Days 529 - 531: Sapa

Waiting for the night train in Hanoi station

Sapa towm

It almost looks like someone sneaked a picture of the Chartreuse in here!

With the rice fields it looks a little different

 Sapa is a very pretty place high up in the mountains at about 1400m altitude. We arrived on the night train at about 5am and we spent most of the first day sorting out our trekking for the next two days.  We went on the standard village group trek for about 10km and a private trek of 15km which cut through slightly wilder mountains before heading down into the same valley.  We also went to Catcat which is a little village area very close to Sapa tourists are encouraged to visit by themselves.  You can of course just wander around the mountains on your own but there are no real hiking maps so it's taking pot-luck and running the risk of getting lost.  We had the same guide on both of our trekking days, a girl called Sam from one of the minority groups from this area.

Curly landscape

Antonia, Penny and Sam with umbrellas/parasols depending on need

Evening and autumn descend on the mountains