Blogs from Northwest, Vietnam, Asia - page 74

Sapa I arranged to get my visa for Cambodia and Laos while I was in Hanoi and this meant that I needed to fill a few more days in North Vietnam. The obvious choice was Sapa. Sapa is in the high country of North Vietnam, close to the border with China and the weather is a bit cooler thanks to the greater altitude. I arranged to go hiking for two days and stay in a local village at a home stay. The trip to Sapa was one of the more interesting (I'm not sure if anyone actually knew exactly who I was or what I was doing especially me!). I had booked to go treking through the same people that were organising my visas and they had included all the transfers however it seemed when we ... read more

hi everynoe as you know we have new camera and we just start to learn how to photo. we hope it will be improved the photo are from trip that we did in sapa in the vilages around enjoy... read more

For 6 days and around a 1000km I had the most memorable time of my trip so far. Since no one I'd been travelling with was keen to go kayaking in Halong Bay I rented a Russian motorcycle in Hanoi alone two and a half days behind a crew of five. The bike was a temperamental beast it ran pretty well until 40km outside of returning the bike when it completely took a crapper. Riding the bike through this type of country was easily the most disconnected I've felt from the travel scene since I've been in Asia. For the first 600 km I didn't see another person who wasn't a local. I might of had a taste of dog the first night though, I stopped at an out of the way town, my accommodation was ... read more

Now that I am in travel mode, I am feeling more settled - go figure! The course is becoming a distant (at times bad, then good) memory. I had a week of sickness and exhaustion following it, as well as reaching saturation point in Hanoi. It seems like the more I learn and speak Vietnamese, the more miscommunications I have. The good news is I've passed the course and am looking forward to teaching. It's actually loads of fun! I am in a sleepy town called Sapa in the far north of Vietnam - a stone's throw from China - with a friend from my course, Jan, a Londoner. Sapa is the Asian equivalent of a European alpine resort, replete with stunning mountains (snow-capped in Winter but no skiing) peppered with rustic villages, French alpine architecture, ... read more

Made it to Sa Pa. A little disorganized Went for a small trek. Since I had the whole day to myself in the almost empty (except for tourists) town of Sa Pa I decided to take a little walk south to see what I'd find. It was stinking hot out but I continued walking for about an hour and saw some of the amazing terraced landscapes that Sa Pa is known for. Just a little teaser before my two days of trekking through the villages... I probably would have continued walking for longer than an hour but realized that my walk was mostly downhill so decided to turn around and head back, plus, did I mention it was stinking hot? lol After lunch I rested up a bit in my nice hotel room and ended up ... read more