No trek in the morning, contrary to what I’d been told, so I wandered around the city again. Very small, and not much to see. I tried the internet, but the computers were dreadfully slow. I did some reading at the hotel, and eventually met up with the Danes and our guide for lunch. After lunch, we had to kill even more time, so we waited around for a bit before finally heading to the Cat Cat village.
It was a downhill walk, which meant an inevitable uphill walk. Lovely waterfall at the base (no idea where the water came from, really). We were offered a ride up by motorbike, but we all figured some exercise would do us good, and walked up on our own. Not so bad, in the end – but maybe I’ll feel it tomorrow? With a trip back to Hanoi in the sleeper car, I’m guessing I’ll have a difficult time determining the source of any aches and pains, anyhow.
After returning to the hotel, we hung around for a bit, then decided to go grab a bit of food at the restaurant nearby. It was brand new, and run by an Australian fellow, who we chatted with for a bit. After our snack and hot chocolate (it’s quite cool in Sapa – but probably about 20 degrees or so – just seems cool by comparison to Southeast Asian temperatures) we headed back to the hotel. The girls had another day, so I bid them goodbye and got in a minibus to the train station. Another woman from the hotel, Marilyn from Singapore, was also going to the train station, and we both had a meal ticket to cash in at a restaurant downtown. We grabbed some food and tried to kill some time – we had about 3 hours before the train was ready to depart.
Eventually we boarded, parting ways onto our separate cars. I was at the highest level this time, so I got settled for the night.