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Other entries in Sa Pá

Cat Cat and the annoying insect geek (not Ackroyd)

I was up, showered and fed in good time for our 9.30am trek to Cat Cat village only a few kilometres away as we met our even younger guide (whos name i cant remember) who looked 10 but turned out to be 16.....she was about 4 feet tall.  We were held up a further 20 minutes by some nerdy ginger insect loving geek (a bit like you Ackroyd) who took all the time in the world to eat his breakfast and didnt care that we were all waiting.

The walk to Cat Cat village was a piece of piss compared to the past two days.....and some were happy to give their muscles a rest.  We walked down a road for about 2km surrounded by bigish spiders (yey) which geek boy couldnt get enough of, and then down some steps for maybe another kilometre to a waterfall.  This walk was really easy - even the old American tourists had walked it!  The waterfall was really nice, allthough not all that big or impressive.

I got talking to our guide and she explained that she wasnt married yet (which is unusual for a 16 year old Hmong), she had her ears pierced when she was 3 or 4 and she had taken the bold step to move out of her parents home a few years earlier to work in Sa Pa as a guide.  Normally up here, the daughters would stay with their families until there are married or bought (normally with cattle, rice, etc). 

We left the waterfall for the 3km walk back up the hill to Sa Pa after crossing the ricketiest bridge i have ever seen.  One Vietnamese bloke ran along it and it shook so much that some old man nearly toppled off it right infront of me....it was quite amusing really.  All the old folk got motorbikes back up to the top of the hill, but we walked and as it was sunny, we started pouring out the sweat.  It was all worth it though to see the look on the old peoples faces as they whizzed along on the back of motorbikes looking absolutely petrified.

Me and Monika ditched the ginger geek and had some dinner (noodles with chicken and plenty of chilli - optional) before heading off for a short walk around Sa Pa town.  The town itself is pretty boring apart from the little markets, but after a while you get pissed off with the people hassling you to buy stuff from them.  We went for a coffee (I had a fanta) at some grotty little market stall with the dirtiest cans and glasses in the world and a boz eye woner who freaked me out a bit before heading back to the hotel for the bus at 4.30pm.

Luckily, I managed to get on a later bus to the train station, meaning I wouldnt have to wait there as long and could spend some time on the internet updating my blog and getting some dinner.  I was picked up at 6.30, driven around Sa Pa for an hour picking others up and then we were off to Lao Cai train station.  I boarded the train after a bit of confusion as to where the hell I was and was straight off to sleep as it arrives in Hanoi at 5am the next day.

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