Sapa

The train gets us to Lao Cai at six in the morning and we are able to negotiate a minibus for two thirds of the tourist rate. When we get into Sapa, we look down from the rooftop of our guesthouse and see every tourist followed by a throng of Hmong (dressed in blue) women selling their trinkets.

We hire two motorbikes and a driver for 200k and proceed to follow the route that most people take for their 15km trek to visit the minority villages.

Rice paddies.

Hmong (blue) intruding on Dao (red) turf. I expect this to be as violent as a typical bloods and crips meeting but find that they're all friends and probably hang out at the same pub after work.

The day sets a new standard for worst roads I've been on and involves avoiding potholes by driving through a shop, overtaking trucks on blind corners off the road and driving up roads so steep that the bike gets stuck, even in first, and requires a bit of leg power. Our driver on the other hand is atypical of a Vietnamese motorbike tour guide and is by far the slowest driver I've seen in Vietnam.

As always the kids are a lot of fun, these girls speak fluent English. I try and sell them on a three day, two night trek that involves a home-stay in a Hmong village.

Coolest Hmong chick ever.

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