That pigs got tits (16/2/14)

Today was my last day in Sa Pa. I woke up with the usual cockerels crowing at 4am put my earplugs in and went back to sleep. Managed to get another 4 hours in before my alarm but still 'snoozed' that a couple of times. Got up at 9, was greeted with sun and the ability to see further than 20 metres and went to breakfast with Marc. After breakfast I started packing my kit up. I'm sure it didn't weigh this much before with my biker gear in. Oh well. Marc and I put our bags in the storage room to make sure we've checked out in time and head into town. As the weather is so nice we've decided to do a short climb up to the mobile phone tower that overlooks Sa Pa and apparently there's a route we can do that's part of a park. We head into town to get some bits for lunch to eat up there and hunt for the start of the route behind the church. After climbing numerous steps we get to a check point and the people there ask for our ticket. It turns out you have to pay and the tickets are sold separately from a hut back down the steps. Don't ask we didn't get it either! Back we went, tickets bought and into the park. There are steps the whole way up and it took us a lot less time than expected when you're looking up from the town. There were various gardens also on the way, a few models of animals to keep the kids interested and a few different places to stop and get different views down each side of the mountain. They were all good views. Once at the top we took a few photos, enjoyed the scenery and headed to one of the gardens to eat lunch. After lunch we chilled in the sun for a bit before heading back down. The route back is a bit different and takes us through some other gardens so I'm saying to Marc "which is the best way down do you reckon?". And he's just started replying when over his shoulder I spot something. "Holy shit Marc that pigs got tits, I need a photo of this". We race over, he takes a photo for me on my phone and I do the same for him. By this time some other Asian tourists have spotted what we're doing, start laughing and come over. They now want us in their photos too. The crowd starts to grow a little with others copying us abusing the pig and so fearing we've started a bit of a bad trend we disappear and leave them to it. Oops! We head back down to the town to do some final shopping and go back to the hostel to try and finalise our own plans for doing Halong Bay whilst counting down the hours till our overnight sleeper bus leaves. I also booked us into a hostel in Hanoi for the night giving us more time to arrange our trips to Halong. Marc wants a 3 day 2 night trip, I just want 2 days 1 night as I realise I'm running out of time to do the south. I drop my bike to the bus about half 3 for them to empty the fuel and put it on before the rest of the luggage arrives from the rest of the passengers this evening. I'm dropped back to the hostel by the owner on the back of her moped. She's actually been extremely helpful the whole time I've been here and her English is certainly good enough to understand, which is great. Marc and I grab some dinner, buy some baguettes, for the bus ride, from the market and grab our gear from the hostel to take to the bus. Getting on I realise that the photo, of the beds on the bus, in the hostel has been very cleverly done to make the beds look bigger than they are. Where as it looked like one person each side of the gangway, it's actually two and each bed is just the width of each person. And they're bunks. The number of people had just quadrupled! If you're not travelling with someone then you'll certainly be friends with the person next to you after the 9 hour bus ride ahead. Marc and I are right up the back next to a couple, which perhaps had slightly more room as there's no gangway, but that's the bounciest bit of a bus. Great. The bus leaves at 6 and I watch a couple of movies on my tablet before getting what sleep I can. We're going to be in Hanoi very early in the morning and there'll be nowhere to sleep until our beds in the hostel are ready. This should be fun, there's a snorer on the bus!

We've just stopped at, I don't know where, and they've got snakes in jars! Am I in a movie?