Just keep walking!

Upon arriving in Sapa we have a nice hot breakfast in our hotel where we will not be staying until two night hence (to be explained later).  First this breakfast bears mentioning.  They had hot fresh banana pancakes with either pur honey or rich chocolate poured on top.  After lots of fried rice and noodles for breakfast, pancakes were heavenly.  By the way highly recommend trying pancakes with honey if you ever get the chance.  A quick shower was then very much in the plans and then repacking from large suitcases to smaller overnight bags we will carry. 

Yes that os right we are about to spend the next two days backpacking through the mountains getting very close to the land.  With backpacks and hiking boots ready we set off with our guide on our 17 km hike into the mountains. 

Without going through all the hills and streams of our journey I will simply relate the highlights from the 6 hour hike (keep in mind we are on vacation).  Along the road we were constantly approached by children and old women in native dress all trying to sell small homemade trinkets, bracelots or bags to these strange and wealthy hikers.  The kids all speak very good English asking about where we are from, our families and for me if I was married, in fact everyone is very interested how old everyone is.  I did not think much of this from the older kids until we ran across a white worker in the fields drenched in sweat and beating rice stalks to separate the rice.  Asking our guide if this tourist was just experiencing local life, we find out he was a tourist three months ago, ended up meeting a local girl whom he married and has worked in the fields ever since.  Note to self, I am now married with many kids at home, I am not equiped to work in fields out here.

Interestingly enough their houses or huts in the middle of fields on the side of the mountain usually have some type of generator for basic lighting, and oh yeah satellite tv.  Yes you read right they like to know what is going on and thus watch CNN, BBC and don't forget HBO and MTV.  This area is full of surprises.  A roof made of mud or in some cases just a tarp with satellite television.

Our climb was relatively easy in that there was no real rock climbing but we were all drenched in sweat, red in the face and exhuasted by the time we got to our homestay around 3:30.  What this is is an opportunity to sleep with the natives in a native style house.  Oh yes, not only do we get to take pictures of the homes on the trek or in the museum we now get to experience it first hand.  We join with 2 Korean girls, 1 Japanese girl, 3 Polish trekers and oursleves inside one fairly decent size hut.  This hut has two stories, all tourists on the second floor please.  Each bed consisted on a pad, two small throw pillows and an incredibly heavy but soft blanket all covered by a mosquito netting.  Each 'bed' was right next to each other 5 to a side all surrounding a central opening from the first floor.  It was very cozy and remarkably comfortable.

It did not take us more than a few minutes to change from our dusty clothes into swimsuits and jump straight into the river a short way away.  Ok maybe jump is not quite accurate, we gingerely waded in considering it was about the temperature of ice water in a restaurant.  (yes mom you get credit for going all the way in, crazy as it was to the rest of us). 

We soon join the rest of the groups out in the front yard around small card tables relating experiences and past trips in a mixture of languages.  Thankfully almost everyone spoke decent english since unlike all others it is the only language my family speaks (darn us arrogant americans) :-).  Soon the cold beers appear and is later followed by shots of 'heavy water' otherwise known as a very rough and burning form of sake.  Suffice to say a few hours later none of us were feeling any pain from the hike.  A highlight was being able to see stars in the night sky without the light pollution from cities.