Blogs from Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 16

We woke up to the morning call of the chickens and the yelp of some dog . As we waited to start our second day of the treck the courtyard started to fill up with young women who heard of the "generous women who buys a lot of bracelets" - that's me folks- well not today! Today I was tired from a long night, no food and no mood for being begged to- so as we left the family stay house I wasnt very nice and the girls dissapeared to find someone else. We hiked through more rice fields, a bamboo forest that was extremely muddy. Jeff and I were very impressed with our guide whose shoes were still clean after 2 hours of hiking while our shoes were so covered in mud you couldn't see ... 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

After walking in the rain to the train station we took the overnight sleeper train from Hanoi to Lao Cai. I really can’t understand why they are called sleeper trains because I don’t think I’ve had any kip on any of them yet. If you want to experience what it’s like to travel by sleeper train; whilst closing your eyes, get your wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, neighbour, whoever, to grab you by the shoulders and shake you violently from side to side, then punch you in the arm to reinact you hitting the side of your bunk because the driver has needlessly slammed on the brakes, probably because he has dropped his beer or something! Anyway after nine hours of this torture we arrived in Lao Cai, safe in the knowledge that we wouldn’t have to ... read more

Sapa 2 The third day in Sapa and the most awesome place to visit. The landscape is hilly and the land is fertile and rich with plant life with a moderate temperature at this time of the year which is the rainy season. After breakfast with our team of six, one of Katerinas’ girls was sick, we left for yet another trek down the steep hill to the Cat Cat village where they colour hemp using plant extract and make their clothing from the marijuana plant. Some of the items for sale are machine made, but much of it is handmade and that includes the silver and tin products and the many colourful scarves, hats and bags that are available. By visiting the village we gained insight into the daily lives of the locals and how ... 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