Blogs from Sapa, Lao Cai, Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 47

Sapa was easily one of my favorite stops in all of Vietnam. If you only have a week or less to spend in Vietnam, then I would definitely recommend flying into Hanoi and spending a couple days there in addition to Halong Bay. Originally it was not on my itinerary and my friend, Polly, who had been to Vietnam the year before, suggested that I cut something out (sorry, Hue) to go to Sapa instead. This small village is nestled in the highest mountain range in the country and is just south of the Chinese border. The only convenient way to access it is via overnight train from Hanoi. The drama surrounding my train tickets easily could have ruined a trip to a less amazing place, but after seeing the incredible landscape, the only thing important ... read more

All I can say is thank goodness the Sapa area is beautiful because getting there sure wasn't fun. We were taking the overnight train for the 9 hour trip and after having good experiences on the Chinese overnight trains we were looking forward to it. Unfortunately our Chinese trains were in significantly better condition. Our compartment was seriously dirty (thank goodness for the sleep sacks, mom!), we couldn't figure out how to turn the lights off and the ride was noisy, bumpy and hot! Upon arrival at the town where we had to wait over an hour for a minibus to Sapa, both Mike & I were trying to figure out how to get home where we could get some good sleep again! But once we were on our way up the mountain to Sapa, the ... read more

It's been a few days since the last blog and the big news to share with you is that we finally made it across the border and we're now busy enjoying the wonders of North Vietnam. We're in Sa Pa, a small town in the mountains not a million miles away from the border but far enough now to feel really free of all things Chinese! Our journey from Kunming on the overnight sleeper bus was much more pleasant this time. The beds were a bit longer and the roads didn't feel as bumpy so we actually managed to get a decent amount of sleep. When we arrived in Hekou, we saw the Chinese guy that helped us out last time we were there. He was totally surprised to see we had made it back so ... read more

Vietnam is HOT but beautiful!! We went on our 2 day journey out of Sapa to visit the Mong people. They call them that because they decended from Mongolia, and there are 5 different groups that speak the same dialect (not vietmanese) but wear different color embroidery on their traditional clothes and sometimes different head wear. We kept on seeing tons of females wondering about and following us and helping us across the mud and small streams....my guide failed me at one point and I ended up standing in the stream....fullout sloshy the rest of the day!! They kept on looking at us and each of us had our own sometimes 2 of them and they were like...you and me friends right and later you buy from me right!! (well you can help me across this ... read more

It has been a long journey to cross the border into Vietnam and a memorable one at that. We left Lijiang as I was telling you to board a sleeper bus.... WOW.... Mark remember how you felt in the subway in Korea when we went to watch the soccer game? well this was that same feeling of "get me off NOW". To describe this bus...hmmm well 3 rows of tiny beds "made for asians" and the back of the bus was a top and bottom row that "fit" 5 people and would you look at that our ticket placed us at the very back of this bus. It was us and 3 Chinese of course (us being the only foreigners once again). I instantly had a bit of a mental breakdown and got a little angry ... read more