Anh Nguyet Hotel 1 Yen Bai

I write this from an Internet cafe as we wait for the overnight train back to Sapa.We arrived in Loa Cai on Wednesday am at about 5:30 and were met by our Guide and driver.We drove one hour into the mountains in northern Vietnam- Sapa. From there we had breakfast, showers and a rest. At 9:30 we started our journey- what I though to be a walk..maybe even a hike but it was trekking. We trekked for 4 hours through the minority villages of the Black Hmong ...

... people work very hard. Each village and field is like a beehive of activity. There are no temples or shrines like we have seen so much on the road behind. Cambodia and Laos are much more primitive than Vietnam. The currency is like 17,000 Dong to one Us Dollar. Makes for some big numbers on their bills. We said goodbye to John' Alan's co driver as he has a plane out of Hanoi shortly after arrival there. They were leaving ...

... cha(grilled pork w/ fresh white noodles) and of course, the street pho is the best at then 5000dong! October, or autumn is the best time to visit Ha Noi. Cool temps, blue skies and romantic autumn poetry. The water puppets is a must! Ended my Viet Nam stint in 1999 but since 2005, have been traveling to Sai Gon for Vietnam ...

... that it met all our needs. So we bunkered down for a few hours to catch up on some sleep. When we awoke we emerged from the sanctuary of our air conditioned hotel room to the intense heat and hustle and bustle of the Old Quarter. We were right in the heart of the action with locals cooking and eating food at the side of the road and cages full of chickens scattered around. The streets are quite narrow and the pavements are full of people/motorbikes/animals/rubbish etc. So you are ...

... all these people get up so early to do all this? Over the next few days we discovered the answer. It is too f*%$ing hot to do anything here except at 5:30 in the morning. Anytime after that you best be hanging around the ice cream shops or the air conditioned restaurants. Man it is hot here!!! And, yes Gloria, I could almost say it is "too hot". But I won't say that just yet. Despite the crazy heat we did manage to see some great sites - like Ngoc Son Temple ...

... en verre. Nous somme par la suite alle a la bai de Halong avec les 3000 iles et l'eau turquoise parfaite mise a part les quelque dechets qu'on voit flotter en regardant de plus pres. On a meme couche une nuit dans le bateau au milieu des iles!

We took the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa, and while we slept in the rickety cabin we were transported to a new world. Our first day was spent acclimating to the cold and attempting to see through the clouds which settled on the town. Thankfully we had planned ahead (a bit) and bought some layers in Hanoi. With those on we ventured into the market to find scarves and beanies. I had layered on almost ...

... room was so rubbish not included with their services. This is our second trip to manila. The first one, we did had a wonder around the town for me, personal opinion is not that much interested this including their cuisine ( no offend). As usually we went to a place which book recomended to go. Church, museum, you could have wonder to china town if you want to and not so much impressed either. Manila is pretty much capital city ...

... Some passenger finally make some complaint took few minute to explained to them that all of us just wanted to be drop in the central. Finally after arguement the driver took us back to the central. Nathrang remind me of my home in Bali, except the beach did not had big wave but still good for swimming. Little bit dirty that time im not sure happen all the time or because that time was ...

... which that time so busy lot of local people took the holiday enjoy the panorama around the lake. Next day we arranged the motorcycle and guide to hire for us to do the trip. Motorcycle cost 4 dollar a day and the guide cost us 3 dollar each ( actually 5 dollar then two people join with us so we devide into 5 of us). Trip started with place called crazy house build by ...