7/4/16 Thurs: Reached Lao Cai stn early morning, and the driver from Auberge Hotel came to pick us up, and we waited at a eatery before all other passengers arrive, and we took the van uphill towards Sapa!
The sceneries ard were awesome~ and the air was so fresh! We were ready to check-into our rms on the 3rd flr...
We only had a while to put down our lugguages, and then had a simple but yummy chicken pho for breakfast provide by the hotel, and before we know it, our guides from Cat Cat village were here to bring us for our morning trek at 9.30am! *Little did I expect 6km for D1 and 12km for D2... a total of 18KM for both days of trekking in chilly Sapa and I'm only in my sneakers~*
It's so mesmerising, and we happily walked down to the home of the Black H'Mong ppl's. Sapa villages are at different heights, from 1200-1800m. *Came back to SG to realise there's actually cable car in Sapa...* Saw hand-woven mats, wild boar slping, kids playing ard, washed my hands with the mountain spring water. It got hotter towards the afternoon, and aft countless steps down, passing the Cat Cat Village and halfway thr, our guide Sol recommended us a scenic spot to take photos! LL was alrdy very tired, so she did not go over with us.
Soon, we were at the bottom, and I was so happily taking photos at Cat Cat waterfall, not realising the horror of having to climb back up again ltr... *Poor LL's legs were falling apart alrdy...* Watched some trad dance performance thr and i was tempted to try the bamboo dance onstage, but I was lazy to remove my sneakers la.
Aft 4km of trek, we couldn't take it anymore, and esp LL was too tired to move on. There were motors and cabs waiting to take visitors who can't make it back to the top via walking, and so we shared a cab (VND 120,000) to "fly" us back to our hotel lol.
Went into a restaurant juz opp, and I tried their Choco milkshake for VND 45,000... very sweet.
Took a wefie with Sol, a very young guide and mum and we had lunch at the hotel! Kinda重口味though.
LL was worn out, and she opted to slp-in while Jess and I went exploring the neighbourhood in the afternoon. Gosh Sapa is so beautiful, and the weather was cooling! *I rmb one guide said there are 7million ppl in Hanoi, and 6million own bikes.*
Jess and I took a look at the diff trekking routes on the map, and I felt like we were gonna "commit suicide" when we saw the one leading down to Ta Van village... difficulty lvl was high! Just look at whr Cat Cat (whr we went juz now) and Ta Van (we're gg the nex day) was... :x
We went into this convenience shop to buy 5L of mineral water (VND 14,000), and the friendly lady boss recommended us for dinner at Nha Hang Com Hoa Dao. She could speak fluent mandarin. Aft "recharging", LL joined us for dinner! *Lol I dunno why but I said "thank you" in thai to a street food vendor and he laughed lol!*
So as to prepare ourselves "for the worst" tmr, we ordered 1KG of salmon (2 fishes) and other veggies (VND 220,000) for steamboat! Loved their maggie hehe~ Went for a short stroll at night aft tat. Was playing ard with my Olympus cam for some close-up shots, and bought two postcards for VND 20,000.
It was pitch dark when we turned off the lights in our rm at night, and no fan nor air-con was needed even!
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