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Published: January 9th 2007
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One of the best things you could do during a trip to Vietnam would be to book a trip to Sapa and Halong Bay. They are so different but equally rewarding and breath taking. I had never seen anything like either of these places in my life.
It's really easy to book these trips out of Hanoi - there are so many tour groups that offer packages. One word of advice though, some are better than others and we did hear of some horror stories. Ours was booked with Handspan and we found them to be fantastic - definitely highly recommended.
First up we headed to Sapa via the overnight train from Hanoi. At about 7am the next morning the train pulled into a small town call Lao Cai which is about as north as you can get in Vietman right near the Chinese border. After a 30 minute bus trip climbing the mountains and driving through thick fog and clouds we reached Sapa town. Literally set high in the clouds the place was magical and mystical...and also extremely cold!
There are a number of different tribes between Sapa and the surrounding valleys. In Sapa town itself the
local ethnic minority women had beautiful faces and were really petite. I loved their traditional attire. Apparently the lower part of women's legs in this tribe are considered sexually attractive so whilst they all wear skirts (yes, in the cold... I don't know how they do it!) they all wear pieces of material that cover up the sacred parts of their legs...presumably until after marriage.
Anyway...back to the trek. Our tour guide was a lovely chap who told us his English name was 'Hero'. After breakkie we were essentially frozen so we donned about 43 layers of additional clothing to combat the cold and set off down the mountain with Hero. As we descended it became warmer and we started to peel the layers off.
The rice fields that hug these moutains were everywhere and we were told by Hero that many of themhad been there for thousands of years.
In the afternoon we arrived in a small town in the valley called Ban Ho where we were booked to stay in a local house for the evening. Hero presented us with two possible options for the arvo - more trekking or hire a motorbike from one
of the local villagers. Call us lazy but we decided to go with the latter and proceeded to scoot around the dirt roads for a couple of hours wahoooo! We passed by countless more rice fields, gorgeous running streams, and a couple of small towns on our way.
That evening at the homestay house, Hero - with only one wok and a small fire - cooked an amazing meal of traditional Vietnamese food for Fletch/myself, a Spanish traveller, and the owners of the house. It was absolutely one of the most delicious meals I've had. There were about 10 inidividual dishes and they were all piping hot. After that it all became a bit of blur...hmmm...rice wine really is a bit of a creeper isn't it?!
The next day we trekked to another village for a few hours and then hopped in a fantastic old Russian jeep that somehow made it up the mountain back into Sapa town.
Another overnight train and a day in Hanoi and we were then onto Halong Bay - about 3 hours by bus. Not wanting to do things by halves, we booked a rather plush 3 day/2 night stay on the
Dragon's Pearl which turned out to be rather a posh Chinese Junk Boat. As soon as we set foot on this boat we felt like 3 days of pure hedonism was about to start. After our Sapa trek it felt like the perfect thing to do, and I never complain about any hedonistic activities!
There are many different tours to choose from but we chose one that included a one day kayaking option. The rest of the time we essentially just relaxed on the top deck and watched the incredible limestone islands pass us by as we cruised around on the Junk.
Halong Bay is one of the natural wonders of the world but has only been designated a UNESCO world heritage site in the last 5 years. The bay itself is massive, so even though there are a lot of tours on Chinese Junk boats, you only really see them in the evening when you're moared or occasionally during the day.
I was so taken with just how peaceful and serene it is in the Bay. It didn't seem to matter how far we cruised, it was always so quiet.
Early on our second day
we set off on our day of kayaking around the islands with another fabulous tour guide - this one called himself 'The Captain'. We had a great day, and a pretty good workout too!
During our 3 day stay we were blessed with beautiful weather. Apparently it had been grey and miserable prior to our arrival but we couldn't have been luckier.
Next stop...Luang Prabang - Laos. An exceptional town that shouldn't be missed...
Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic night!
Love your messages to me - keep 'em coming
Pip xxx
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Bryce
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Awesome!
Wow Pip! What a great adventure you are having. Good on you! Love Bryce (and Ben)