Tram Tom foolery

Our plan for our second day in Sapa was thus… To get on our little moped and go and explore the Tram Tom pass, a mountain pass from Sapa that winds up across the mountains and back down to towards the Chinese border, apparently spectacular scenery is the order of the day and also once down the other side of the mountains a treat of hot weather in the warmest region of Vietnam. So we were up good and early, a little too early for Georgie mind you but nothing a good strong Vietnamese coffee can’t fix. Then full o beans we headed up to Baguets and chocolate bakery to get our selves a picnic made by disadvantaged children for the journey… The road out of Sapa is in pretty good shape not great shape but good enough, but within 5 miles its reduced to a bumby dirt track thats still under construction or being excavated from a landslide, which normally doesn’t cause much of a problem to the little mopeds but team that with a super steep incline, no crash barrier between us and the drop to the bottom of the valley and stunning views and what you get is the Tram Tom pass. Regular stops were the way forward because distraction was the last thing I needed! It was amazing to be seeing the scenery unfold in front of us while steadily climbing higher and higher but what we didn’t really want was to be gorping at the mountains and drive straight off the edge or down into one of the many massive pot holes where the side of the road has fallen into the valley. Im probably making it sound like a death defying feat driving up the Tram Tom pass but its far from it, maybe if you were doing it at even 40mph it might be or if you were a driver of the many huge old lorries that we passed along the way then you might want to make sure your will is in order but as far as we were concened it was fine, a little rough but thats all. Once we got to where the pass hits its highest point we stopped to enjoy our lovely picnic sitting on a verge with nothing but air below us and stunning never ending views of the villages and rice feilds below, I would say it was probably the best place I’ve ever had a picnic. From there back down the other side was a dream, smooth tarmac, long slow bends and gorgeous weather. The scenery here is alot like that of the central highlands that we enjoyed courtessey of our easy rider pals but the biggest difference is that here its alot bigger, the mountains, the valleys and the views all are so much bigger and harder to take in with just a glance. Also there is no real flat land to speak of, your either on the side of a steep mountain or your in a deep valley surrounded by steep mountains. We just rolled slowly most of the way down with regular stops to stare over the edge and take the odd picture, and of course enjoy the odd smoke. When we got to the bottom we came to a fork in the road and followed it off one way before heading back, stopping for a splash of coffee then heading off the other way, seeing some wicked rural scenes and loads of grubby little kids splashing in rivers and whipping buffalo to get them to keep moving along the roadside. The weather at the bottom was so warm and lush that we couldn’t resist going for a little splash in the river with a few of the urchins… After a good old soaking we started on our way back up the pass leaving plenty of time so not to be attempting the hard descent in the dark also it gets cold very quickly both as the evening draws in and as you climb up higher and we were only moderatley prepared. The drive back was just as spectacular and just as mezmerising as the drive down but by the time we were near Sapa again I for one was exausted and ready for a hot chocolate pit stop… Again. We had a bit of a rest back at our room then dragged our weary bones down the stairs for some dinner and we had met a hill tribe woman called Gee on our first day and every day spent some time chatting to her and having a right laugh, we had said that we were going to get some pizza and invited her along because she said it was her favourite, so as we headed to the pizza place we wandered past her usual spot where she sits and tries to sell her hill tribe wares to tourists and off we all went. The pizza was awesome and we had a right laugh chatting away to Gee about hill tribe life, afterwards we went and sat in the street with her and her friends and played with the feisty little kids until the day caught up with us and if that wasn’t enough by the time we had climbed the stairs we were utterly done in…