Budget trip to Northern Vietnam

Day 8

We got on to the SP1 overnight train which turned out to be pretty comfortable. We had booked two beds in a 4 person cabin,which we luckily got all to ourselves.

The ride was comfortable, although I didn't get much sleep. We reached the next morning at 5.30am at Lao Cai station, from where we took a minibus at 50k VND per head to Sa Pa. At SaPa, while we  had some much awaited breakfast,  a guy from our Airbnb showed up on a motorbike to transport our bags to the homestay in Ta Van village, which was 12km of scenic hiking away. With only water bottles and rain jackets, we set off, taking in the scenery. Unfortunately for us, the rice has recently been harvested. So although it was beautiful, we missed the green and yellow fields I love. There was a heavy downpour about halfway through and by the time we got to our stay, we were both tired and not in a mood to trek further.  

That night,  we had a common dinner at our homestay with all the other travelers.  We had lots of food and beer and good conversation. 

Day 9

The next day at SaPa, we woke up early and after a quick breakfast we decided to hike around the surrounding hills. We did not hire a guide,  however we were followed around by a little Hmong woman almost the entire walk, even though we told her multiple times we were not going to pay her. We were lucky to get sunny weather the whole day. We hiked near a lake, a dam, and over some rice fields. There was so much mud,  and we were thankful that we came in open sandals that we could wash every now and then at the waterfalls we came across. 

By later in the afternoon we packed up our bags and took a taxi to Sapa town where we hung out for the rest of the evening. By this point I was in a mood for non-vietnamese food, so we had some more pizza and then walked around the lake area, and got some beers. 

We were planning to a shuttle bus to Lao Cai, but by the time we got to it, it seemed like all the buses had left and we were forced to take a taxi.

At Lao cai,  we got into our train(now shared with a couple from Europe) and promptly went to sleep. We woke up early next morning in Hanoi.