Leaving our stay this morning at 9.00ann going mostly downhill.

The sun is out and the views of the rice fields and mountains are spectacular. We walk for about 3 miles where we shall meet our driver to take us to the quaint little village of Sapa, where we shall spend the afternoon!

Nga, our guide gives us a few options and we select an herbal bath in the town of Ta Fin abort 30 minutes away.

But the traffic on the 2 way road is unbearable, so we stay In town, he takes us to the Sapa indoor market ( more like a swap meet) which does not appeal to any of us.

We walked into the restaurant with the many booths and of course all the meat and entrails are just sitting on the table until customers request orders. Well I’m sticking to vegetarian not even pescatarian.

We come back to town, stop for coffee, walk the streets

Nga posing for us

We meet Nga a little later today and our last dinner together before we board the train. Being that I’ve been here before, I’ve had other wonderful guides but Nga is special, he’s 29 years old, joyful, aware, intensely curious and a most beautiful smile. He made our stay in Sapa very special as he was also our interpreter/ historian.

Before we board the train, he takes us to the Vietnam/ China border which is separated by a river.

Vietnam entrance from China border.

The China side is denser, colorful with taller buildings

At 9 or so we boarded the train, reconvened into our room, Shared a bottle of Vietnamese wine and talked about all kinds of things.