Vietnam - North West

The north west of Vietnam is very remote in places, but very beautiful everywhere

The roads are very different to that of the cities.  Don't get me wrong, you still get lorries and buses coming round blind bends on the wrong side of the road, overtaking, but they're as quiet as a whispering breeze in comparison to the likes of Hanoi

We didn't see any Westerners for about a week, which meant no one that spoke English.  Thank God we had a book full of thousands of pictures, called 'Point it' book, so we didn't unwittingly order dog on the menu.  What I am on about, thank God?  Thank Yvonne, more like - top gift! X

We passed through villages where children would shout 'Hello' to us as we passed.  We learnt, when stopped in places that hello was the only word anyone knew.  I'm gonna be great at charades when I get back home though....

Sometimes the weather was too hot

I had to wear long sleeves as would burn my arms otherwise

Some of the roads went quite high up with a sheer drop going down hundreds of metres, with no barrier and landslides that occurred frequently when it rainned

These pictures hardly capture anything of the breathtaking views, you can see for about 40 miles in this one

Other times it rained.  This is on the approach to Tram Ton Pass, the highest road in SE Asia that gets 1900M up at it's height and it in a very poor state in parts, though is being worked on at present.  This river was ferocious.  This area has many of the Hmong People, Dao, Tay, Giay and a small number of Xa Pho who mostly settled here from other regions years ago.  It's only recently that population increases and better roads and transport have meant that the Vietnamese and these tribes are mixing, though not always harmoniously.  In the farmost regions, these people still wear traditional dress

When I left work, they'd clubbed together and given me some money.  I used this money to buy this beast of a bike to travel round Vietnam on, so thanks everyone.  It's a Honda Win 100cc and fully loaded with 2 people and 2 bags, didn't really give the performance that my GSXR used it give, but it was a top little bike that was very reliable.  Even had a little fun in places :-)

Paul is soothing his back after 6 solid hours on the bike....and a couple more still to come.  It's surprising he's smiling!

This is Lao Cai, only 3kms from the Chinese border.  Nowhere near as nice as Sapa, but didn't get any pictures there as it was sooooo foggy for most of the time

We came here through a pass between the mountains you see in the distance