In the hills

The organised tour is over. It dribbled to a halt, really, with Ed and Sam getting off at Vientiane, and Izzy and Marla heading off early yesterday morning and Voo later. Actually, the last few days were a bit strange, since we spent two whole days in a bus getting to Hanoi and only a day there.

Only Rae, Matt and I are still in Vietnam. Rae is staying in Hanoi to begin another tour, and Matt and I decided to head for the hills. We took the sleeper train last night to Lao Cai and then a minibus this morning to Sapa, which is not far from the Chinese border at about 1600 metres up. Formerly a French hill station, it was beaten up during the short war with China in 1979 (when VN invaded Cambodia and China invaded VN). Matt will be here for a few days and we hope to climb Fansipan, the region's highest mountain (however, it is currently pouring). I will be here for nearly as long as my visa allows. There are a lot of French people here.