Sapa

Our final destination in Vietnam was Sapa, and after another customary overnight bus ride we finally got there. Poor old Rose arrived a slightly different person though, as she had to endure a Vietnamese man pleasuring himself all night on the neighbouring bed. Luckily we escaped that one! Sapa is infamous for its stunning scenery, with hills rolling on top of each other for as far as the eye can see, all layered with mini paddy fields.

Paddy fields 

Grass Horse

From the moment we stepped off the bus it was pretty clear that Sapa was even better than the pictures we had seen. Si, the best guide ever, greeted us off the bus and we started our two day trek into the rolling hills. The group consisted of about 7 tourists and 10 locals 'assisting us' (later on they took the baskets off their backs and tried to flog us all the items they had been carrying). But Si was a different kettle of fish and told us all about the local customs and her native tounge.

Awesome foursome

Si

We trekked for a couple of hours before we stopped off at a local haunt for some lunch. Kids swarmed around us trying to sell bracelets. We all felt great for bargaining the kids down from 10,000 kip to 1,000 kip for a bracelet each. We felt pretty great, that is, until we realised that we had given them a meagre 3 pence! So we ended up buying about ten each to make up for it.

Piggy-back

Yummy...bacon

The best part of the trip was just about to start, as we were all staying at a local home stay with a family. There were about 17 people staying with this one family and they cooked dinner for all of us. The absolute icing on the cake were their three children, and more specifically, Bo.

Bo

The cutest child in the world

They were the most content and happy children we have seen since we've been away, playing with all of us and demanding that we pick them up and swing them around in intervals. They made the house we were staying at really feel like a home. After a scrummy dinner and a few shots of whatever they handed us, we headed to bed.

Sunset over the paddys

Waking up in one of the most beautiful places in the world was only made better by the fact that the kids all still wanted to play. Bo was loving Kat's Fray-bans and Imy's flat peak.

We started off on our second day with not a lot of walking to do really and that left plenty of time for everyone to make the most of the beautiful waterfall. Kat, wasting no time, was in there like a rabbit on heat. We then made our way to Si's home town where we finished the tour with noodle soup and a fried egg floating in the middle. Delicious.

Nice view

Mesmerising 

After such an incredible couple of days, we were dreading having to get back on the night bus but little did we know what was in store for us. The warning signs were raised when we saw the public masturbator boarding our bus. When we got on the bus, the driver demanded that we had to sit at the back, we didn't really want to as he was forcing the point quite hard. When we refused, he started to smack Imy's bottom and grab Kat's arm. To avoid any more hassle, we did as he wanted and got to the back. It really wasn't  that bad, with lots of room and a bit of privacy we thought we had done quite well! Then the bus started filling up until there were no more seats available. The bus driver slowly made his way down to us with a local in tow and a sheepish look on his face. He pointed at the 20 cm of space in between Rose and Imy and without so much as a glance in our direction, ordered the man to squeeze between us. Imy was just lucky that the little Vietnamese dude wanted to cuddle up with Rose instead. It was safe to say another horrendous night of limited sleep ensued.

Back to Hanoi. Next destination Laos, Luang Pra Bang.