Sapa

It had rained quite heavily during the night. The main street of Pa So was nothing but fine red dust when we arrived and we'd expected to find it to have turned into a sea of mud.

Fortunately it wasn't too bad and nothing worse than a bit more dirt got itself onto the already filthy bike. The rain clouds hadn't completely cleared up and the smell of water on the trees and fields around was wonderful.

Almost immediately the road started to rise and for the next 20 kms we climbed. The way took us slowly from the bottom of the valley where there was intermittent thick forest. As we climbed the forest decreased though I think this rather because the land was more intensively cultivated, though the impression was that we were going towards an alpine zone.

The slopes above and below the road often had rice terraces carved out of them sitting one upon the other looking like the physical representations of altitude lines on a high detail map.
We arrived at Lai Chau at a bit after noon. We'd decided that we wanted to get to Sapa that same day. We'd had enough of staying in dusty inhospitable towns. As the route there was about 80kms with a lot of uphill we decided to cheat and take the bus, at least as far as the pass above Sapa. This involved waiting around for quite a while at the local bus station. Once on the bus we were reminded of the pleasure of not having to deal with buses, at least in places like Vietnam. The hassle from the bus staff. First we had to argue that the ticket that I bought was valid. Then over how much to pay for the tandem on the roof. I figured that we'd need to pay for something for the tandem but the couldn't get the bus conductor to tell us how much. In the end he got nothing, which was his fault at being hopeless at communicating.

It was a relief to be let off the bus at the top of the Tam Trong pass above Sapa. This pass goes through what the French called the Tonkenese alpes and was at about 2000m in altitude. We were well and truely in a different climatic zone. Gone was the thick tropical forest to be replaced by something more temperate looking or any cultivation. The air was noticeably cooler and there were thick clouds covering the higher points above us, one of which was the highest mountain in Vietnam Fansipan at 3143m.

The last 15km into Sapa was downhill though over quite a bumpy road as much of the asphalt had been removed in
preperation for surfacing. It was beginning to get dark when we arrived in Sapa and as it did so the mist for which it is know rolled in. Soon afterwards it started raining cats and dogs. We had a miserable time trying to orientate ourselves in town to find the hotel that we'd chosen. We stayed at the Mountain View Hotel in a room with a lovely veranda view for $15. We ate and collapsed in bed.

50km - 4 hrs 34 mins - avg 10.9 km/hr
N 22'19.964 E 103'50.558