Whilst in Hanoi, we decided to book on a trekking tour from Sapa.
The company we chose went out of their way to sell the service guarantee, which should have put us both off from the start.
The problems started from the moment we were being picked up, as they forgot about us until our hotel phoned them to mention that we had been waiting for nearly an hour.
We were then rushed through the streets of Hanoi, as we were cutting it fine for catching our train to Sapa.
Things got worse at the station, because we were meant to be stopping at their office first to drop our main luggage of whilst we were away for the trip.
No one seemed to think that it was a problem when we were asked to hand all our luggage to a man on a motorbike who we had never met before so he could somehow take it all back !!
After a long stand off, we were finally allowed to leave our gear with the taxi driver, who was told to drop it off at their office – He did as well !!
The train journey travelled through the night, so it didn’t feel like a long journey.
We were met at the station by absolute mayhem, with drivers everywhere trying to locate tourists from hundreds of different tour companies.
We finally found which bus was ours, and were driven the frightening journey through mountain roads in dense fog to Sapa.
We stopped off in Sapa at a hostel, where were allowed to shower before being picked up in a Russian jeep and taken into the mountains for the start of our trek.
The building behind the water buffalo is the hostel we stopped off at.
You can see how thick the fog was, which only seemed to worry the westerners when the bus was speeding its was here.
The route on the first day was a little hard to say the least.
We were taken along wet slippery mud routes that were made worse by the constant flow of animals coming towards you.
The picture below shows a water buffalo which was slipping on the way down.
We had to stand to one side whilst this thing was trying to climb around us whilst slipping at the same time!!
On the route to the first home stay, Alison picked up a local girl who helped her to keep her balance whilst walking across the edges of the rice fields.
Check out those authentic boots
You can see the thin embankments either side of the rice fields that we were made to walk along.
Not so much of a route, as a short cut !!
I noticed this whilst walking past a local house.
It turned out to be a rice still !!
There is a fire in the bottom, which heats the wooden container which has rice and water in it.
The dish on top has cold water in it to turn the steam back into liquid which then runs out of the tube and into the plastic container.
I tried some of this and can only describe it as rocket fuel
The local minorities are mainly self sufficient, making most things by hand.
Some minorities still dont use money, and continue to exchange rather than buy.
None of the clothes are for the tourist, they seem to wear the same traditional clothing no matter what work they are doing.
We stopped the first night in a home stay, which was a house made out of wood and bamboo.
Considering the surroundings, it was amazing how clean the room were.
It rained really hard in the night, so our guide decided that it would be better for us to take the road way rather than negotiate the wet mud.
What he didn't mention was that the roads were all unmade !
Most of the travellers that we have spoken to only did the 2 day trek, which is a shame as the would have gone back the same way on the second day as we did on the way here.
The extra day meant that we could walk further into the mountains where local people would take less notice of us.
The home stay on the 2nd night was far more rural.
The owner kept all their own live stock, most of which was free to roam where ever it wanted.
I am not sure how many of these there should have been, as pork was on the menu the first night.
We arrived at the 2nd homestay early, so our guide suggested that we double up with another couple and go for a short stroll with one of the other guides.
What he didn't mention at the time was that the guide was a trainee, and didn't know the area.
We seemed to be walking for ages, and when we questioned the guide he seemed to indicate that it was a round trip.
We didn't complain as we were meeting some really nice local people on route
The water has been diverted to power small motors which provide enough electric for a couple of lights
These are used to separate the rice from the husk.
The water flows in, fills up the scoop then quickly rocks back up.
The back of the big spoon hammers the rice
Our trainee guide took us through a village, where everyone was none too pleased to see us.
We all thought that something was wrong, but the guide just kept on going.
We finally came to a dead end by a local school, where the guide seemed to exchange some very quick words will one of the locals.
The next thing, we were being made to walk straight down the mountain and across more rice fields.
How the locals manage I will never know, as we were all struggling to make our way down the slopes and across ultra thin edges separating the rice fields.
We kept questioning our guide about the route he had taken, and he only listened when he finally slipped and fell into one of the rice fields.
We spent the next 30 minutes just trying to climb back up the slopes!!
By the time we made it back to the home stay, it was already dark
Our guide was none too impressed as we turned up, as it turned out that he has borrowed motorbikes to come look for us.
The trainee guide had taken us to a village which was out of bounds to tourists.
It seems that some time back some religious folk from the US had gone there to convert the locals, and things got out of hand.
Now the government polices who comes and goes, which could have meant for some hefty big fines had we been caught by the local police.
The kitchen at the home stay
The final day was spent walking back toward Sapa.
We were just about at the stage of regretting booking the tour when we arrived at a local bar where we were met by the Russian jeep again.
