That night we made it to a small town on the 4D between Lai Chau and Sapa called Tam Duong. On every map we’ve looked at this town has a different name, but don’t despair…it really does exist!

Now the wonderful thing about this town is that it is just high enough in elevation to house a large H’mong community, since those tribes who arrived last got the higher lands, and there are also two good hotels and a wonderful restaurant in which you can book a trek. The name of the place is the Tuan Anh and it’s on the main road, very difficult to miss. The food is excellent and the people running it are adorable. If you are lucky enough you may get to meet the daughter of the household who speaks good English. But if not then I suggest you work out your Vietnamese vocabulary in advance in order to negotiate a half-day or a full-day trek. The cost per trek – and not per person -        when we were there was 100,000 VND for a half day and 200,000 VND for a full day trek. The full day trek includes lunch. Plus you have to pay the police 50,000 VND per person for a permit. The guide will be one of the owner’s brothers. I recommend you ask for Luong who is really very charming. If you want to organise all this in advance and avoid the language difficulties you can contact their daughter, Thuong, by e-mail at hoaithuong83vn@yahoo.com.

The trek took us through awesome vistas of breathtaking beauty. Even though we climbed at our own pace it was hard work, but worth it since it brought us to two H’Mong villages.

After lunch we had to leave again. Speaking of lunch, did I mention that at Tuan Anh the food is excellent? We packed the car and set off for Sapa after saying a prayer to the patron saint of petrol pumps, hydraulic brakes and things that go bump in the car.

Maybe the prayer wasn’t said loud enough. We were out of rural foothills and quaint villages. By now we were climbing and climbing fast. The road to Sapa would take us over the Fansipan, Vietnam’s highest mountain. The landscape was sparse now; gentle hills had given place to sheer precipices, villages were few and far between and we were so close to the tree line that the vegetation grew thin. The road was very bad, but not as bad as some others we had passed. This was certainly not a road to take with a normal car.

East of Eden certainly agreed with this, but the new petrol pump felt it should have been installed in a normal car, because half way up the mountain it ground to a resounding halt. We opened the hood to see if sprinkling a bit of water on it would help only to discover that the plastic casing was indeed melting.

The sun was setting, a magnificent clear sun-set framed in mountain vista. I was, however, in no mood to sing. The road was bad and I didn’t want to drive at night. We had only one alternative: to try and switch on the LPG system which hadn’t functioned since Thailand and hope there was enough gas in the tank to get us to Sapa – another 30 kilometres of mountain road.

I had tried to get the LPG to work before to no avail but this time the patron saint of sun setting mountain desperation heard my plea and it worked. We climbed Mount Fansipan and by that time the pump had cooled down enough for us to switch back to petrol. We made it to Sapa and checked in at the Royal hotel (Ten bucks a night. Very comfortable) and I made enquiries about buying a new pump the next day.

But the next day was the First of May, International Workers’ Day. The only garage open in Sapa had no petrol pumps and everything was closed in Lao Cai.