Day 3

Today, we're having a full-day 12-km village trek. We set out after breakfast. No more buffet breakfast like yesterday. Each person was entitled to have one set of breakfast only. We ordered extra sets and foot our own bills. Things are cheap in Sapa. We just have to pay MYR 5 per person.

We walked down the road, passing by the Sapa town before we came to a small path. Small path down the valley leads to villages of minority tribes. We were going to visit the Black H'mong people in Lao Chai village and the Zay people in Ta Van village.

City dwellers like us have to cover up our slow walking speed by taking photos along the way. We snapped a photo for every 3 steps walked.

It's about basic living. Those people live in simple huts. They plant their own rice, farm their own vegetables and rear their own chickens, ducks and pigs. They even harness water energy for daily chores using this simple mechanism (see video attached)

We had a picnic lunch in a shed. We brought along some bread, cheese, ham and fruits.

There's a lot of bamboo. They are used for joss stick manufacturing.

Along the way, there were many kids selling handicraft for 1 dollar. One dollar... buy from me?... One dollar...

This boy will be a successful architect in the next 15 years! Malaysian kids are rich and pampered enough to play with Lego. Sapa kids play with the real bricks.

Next, we visited a stone carving shop before we crossed the final bridge that ended our 1-day trek. Our van was waiting for us. I suffered from sore thigh and calf after the 12-km walk.

From Sapa, we went down hill to Lao Cai (pronounced as Lao Kai). Lao Cai is very near to China. We managed to snap a few photos at the China-Vietnam border.

We departed from Lao Cai to Hanoi at 9 pm. Everybody was exhausted and zzzzZZZZZZ... except one person who failed to sleep. You'd know who the person was in Day 4.