7-17 Sapa - Day 2

As if being teased by a young girl last night was not enough, I woke to accusations from the little troublemaker that I must be the one who threw up in the middle of the night. There was no way it was me, but as the morning unfolded with tales of last night and strange happenings in the middle of the night, I pieced together what the starnge noises were. The portly English guy sleeping next to me had gotten up in the middle of the night to pee. He was really drunk and from what I could tell, and I thought he'd peed out a window onto the roof. In reality, he simply peed in a corner of the dorm room. Below him and the loosely nailed floorboards was Ying's bed, so the peed drained throught he floor and soaked her hed while she slept. I'm sure it was him or his portly girlfriend who was responsible for throwing up as well. You gotta love those Brits!
We finally hit the trail after the downpours trail after the downpours trail after the downpours let up and it was very muddy with many creeks to cross. Several people got their feet soaked and fell in the mud. Falling in the mud didin't concern us much, but the razor-sharp bamboo stalks, remnants from trailside brush-clearing with a machete, really kept you on your toes. A hard fall on one of those would go right in or even through you! Our hike finished off with trekking along a big waterfall, followed by a tasty lunch of pho. We got cleaned up at the hotel around 2pm and picked up our laundry. Both my clothes, Chris's, and the British couples' clothes had been ruined by what appeared to be a malicious use of bleach. All our clothes were colors, yet they looked as if the entire pile of them were doused with a full bottle of liquid bleach and left to sit for an hour before washing. Chris got off ok with a bandana and cheap t-shirt ruined, but I wasn't too happy about a $100 trekking shirt from REI totally wiped out. Being Vietnam, there is little recourse for such things, and that woman will likely ruin thousands of dollars more of people's laundry before her employer finally directs her to try another profession.
After lunch and a bit of wandering, we rode the mini-bus back to the train station. We killed some time having dinner and also had drinks during sunset on a rooftop bar at a nice hotel with our British trekking companions. That night on the train, the A/C was blasting. I later learned the woman below us had a baby with her, so Chris gave them his blanket. It must have been 50*F in the cabin due to an blasting A/C unit we couldn't control. Chris was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts so he shivered all night to the screeching and grinding of the metal suspension parts beneath us.