Monday - 15 April 2013

Hi everyone!  Well big day today in Sa Pa and our last day here and back to Ha Noi.   We  were awake early after a cold and foggy night.  Heater on to keep us warm.  We had to check out of our hotel at 10.30 am and our train back to Ha Noi didn't leave until 9pm tonight from Lao Cai.  Sa Pa was very wet and very Foggy couldn't even see the streets.   What to do for 7 1/2 hours until we get picked up from hotel to go to the train station.  Wander around Sa Pa I guess.   Off to Le Gecko for breakfast and a big breakfast of Bacon, Eggs, fries and toast and a great Latte. That done it was off to the Tourist information centre to get a map to walk to Cat Cat Village.  Easy walk only 3 kms away or so we thought, typical of Rick and I took the long way and walked 6-7kms.  Anyway we got there ok after a couple of little hissy fits by me.  The scenery walking down to Cat Cat was awesome and it was all down hill into the valley.  Cat Cat Village is a small village with heaps of market stall and waterfalls, the H'mong tribe lives with a small school and lots of stall you can buy from.  The trouble is there are heaps of stairs to walk down and the market stalls are along those stairs, heaps of beautiful stuff to buy and lots of H'mong ladies following you through the village trying to sell you things, but that's ok they are very poor and need to make an income to feed their village.  We walked down all the steps and saw the waterfall and then back up the steps, not feeling real fit and having to stop to rest along the way.  Finally got to the top and stopped for a cold drink in the café.  Not feeling like the long walk back up the hill 3 kms to Sa Pa we hired a motorbike taxi and a young boy took both of us on the motorbike (3 on a bike) the 3 kms up the hill and dropped us off in Sa Pa.    The rest of the day we filled in walking around the town, stopping at a café here and there for Latte's and sitting in the park on the lake watching the local men fishing.  6 o'clock and it was back to the hotel to collect our luggage and get our transport to Lao Cai train station.  Its a beautiful drive coming down through the mountains of Sa Pa especially at night.   We arrived at the station at 7pm and couldn't board the train until 8.30pm.  We sat around in the car park and waited like everyone else.  Only complaint we have is all the sitting around trying to fill in time from the time you check out of hotel to you leave.  On the train and on our way to Ha Noi, glad its a sleeper train.   Will update again tomorrow after the train trip and back in Ha Noi.