Blogs from Sapa, Lao Cai, Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 46

All aboard the night train! We were off to Sapa to view some of Vietnam's most spectacular scenery and much to Eddie's delight the home to 5 ethnic minority tribes. Our six berth cabin was occupied by 3 Aussies and a poor Vietnamese man who I'm sure could not figure out why he was being punished with all these Mr and Mrs Westerners (Ong Tay & Ba Tay), especially as Ed and I had had a feed of garlic before clambering on board and we were all locked up in very close confines! Sleep was sparse to say the least and we arrived very early in Lao Cai (town on the border with China) the next morning. A minibus picked us up and with its sleepy load climbed bravely through the patchwork of crops which grow ... read more

As we disembarked the bus into the bright hot morning air, we realised that we had no VMD (dong) and a quick look in the photocopied pages of the Lonely Planet we had, showed that there was no bank in town. So there was no other option but to use the black market, in the form of a young man who met us as we got off the bus. He seemed a little disappointed that we had no Lonely Planet to sell him, but more disappointed that we didn't need to buy one. He did however cheer up when we said we needed to change some cash, he offered us 169 VMD to 1 yuan. We knew that we were being had but it turned out to be only about 30 VMD under the bank rate. ... read more

So I haven't written in a bit. I think I have a lot to update. Pardon my typing - the keyboard in one of the only working internet places in Sapa is a little sketchy. No pictures this time but I'll try when I'm back in Hanoi with wireless/my laptop. The internet cafes everywhere are packed as theinternet and relative openess towestern culture is relatively new in Vietnam. I wish the car horn was never invented. For all you North Americans reading who have never been to SE Asia (or developing countries for that matter) its out of control. Even in the quietest of remotes the car horn blares and blares and blares for what apparently seems to be no reason. Even on motobikes (which there are three gazillion of in this country - Honda must ... read more

Sapa is between Hanoi and the Chinese border. It is a popular tourist destination because of its mountain location, cool climate and hill tribes. Many people buy packages (which usually include hill tribe treks of varying lengths) to Sapa from Hanoi. Because we had plenty of time, we decided not to book an organized tour to Sapa and instead to head there on our own and book any packages from there if we found something we liked. Night trains appear to be the only real option to Sapa (there may be day trains and buses but no one talks about them and they’re hard to obtain information on) and so on Tuesday we took the night train to Lo Cai. The bus left Sapa at 10 pm and arrived at 6:30 am in Lo Cai which ... read more

I still can't believe I did it (because everyone said the weather was too bad) but I did, I climbed Mt Fansipan... and when I say climbed, I seriously do mean CLIMBED because it certainly wasn't like any other walk I have ever done! It's supposed to be the highest peak in Indochina at a height of 3143m and to get to the top usually takes 3 days, unless you are in incredibly good shape, lacking time and want to put yourself through hell and do it all in 2 days. So I thought I'd do it in 3 - on the first day this involved hiking to a base camp at 2000m, the second day was the ascent to the summit - going straight up 1000m - and the third day was easier, just involving ... read more