Hello Sapa

When the alarm clock went off at 5:30 in the morning today, I thought it was a bad dream :-(... But it wasn't particularly difficult for us to get up because today - for the next 2 days - we are going to Sapa (mountain village in northern Vietnam). We were picked up on time at the hotel and at a meeting point we were loaded into great luxury buses with sleeping berths :-). That's what makes traveling so much fun!!!! We had 340 km ahead of us, with 2 stops, and the last 30 km were supposed to be done at a snail's pace because the road was very steep, narrow, and winding.

Actually, I was really tired, but the scenery behind Hanoi was stunning and impressive at the same time. You could see the locals working in their fields, all still by hand, it was incredible. A woman stood waist-deep in the water and waved her hands. In other cases, a water buffalo walked ahead and pulled the work supplies behind. My fatigue was blown away. I found it really moving!

So time passed by quickly, only the last 30 km (serpentine road up to Sapa) were a bit spooky :-(). At first, I thought it wasn't a big deal, but the higher we drove, the more my stomach turned upside down. Suddenly, I cursed my great window seat with a great view of the abyss... gruesome. Thanks to a chewing gum, it got better again :-) and I could hardly believe that the locals were selling their goods (corn cobs, chicken, etc.) at the roadside edges. The suburbs just before Sapa were terrible, it is unimaginable how people live there. Little children between dirt, animals, food, and traffic.

After 5 hours we arrived in Sapa and quickly moved into our great hotel, oh, just to mention it briefly, we got the Junior Suite with a mountain view... grin.

At noon we found a nice restaurant, we wanted to FEAST like the locals today, so I had vegetarian spring rolls and a rice dish with vegetables, Daniela went all out, spaghetti tonno... laugh...! The important thing is that it should taste good to us and it did.....smile. Although the two of us had finished our plates, the weather wasn't playing along. Suddenly it became extremely foggy and we couldn't see the house on the other side of the street anymore. We hope it will be better tomorrow. Because we want to visit a village of an ethnic minority (Hmong) from there, and then we want to go on to the highest mountain in Vietnam, Fansipan (3,143 meters above sea level). No, not on foot, but by cable car... smile;-)! One or two waterfalls are also to be visited, so fingers crossed for good weather :-) - THANK YOU!

Tam biet/Goodbye greetings from us from Vietnam!