Sapa is reached by an overnight train trip from Hanoi and then a bus trip through stunningly steep mist-covered mountains with rice terraces clinging to their sides.
Staying at the Victoria Hotel eases any discomfort you may have had getting there.
"To awaken .. in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world." —Freya Stark
"I should like to spend the whole of my life traveling abroad if I could anywhere to borrow another life to spend afterwards at home." - William Hazlitt