Sapa...a blend of East and West...

Arriving as we did in the early morning we were taken aback by the mix of French, Italian and Vietnamese cultures...

I never found out why they named the hotel after a vegetable :)

I did like the street lights...very French?

More than enough chocolate shops...

Don't ask...but there seem to be a LOT of Israelis that visit Vietnam. I noticed this book in the waiting room of the local tour operator.

The locals waiting for tourists to alight from their vehicle!

Vietnam's highest mountain(3500m) as seen from our room

Another view...

In this part of the country the rice is farmed in terraces

Not sue what was going on, but they were busy all day long

I noticed that most of the dummies used for display purposes were of European origin...never found and Asian one

I have no words for this... make up your own caption and mail it to me?

Vietnamese LOVE Karaoke...there are clubs, big and small, all over

Vietnamese and USA flags side by side...a strange juxtaposition?

one of the few military type vehicles I spotted.

This tourist couple had just rented this moped and were trying to make their way up the hill...not very successfully I might add!

We spent some time here...

one of the exhibits

Needed a shave but I was not prepared to try this establishment...

Tourists surrounded by the locals...

There were several massage shops in Sapa...more than I saw in any other city...and I was still having fun taking pictures of people taking pictures!

This little piggy did not make it to market...it was part of a birthday celebration...

*WARNING*....the next couple of images might offend sensitive readers...

We eventually found dog meat at the market in Sapa.I was told that it was very expensive and as we never found it on a menu, I can report that we did not get to taste it. Having seen bush meat in Africa, this particular plate of "food" did not shock me as much as I thought it would...