Sunny Sapa view from balcony

Walked from hotel through Sapa town. Many sights new to us: water buffalo alongside tennis courts, and the large market with both exotic local foods e.g piles very fresh ginger root drying in sun, local clothes & household goods. Saw people in vibrant coloured tribal outfits: the Black H’mong wear all black with bright multi-coloured trims, and the Red Dao have red headscarves folded in different ways, though we didn’t like to intrude on their daily lives to take photos. More familiar were many outdoor shops, mainly North Face though reputedly fake.

I was finally glad I had brought boots & poles for paths, where we were soon joined & helped by women, children of the Red Dao tribal village who hoped to sell us items from their back baskets, like hand embroidered bags.

We passed through an area where a group were sewing (which they do from a very early age), & then where hand-dyed indigo cloth was blowing on a line.

indigo cloth drying

Walkers in front of terraces

Red Dao woman with baby joins us

If you were a live hen, looking at those roast chicken ...?

Women & girls sewing

We began to see mist over the terraces, & by the time we got back into Sapa there had been a distinct change in weather – from superb visibility in bright sunshine to thick, cool mist.

Contrast with earlier view!

The mist persisted, bringing conditions where we were grateful for our UK walking gear. A morning walk took in a tea growing area, now picked every 2 weeks by machine.
Could see how with only 1 rice crop per year, the locals would struggle to survive on the soaring slopes during the winter & how they resort to selling to tourists, even how they send their kids into the town in the evening to approach us directly with their goods.

Spring rolls lunch with carrot flowers

Refuelling Sapa style!

Found in bedroom ... apparently in case of fire!

Although not flying till 20.25 from Hanoi for Bangkok, we left Sapa at 10.30 still in mist, down the twisting mountain road back down the valley. On the same narrow road we had driven up, we encountered a rock fall blocking the road, and their simple solution. Musing on what could have happened had our coach been going up/down when the rocks fell, we gasped when one impatient bike rider dodged under the operating arm of the mechanical scoop to zoom off down!

Clearing recent rockfall

The high-pitched whine & pull of brakes making me queasy for the only time; I was very glad when after an hour we reached the dual carriageway at the bottom of the alley.

1pm lunch stop on motorway services saw another culture shift – various new options like goat, ‘soiled chicken’ ?! – but the chicken noodle soup delicious. Everything gets ordered downstairs in a noisy hubbub, written manually then amazingly delivered upstairs to the seating area.

By 5pm we arrived at Hanoi airport, & booked luggage all the way through to Heathrow.

By the time we got to Bangkok, & another tortuous negotiation of transfers in this airport, you could already see tiredness in many travellers late in the evening, with the long haul flight not due to leave till 00.15.

If confused already, just look up!

We finally arrived home safely – 33 hours after leaving Sapa in the north! And that’s when the jetlag really kicked in ...