Jul 5, 2012 - Sapa

Immediately following my visit to Halong Bay I hopped on an overnight train to the city of Lao Cai, which lies directly on the Chinese border. From there I traveled 35 km (20 miles) by bus to the town of Sapa, Vietnam. Sapa is located almost 5,000 feet above sea level and serves as the hub for backpackers in the rugged hills of Northern Vietnam. There are numerous hiking trails in the area including a trek to Fansipan Mountain, which at more than 10,000 feet is the highest point in Vietnam. Because of the altitude, the temperature in Sapa...

Feb 21, 2012 - A Good Day in Hanoi

I woke up feeling pretty ill, so I finally gave in and took some pills. 2 extra hours of sleep later, and I was MUCH better. Wahoo! We did spend more time out it Hanoi today, and it was actually enjoyable. We did it all by foot, turning down many many offers of pedicabs and motorbike rides. Walking is much nicer! There were a lot of positives-- lunch at the Ladybird, where we shared a burger and grilled, pork-wrapped shrimp (delicious!); walking down specialty streets, some just with hardware shops, some just with frames, some with flowers,...

Jan 8, 2012 - Muong Hum Market

We continued on to Ban Ho (Tay Village) where the Muong Hum Market is located in the Lai Chai province. This was the only day we had sun and a partial view of the sky and mountains. We never saw Fan Si Pan mountain. Our driver and translator conferred at length and decided we should stop and look at the view as it was probably going to be the best that could be had. One can see from my photo that during our time in north Vietnam we drove above, through and below the clouds. It is easy to understand why outfits are so colorful against the...

Jan 7, 2012 - Cancau Market Lao Cai

The Can Cau Market in the northernmost part of Lao Cai Region was the most melodic and colorful of the markets we visited. Populated predominately by Flower Hmong, one wandered thru the China sourced ribbons, beads and textile pieces ready made for assembly for the colorful costumes the women wore. The intense concentration and care in piece selection told us this was a very important shopping day. It appeared that the outfits were pieced together mostly from mass produced product. The small individual touches made each outfit different and...

Oct 7, 2010 - Sapa

Well it has been a few days since our last post and we have seen and traveled in Vietnam a fair bit. After our frist couple of days in Hanoi we made our way to Sapa, which involved an over night train and a bus to get there. We did manage to get a sleeper car for our train portion but as you can imagine it is not the most comfortable sleep imaginable. As with most of the beds we Vietnam we were not suprised to find that the beds were not at all soft. Tour operations in vietnam can sometimes be a unique blend of organized and fly by the seat...

Aug 6, 2010 - Sapa, Vietnam

Back now in Sapa after the 3 day trek and I thought I'd cheer you up with a reply to all your emails earlier than you expected :-) Just had a much-needed shower and will hopefully be collected from this stunning(!) hotel for the bus journey back to the train station for the return train trip to back to Hanoi around 6pm I think. What a great few days! :-) Saw some amazing scenery and traditional mountain village life. Also met up with quite a few different nationalities. Really funny to think that I have been the only English native speaker...

May 18, 2010 - Sapa

Jour 15 Nous arrivons à Lao Caï puis à Sapa au matin. Après avoir trouver notre chambre au 7ème étage d'un hôtel, nous visitons la ville, et son marché. Nous sommes enchantés par la vue de toutes ses rizières et de ce qu'ils appellent les "minorités ethniques" toutes vêtues de leurs habits traditionnels. Elles vous tiennent le bras et ne vous quittent plus de leur chant mélodieux : " by for me, by for me..." Cela pourrait être très épuisant mais elles ont tellement le sourire que cela reste charmant. Elles parlent un peu toutes les langues...

Mar 8, 2010 - Sapa

Next we head further north up into the mountains above Hanoi. The night train is still unbelievably (albeit lightly) air conditioned even though the temperature has dropped to around 10 degrees. From Lao Cai we take a bus up the winding road to Sapa and the temperature drops even further. First stop in town is to find a room with a heater that actually works and buy some wooly hats and gloves to keep us warm. We had big plans to visit some of the local markets in the area and head out off the beaten track but our plans are foiled once more...

Jul 14, 2009 - Sapa

A few hundred meters higher than the Vietnam border crossing, Sapa sits shrouded in clouds. People come here mainly to witness the spectacular rice terraces and to see the villages of Black Hmong that live there, among others. After some bad luck with weather in China, we were happy to have perfect weather in Sapa, with no more than a shower or two. Somewhere in our research though, we convinced ourselves that we needed rainboots. After one long hike in them and a few blisters to go with, we learned our lesson. The hike itself was great...

Jul 13, 2009 - Lao Cai

The trip to Vietnam went smoothly, but perhaps with some unexpected scenery. We passed through several agricultural valleys. One was filled with grapes and reminded me of Napa Valley. Another was filled with modern building that we at first thought was a university. I don't know the name of this city, but this has to be some Communist Party city of the future! It was filled with modern architecture, including a stadium modeled on a Roman colosseum, broad avenues with flowering trees and wide bike lanes, and many huge glass buildings...

Mar 22, 2009 - Sapa, Vietnam

23/03/09 Arrived into Lao Cai at 0530 and then took a 1 hour bus ride..that is just not right!!! The train ride was noisy and bumpy but in a fun kinda way since it was our 1st over night train. Fortunately no one snored. :-) We arrived at the hotel (Royal Hotel) about 0630 - had breakfast and luckily our room was ready so we got to rest for an hour or so until our guide arrived. The room was nice but the view was wonderful. From our balcony, we had a 180 degree view of the valley below. Our guide is Lulu - a Black H'mong girl from Lao Chai...

Oct 25, 2008 - On to Sapa

Today’s program is brought to you by both Allan and Joel. Allan - I have been on many a train in my day and many of those were overnight trains – like Berlin to Poland in an old Russian sleeper car, Turino to Rome in a train famous for middle of the night robberies, six to a room bunks with people snoring and wreaking of sausage and beer from Vienna to Berlin [Ok, that was me but still……]. I have even slept in amazingly smelly and uncomfortable compartments where I need to sleep in the fetal position because it was on seats. Nothing could...