OMG

Two years ago, I came to Sapa with Page and we hiked an "intermediate" walk.  Over time, your mine does tricks and you remember that you could not get down to use the squat in AM and you remember the hill tribe folks helping you ....but the seriousness of the "intermediate" leaves you.  We got up after a great sleep and good breakfast ready to go... 1st my guardians said...this woman will kill herself if she is walking with a camera... so we will disable it ...I had my stick and a small pack with a bottle of water.  The early walk was thru the villages and it was pleasant and repetitively easy.... There was a difference...the mist or haze or fog or whatever was so think it was like chowder and it was spritzing on us..   M used my buff to make a flimsy raincoat for her camera.  She took many pictures of the mist/fog/haze and will probably tell you that it is rice fields... anyone's guess what was out there...but I remembered some of the way.   We had a nice lunch cooked in the homestead and I found out the garlic french fries are the way of the walk... salad, soup, spring rolls,,,,and I had a beer.  The toilet was not squat but a hover... (porcelain with no toilet seat... ) hey... there was a flush... we left there only to find the hill tribe people who had been walking with us... where you from, what is your name, how old are you, buy something from me....were still there.  Well... we found out quickly why... we turned the corner and the path which had been a wide road with some rocks was now only for mountain goats...the rain/mist/fog had left the center of the path the kind of mud that goes slurp and tries to capture your shoes...soon I was staring at the mud and trying to find 2-3 inches that was sorta flat while either going up and down the hills.  The terrain came back to me and I thought I could see my foot print in the mud.  We did this for almost 2 hours... the ht woman...who I know know as Sue... foot here...foot there...careful...ooops... my toes were tired from trying to hold on to my shoes... so OMG .  I stuck my stick in the mud and grabed a bamboo tree as I was about to fall backwards but the ht and the stick and the bamboo...all worked together to keep my pants clean.   I saw Michael, the fish eater from last night waving his arms in the air to catch himself and giving a hoot... Inga..the Swed was also grabbing on to a small ht woman who was watching in bathroom slippers... It was something that we always remember and I made a note to read this blog every week so no matter who says they want to be to VN and hike in Sapa....I will say... not me... been there...done that.... but you know me...I will forget and what is life if not an adventure.