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Other entries in Tả Van

Lunch in the Rainforest, day 2 to Seo Mi Ti

Our toilet is pretty basic - the green toilet tent is set up over a hole in the ground, with two planks, twigs or stones on either side (foot places). I'm fine with this until someone says that they saw a leech on one of the planks earlier on...

The chicken noodle soup, chilli salt, lime and watermelon set us up for the next spate of the trek - hard but we're pretty gung-ho about it and arrive at Seo Miti and our camp for the night 3 hours early. Neil and Steve dip in the nearby river, but soon move to fast-flowing areas when someone mentions how the snakes like to hang out in the quieter parts. We take tea and coffee (mate) and even enjoy playing I-spy.

The trek leader Libby discusses our jungle trek - which in definition is pretty  much rainforest. Apparently, jungle is characterised by trees that are widely spaced, while the terrain we trekked through earlier was dense enough to be called rainforest. Rudyard Kipling didn't help the definition, she says, by lumping any amount of green forested area as 'jungle', even calling it 'The Jungle Book'.

The mist comes down an hour later - reminiscent of Apocalypse Now. Dinner is again amazing - caramelised pork, spare ribs, hand-made spring rolls and they've even cut the carrot in the stirfry into star shapes. We're quite close to Fansipan (3,143m) at this point, but can't visualise it for the mist. The distant lowing of the water buffalo can be heard all around as we retire to bed at 6.30pm - a 12-hour sleep is much needed.

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