Cao Son Ecolodge Lao Cai

... short dings) this morning, proceeding to awaken the rest of the animal kingdom in the village. The roosters joined in with the dogs and the ducks contributed an occasional "quack" from the percussions section at the back of the band. It made for a deafening cacophony in the early hours before dawn.<br><br>The amazing part is that Pierre slept through all of this, even though he went to bed at 8:30 PM the previous evening (while i watched Leo and Kate do ...

... road seemed windier &amp; more hair pinned than the ride here a few days ago &amp; I could feel my stomach telling me it was not happy. Grabbed Nathans crackers &amp; ate half the packet till I felt better. Dropped off at the train station &amp; there were plenty of guesthouses and restaurants around this lively area. Checked out a few guesthouses &amp; on the third one got him down to $7 for the room for the night. It was a pretty dodgy ...

... was great &amp; helped us through the bad bits so we wouldn't fall. We walked for 5 km to the waterfall &amp; you had to concentrate so much so you wouldn&#8217;t fall. The downhills were the worst as it was like a slippery slide!!<br><br> <br> <br> <br><br>Made it to the waterfall with just very muddy wet shoes and then went into a Red Zao Village &amp; into a ...

... 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 ...

... c est fantastique.<br>Nous redescendons sur Hanoi avec le train de nuit ce soir.<br>Gros Becs a tous<br>Cyril<br><br>Hallo Leute, <br>Liebe Grusse von Sa Pa, einen kleinen Ort im Nordvietnam. Ich habe 2 Personnen von Australia im Zug kennengelernt und seither reisen wir zusammen. Wir haben einen Motorrad fur 5 Tagen gemietet und das heisst einfach die ganze Freiheit um die Umgebung zu entdecken. Der Kontakt mit den Leuten in diesem Teil von ...

... of rice wine everyone collapses, knackered from the trekking, after being warned that were to be woken by the chickens in the morning. <br><br>The sleeping arrangements at the homestay were brilliant, and after a great nights sleep we all get up to hear the rain still crashing down on the roof. Ling warns us that it's being raining non stop and that the trails planned for today are difficult and could be dangerous if we carry on. We decide to do some ...

... 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. <br><br><br><br> They immediately asked me to join them in their walking around and I said I&#8217;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&#8217;m from America", "Texas", "Haha, yes cowboys." They ...

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

... 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. <br><br> 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 ...

... it was straight to bed. We slept in the camp that our guide and porter had made, it is really fun, the camp is bigger enough for our group, Our palce to sleep was well prepared, we had thick mattress and sleeping bag. It was fairly comfortable and it didn't get cold during the night.<br><br>In the morning we were served up a really massive bowl of veg noodle soup with a fried egg on top. It was tasty but way too heavy for 6:30 in the ...