Sapa

Sapa is a small town in the mountains north of Hanoi. It is surrounded by hundreds of ethnic minority villages, mainly with chinese routes. We caught 9 hour train at 10 oclock from hanoi with new friend Seth, a 6"5" canadian in tow. Having made the rookie error of choosing a 'soft seat' for the train ride none of us of got any sleep that night, I found it cramped and stuffy, spare a thought for poor Seth who is yet to find a doorway he can get through without stooping.

The train did not actualy take us all the way to sapa but to nearby town 'loa cai', so we found a minibus who promised to take us direct to sapa. Unfortunately there is not such thing as a minibus with spare seats in Vietnam so we circled the town looking for potential passengers untill not only were there no free seats, but noone in the bus could feasably move an inch.

The hour drive had a few highpoints such as seeing another bus full of tourists embeded in the cliff face, and the several p0ints where the poor overloaded bus was but seconds from giving up.

After spending a night in sapa it was time to leave on our respective trecksl. Tom, Seth and myself had opted for a 2 day treck with a homestay while tiffany had a trip to an ethnic minority village followed by a day treck.

Anyway I am waffling, the reason to visit sapa are the amazing views so with a quick mention to trekking buddies heather rosanne and lydia I move on to the photos.

Alex