May 17th. We arrived in Sapa to torrential rain and were in no mood to go hiking.However, we had breakfast and prepared ourselves. We then got a call to say that our trek had been postponed to the afternoon.Great, the gods were with us, as the weather cleared and off we went. Sapa is so beautiful, it is in the very north of Vietnam, close to the Chinese border.It is populated by a series of hill tribes,who all speak different dialects, have different customs and different national "costumes". They grow rice on the terraced hills and of course, make goods to be sold to tourists.After the trek,which was only a couple of hours long, we walked back through the local market. I saw a load of meat for sale and wondered what it was, then I saw the skull of the animal and realised that it was dog. Not something that I needed to see!Betsy and I then retired to a bar with Ben and Karen, a couple we had met on the hike.
The next day we went on a full day hike to a different village along the valley. It was a beautiful walk,everything is so lush and green.There was a lot of rice planting going on and it is really humid. Afterwards it was back to the hotel for a shower, but you never feel really clean or dry.
Then it was another night of insomnia on the night train and back to Hanoi.