Halong Bay & Sapa

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in a nutshell...

Trip along Gulf of Tonkin to HALONG BAY - beautiful is all i can say.. see the photos. couple of caves, spent night on the boat, really nce...met some cool people on the boat, lots of fun. loads of great food too...fresh fish.


SAPA
night train over from hanoi - sapa fantastic place in north...with view of Fansipan...largest mountain in vietnam..no time or money to climb it tho..shame!
lots of tribes hanging out around here...very colourful market place people wonderfully friendly.
spend time chatting to little girls & ladies...trekked with them to their village. wonderful day, through gorgeous rice paddies. really great at speaking english, apparently only learnt from tourists. men apparetly out at work...but saw many drunk already in the day or smoking opium...leaving the women to do the dirty work again.

spent night at home with family in village...delicious food..rice, pork, veggies, etc. made to drink lot of rice wine with the men...tastes like grappa (similar to lao lao)..but actually quite liked it. great day.

next day, trekked to waterfall, had lovely swim...really lucky with weather...headed back to hanoi for another night train.

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