The drive to Sapa

We drove five hours from Hanoi to Sapa, a town in the Hoang Lien Son Mountains of northwestern Vietnam and a popular trekking base.  The town overlooks the terraced rice fields of the Muong Hoa Valley and is near the 3,143 m tall Phang Xi Pang peak, the highest mountain in the country. There is a lovely view from our hotel room but sadly the air is very smoggy so the visibility is very low.  Perhaps tomorrow it will improve.

On the way there, we saw many rice fields and terraces.  They are so beautiful and green I had trouble stopping myself taking photo after photo.

This is when we started the climb up into the mountains.

A photo of the highest mountain pass in Vietnam.  Unfortunately pretty hazy.

A shot of siblings playing with water pistols outside mum's shop.  There are numerous ethnic minorities around Sapa including the Red Dao, H'Mong and Tay peoples.

We are spending two days and nights in Sapa and we will be doing a trek lasting a couple of hours tomorrow.  Andrew took ill with stomach cramps today but hopefully he will be well enough tomorrow to do the walk which he has been eagerly looking forward to.  He had the runs earlier today and before I handed over his clothing to the laundry person at the hotel I wanted to clean them up a little and unfortunately I flushed his underpants down the toilet.  I had to confess to the hotel staff who tried to clear the blocked toilet.  I received absolution and we now have a cleared toilet bowl but the underpants have gone.  Hopefully tomorrow we will get his shorts back.  That is all the excitement for today.