We are in the North-west mountains now having taken a third sleeper from Hanoi up to the Chinese border at Lao Cai and then travelled in by bus to SaPa. This is the centre of the trekking operations here and the main attraction for many people are the Minority tribe villages in the surrounding hills and valleys. These ethnic groups with their own distinct cultures are separate from the main Vietnamese people and recognisable by their dress. We took two walking trips with a Black Hmong guide called Mee (on the left of the photo).
The countryside around SaPa is hilly and divided by deep valleys, access to many of the villages is by foot and, following a week of rain, the paths have been pretty slippery - hence Mee brought along the other two ladies in the picture to help. They do all of course walk like mountain goats and somehow keep the red mud off their shoes much more effectively than we did.
Barbara has also been making friends all over - of course they all want to sell us something ....
Back to the trek:
The landscape is a continual vista of terraced rice paddies, forest and mountains.
The weather has been pretty poor, the views across to Mt Fan Xi Pan, the highest point in Vietnam, are supposed to be spectacular, all we've seen is a misty wall! However, the weather for the trek was fine yesterday although the mist prevented the photographs looking very spectacular.
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