Vietnam Day 5: Sapa (Part 1)

We woke up at around 7 am and were packing our backpacks as we were having our last day in Sapa. While Terence and Gs were in their room packing their stuff, I headed over and took a photo of the eerie painting. (I sent the photo to Ks yesterday night and my internet connection was disconnected on its own for a short while, then after Ks saw and deleted the photo, his fish tank lamp flickered.) Thus, i decided not to post the close-up shot of the painting or portrait on my blog in case something bad happens. I had a total of 2 bad dreams involving the portrait of the beautiful woman already. Those who are curious can request the photo from me.

Anyway, the room was not so scary in the morning as the windows were very big and it was very bright.

The nice view of the mountains from my hotel room

We had our breakfast and headed to the lobby to wait for Sunny, our tour/trek guide.

Ethnic minority girls

At around 9.30 am, we set off to the mountainous region again. We headed in the other direction and trekked and trekked. I took an umbrella to shelter myself from the scorching sunlight as my arms and neck were sunburnt already. My scalp was also a little sunburnt as my spikey and short hair did not provide my scalp with too much protection from the sun. It was the first time my scalp hurts!

A resort or village houses for tourists to stay

Group photo

Undulating

After about 45 minutes of trekking, we stopped at a shop to take a toilet break as well as to rest for a short while. The weather was quite hot and we were sweating quite a lot even though we were in the highlands.

After the 15 minutes break, we were asked by Sunny if we want to take the easy route or the difficult route. My next question to her was which route is more picturesque. She replied the difficult route and we embarked on our arduous trek downhill.

Some of the slopes were slippery and rather steep. Some of the paths were rocky and it was difficult to find firm ground. We were all looking at the ground instead of the scenery as it was rather dangerous if we fall down and roll down the rocky slope!

Caution must be exercised

I had to keep my umbrella as it was safer to keep both my hands free in case i fall down. Poor Terence slipped about 2 or 3 times while on the slippery slope but he sat on the ground so luckily nothing bad happened.

The scenery was gorgeous indeed

Lovely river

After about 2 hours of the difficult trek, we had a rest stop by the riverside. There were people swimming in the river to cool themselves down from the hot weather.

Swimming in the river

We recharged our energy by drinking lots of water as we sweated buckets. After half an hour, we continued on our trek and we entered close terrain.

Tiny trails and steep slopes

Before we trekked uphill, the trek was a little dangerous and rather tiring. When we were trekking uphill, it was more exhausting but slightly less dangerous. We trekked uphill and upstream to a village house where we were going to have our lunch.

By the riverside

We reached the house and had our lunch there. It was prepared by our tour guide which included eggs, bread, cucumbers and watermelons.

Showing off our sunburnt arms

Cat by the river

To be continued...

End of Part 1 (7 am to 2 pm)