Blogs from Bac Ha, Northwest, Vietnam, Asia
"It floats with water and flies with wind..."
Published: December 11th 2011Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Bac Ha
December 8th 2011
A H'mong Riddle: It has wings but no bone, it floats with water and flies with wind...? After journeying by boat, bus and train from Vietnam’s natural wonder we arrived twenty hours later at Lao Cai in the North Mountains, close to the border with China. It was sometime around 5am and we were no longer mentally-equipped to deal with the customary interaction with local “entrepreneurs”. Further, we were not expecting to barter for the price of a bus ticket. The local bus, we believed to be 50,000 dong per person but we were quoted double that. The rogue conductor finally settled at a price of 70,000. Later a group of Asian tourists were ripped off at more than three times the price, but we did not care to fight their battles at that time in ... read more
September 3rd 2011
Up early for breakfast, which was ok but the toaster was crap more like a microwave thingy 6 minutes for toast anyone?! :( Got a really good map from reception ahead of a days sightseeing. Realised we were in a much better location then we thought which meant that we could get to everything we wanted to see by foot. The only problem for me was I hadn't gotten my head around crossing the road yet! Anyway we walked up to the lake, and booked tickets for the 3pm show at the Water Puppet theatre, then to the lake they have a bridge to the middle where there is a little museum where they have a really old turtle on display it is supposed to be lucky! Then we headed toward the opera house and museum ... read more
destination hill tribes : hanoi, lao cai, bac ha
Published: February 22nd 2011Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Bac Ha
February 19th 2011
The longer i am in vietnam the more twisted and unsure my perceptions become of this place.. A grim soviet esq feel lingering in the air and a constant battle of personal greed is writhe in the north.. it is saturday morning, our plan at this stage was to get to a hill tribe town called bac ha, 340km away by road in time to see the sunday markets which bring people from different minority tribes from near and far.. shouldnt be too hard id imagine. since we we staying at a hotel we spoke to the woman at the front desk that we had mentioned our plans to when we arrived the night before, she spoke good english and said she would help us.. as we approach she immediately told us she had been ringing ... read more
June 25th 2010
The sleeper train from Hanoi pulled in to Lao Cai station at 5am, it had been a painless ten hour journey and I didn't feel quite awake yet as we followed the crowds leaving the platform. Fleet after fleet of minibuses labelled 'Sapa' filled the carpark outside and into them plodded nearly all the trains passengers. It was at this point that we felt very glad to be heading in the opposite direction! Instead of Sapa we wanted to go to Bac Ha, a town with a famous Sunday market and beautiful hillside location. The six remaining tourists and us, left in town, found a local bus and after the usual price negotiation were on our way. As the bus slowly wound it's way up the steep narrow roads the sights of carpeted green hillsides of ... read more
January 4th 2010
Hi again. A belated happy new year. Picking up from the last blog - we spent a night on a 'junk' (Gabe: "I know why they're called 'junks': it's because of all of the junk.") exploring the Halong Bay area. Most of our cruise was in Lan Ha Bay off Cat Ba Island, to the south of Halong Bay. Magnificent scenery, with sheer limestone cliffs rising out of the turquoise waters (I'm channeling the Lonely Planet guide book!). Kayaked through caves into hidden bays - Dom had the best experience via a capsize in a strong gust; fortunately he was grabbed by the collar by the Captain (his kayak buddy). Mik lost his paddle, and Scuba-Ariane was unable to salvage it. Food on boat was fantastic - fish bought fresh and swimming from local fishermen. From ... read more
September 8th 2009
Sunday 6 September 2009 - After an 8 and a half hour train ride from Hanoi, I arrived in Lào Cai. This city is very close to China, only 1km from the Lào Cai - Hekou international border crossing, also on the way to Yunnan province of China. If you look at a map, Sapa is on the left side, 38km from Lào Cai, and Bắc Hà is on the right side, 70km from Lào Cai. Both Sapa and Bắc Hà are popular tourist destinations in north west Vietnam. Tourists often go to Bắc Hà on Sundays to see the market of the flowery H'mong ethnic minority people (different with black H'mong people in Sapa based on their dresses). This market is held every Sunday from morning until 2pm. The locals bring their own products (corn ... read more
