i WAS gonna upload pictures...

then fbook wasn't working.

THEN I FIXED IT. muahaha. take that, communism.

then i realize this janky computer doesn't have photo uploading software. while i could dl some on here (yeah, i can just dl software on a public comp, nbd), i'm tired and i have a super comfy bed upstairs and cable tv and i think there's an antm marathon on, so i'm taking all of this as i sign i should just give up.

but wait, i wanna tell you about sapa first. it was phenomenal. i took the overnight train from hanoi along with two other couples...one real sweet couple from england and this semi-weird, unmarried, old-but-acts-sorta-immature couple from australia. the woman was competitive and cheap, which means she ALWAYS asks how much you got stuff for and brags shamelessly when she got it for cheaper. not a fan. anyway, the train pulled in to lao cai in northern vietnam around 5 am.

everyone said (and by "everyone" i mean guidebooks and stuff) it'd be cold. it was so not cold. same temp as hanoi--warm, a little humid, nothing cool about it. liars.

but then we got in a van and drove an hour pretty much straight into a mountain range, and it got cold. YESSS this is what i was hoping for.

quick note about northern vietnam travel...from hanoi, there are two really popular short trips: sapa and halong bay. because i only had a week here and i wanted to explore hanoi for sure, i figured i only had time for one of these. sapa's mountainous and full of terraced rice fields, trees, and native villages; halong bay has big ol' limestone rocks jutting out of the ocean and boats you can sleep on. i've seen enough pretty stuff in the ocean, so i opted for the mountains.

as soon as i got out of the van and looked around at tiny sapa all buried away in the mountains, i knew i made the right choice. that day, at 9:30 am, i started out on a hike with a german girl and a local guide, lam, who was 18 and from a tribe a ways down the mountain.

btw, they advertise this as "trekking"...that's a misnomer. maybe it makes people happier if they call things like this a trek, but really, this was just a long walk in nature. the trail was well worn, there were always other people around, and we passed multiple cafes along the way.

actually, that kinda bugged me. on one hand, it was neat to walk through a few of the villages and see this simple way of life they lead, with these big fancy costumes that yes, they actually wear, and the way that rice permeates everything they do, and the simple homes they keep, and blah blah. but there were plenty of cafes serving us tourists cold beer, snacks, coke, anything we wanted so we'd be able to satisfy our high standard of living...meh. i just kind of feel bad when neat but personal, local ways of life become so geared toward tourists.

anyway, aside from that, i had a really awesome time on our walk. german girl margret and i had some great conversations, and lam started to really open up after a while (we hiked until 3 pm, after all...gives you some time for bonding). by the end she was bouncing up and down and inviting us to dinner at her house.

i went on one more walk through another village the next day, but it was maybe two miles, and we went so slow i think a baby could've beat us. the emphasis on that hike was def the tourism and shopping and crap.

i spent the rest of my time drinking too much strong vietnamese coffee, trying all of hte vietnamese beers, and generally reveling in the glory of cold weather. more than anything, this trip just made me excited for CHRISTMAS!

next stop: kuala lumpur, malaysia for one night (oct 7), where i'll once again meet up with my main bitch miss maddy armstrong. from there, on oct 8, we're off to MUMBAIIIII! expect a week of insanity.