This section has images of Vietnam taken on tours we have made. Hovering on an image will enlarge it a little, clicking on an image will hold it as a larger picture. The images are available to purchase, most are 120MB PSD files suitable for printing. For speed of the page opening, and to guard copyright, the images displayed are restricted to about 1MB, and please bear in mind that the rendering of colours does depend on the screen and software you use.

Sa Pa, Bắc Hà and Xín Mần

Sa Pa is probably the most famous visitor destination in Northern Vietnam. And in itself has rightly been so, but the volume of tourists has overtaken this value. The town and its surroundings are dedicated to visitors and the people can be too painfully attentive to them, as they are in India and other countries, but are not normally in Vietnam. However, the spectacular nature of the country and the cool summer climate retain their attraction. A visit to the Sunday market at Bac Ha is often combined with Sa Pa. We prefer to take our visitors from Bắc Hà across the hills to Xín Mần, a route few foreigners traverse and which lets them be in contact with a Vietnam as yet untouched by commercialism. But this is a route for motorbikes and rough terrain vehicles, not for cars, and there are no buses. The photgraphs below follow the reverse order, we like going anticlockwise, but normally the getting of travel papers dictates we go from Bắc Hà to Xín Mần.

May 2016