Blogs from Lao Cai, Northwest, Vietnam, Asia

Nathan here, after surviving the great Sa Pa shidd of Saturday. Essentially Ive been working with this random dude on Whatsapp whenever we look into getting a private car who initially arranged our airport transfer on arrival that I purchased on bookaway.com . The price quotes are unbeatable; the only downside is a near complete language barrier, so keep your phone charged and google translate at the ready. These are SUV's going for compact car prices; Ill be happy to share the contact info in our final post where we will leave all our links and best practices. Once again this wizard behind the curtain came through and our driver got us to our homestay earlier than expected. I kept wondering what the payoff was for the travel time; why this market was so special that ... read more

Bai tu long It’s Thursday morning so a quick three hour car journey to Halong Bay stopping for lunch and a water puppet show along the way. Certainly something you should see while you are in Vietnam but not something to see twice! Once in Halong we were greeted by our host, Tom and escorted to our boat for our 3 day tour on the Dragon Pearl 1 - a very comfortable boat for 15 of us. A mix of Brits, Americans,Swiss and Austrians. And what a trip it was. Bai Tu Long is further away and has less tourist traffic than Halong Bay but with very similar scenery ie scattered islands and limestone stacks set against the sea and ‘mostly’ blue skies. Moving serenely around the bay was incredibly relaxing and the food on board ... read more

Es ist 3:30 und ich sitze in einem australischen Pub in Hanoi. Vergeblich habe ich versucht etwas zu bestellen, doch die Bedienung schläft neben mir auf dem Sofa. Um 8:00 werde ich für eine 3-Tages-Tour in die Halong Bucht abgeholt und kann die letzten Tage daher nochmal Revuee passieren lassen. Am Donnerstag Abend hatte ich den Nachtbus nach Hanoi genommen. Bereits um 6:30 kam ich in der Hauptstadt Vietnams an. Ich setzte mich in ein kleines Straßencafe. Gegen 9:00 suchte ich das Büro von Manh auf. Bei ihm hatte ich via Facebook meine Touren nach Sapa und den Bootstrip in die Halong Bucht gebucht. Ich entledigte mich meines schweren Gepäcks und machte mich auf ins Getümmel. Es war bewölkt, doch es war trocken! Ein absolutes Highlight nach vielen Regentagen. Ich lief durch die vielen kleinen Straßen, ... read more

It feels like an injustice to write about the two highlights of Vietnam in one post; but alas, that is how things have come to pass. It does however, leave no doubt that I have saved Vietnam's best for last. The first of Vietnam's two blockbusters involved taking a bus-boat-bus - a bit more developed than the jeep-boat-jeep that I took in Costa Rica - to Cat Ba Island, which will soon be just one bus, once a new mega-long bridge is completed that will reduce the journey from Hanoi to a mere two hours. However, it wasn't Cat Ba Island itself that was the main attraction (even if it does have some sights of its own as well as a plethora of activities to try), but the famous archipelago of Ha Long Bay. Most tourists ... read more

Rien ne peut te faire aimer un endroit plus que le contact avec les locaux. Ainsi nous nous sommes laissés convaincre par Vu, une hmong noire, de marcher avec elle jusqu'à son village. Vu a 48 ans, elle a 3 filles dont une de 20 ans qui a à son tour un petit garçon. Donc Vu est déjà grande mère. Elle commande notre respect:elle est illettrée mais pour améliorer le sort de sa famille elle est allée à une école à Sapa pour apprendre l'anglais et travailler comme guide de "trek" dans les villages ethniques. Quand il n'y a pas de touristes elle travaille sur la montagne avec sa famille. Comme elle a travaillé depuis qu'elle était très jeune, elle n'a pas pu aller à l'école mais elle a tout fait pour que ses 3 filles ... read more