Blogs from Sapa, Lao Cai, Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 6

Summary: Hanoi to Lao Cai Read more...... read more

Geo: 22.3945, 104.056What a gift our trip to Sapa was! On our own again without our friend Mary, we arrived in Sapa by the night train from Hanoi at 5:30am to cool temperatures. Well, cool to us; they were nothing like the frigid (-35 degrees), snowy weather many of our friends had reported from home in Canada. Upon arrival at our hotel, Fansipan View, we immediately became friends with the manager, Thuyen and her Dutch friend Monique. Next thing we knew we were enjoying dinner seated in a circle on the floor surrounding a hotpot at Thuyen's sister's home acquainting ourselves with sisters, mother, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews. How extraordinary was our time in Sapa, as we got to know Thuyen, her husband Quang and their baby daughter Anh Ngoc! After that lovely dinner, a couple ... read more

A few days before Christmas, Scott and I began our journey toward the mountain town of Sapa by taking an overnight train from Hanoi to Lau Cai. Despite the bumps and occasional wafts of cigarette smoke making its way through the air vents of our berth, we managed to get a fair amount of sleep before our arrival at 5:00 a.m. From the train station, we'd been told to catch a public bus to Sapa because that's the cheapest option. This proved to be difficult, however, since as soon as we set foot outside the train station we were swarmed by a mob of locals trying to offer us a ride. They followed us around as we walked from one unmarked, empty bus to the next until we finally found a bus with people in it ... read more

So we bought our sweet wheels – a Suzuki GN 125 – black with a red tiger on the petrol tank. We’d been checking out the internet for bikes for a few days without much luck. We wanted a slightly bigger bike than most of the bikes you get in Vietnam since two of us plus luggage would be travelling. The hostel put us in touch with Mr Minh who arranged a taxi for us to his garage where he rolled out our dream machine which wouldn’t start, had no brakes and no lights and looked like it had just pulled out of a hedge – it was love at first sight. Mr Minh insured us it would be ready in half an hour – seven hours and £250 later (including lunch, bananas and ice tea ... read more

We are a bit behind on our blog as since we arrived in Vietnam 8 days ago we have been having too much fun to go online much, but here is our entry from our first few days in the Northern town of Sapa... So, once we were stamped out of China we crossed a short bridge and entered Vietnam at last, which was a strange but exhilarating feeling. We have been so excited about coming to Vietnam for ages as it is somewhere we have been meaning to visit for the last few years but just haven't, so we have built up our expectations and hope it delivers over the next few weeks. One of the things we were a bit apprehensive about here was getting ripped off or scammed, as while we have heard ... read more