Walking from village to village at Sapa

Sapa has become a popular spots both for Vietnamese and overseas tourists with hotels being built at a rapid rate.  Unfortunately the roads are not being developed at the same rate and the road to the H'Mong villages is in a dreadful state with potholes and uneven surfaces everywhere.  You have to pay to enter the village area and you park the car and then walk from village to village on foot.

The terraced rice paddies are everywhere but there is only one crop a year here whereas in the valleys we travelled through on the way, there are two crops each year.

The hilltop terraces are spectacular.

Buffaloes are kept for their meat as well as for farm labour.

H'Mong women in their colourful costumes.  Like many indigenous populations they have many babies and older children mind the younger ones.  Most young women carry a baby on their backs.

A hilltop cafe.

Back in Sapa, our waitress at lunch dressed in local costume.

Food is always beautifully displayed.  And also tastes lovely.

This handsome building is both the railway station at Sapa and also a department store, all in one.

From this multi-functional building you catch a train which takes you to the bottom of the cable car which then goes up to the top of the mountain.  We did not bother going on the cable car as the weather has been very foggy since our arrival and we would not have been able to enjoy any views.

Snow White and the seven dwarfs captured in the garden at the end of the railway.

Another quick look at a food market.  Big slabs of tofu, the size of which I have never seen.  They resembled large white bricks.

Jerky made from buffalo.  Tasted great, better than beef jerky.













The next morning there was another walk, this one through fields rather than villages.  The inevitable but always attractive terraces beckoned for photographs.

On our way back to Hanoi we stopped for our lunch break at a clean but rather more downmarket eatery than we had experienced in the cities.  The food was more basic but tasty, as always.  This time a beautiful display was less the aim.  Functionality was the basis here.

The owner took a puff from a waterpipe.  We saw very few people smoking cigarettes in Vietnam but I gather they prefer this form of smoking instead.  On the right is Cong, a very pleasant young man who was our guide for this leg of the journey.  He was helpful and informative.  Did not drown us with information but answered all our questions with patience and good humour.  We found all our guides to be good humoured.  We will leave Vietnam with a very positive impression of its people.  We found courtesy and helpfulness everywhere.