Northern Tour 2014 06

This is the second album for this day, for the morning photos at Sà Phìn see Northern Tour 2014 - 05.

In the afternoon we headed towards the Đèo Mã Pí Lèng (Mã Pí Lèng Pass - the highest mountain pass in Việt Nam); on the way came across a family at the front of their house working hemp fibre. Continuing after a short stop we climbed higher and could see the alternate sides of the road steeply soaring above us on one side and on the other a sheer almost perpendicular drop to the river below. The television crew we saw the day before was also travelling the same road and were using a helicopter drone to capture some footage of the karst and valley formations, then the Dutch guys roared in on their motor bikes.

Alternatively travelling and stopping, where there was spectacular scenery, we managed to still be on the road when the moon began to rise that, of course, was cause for an additional stop; after which we kept going until we got to our hotel in Ha Giang. No pulling up at the front or into a parking bay, we stopped in a drive through reception area to check in, hand over our passports and receive our room keys. 

Our biggest problem for the day, which I have only been partially able to overcome in Photoshop, is the amount of haze making distance shots very difficult.