Blogs from Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 8

We organised our four night/ three day tour to Sapa from home and are delighted to learn that we are traveling with just one other couple, Anna and Drew from the UK. We'll be a very intimate group for the next few days. On the train however, Hannah and I bunked down with a Vietnamese couple for the duration of our overnighter from Hanoi to Lao Cai. I've included a map of the region, so you can see that Lao Cai is on the border of China and Sapa is another 30 or 40 km up a windy, very misty and mountainous road. Sapa has an altitude of about 1600 m and I was very surprised on the drive up to have my water bottle top pop like a champagne cork when I went to open ... read more

Awesome! This is how I can describe the view driving up to Sapa at 6 in the morning. I was so enthralled by the view that he was literally sticking his head out of the van to take pictures. It took us an hour to get to the city of Sapa where we were taken to a hotel room for the sole purpose of taking a shower after the train ride. After freshening up and being told by Canh, the our former guide from Vietnam package travel, that it isnt advisable to take a backpack weighing so much on the treck my friends and I went about trying to figure out how we had so much weight. Penut butter jar? crackers? 20 granola bars? towels? and then proceeded to figure out what we actually did need ... read more

Patek 16.3.2012 - Sapa - Ta Van Dnes byl na programu prvni den nasi 2-denni tury. Vstali jsme v 8h na snidani v nasem novem hotylku (hotel Prince,15 USD na noc se snidani. Prisel nas pruvodce,asi 20lety Hmongsky kluk (z vesnicky Cat Cat), trochu stydlivy na prvni pohled. Sedame do autobusu,vyzvedavame jeste dalsich 5 lidi a poodjizdime do dalsi vesnicky vzdalene asi 2 km jizne od Sapy. Od tamtud uz po svych. Jdeme z kopce, nasi spoluturiste hodne foti a povidaji, coz by nevadilo, kdyby se co 5 min nezastavovali a nefotili se navzajem. Uz od pocatku nas pronasleduje parta "tet", jak jim rika Miki, ktere se nas stridave vsechny vyptavaji odkud jsme, jak se jmenujeme a kolik je nam let. Nejvic je nam sympaticka mlada 20ti leta Su, ktera vypada tak na 14 let. Zastavujeme ... read more

We arrived in Vietnam last night on a short flight over from Taipei. Before i get into Hanoi, i want to wrap up our stay in Taiwan. Our last night in Taipei included an all you can eat BBQ buffet which Jordan insisted was Korean BBQ style restaurant. Not only did the food keep rolling out but the beers and ice cream as well. Wonderful way to conclude the marathon of food i call Taiwan. After dinner, we walked around to find some mole skin (does not exsist in taipei), whiskey and "fine art" aka my future business venture. Back to Hanoi, Day 1: On first impression it's everything i thought it would be but with much more of a small town feel and with way more westerners. Our transition from being the only white people ... read more

What a difference a day makes...It's a struggle to leave the warm duvet, knowing in all probability the weather hasn't changed from yesterday. Still pretty cold in the hotel, but needs must, biological if nothing else and eventually stumble down into reception. Sunshine, yes it's the sun and there's a mountain peak. Rush for the camera just since this might be a short lived glimpse of Sapa scenery. And it is as the place is enveloped once again in thick fog. It's the last day in Sapa, at least I've seen a mountain! Oh look, it's clearing again - sunshine, warm sunshine too.... read more

The way to Heikou - border town with Vietnam was quite scenic and we really loved the views surrounding the Red River. There were not many people going this direction so we were put in a small minivan rather than a bus but we were not alone on this journey. We shared this ride with a Scottish couple – Lorraine and Kevin who happened to go exactly in the same direction as us in SE Asia. The way we met was quite strange (as Kevin says), it was in a dark and empty Sunny Guesthouse very early in the morning and it went a little bit like that: Kev: Hey Guys, where are you going? Us: Hey, we are going to Heikou, how about you? Kev: Us too and then to Vietnam. What time is your ... read more