Advertisement
Published: October 13th 2012
Edit Blog Post
Singapore
Marina Sands in Singapore Well, finally we have started our big adventure 😊
After arrival in Singapore, we went straight to our hotel in the Geylang area where we stayed for 2 nights. Geylang is Singapore's red light distict but we didn't really notice. Quite a lively neighbourhood with so many small street kitchens. Since we are on a tight daily budget it suited us fine, and we ate well and didn't suffer any stomach problems.
Our brief stay in Singapore gave us a good impression of a (hot) city full of contrasts. From the relative poor Geylang district, it is only a 10 minute ride on the MRT to the city center with all the business men (and women) and posh people. One minute you walk and watch the impressive skyline of Singapore and the next moment you walk in a small sidestreet with small chinese shops and quite a messy place. In the impressive Marina Sands complex we found a skating rink, a Venice like channel with rides in gondols (indoor), a Ferrari store, a casino and Gucchi stores. Even Denmark was represented by Skagen watches 😊 A very beautiful center with the nice touch, that it is airconditioned. We really
Singapore contrasts
Backstreet in Chinatown with a view to the highrise buildings of the city center. Quite a contrast. hit the famous heat of Singapore and were happy to find a refuge in the centers.
We went on to Hanoi with Jetstar Air. Then a local bus to the city center. We were the only western people on the bus and we think we were the entertainment of the day. It was very cheap. About 1 USD for the both of us, and it was a trip of 1½ hour!!!
We got a taste of the old center of Hanoi in half a day and experienced a rather hectic place with lots of people and a total anarchy in the traffic. We somehow managed to survive crossing the roads and got to the night train to Sapa in one piece.
We shared a cabin with a doctor couple from Poland. Very nice people and very interesting to get an insight in the polish mentality. There is no doubt, that history has a strong influence on the polish people after the issues with their neighbours to the East and West. Quite disturbing really, that history takes so long to put behind.
After a reasonable sleep on the 9 hour trip, we arrived in Lao Cai in
Rice terraces
The beautiful rice terraces between Lao Cai and Sapa the north. The transfer was there as agreed with the family guest house in Sapa. It was a foggy and misty day, so driving up in the mountains we could only imagine the dramatic landscapes. The mist lasted the rest of the day with a visibility of around 20 meters. Not the biggest disaster, since C was hit by the (first) stomach issue on the trip. Add the jetlag and all the travelling, well we needed to rest a bit. Fortunately the stomach issue dissapeared the next day with the fog. The hotel offers fantastic views to mountains, valleys and the impressive rice terraces of Sapa.
We have now spent 8 days in Sapa and still have 2 days left. To shortly summarise, we have experienced the local culture with the different Hmong tribes, done a lot of trekking in the mountains and valleys with distances around 14 kilometers most days. Managed to get lost and somehow found our way back. Not a lot of english speakers around the tribes in the country side. However the scenery is grandious. The weather is rather changeable. On our treks, we really sweat like pigs (a danish expression) and Inge is rather
Rice terraces
The beautiful rice terraces between Lao Cai and Sapa cold in the mornings and evenings. We have seen the Hmong people harvesting the rice (by hand) and how they do the afterwork. The Hmong people live a simple life with their domestic animals. When we drive on a scooter, we really have to take care, since we meet dogs, pigs, chicken and water buffalos walking around freely 😊. The animals seem to be treated well, which we appreciate. By the way, Inge almost stepped on a beautiful green poisinous snake.
Our impression of Vietnam so far is pretty good. It is a friendly people but also people who will try to scam you with excessive prices. So all prices have to be negotiated. We think, that we have become quite good at it, but who knows, maybe they laugh at our back. As an example, Christian paid VND 150.000,- for half an hour massage. That was the price quoted in the brochure. By the way a really good massage 😊. We saw an advert at a hotel, that you could have ½ an hour massage for VND 95.000,-. So next time at the massage place, I asked for a price of VND 100.000,- and that was accepted without
Hmong harvesting
The red Hmong tribe harvesting rice to much of a negotiation (USD 4½,-). In Denmark we are used to pay the quoted price, but we are running up the vietnamese learning curve.
Hopefully the photo's gives a small impression of our experiences so far.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0717s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb