Cold. Wet. Rainy. Full stop.

I think the first picture below pretty much sums up our feelings on Sapa, but in case you’re curious for more, we’ve attached some pics of what we saw (or, better yet, didn’t see). Visibility was about 20 meters and we could barely look at the scenery since, with every step, we were trying to avoid rolling down the hills as we trekked through the slippery mud – up and down the hillsides for 5 hours. It was literally our worst nightmare. When we got to our hilltribe “homestay” or, as we like to call it, the wooden box with a roof, ten beds, no heat, and no family, we hopped on motorbikes and hightailed it to a “hotel” in town. Everywhere in Sapa was freezing – I was just thankful the hotel had hot water. Naturally, the second day, we skipped the trek and instead sat by a fireplace in a coffee shop drinking ginger tea with honey all afternoon.