From 10/24
We rented a moped today so we woke up early to make the most of it. We ate a quick breakfast and headed into Sapa. The beginning of town was pleasant, but once we got into the main part of town we didn't really like it.
There was a lot of construction and a lot of people. We were pumped we didn't book a place right in town because it wouldn't be that relaxing. At any rate we stopped at a copy shop and I sold them a copier quick. Haha jokes. We just printed off our train tickets
We headed to the market to check out some stuff and maybe get lunch. This market was a lot smaller and had a lot less diversity than other markets. It is a smaller town so it makes sense, but I had high hopes for Sapa. We looked at the crazy food/dead animals and wandered through the goods. Al got some bracelets and I burnt myself on a lighter. It looked like a flashlight in a gun shape. I played with it and it had a laser pointer for the trigger, and I clicked the reload thing and it torched my fingers.
It isn't actually that bad but it killed! Probably another reason I didn't like this market. Also everyone says "buy from me" and "you buy something" - I wish they understood English so I could tell them that won't work. As soon as you say that I'm NOT going to buy something from you. I prefer the quiet ones that don't need to hassle you to get you to buy.
Anyways, we headed to find a coffee shop and somewhere for lunch. I got to ice my hand finally and it made a world of a difference. After filling up with some noodles we hopped on the moped and headed towards the waterfall. After the big waterfall in Luang Prabang we always set the bar low for waterfalls. It's hard to beat that massive waterfall with all the beautiful layers.
The drive in this area was beautiful, but it was fairly foggy and cloudy. Pictures are impossible to take but the mountains are amazing. The roads here are kind of crazy. They don't have guard rails and there are sections the end of the road is literally a drop off. Needless to say anytime another car came we pretty much stopped. I'm not trying to get bumped off a cliff.
We made our way up and down the steep mountain roads and got back to our Homestay safely. Since we had been sitting down the entire day we decided to go for a run. It was about 6km of all up and down. We definitely looked like outsiders with our white skin and our exercising. Not many people go for casual runs there, I'm guessing partially because their jobs entail a lot of physical work. Regardless it felt amazing to get some endorphines (maybe spelled right?) and move around. We got our favorite banana chocolate shakes on the way back.
We played some cribbage until dinner. This time it was a smaller group: us, a Swedish couple, and one Chinese guy. We had some great conversations about gun laws, refugees coming into Sweden, and government. According to our unnamed Chinese friend, the Chinese government can kill people and get away with it. He compared it to House of Cards and said it actually happens.
Our Swedish friends also had some corn wine, which is essentially liquor. The guy had some petty good peer pressure tactics and got all of us to have a shot or two. It was fun to have dinner with a smaller group and really get to know them a little more.
After another delicious dinner we headed off to bed. We were looking forward to tomorrow and planned to do one last hike. However, taking one last bathroom break before bed we found a cockroach climbing on the INSIDE of our bug net! What the eff?!
We were seriously freaked out, and surprised I didn't pee my pants, but opened the door and had to think what to do. Our Chinese friend was sleeping in the main room and asked what was going on. He joined in on the fun/horror. I grabbed some shorts to grab the cockroach and threw the shorts in the main room. We were all standing there and our Chinese friend (I wish I remembered his name) moved the shorts. It wasn't there...
Totally freaked out at this point I knew the cockroach was outside our bed. I climbed into the bed and quickly tucked in the bug net to make sure it couldn't climb up it from the ground. As I was lifting up the mattress the bug started crawling again! It was under our mattress AHHHHHHH! Wtf?!
I put the mattress down and ran around in circles. Our friend gave threw me a towel to grab the bug with. We counted to three and lifted up the mattress. I grabbed the squirmy cockroach and wrapped the the towel. One of the hosts woke up and helped us open the door and throw it out off the balcony. We saw it crawl away and took a breath, but then ANOTHER COCKROACH crawled out of the towel we used?! Whatttt? Why??
Literally scared to death we got back into bed, unsure if we would ever actually fall back asleep.
That is a completely candid picture I took and it perfectly describes how we were feeling after all the commotion. It was terrifying. Never again. We did, however, proceed to laugh at this picture for the next 10 minutes, which made us feel a little better.
We both had to read for a bit to get our minds off the bugs, but eventually fell asleep. Terrifying night, but were alive to tell the story.
Pray for no more cockroaches.
"If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home."
- James A. Michener
...James forgot to mention the bugs...
Yikes!
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