we didn’t have to worry about organising it ourselves, but it’s almost easier when you do it yourself!!

Shared our beautiful cabin (complete with beautiful faux roses, and soft duvet covers) with a lovely Belgian couple on their honeymoon. They are hilarious and we spent the first four hours on board chatting away, which meant in the end we only got about four hours’ sleep. Oops, forgot that you are supposed to sleep on a sleeper. Wonderful moment early this morning when I got up to go down the carriage to the toilet, came back and a Vietnamese woman was being shooed away out of our cabin by the Belgian guy. In my absence she had cheekily sneeked it and laid on my bed to go to sleep!!

Sapa is lovely. Fresh mountain air. Stunning views in every direction. Steep steps of rice fields, lush palms, slooshing streams and tumbling waterfalls. We visited hill tribe villages this morning and now have the afternoon to explore Sapa town itself and enjoy the weekend market. Dog head on a silver tray seems to be in current first place for weird sight of the day… but it may not yet win. They eat some strange things in these parts!!

Scooby Snacks