sapa

concrete ghost towns, a doomed city and a tourist town to mix it up

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July 1st 2007
After waiting too long in Hanoi for my Vietnamese visa extension, I was almost ready to explode and needed to go some place where there were no tourists or people trying to sell me things or scams. Not saying that all of Hanoi is bad, just select parts. From Hanoi I took a 7 hour, local bus to Son La. It's a city in the northwest and I thought it would be a good base to check out the area. The ... read more

Asia » Vietnam » Northwest

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The conquest of Vietnam by France began in 1858 and was completed by 1884. It became part of French Indochina in 1887. Independence was declared after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when they were defeated by Communist forc... ... read more