Stuck in Sapa...

I'd planned to have a day off and do as little as possible before the trip to China the next day...but that plan was soon going to change for some rather unpleasant reasons.

In the afternoon I felt a bit drained, but thought that I just needed an early night, and after an average meal I went back to the hotel and went to bed. About an hour later I felt really ill, (I'll spare everyone the details) but spent the rest of the night rushing to the bathroom.

I think I must have picked up food poisoning or something - this is the first time on this trip, and I can't remember being this sick in a long time. At one point I was even contemplating going back to Hanoi and catching the next flight back to the UK!

Even more strange - at one point all I could think about was how good a cup of Yorkshire tea made with real Yorkshire water would be :-)

In the morning I'd had no sleep, and was still suffering the after shocks (as it were) of the night before, so dragged myself to the hotel reception and said that I'd like to stay another night and catch the bus to the border the next day.

One thing about Vietnam is - if people don't understand what you're saying they just say yes. So every time I ask if I can stay another night and get the bus the next day, the guy keeps saying yes, although his body language is saying he's really confused.

So I go back to my room and at 7:30am when the bus is about to leave there's a knock at the door and the guy is there saying: "you get on bus now, you get on bus now".

So I drag myself back to the reception and one of the girls who speaks great English says it's not a problem and makes the arrangements.

I went back to bed and slept through the whole day and night.

The next morning I still didn't feel great so decided to stay another day. I spent most of the day sleeping and I'm still feeling pretty bad, so I arrange to stay another day.

By the end of the third day I'm starting to feel a bit better and force myself to go out for a plate of pasta, and decide that I'm probably going to be OK to go to China the next day, so tell them that I'd like to get the 7:30am bus the next day.

Not a pleasant epsiode. But thankfully, there's a small shop in Sapa that makes the most incredible choclate bread as that's all I've managed to eat over the last three days...

I've taken no pictures in the last few days (for obvious reasons). But here's one from the other day while walking around Sapa:

So this is what happened to the little piggy that went to market: