We live as long as we fly
The next day we woke up late, so to keep up with the route schedule, we had to take a taxibus. Alas, it was expensive, 80 bucks in total, if I'm not mistaken. That's what it means when it's not a scheduled bus. Gas costs money everywhere, and so does servicing the ride.
But first, we have to eat. For a change — pizza. Tasty, by the way, though expensive (somewhere around 5 bucks just for the pizza + coffee too).
One of the things we planned to do, and which we eventually managed with great pleasure, was a hike up Mount Fansipan (Phan Xi Păng), the highest peak in Vietnam, and indeed the "roof of Indochina". It is, admittedly, only 3,143 meters high, but for me even that is quite a lot — I hadn't been to the mountains before. This hike was intended as a trekking route, meaning it requires no special mountaineering gear, except maybe trekking poles. Fansipan doesn't have an alpine difficulty rating, so it was just right for my first time.
We walked 20 km according to the GPS, with an elevation gain of 1,843 meters. My GPS measures altitude inaccurately, but it's safe to say we started from about 1,943 meters and made it to 3,143, meaning the difference is 1,200 meters. At the same time, the trail had plenty of alternating ascents and descents. And don't forget the way back!
The next day we were planning to go to Mount Fansipan (Phan Xi Păng), but it poured rain all night, and having gotten up at 4 in the morning, we changed our minds, deciding that everything there was soaked, and we wouldn't be able to climb it in a day as planned. So we crashed back into our beds to come up with something interesting in the morning.
Renting motorbikes and riding around the neighborhood seemed like just the thing, especially since rumor had it there was a waterfall and caves nearby. Motorbike rental cost 5 bucks apiece for the day, gas was a little over a dollar a liter, and a full tank was 4 liters. When I asked by what time we had to return the motorbike, I was told by 18:00. I didn't ask why, and this fact caused some anxiety.
Pretty soon we made it to Sapa. I've been butchering the photos in Lightroom with my crooked hands here, purely out of boredom. I hope the psychedelic coloring won't be too distracting. Where it's important for the narrative, I tried not to mess with the colors too much.