SHORT CUT

By the time today’s ten hour journey was over I decided never to listen to our driver again!  Hung told us it made sense to take the short cut to Sapa so we could stop at a little village and explore the Vietnamese country life. The destination was fabulous but the journey was hell. 

We drove from 20 metre elevation at Hanoi to 1600 metres at Sapa, almost all on a washed out, narrow and frightening (to me anyway…Mo loved it) trail. 

On the route we were pretty close to China, in fact just across the river. 

The village was full of exciting people and animals to observe….of course they all wanted to practise their English. Hung told us that learning English in schools in this area was illegal onto 1995. 

The villagers have some ingenious ideas for growing cucumbers and corn. There are no stores as the people are all completely self sufficient… vegetables, chickens, hemp for clothing and dogs, if need be.