Blogs from Dien Bien, Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 2

Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Dien Bien » Dien Bien Phu November 11th 2008

So here we are, Linda dying in bed the last 2 days of flu and I, running errons and foriging for food. This town should not exist. There is sweet nothing here to do but slit your throat, if you can find someone here who speaks english so you can ask for a knife! Our pland was to leave Sapa and come here to sort out our money issue as my card was stollen a few days ago and Lindas card was running dry. The bus to Laos leaves this hell hole on Monday, wednesday, Friday and Sunday. So we left Sapa on Sunday to get the Wednsday bus. While Linda has been in bed sick, I have tried to sort a few things out, for starters, basic survival, food! This is one tough place to ... read more

Bus ride from hell.... to hell.....

Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Dien Bien » Dien Bien Phu November 9th 2008

Photo 1

The Juckers

First I would like to thank sweet baby Jesus, sweet infant Jesus for allowing Linda and I to make it from Sapa to Bien Dien Phu alive! Oh my God what a trip. We left Sapa at 8am for a 7 hour bus ride to Dien Bien Phu. This is one journey I will never ever do again. We booked tickets for a bus, what comes to pick us up? A mini van! This shitmobile was on its last legs. So we throw our bag into the back which the guy had to kick and pull to try open. So on our way we go. Not even 5 min down the road, the boot opens and bags fly out. This was going to be one hell of a ride. Anyway, the driver seemed to be on ... read more

On the rocky road to Dien Bien Phu

Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Dien Bien » Dien Bien Phu November 1st 2008

DavidnLynne

I am sorry for no pictures, i am typing this on the 8th of November and between our visit to this place and our visit to Hue my old little Sony camera was stolen from my bag on the bus. I blame no one but my self. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BAG UNATTENDED ANY WHERE! Der! I do not care so much about the camera and we backed up most of the pictures but we lost about 1 week of pictures and that is the hard thing. Dave and I wanted to get off the beaten track and head south west. We managed to secure a 'cheap' seat in a private car that a travel agent was sending to DBP to collect a couple who were happy to pay $200 to be driven back to SaPa. ... read more

Back in Nam

Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Dien Bien » Dien Bien Phu September 21st 2008

Wet Vietnam

SazandCarlos

We crossed into Vietnam early in the morning with tender backside from sleeping on the benches at the Lao border. We decended to Dien Bien Phu with heavy rain and a skeptic mind as Carl had filled both me and Carter with scare stories of Vietnam when he visited 10 years ago!! The next 6 days we cycled through unspoilt mountain scenery towards Hanoi. Along the way we came across some mega friendly hill-tribes as they waved at us, shouting "hello", giving us fruit and posed for pictures in their colourful dresses. This was the opposite of what Carl and Rob received 10 years ago... I think it might have included stones (but this is a completely different area)!! The traffic was light, but you could see the potential building up as we got nearer to ... read more

Escape from A1 Hill

Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Dien Bien » Dien Bien Phu March 29th 2008

Escapr from A1 Hill

Numbat

We both rose bright and early today feeling much refreshed after a good nights sleep. First order of the day was to go back to the bus station to arrange transport to Sapa tomorow. This turned out to be an easy chore and was completed with no hassles all we had to do was say where we were we wanted to go and hand over the money 250,000D for both of us nd we were booked on a bus to Sapa tomorow morning that is leaving at 6.00am. Bus tickets in hand it was time to go and get some breakfast, so being the creatures of habbit that we are we head back to the same restaurant where we had dinner last night. This time we had less problems as we could have a bowl of ... read more

Brief history of Vietnam

The conquest of Vietnam by France began in 1858 and was completed by 1884. It became part of French Indochina in 1887. Independence was declared after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when they were defeated by Communist forc...more history

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