Actually, this last stretch of Vietnam takes us into the first stretch of China! One Intrepid tour ended in Hanoi and another one began, this one starting with two days in Sapa, then the rest in Yunnan and Tibet. First up, our walk around Sapa, which seemed to have changed quite a bit in the ten years since I was here the last time, in a good way…
This batch focuses on the market place in Sapa, and ends with a BBQ dinner…
Too sick to go on the five hour hike, I did manage to go to the Sun World funicular and cable car rides up to Fansipan – the “roof of Indochina” and the highest mountain in the region – a spectacular new attraction that was not operational back in 2016. With a model village, Buddhist shrines, and other features of a theme park, it hold records for the longest/highest cable car in the area, and features a fantastic view from the summit – notwithstanding the crowds of tourists, etc…
Here are views from the top of Fansipan, etc…
Here are some of the shrines, views, and features of the Fansipan funicular & cable cars…
Some video clips of Fansipan, etc…
This last batch is a final dinner in Sapa followed by the next morning’s drive to the Vietnam/China border, including some first views of China from both a bus and the train, border crossing features, and our new guide Langer Wong…
That’s all of Vietnam ’26. I’m now in China with more connectivity than expected.
So, I hope you can expect more posts from the Middle Kingdom…!