A quick look out the window this morning was not encouraging. There was a heavy fog with visibility of about 100m. We are not being picked up by our guide till 10.00am, so hopefully it will burn off by then.
After breakfast at 8am, Mike took off to Church and we went back to the room to relax and pack to check out at 10am.
By 10am, conditions had not improved, the fog was now more of a light mist. Our guide arrived and suggested it was not a good day to go sightseeing, as nothing would be visible, but we could try to see the Silver Waterfall which may be partly visible.
So, with nothing else to do, we set out to head to the falls. Visibility on the road was atrocious and the narrow winding roads with sheer drops over the side did not help our level of discomfort. Within about 20 mins we reached the falls. We were now up above the densest mist but it was still very foggy.
We could see the bottom half of the falls and climbed up stairs to a bridge that had been built across the falls and came down the other side. It was pretty slippery under foot due to all the moisture in the air. Looking back down into the valley was a complete white out.
Back at road level , we wandered across the road to where a number of stalls have been set up to sell handicrafts and snacks to tourists. They were having a pretty lean day, but the BBQ smelled good.
BBQ smelled good, but not many customers
Back into the bus we headed back to Sapa. It was clearly not worth doing any more sightseeing, as you couldn't see anything. We therefore turned our attention to lunch and asked the driver to drop us off in the main street of Sapa, where we had a cup of coffee and farewelled our guide, ay, who has been excellent. For a person that had learned to speak English by selling handicrafts to tourists, her command of the language was better than many others we have met who would have had a formal education. May did not have a formal education and could not read or write.
For lunch, it was back to our favourite restaurant, Romano's (they all have European names, but serve excellent Vietnamese food), as well as some European cuisine.
The waitresses have a good command of English and a great sense of humour, which keeps us entertained throughout lunch.
Mike seeking advice from one of the waitresses
Mike repairing the toothpick dispenser
The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting around the fire at the Victoria Hotel, reading and having a cup of coffee or a beer. At 6.45pm our bus arrived to take us back to Lao Cai for our luxury train trip back to Hanoi.
After a scary drive back down the hill in heavy mist and darkness, we arrived at Lao Cai station about an hour later. The driver dropped us with in walking distance of the station , pointed in the general direction we should go and vanished. Fortunately a porter from the Victoria Express saw us wandering around, put us in a competitors waiting room, as the station was packed and about 20 mins later we boarded the train.
We had ordered dinner to eat on the train, the Sunday 3 course set European menu, which was not too bad and better when washed down with a glass of wine.
The trip back to Hanoi was about as comfortable as the trip up although the train seemed to pitch and roll a bit more on the way down.
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