Blogs from Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 69

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

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