22.2.23

I could have so easily opted out of today’s trek. It was cold and our clothes still haven’t dried out fully. Getting out of bed was hard.

We sat with Saffron, Josh and Nick at breakfast debating what to do. In the end it came down to whether our main bag would be delivered to our Sapa Hotel as no way we could carry that on a walk.

Ok.. They do take it to Sapa town and to be fair it’s not raining which was another criteria for not going.

Said our goodbyes, got talked into wearing wellies by Sassy and set off on the 3 to 4 hour walk to Sapa town.

It was not only dry but no fog, either hooray!

Unfortunately after an hour the fog was back, bringing with it a light drizzle.

The entire journey was uphill, but the wellies definitely made it much less slippy although somehow I have a blister on my left little toe.

Sassy was upset today, the happy water was out again last night and her father in law started a fight with her and tried to hit her. Her husband stepped in and he got hit. She said it’s so scary, especially for the children. It seems that no one gets involved when these things happen, it was difficult to understand what she was saying but I gathered that pride stops them alerting any authorities. So sad.

Today’s lunch was also included in our booking, we were all starving. Sassy took us to a very basic looking place near where we are staying.

It was such a relief to arrive in Sapa town, trekking was great but there can be too much of a good thing!

Ordered large bowls of beef noodle soup, although pretty sure it was pork. It was very good and we may well have lunch there before our bus back to Hanoi tomorrow.

Sassy came with us to our nearby hotel, left my wellies in the corner, said she was off to church and someone would come down with our bag on a motorbike and then take her home.

At the desk of Sapa Alley Hotel they had no record of our booking.

I found it and showed her. I’d booked for 2024 😂😂 We were just one year early.

The hotel was full, but their sister hotel, Heart of Sapa, a few doors away had a room, and is apparently more luxurious and they’ll charge the same price.

The bed was like a huge marshmallow and there’s air con, and a hairdryer.

I dried my hair, hung my soaking wet top on the curtain rail with the 1 coat hanger and John dried everything else with the hairdryer.

A short while later Sassy appeared with our bag and also my pac a mac from up the mountain. Big hugs and farewells, just loved Sassy.

We had walked another 1410 metres upwards today. It was really tough and I had to keep stopping to be able to carry on breathing.

It was so nice to feel dry so going back out into the drizzle wasn’t overly enjoyable.

We checked out where the funicular station is as we might go on it tomorrow.

There’s loads of shops selling genuine fake trainers, sports wear and North Face jackets.
We tried on some Salomon walking shoes, no idea if they’re genuine, the shop keeper simply said made in Vietnam.

The shops and restaurants are so blingy, it was like a mini Vegas.

There are loads of places offering massage and treatments, every other business is either a restaurant, bar,or hats, trainers and jackets shop.
We walked up to see the Church, that was blingy too.

I was really hungry by now and had a craving for something other than noodles.
We opted for a place with a special burger and a duck stir fry.
The burger was vile, it was like gloop mulched together with bits of carrot and had the strangest flavour.
The chips were gorgeous though as were my 2 Vietnamese coffees.
John enjoyed his duck.

The pavements were very slippery and it was nice to get back to the hotel.
We fell into the warm marshmallow bed and watched some more of Clarksons farm.I couldn’t get to sleep, mainly because of the coffees, but also there was a puppy squealing somewhere.
It was worse when it stopped as my imagination went wild.

Finally fell asleep but had the weirdest dream about Greta Thunberg. I wanted to keep her, she was so cute, but can’t remember any more than that.
The mud has rotted my brain.