Lotus Hotel Sapa

So we got back from Halong Bay and hot-footed it up to Sapa in the mountains of north-east Vietnam, the highest point in South East Asia. The six of us (Ben and I + Beav and Zoe +Emily and Alex), took the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa. Had our own little room, played cards had a few drinks and had the most sleep we'd had all week. Took a bus from the train station up the longest winding road into the mountains, scary stuff but stunning views. Sapa is this mental little town up in the mou...

Ok, just a quick note as there are millions of peoploe waiting to uyse the internet! We went from Kunming to Hekou (a Chinese border town). We took the night bus. 13 hours on a bus, it had beds, but the beds were tiny, and no toilet. After a sleepless night we ended up having to stay at the border town for a night as we got the dates on our visas wrong! We crossed over the next day to Lao Cai. It was very easy, no problems. Then we took a mini bus to Sapa. Sapa was foggy. We were a bit dissap...

After Ho Chi Minh City we headed north to the coastal town of Nha Trang. We travelled on a bus in the steaming heat of the day and arrived in the early evening. We were dropped off at a hotel called the Lotus Hotel and after a bit of deliberation decided to take the easy option and just stay there. I was quite keen on the wonderfully named 'My Dung' hotel just down the street but we were swayed by the offer of cable TV and air conditioning for just $6 a night! Dropping off our ridiculously hu...

We travelled up by local train.It was equal to about 3rd classIndian many years ago. A great experience though. 6to a compartment.Hard sleeper but the mattress was OK. Shared with 2 other adventurous French and 2 locals. We arrived at 5am. Yesterday and today we trekked with a guide through paddies and the local villages. The best experience. He took a way where we did notmeetanyone esle the loclas. Buffalo,pigs, chooks ..... The lifestyle on the minority groups is so simplebut healthy.Spend ...

Woke up early to the sound of rain & roosters & the valley was covered by mist. Sat around talking with everyone & eating yummy banana pancakes.




Set out in our rain ponchos & the track was slippery & muddy like you would not believe. Some people in another group were covered in mud as they had fallen so many times. Sho our guide was great & helped us through the bad bits so we wouldn't fall. We walked for 5 km to the waterfall & you had to conc...

Als wir dann endlich mit dem and**en Taxi am Bahnhof angekommen waren gings dann auch nach kurzem warten auch schon los! Diesmal hatten wir ja klug**weise den Soft-Sleep** gebucht und in dem dem sind pro Kabine nur 4-Betten, also schon mal ein bisschen mehr Platz fu** uns und uns**e Riesenrucksaecke. In uns**em Abteil war auss** uns noch ein aelt**es daenisches Ehepaar und d** Mann hatte offensichtlich grosse Probleme mit d** Temp**atur d** Klimaanlage. Er setzte gleich auch alle Hebel in Bew...

With no accommodation booked and just got back from Halong Bay myself and Till decided to get the overnight sleeper train to Sapa. Sapa is north west of Hanoi and the village is 1500 meters, it is a the foot of a mountain called fansipan The overnight sleeper was wicked and cost around 12 pounds English and takes about 9 hours, the train leaves at 9.15 pm and arrives in the morning at Sapa. You get a bunk and a small space to store your stuff. Myself and Till had a few light ales and got talk...

After taking a day to regroup in Hanoi, I headed north to Sapa by train. Sapa makes the '1000 Things to See Before...' list and is also on Lonely Planet's highlights list for Vietnam. Turns out that it's at least as popular as Ha Long Bay with probably most of its visitors going by way of three day package tours. As luck would have it, Daniel, Claudia and Peter would be there at the same time. My first class sleeper car train ticket cost me 28 bucks. It would leave from Hanoi Station B about ...

On my way to Vietnam, I wanted to stop at the rice terraces of YuanYuang.The morning bus leaves Kunming at 10.40h every day, and a ticket costs 82 yuan.Its not exacly a bus model that was just delivered from the factory, and so it's no surprise to me that we have a flat tyre on the way, and loose about 2 hours to fix it.The trip finally took 6 hours.Weather continues to be bad with heavy rain.The excursion to the rice terraces can be organised on the spot, better to be in a small group to sha...

Aquests darrers dies a Hanoi i a la badia de Halong ha fet una calor tan horrorosa que decideixo fugir un parell de dies cap a les muntanyes de Sapa i fer una mica de trek i visitar les tribus locals. El viatge en tren nocturn es menys interessant que a la Xina on sembla que els vagons bullin de vida i on sempre t'acaben invitant a compartir el seu menjar o a beure una cervesa, pero si mes no, hi ha aire condicionat, ningu fuma ni escup al terra, i al cap de mitja horeta ja tinc els companys ...