Blogs from Sapa, Lao Cai, Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 8

Remember that song from Cat Stevens- Morning has Broken?... "Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from heaven Like the first dewfall, on the first grass Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden Sprung in completeness where his feet pass Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning Born of the one light, Eden saw play Praise with elation, praise every morning God's recreation of the new day" This is how I can describe the view driving up to Sapa at 6 in the morning. Jeff 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 ... read more

Rano sme sa zobudili do krasne slnecneho dna. Krasny den nam nicili len, hlavne rano, komare. Tie su tu velky problem, pretoze roznasaju malariu, repelentom sme v tento den pre istotu nesetrili. Pomaly sme sa vybrali na cestu nadhernou krajinou. Kracali sme okolo dalsich ryzovych policok a malych jazierok s kacickami. Predavacky sa nas dnes rozhodli nechat napokoji, a tak sme sa mohli len kochat okolim, a nemuseli odmietat dalsie a dalsie ponuky vysivanych veci. Cestou sme sa zastavili pri vodopade s cistou a osviezujucou vodou. Chlapci sa okupali, ale pomohlo to asi tak na pol hodinu. Potom boli olepeny presne tak ako ja. Po vodopade nas cakal posledny vystup, kde sme mali obed. Znova nam ponukali mnozstvo veci na predaj a my sme znova neodolali a nakupili dalsie suveniry. Potom nas cakal uz len autobus ... read more

Rano sme dorazili do Sapy. Chlapik ktory nas mal vyzdvihnut uz cakal. Do ruky zobral vizitku, nasadol na motorku a ofrcal prec. Bezat sa nam velmi nechcelo a tak sme sa pomaly pobrali smerom, ktorym zmizol. Neskor sme ho dohonili, asi pochopil, ze bezat za nim nebudeme. Autobus, ktory nas mal zo stanice vyzdvihnut nas dostihol ked sme uz boli na dohlad od hotela, kde sme mali zacat nasu turu. V hotely sme sa najedli a osprchovali a cakali na ludi z hor, u ktorych sme chceli prespat. Po case sme sa dockali a zoznamili s nasou sprievodkynou pre nasledujuce dva dni - Wang z kmena Hmong. Jej anglictina bola prekvapivo vyborna a tak sme sa mohli dozvediet o sposobe ich zivota. Vsetko co vedela sa naucila len od turistov, do skoly nechodila, pretoze je draha ... read more

Sapa The Intrepid group is no more and we have all gone our separate ways. It was sad to say goodbye to my American friend Darra this morning as we had had so much fun together and been there for each other over the last two and a half weeks. She was heading off to Bali and Lombock for another Intrepid trip with lots of sunshine and cultural experiences before flying back to Denver, Colorado. She will be sorely missed as I finish my travel without her presence. As I still had the whole day to fill in in Hanoi, I decided exercise was in order and headed up to the French quarter of the city as here is where many of the sightseeing places are such as the museums and the mausoleum that houses Ho ... read more

Bree punching one in the face and almost kicking the same lady as she made a rapid descent down a muddy slope. As fate would have it, out of 511 hotels available on agoda in Ha Noi, we chose the same as Dennis and Nicole who we said goodbye to in Hue. They happened to be planning the same as us, a trip to Sapa in North West Vietnam, with some quick rearranging of our accommodation thanks to Tim our desk man; we booked into a 2 day trip leaving the following night. We piled the majority of our luggage into the corner of the hotels main dining room. We weren’t leaving on our overnight train until 9.50pm so we thought it would be a good idea to grab a $4 bottle of vodka and kick ... read more