So yesterday it was nice and sunny in Sapa, so we decided to seize the opportunity and rent a motorbike to explore outside of this quaint little town.
There are lots of waterfalls to go see and we wanted to do just that. Being up in the mountains and all, the roads are steep and windy and after an hour or riding we realised we had headed in the opposite direction that we had wanted to.
Not really upset about this fact, as the ride was stunning itself (there's nothing quite like the stepped rice fields climbing the Sapa mountains) we headed back.
Another quick note about the roads here - there are little water streams that trickle down the mountain sides and pass across the roads in little streams. Easy enough to navigate through, but then you add in the patches of road surface that aren't, well, surface at all. We encountered quite a few sections of boulderous rocks that we just had to ride straight over. Luckily, Donny's good on a scooter.
On our way back, however, we came up to one of the streams on the road. This one was extra special because 90% of the road didn't even exist and had been replaced by what I can only describe as a rock pool. You guessed it, we went for a swim. We still can't quite figure out how we managed to come off, but we did. Luckily only a few bruised and some little scrapes but after we got back to Sapa (we were only about 20mins away at this point) I did have to sooth my ankle with a cold beer tied onto my foot with a bandana. All very rock and roll.
After some lunch we had better luck and set off to Thac Bac (still smiling I might add) and found the Silver Waterfall. First of all we followed the road signs there and got led up a more residential road with some questionable terrain that resulted in a massive crater. Clearly no way through. When we rejoined the main road we got led straight there and it was totally worth it.
All our 'wrong ways' lead us to interesting scenery and we're pretty sure that there is an Asian conspiracy that all maps are backwards here.
We payed our ticket of 40p each and climbed up the steps to see the full length of the waterfall and it was stunning.
I've uploaded some photos from yesterday onto my Flickr page which you can see by clicking here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78092110@N03/
So, what did we learn today kids? Always wear a helmet. And always have a couple of cold beers in the fridge waiting for when you get home...
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