We've just left Sa Pa, which is a town in northwest Vietnam. We arrived there via overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai (which is only 2 km from the Chinese border) and have spent the last 3 days trekking in the surrounding countryside (covering about 30km in the process and are probably going to lose a couple of toe nails due to the steep decline of some of the routes). We spent our first night staying in a Vietnamese minority-tribe village - very interesting and scenic. The people are dirt poor, but seem happy with their lot - probably something to do with not having to pay taxes, having their kids go to school for free and not having to worry about the day to day crap of modern living.

Many of the local children can already speak English well enough to keep asking: "You buy this from meeeeeee, please sir, buy this from meeeeeee…"

Sa Pa is the highest and coldest part of Vietnam and is one of the best examples of rice terrace farming in the world. It is a beautiful part of the country and extremely popular with trekkers - we've encountered people from 8 different countries just on our 2 treks alone.

The highest mountain in Vietnam (Fansipan) is located here as well, but we didn't have the time (nor the ability) to attempt it.

On the last day, Jo and I treated ourselves to a foot and leg massage - we needed it after all that walking (can't remember when last I had stiff calves and hips). Female Vietnamese masseuses may be small and petit, but they have hands like steel. After having my calves, shins and feet pummelled for what felt like an eternity, I was ready to tell them anything they wanted to know. Mercifully, the rest of the massage was very nice and we walked out of there on legs that felt much better for the experience.

The overnight train back to Hanoi was an experience. Jo and I had to share our compartment with 2 older drunk Chinese guys who couldn't speak English. As my Cantonese/Mandarin is also not of the best, we tried to get to sleep early so as to avoid any confrontation. Unfortunately, their phones kept on ringing until the early hours and they would subsequently answer them and chat away loudly. Oh well - part of the experience of backpacking……

We spend one more day in Hanoi and will then be moving on to Hue.

Keep watching this space.