19.2.23
Our alarms went off at 5.30am.
We had a message last night to say meet at 6.30am at 26 Hang Tre for the bus to Sapa.
I had booked from Hanoi SSB as close to our hotel and we’d even checked out where it is.
Hang Tre is an additional 15 minutes walk.

Left our cases with the guy on the front desk at Keypad Hotel.. as we’ll be back there after our trip to Sapa.

Arrived at bus meeting point at 6.30am, loads of people there.
20 minutes later a young tour guy turned up.
2 buses, 1 long sheet of names to call out amid noisy traffic made the boarding situation slower than slow.

One bus filled, we had to walk a little further along the road to get on the 2nd Sapa Dragon travel bus, not Daiichi travel which is what we had booked.

Shoes had to be removed before getting on the bus.
More than once the guide trapped himself on the inside of the bus meaning he couldn’t call anymore names out until the people had finished removing their shoes.

It was a sleeper bus. 😳

A great idea for anyone under 1.50m tall, which we’re not.
To start with my bags were scrunched into the foot part meaning my knees were almost around my neck.
The ladder to get up into the top bunk was fun.
Top tip.. Get a bottom one and find somewhere for your bags. Clearly hanging them on the little hooks with the coat hanger symbol was wrong as Mr Bus Organiser stroppily took it off and plonked it on my lap 😳

We set of finally around 7.30am.
I was hoping for nice scenery shots, but it was all carriageway and grassy banks.
So I watched some more of The Apprentice instead and John had a snooze.

We had a 20 minute stop.

We had to choose a pair of slippers and stand on a blue box to put them on. Johns fitted like a glove.

John waddled off to the toilet looking as if it was already too late.

He then got some horrible rice, and we both had iced coffees. I’d sneakily eaten a packet of biscuits on the bus, ignoring the no eating sign.

A fair bit later, another stop. We decided the drama of dismounting from and re mounting to the seat wasn’t worth any potential gain and stayed put.

I messaged our Sapa taxi to let him know we would arrive in 15 minutes, at 1pm. 3 times he asked for location, 3 times I sent it and he still didn’t arrive until 1.45. Meanwhile I met Meka, a wonderful Hmong lady with the most amazing smile and the cutest giggle. Despite looking like a teenager she told me she’s 33 and told me all about meeting her husband on the street and marrying him 3 days later, 15 years ago, and all about her 3 children. I was amazed how good her English is. She has never been to school. She said she would come to our home stay at some point so that we could buy a souvenir from her. She even made me pinky promise that I wouldn’t buy from anyone else.

The taxi driver spent most of his time reading on his phone along roads which were very unfinished, bendy and muddy up to the Zizi & Mekhoo homestay and then it was a very steep uphill climb.

Our room was allocated by a very miserable looking woman, not what I expected after the rave reviews.
It was on the ground floor and had a doorway leading to some pebbles which lead to a communal bathroom. I counted 9 toothbrushes in the bathroom. I don’t remember reading about a shared bathroom, but whatever.

We sat outside and chatted with various people, very multinational, friendly and interesting.
We played rummicub in between chatting or playing with the puppy and the rest of the dogs.

Dinner was around 7pm and the room was packed.

The food was great, one portion of everything between 4 people, so much of it and some nice chat with some Australians.

They were telling us that a 115 year old lady from the village died and all those staying at the Home stay had been invited to the celebration of her life.
2 buffaloes were killed using an axe, chopped up and boiled
There was only buffalo to eat and they were there most of the day and evening so they had to join in and had no idea which part they were eating. The rice wine came out and they all got very drunk.
Some of the villagers were apparently still staggering at 3am. They all agreed it was a surreal experience and they are glad they were part of but as they ended up with bad heads they missed out on 2 days that they had planned to go trekking!

We sat out until about 9pm, by which time it was very cold..
cold through to our bones.

The house rules say that everyone must be in bed by 10pm. I couldnt imagine that happening but sure enough by 10pm it was silent.

It wasn’t too long before it felt warm enough to risk changing into pjs and we were really surprised at how warm we were.
Certainly a very different experience!

Trekking starts tomorrow.

Eeek. Seeing some of the others coming back has me worried.

Maybe they’re being over dramatic?