Royal Hotel Sapa

Saturday night I took the overnight train to Sapa. It was comfortable accomodation. I booked a 3 day 4 night tour from Hanoi so everything, including my train ticket was included. I had a soft sleeper with AC. They were tiny compartments but comfortable for sleeping. Each compartment accommodated 4 people. I was with three 20 year old Austrian guys who are traveling around SEAsia for 6 weeks. They were all nice guys - the first Austrians I have met traveling. I slept through the night and we ...

Day 65 - The train arrived at Lao Cai at 5:30am and there was certainly no shortage of buses going to Sapa. I shared a minibus with a few tourists that were mostly on organised tours from Hanoi and was lucky to get a fair price of 30,000 Dong (I later heard of many tourists paying over 150,000 Dong for the same trip!). The journey takes about an hour to get to Sapa and I enjoyed the scared reaction of some of the tourists on the bus who clearly were not used to SE Asian driving! The bus drive...

Sleep most of way in our four berth compartment (sharing with 2 others) trains very clean but full of tourists (loads of French in Vietnam unsurprisingly) Arrive an hour late at 07.50 at Lao Cai on the Vietnamese/China border and get minibus 50k to Sapa. Fortunately on this bus they have western seating arrangements. Drive through the fog and terraced hill scenery whilst having another surreal moment - singing along to Ra-ra-rasputin by Boney M playing on the bus stereo! Arrival at the Royal ...

Cold, wet, foggy and amazing. Last day in Hanoi was freezing - so bizarre, cold, cold wind. I had on all the fleece I have been hauling around since China and my Down Jacket which doubles as a pillow. Was very happy to have something warm to wear as it was cold and rainy. We boarded the night train for Sapa at 8:30 pm and were pleasantly surprised at how lovely it was. Old and wooden cabins with a little chandelier to add class. My roommates were so interesting - a Swiss couple who are travel...

Hey heeeeey mennesker :) Saa maa det vist vaere tid til en lille opdatering igen... ja ja ja ja! Sidder liiiige og venter paa at vi kan faa et vaerelse... kom med toget til Hanoi kvart over 5 og efter en god taet scootertur fra stationen sidder vi nu her! Vores guesthousehalloej er ikke aabnet endnu og vi overvejer sgu lidt at hoppe paa et andet hotel, meeeen det er jo heller ikke helt paent! Naahr hvad saa kan jeg jo faa skrevet lidt herinde, right! Jeg er heeeeelt braendt af i nakken... au ...

On March 6, we took an overnight train to Sapa from Hanoi. Sapa is in the far NW corner of Vietnam and is a 10 hour train ride. We arrived in Lao Cai (the nearest train station to Sapa) at 6:00 in the morning, very tired and groggy. We were driven in a big smelly bus to our hotel, checked in partially, and went on a "trek" which was actually a walk on a paved path through Cat Cat village, where Hmong hilltribe people live. The village and scenery were interesting, but we were very disappointe...