Blogs from Lao Cai, Northeast, Vietnam, Asia
New Release: Adventure: 16 DAYS IN ‘NAM. Starring Uncle Ho, Auntie Thuy & Us
Published: January 9th 2012Asia » Vietnam » Northeast » Lao Cai
December 14th 2011
I tried. I tried hard. But the obligatory urge to imitate Robin Williams’ “Gooooood Moooorning Vietnaaaaaam!” as we crossed the border from Cambodia, was just too difficult to suppress. After all, the amount of visual connections I had with this place were hardly in plentiful supply. Sure, I’d seen the majority of the war movies (and a Top Gear special) but aside from a bunch of yellow-star-on-red-T-shirted backpacker types we’d seen travelling in the opposite direction, Vietnam was one big lesson waiting to be learned, and I was the geek in the front row with my pencil sharpened. We began in the south, crossing the border into Ha Tien and as quick as we’d arrived in Vietnam, we were leaving again -well leaving the mainland at least- hopping on board a ferry to Phu Quoc island. ... read more
May 7th 2011
Wednesday 4th May Early arrival into Hanoi where we were bombarded with taxi requests and not having the brain power at 4.30am to convert Dong to Dollars to Pounds we jumped in a metred taxi and promptly got ripped off with a 230 000 fee. Knowing that he'd driven us 25 mins out of town we said we'd only pay the 200 000 and then he promptly grabbed Michelle. I marched over and stood in his space and said "Do NOT do that, I am a lot bigger than you and I'll sit on you" - to which Michelle laughed and he obviously was a little nervous that I might actually sit on him with my rucksack and back pack on because he replied with "F*ck YOU!" Still....it worked! After a quick snooze we went for ... read more
Horrendous Roads on Our Last Day Riding
Published: April 6th 2011Asia » Vietnam » Northeast » Lao Cai
April 6th 2011
Tuesday 5th April 2011 Sa PA to Than Uyen 62m 90k Left the hotel at 9.00am in fog and had an easy first half of a 14km climb to the top of Tram Ton pass, the highest pass in Vietnam. The last section became harder and I admit to getting off and walking a bit to stretch my legs. It was foggy most of the time with just an occasional burst of sunshine. At the top we ate a hot, baked sweet potato and boiled eggswith green tea in a little road-side tent, provided by a lady vendor. That's what holidays are all about. We then 'enjoyed' an exhilaratingly serious, 26km plunge downhill to Bin Lu junction where we turned left for Than Uyen. The road alternated between tarmac and very rough bumpy stretches where the ... read more
October 26th 2010
Hej igen! Ha Long Bay Den 22e oktober checkade vi ut tidigt ifran Hotellet i Hanoi for att hamtas upp av minibussen som skulle ta oss till Halong City, dar vi skulle hoppa pa varan delux-kryssare. Bussresan var (till skillnad fran var minibussupplevelse i Malaysia) mycket behaglig. Det enda som gjorde oss lite forsenade var att vi stannades av polisen som utovade ett maktspel pa en stackars tjej som inte hade med sitt pass (hon skulle bara pa en dagstur). Det loste sig till slut pa nagot satt i alla fall...polisen i Vietnam verkar kort sagt inte riktigt vara lika tillforlitliga som polisen i Sverige. Vi hade fatt en klockren guide som pratade pa in-och utandningen pa hyfsat forstaelig engelska. Efter att han borjat prata ville han aldrig riktigt sluta. Vi var radda att han skulle ... read more
June 26th 2010
Soo.. we are on the move again. Off to Halong Bay tomorrow. Three day trip of sailing round the islands kayaking and bike riding, a night on the boat and a night on an island. So, no internet, posiibly no phone connection, so we will be safe and will email again when we are in Hoi An, on Wednesday evening. xxxxxx.... read more
August 28th 2009
Day one up north. Well, it was very sad to say goodbye to Dave and Sarah. From now on I will be spelling her name correctly with an H at the end. Sorry Sarah for the screwup. I had one full day in Hanoi before I left for the train last night. We all had one more dinner. Dave found a very famous place that only serves one thing. Actually the book said "legendary". They serve fish that you cook in front of you yourself with a bunch of different things to mix in. We figured if you only serve one thing for years and years and people are still coming back you must have figured out something right. And it was great. Very different than some of the other meals we had had during the ... read more
August 28th 2009
Day one and in the evening. I have survived. I am actually kind of blown away by where I am at right now. Which by the way I really don't know where I am at. I kind of think somewhere NE of Lao Cai. My guide Khun speaks almost no English. Actually let me rephrase that. He dosn't really speak any English. And I still cant even say thank you in vietnamese yet correctly after a week. So he and I are spending tons of time in deep philosaphical conversations. On a side note what is the deal with charades here? In the states if you made the motion of brushing your teeth people would know you meant to brush your teeth. I don't think I have had one charade actually work yet. Its probablly that ... read more
July 14th 2009
Well we've definitely had some of the greatest few days of our time in Asia. We had organised our trip with 'The Drift' Backpackers hostel in Hanoi. It's a new hostel run by some really friendly Aussies who pride themselves on organising good tours (not your average Asian run affair), but at a slightly higher price than you would normally pay, to ensure everything goes smoothly. We decided to go on this having been on other tours (Sihanoukville for example) which weren't so brilliant and wanted our Ha Long experience to be really good. We were hurried out the door at 7.50am to catch our bus to Ha Long Bay. We had a nice tour guide and a few cool people on our bus and to be honest, i snoozed the whole journey. We arrived at ... read more
August 10th 2008
Hi, I am still stuck in Lao Cai and it now appears that we could be stuck here for a week while they fix the train and roads. I didn't realise how serious it was yesterday as it has now been on the news that about 100 local people have died because of the floods. I hope my moaning yesterday didn't seem inappropriate, I just didn't realise. Thought it was just a bit of rain that was an inconvience for me! Anyway, still bored out of my brain. We did find a market today though so finally have a clean t-shirt which is nice! The little things really do matter at the moment! Hope everyone is well. E-mail me as I will be on the Internet everyday until I leave as I am bored. Steph. ... read more
