Sapa

We headed back to Vietnam for a week to visit the northern provinces, as lots of people told us that the Sapa and Ha Giang areas are unmissable.

Sapa is a five hour bus ride from Hanoi. We were a bit hungover thanks to a chance encounter with some Kiwi friends, and cheap bia hoi (draught beer for about 30 cents a glass). As a result Torrey got extremely car sick on the windy roads up the mountains.

The scenery is pretty epic in this region- steep mountains and bright green terraced rice paddies. The region is home to ethnic people such as the Dao, H'Mong, Giay and Tay. These brightly dressed people have villages scattered about the mountains.

We visited Cat Cat village, the closest to Sapa. There is a river cascading through the middle which traditionally generated hydro power for their mills which they have left intact even though there is now electricity.

We drove out past Lao Chai and Ta Van villages. The scenery is stunning on this road, and the locals were friendly, but very interested in pestering tourists to buy handicrafts.

The rain was fairly relentless, and the clouds obscured the mountain tops. Therefore we unfortunately didn't get to take the world's longest cable car to the peak of Fansipan (6km long up to a peak of 3000m), as the mist was too heavy.

After a couple nights in Sapa, we spent a night in the town of Bac Ha, famous for its Sunday markets. We didn't buy anything, but then again we weren't in need of any corn, herbal medicines, chickens or water buffalo.