Yaunyang

Saturday 19 June: Eventually I arrive in Yaunyang, it's 4:00am and raining. There are prettier rice terraces a few hours away but I sleep and have a lazy but bright afternoon strolling the stepped villages near my hostel, the Photographers' Hotel.
Sunday 20: Leaving at 6:00am, I take a motor tricycle mini-truck (55th mode of transport) to the bus station, which should make reaching the Vietnam border a breeze but the five-hour bus ride my guidebook indicates turns into a 13-hour endurance test. My China visa expires today so timings are crucial but, with minutes to spare, I get into Vietnam just before the customs post shuts for the day, it's a close shave. Linking-up with a young Sino-American couple, Liza and Eric, we share a taxi from the border rail-head town of Lao Cah to the former French hill-station of Sapa.

So it's goodbye China . . . Good Morning Vietnam.

Yaunyang rice terrace photos.