How I almost died for real

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I took a trip with 2 guys from Texas to a place in Northern Vietnam called Sapa. It's a lovely place for hiking and to experience more rural, traditional Vietnamese culture. We were scheduled to take a nine-hour sleeper bus up to Sapa, get off and immediately hike to our homestay. Apparently, this sleeper bus also doubled as a mail truck, because my seat buddy was a car door.

The conversation was riveting

It was raining in Sapa but we chose to hike anyway. And it was definitely as beautiful as everyone said.

backpacks under poncho, let's get this trend going

Unfortunately the shoes I had brought didn't have very good tread on the bottom. That coupled with the accumulation of mud made it hard for me to even stand still without falling. The local women walking with us found this hilarious. Scratch that, everyone thought it was hilarious. 

I was having fun sliding around in the mud until we did a steeper climb with an actual drop-off in to the rice paddy fields on one side. I slipped and my legs were hanging off the edge of the narrow path, and I was holding on for dear life in the mud. My life literally flashed before my eyes. More specifically, I imagined the banana crepes I had been promised for breakfast the next morning. There was no way I was missing out on that just because of a pair of crappy shoes. Thankfully the guy behind me grabbed my arm and pulled me back onto the trail. After that the slippery shoes seemed more of a danger than an annoyance.

the only part of the hike where I didn't fall

Of course, the women and children walking the trail with us were doing so in order to promote their own handicrafts for sale. "You buy from me? You buy from me?" was all we heard at every rest stop. This was occasionally coupled with "you very beautiful!" or "you very handsome!" in order to butter us up and loosen our wallets.

"You buy from us?"

"I'll probably die here"

We got to the homestay for a delicious Vietnamese meal. The homestay was a lot more modern than I was expecting (the beds were nicer than my accommodation in Hanoi). Also, Sapa was about thirty degrees cooler than Hanoi so it was perfect sleeping weather. The matriarch of our hoemstay brought us traditional rice wine and we had a lovely night getting to know all of the interesting people on our trek.

The second day of trekking was a lot drier and sunnier than the first, so I only fell twice. And it was even more beautiful, if that's possible.

I'm adventurous, I do things

the true gentlemen who laughed every single time I fell

Sapa also had these really aggressive huge butterflies that would just come at you and land where they pleased. They weren't scared like they are in the US.

I do what I want

The waterfall I was too scared to climb down

We hiked back to the hotel where we all had showers and a really good meal. I also discovered that my t shirt tan was revolting. Then we took the nine hour bus back, arriving at 3:30 am. Overall, a breathtaking trip to a beautiful place. 10/10 would visit again.

Angela