Sapa

This morning we left Hanoi early and got the bus to Sapa, a mountain town north west of Hanoi close to the border with China. Sapa has many minority tribes living in villages around the main town. Lots of the villages aren't accessible by road so you either need to trek to them or take a motorbike.

We arrived around 1pm and were immediately surrounded by tribal girls and women trying to sell us hand embroidered goods, jewellery made from old coins and invite us to go trekking with them. Although they certainly do hassle you, they do it in a nice enough way, and we had a small entourage by the time we reached our hotel.

Sapa itself is a really cute little town. Surrounded by mountains and with some lovely architecture it has an almost European alpine village feel about it. Think we're going to like it here :-).

Also, being 1,500m above sea level, its a good 10 degrees cooler here than Hanoi and apparently gets chilly at night. At least we have some warm stuff packed from New Zealand.

Andy's Haiku:
English is a fishing rod
Souvenirs the bait
We are the fresh catch