Sapa and Vietnam's far north Part 5 - Sapa to Paso

We left the heavy rain of Sapa town and headed first towards Thach Bach - Silver Falls. These are beautiful falls but they're definitely showing the strain of playing host to thousands of tourists each day.

Just as we came down off the falls, the sun broke through - and it stayed with us for the rest of the day that took us across stunning Tram Ton Pass - Vietnam's highest mountain pass.

The journey from Sapa to Paso is around 100kms. We did it slowly over nine hours. The road is in pretty good shape and the drive could easily be done in three hours - but this is probably the most beautiful drive in all Vietnam so we spent most of the day outside the car walking in villages, talking to locals and photographing the stunning scenery.

Towards the end of the day, we stumbled across a delightful country home. The afternoon sun was weakening and the local tribesmen and women were finishing another gruelling day of work. As was so often the case on this journey, we were invited in for a chat and a cup of tea. I told the owner that his was one of the most beautiful houses I had encountered in Vietnam with its glorious rural setting and its simplicity. He was quick to dispel my building romance with the scene assuring me that while the setting was beautiful, life remained very very hard for him and his family. He was in his late fifties. I had guessed by his complexion and his awkward gait that he was much older. It was a beautiful scene but clearly one with continued hardship.

From there we headed on to Pa So for the night.

The hotel in Paso, the Lan Anh II was one of those fabulous local establishments that once graced every remote town in Vietnam. Its lavish use of timber, including lots of hardwood logs suggested a good part of north Vietnam's forest cover was wiped out in its construction. It's only five years old but looks much older.

Then there was that smell. The deep red dirty carpet combined with the wet season humidity and the absence of any real flow of air created an odour that took me back to some of Vietnam's most rundown hotels of the early nineties. A truly nostalgic experience.  

In fact the Lan Anh II was more than adequate - and if the malfunctioning air conditioning and lack of air compromised your sleep, the hotel bar offered an amazing array of snake and lizard wine combinations that would be sure to overwhelm the most resistant insomnia.