Topas Ecolodge Sapa

... to a bus to take us to Ha Long Bay....but all was forgiven (even the rain) when we saw the geological wonders of this area. Hundreds of beautiful old wooden craft (junks) cruising on flat calm waters in bright sunshine amongst 1,969 karsts (limestone pillars/islands)....we were there for 3 days and I guess we might have seen a couple of hundred of them! Our junk (The Nina) was a 30-40 metre craft with 4 staff who spoiled us rotten with the ...

we headed for sapa by overnight train, sleeping in a four person compartment with bunk beds.we set off at around 9 in the evening and arrived at the 6 the following morning. after being given a tempory room to shower, change and prepare for a trek into the mountains, we headed down for some breakfast and then, with our guide leading the way we set out into the torrential rain! i fully expected the trek to be postponed, but after half an hour, and ...

... 7 young people were approaching from my left to read the sign. One offered me a piece of candy and I accepted with a "Com un", or thank you.



They immediately asked me to join them in their walking around and I said I’d love to. They pushed the lone female of the group to the front line to be the interpreter, her name was Hoa, she was Vietnamese and beautiful. We got the basics out of the way quickly, "I’m from America", "Texas", "Haha, yes cowboys." They ...

... rate always makes it feel like I'm spending a lot more than I actually am.

Anyway, after the shave, Al and I met up with another girl from our group and had some food. We then killed some more time in Sapa until we finally got a ride back to the train station for a night train back to Hanoi. I ended up staying in a room with three Vietnamese guys who hardly spoke a word of English. It was kind of awkward but I easily fell asleep right away.

... walked up to them and was super nice to show that we are people too. Once we all chatted and laughed the girls stopped laughing at us and I felt like I had a small victory.

It's very sad to me that pretty much every single foreigner we meet has only negative things to say about the vietnamese people. We went into the country knowing this but with a very open mind and were disappointed how many chances we gave the locals to treat us as other ...

... bought them a dress each, which they picked out... a couple of quid each...
Then we went, with Phil and Chai, to the biggest waterfall in the area, Silver falls, we had a barbeque lunch there and just hung out for a while.... said my goodbyes but when my bus came to pick me up at 5, the girls were there to say bye again, bless them!

I was sad to leave Sapa, fate sometimes throws some cool stuff your way, if I hadn't met Jenny and she hadn't have met Phil, I ...