track our trek

after a yummy croque monsieur, chocolate croissants, and fresh ginger tea at baguette and chocolat, we headed back to our cozy little room...it was fairly early, but the place had shut down, & we were eager to get the fire going in our room, since the temperature had plummeted when the sun went down. back at the cat cat, our room was freezing! we huddled wrapped up in our sweatshirts and windbreakers, w/ fists balled in our pockets until one of the hotel staff came to light our fire. (obviously neither of us has any campfire experience!) unfortunately, the young lady either didn't have much experience of her own, or was preoccupied, b/c she put the entire bundle of wood into the tiny little fireplace & set it afire w/ a little petrol for accelerant! the fireplace was so small and the wood was so long that it hung halfway out of the opening, and before long our "cozy" little room was a smoke trap! we were coughing and wheezing w/ burning eyes! oy vey! naturally we had to open the door to let the smoke out, so what little warmth the blazing inferno was providing went right out into the night air! it was a nightmare! lol!
the next day, we went on a 5 hour trek to 3 ethnic villages. our guide, za, came from lao chai village, a h'mong village 8km away from sapa. the hike was quite a bit more difficult than we expected, but really fun! (the woman at our hotel had said "this one is easy...even old people do it.") we started out the walk on a paved winding road, then along the way, we stopped at a little pavilion where children were selling walking sticks...we declined, but quickly discovered why they were selling them there! lol!! when we left the road, the going got much rougher! i cannot imagine any old people picking their way across muddy, slippery rocks at the edge of rice embankments, or half walking, half sliding down those muddy trails! hard work, but the countryside is incredibly beautiful! at the end of our trek, za and i hopped on the back of one bike, and daryll hopped on another for the 30 minute ride back to sapa! apparently vietnam wasn't going to let me avoid conquering my fear of motorbikes!