Sleepless in Sapa

Literally was one of those nights you don't feel like you slept at all. We shared a train berth with two others that we couldn't communicate with. It was already like 10-11pm so we pretty much went to bed once it started anyway. 

(Before the top bunk members joined us)

I fell asleep alright but was woken by a random, sketchy looking guy opening our door and peering in. He looked at our bags then at us and back at our bags. I think he saw the guy above me was awake and he shut the door. He came back like 10 minutes later and did the same thing. I asked him what he wanted, he probably didn't understand but just seemed shocked and closed the door. I was super sketched out so I slept hugging our valuables and didn't really fall back asleep. 

We made it to Lao Cai at 5:30 and met our driver. There were a ton of locals asking/hassling us to take their minibus to Sapa but luckily we didn't have to deal with that. It was about an hour drive from the station to our Homestay. It's somewhat smoggy from the burning they do of the forests (to use the land for rice) but it cleared up during the day. The landscape is gorgeous. 

(View from the hammock)

It's not the best lighting but I'll get you better pics tomorrow while we hike. We arrived and were welcomed by our host Andrew and he gave us the lowdown. They made us breakfast ($3) and we showered and took much needed naps. 

We woke up around 10:30 and walked into the village. It's cool because we're about 9km from the town of Sapa, so we're actually in a mountain village. There are local minorities (meaning one of the ethnic groups) that try to sell you stuff and if you buy from one of them, you will get a large group of them following you and hassling you. We were advised to just ignore them because it can be a headache to deal with. 

It's really weird just listening to these people and not responding at all. Definitely not in my nature, but I'll do it to avoid being taken advantage of as a tourist. Anyways, we walked through town and grabbed some snacks for tomorrows hike. 

We got back and did some much needed reading, hanging out, and soaking in the views. It's a bit colder here and I put socks on for the first time this trip. We headed down to play cribbage and were bombarded by this little one!

That's My (pronounced Me) and she's the owners daughter. A two year old that will steal your heart. We played with her and danced with her for probably an hour or two until dinner was served. It was a family style dinner with all homemade food. Yum. We got chatting with everyone else here and there are three other people from the west coast (Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria) and one from Minneapolis. Small world. 

Dinner was a super fun environment and good food. We chatted for a bit about everyone's travel and lives and then hung out inside. It is nice to get a break from the heat, but now I'm wishing we didn't ship back our sweatshirts and soccer pants. 

Sapa (or Ta Van to be specific) is a wonderful quit escape. The views are unbelievable and the ability to relax is amazing. We really have done the trip right so far by mixing in these calm days. Tomorrow we'll get back on the exercise wagon and hike up and down some mountains. We've done a lot of walking but not enough to make up for the eating of fried, and double fried foods. 

That's that for today, but more pictures to come tomorrow. 

"I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide. And everywhere I went, the world was on my side."

- Roman Payne