I arrived into Sapa and saw the view from my hostel and went straight to the reception desk and extended my stay extra two days. The mountains and valleys were just like the photos I had found an the vibe at the hostel was friendly and chill. I made friends with a finnish girl who had taken the mongolian expressway through russia/china down into asia and my eyes grew bigger as she told me about it. Fuck. I have to do this.
I settled into some food and a walk around the small mountain town and then spent the rest of the evening gettin to know the other travelers and comparing notes on locations to visit and how to get there. I meet about 10 new people a day. It’s always the same list of questions, “where you from, how long are you traveling, where did you go/where are you going?”.
We left early the next morning for our hike through the valley and I knew I had signed up for the longer trek but no one could really tell me what exactly the itinerary was. Our guide was a local and we were joined by a few of the woman from the black hmong tribe that live in the valley. They assisted us down the mountain in their sandals and packs and we struggled in our tennies and trainers over the rough unfamiliar terrain. My pockets were full of candies and I as glad I had the forethought to do this as we passed so many kids along the way. 24 km for the first day we started at 8:30am and arrived to our homestay at the top of a mountain around 5:30pm. My group I am with all met in Thailand and their paths kept overlapping so they booked this trek together. I was the odd man out and easily 8 years older. Our host family spoke almost no english but they thanked us for coming by doing shots of rice wine with each of us and shaking hands afterwards. They had prepared the most amazing dinner and joined us while we played drinking games the rest of the evening. I took polaroids of the kids and the mom went and got their traditional outfits out and get them dressed for one more. The morning was rough post drinking and had we known what we were in for on this day we may not have drank at all. 1.5 hours straight vertical climb up the side of the muddy rough path to the top of the mountain. My phone says it was 115 floors. I was cussing the last 10 minutes and every single one of us was soaked through from swet at the top. Once we got the the village on the other side we had another amazing meal and then van took us back to our hostel in SaPa. I was so beyond exhausted I lounged around the rest of the day. I even treated myself to a massage that was so odd that I can’t even.. hahaha…
I got back into Hanoi with the mindset that I would catch up on emails and prepare a few things for the next coming weeks. I showered, grabbed my note book and phone and set out of the hostel to find a quiet cafe somewhere. I heard my name being called and turned to find irish clark kent and a buddy sharing a beer at the bar I was passing. I joined them for one and told them about my trek and next thing I know we are headed to the next bar for another and a few other expats join us. It’s midnight now and the cops come and shut everything down. We head to a local bar called toms where they pulled down the garage doors and make it look like the place is closed as we have a few more beers and dance for a while. Danny and Guido invite me to join them on a ride in the morning. They want to get out of town for some fresh air and their is a national park called Ba Vi about 1.5 hour away. I happily accept and we agree to meet up in the morning and head out.
