"I step where you step! "

Back in Hanoi for the day after a three day trek through Sapa. An amazing yet tiring experience. After a 9 hour night train ride (which Kim loves, soo bouncy) and an hour bus ride our guide meets us at the summit of Sapa. She is half the height of Kim with hands dyed blue from making two articles of clothing for every member of her family for Tet. We start our downward hike to the first village where we will have lunch.  Immediately we are followed by two women and a little girl as we head off the road and into rice paddy land. Amid warnings from the guide of 'careful' the small child slips and slides down a small bank. Immediate laughter and a quick brush off and shes good to go again, if not a little embarassed. It is really amazing to see how industrious the people are. The creation of rice paddies along steep mountain sides is a long and arduous process. They actually move all of the soil around by hand using only shovels, bags and wheelbarrows. The first village is a real treat, lots of farm animals and cool homes.  We stop for lunch and are immediately swarmed. The ladies are really pushy trying to sell stuff but its the kids I have a really hard time saying no to. Sigh. After lunch we have another beautiful hike to the next village where we are to spend the night.

Our first night home stay is not quite what we expext... at first there is no one home and our guide breaks in. Then a lone man arrives who the guide promptly abandons us with. He is super shy and speaks no English. We try to be friendly but he won't stay in the same room with us. After playing musical rooms for a while we decide to leave him alone in the kitchen to make dinner. The kitchen consists of a stone floor with a fire pit and a hot plate for cooking on. First up as an appy is french fries made over the fire in a wok filled with oil and the are covered in fried garlic. Awesome.  He then received help from a teenage boy who appeared and they made fried spring rolls (a specialty in Hanoi), two stir fries (chicken and pork), tofu in a tomato sauce and fried buttered cabbage. Delicious. Several shots of happy water (rice wine) later and buddy is not so shy lol. But Kim is full and tired, we retire to bed at 7:30! First day, hiked 12 km.

We start out our second day in Sapa up early and have tea, crepes,  bananas (none for Kim) and sugar water. The guide arrives and they eat a Vietnamese breakfast of soup inside... hmm. I guess its expected that Westeners wouldnt want that for breakast. We head out on a super tough trek, all uphill it seemed. The views are spectacular but a lot of the time I spend focusing on where Im walking, following where the guide is putting her feet. "I step where you step Indy!" We arrive at the next stop at the top of a huge hill covered in sweat. Its tough to know what to wear because hiking is hard work but when we stop it is actually quite cold. Lunch is soup with cabbage and egg, still no meat on second day and as we head into out next trip we are both feeling pretty tired. 5 kms later both my ankle and knee are throbbing but the guides not stopping. How does she move so fast and easily while making hemp string for her Tet presents? I limp into the next village, God do I want a beer. Our first home stay is full so we have to find another. Our guide scrambles and locates another. They are not ready for us and horror of all horrors,  no beer! A quick run to the store by the woman of the house, grabs us beer but its warm. She switches them for cold ones at the original home stay. Ahhh. All is well. Dinner again is amazing, more happy water and then oddly they flick on the TV... some movie from China. I go to bed at 8, Kim is mesmerized by Chinese commercials. Second day, hiked 13 km.

Third day is started off with crepes and bananas again.  Seriously. I will need to mention it to our tour operater lol. We trek to the next village, me in flip flops donated by my hosts (it is misunderstood that Im sore from my past injuries and not blisters from my boots). I will lose them six times in the next few hours. We see more of the village and another exhausting trek uphill to visit a school. When we arrive back at the home stay for lunch it has been invaded by government workers. The youngest son had just gotten a job with the government and had to host lunch. We realize that they have butchered the neighbours dog while we were away on our trek. It is apparently a northern specialty that increases mens libido of course. Intrigued I check out the kitchen,  locate the dog stew. Looks and smells good enough. I think they just burn the hair off and then hack it into chunks. Im offered some and im interested but I just cant do it. We have a separate lunch of fried rice. Kim loses appetite. .. more fried rice for me. Definitely a weird moment all around.

Our guide (sorry her name is Chai, I should have mentioned that) gets super talkative after lunch. We learn they fear for their younger women as men from China come offering them marriage and wonderful lives if they come back to China with them only to sell them when they get there.  She also shares with us that her brother in law is addicted to opium and sold her sisters baby  for $500 to a couple in Hanoi. She is however confident that the child will have a better life there then in the village. I found it sad that she could see through the men from China but trusted that the Vietnamese couple existed.

After our chat we hike up the road, hop in a bus and say our good byes. It was a great experience on the whole, very interested to see it in a few years with all the road to construction we see on the way out. Im sure it wont be the same.

Back in the town of Sapa we shower (amazing) and have dinner before hopping on the night train where we both promptly pass out. Now just killing time in Hanoi before heading out to Laos tonight. Excited for more adventure.