After spending the night on the overnight sleeper train we arrived at around 5am - 6am. Looking completely disheveled after our night on the train(thank goodness I was with a great tour group as I had been put in a cabin with 3 men - luckily one of our gentlemen swapped with me!!) we were met by our guide and taken for breakfast.

There is little to see or do in Lao Cai - it really is a stopping off point for the train or for those crossing the VN-Chinese border. When we were told we were near the border I didn't realise just how close.....there is only a river between the 2 countries!!! So now I can say I've "seen" China...I just haven't entered the country.

If you were not going to Sapa you would not stop here at all. After breakfast, feeling slightly better we did the "busman's tour" before heading off on a hair raising 38 kms trip up the mountainside to our destination for the next few days, Sapa.

Lao Cai - Been there, Done that...!!!