Northern Vietnam
August 27, 2009
Oh man, I don’t have much to say about Northern Vietnam except that it is stunning. My mom arrived last Wednesday (?) night and we went to Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sa Pa and Lao Cai which is at the border of China. Sa Pa is easily one of the best places I have ever seen with my own eyes. I was just speechless the entire time. I could spend weeks up there in the mountains. Seriously one of the most beautiful, epic, Lord-of-the-Rings-esque moments of my life. If you asked me to write an article about Sa Pa, I would have major difficulty.
Sa Pa/Lao Chai Village
Lao Chai village of Sa Pa, where the ethnic minorities Black Hmong live. The girls were super-nice and they learned English from tourists. Amazing! Their English was really, really good, and super-conversational. They showed us around Sa Pa town and followed us on our trek to their village. At the end they asked for some money for handicrafts, but we had already bought some. Still, the Black Hmong people were generally very nice, sweet and helpful.
Halong Bay
Halong Bay is another amazing sight. We booked a cruise trip, slept on the boat, and in the morning, we awoke to the most beautiful scenery ever surrounding us. We swam in the water. My mom got bit by a jellyfish…haha…so it goes in Vietnam. Halong Bay is a contender for the new seventh wonder of the world.
Hanoi, capital of Vietnam
Hanoi city was quite beautiful, although we stayed in the backpackers area which was brutal after a while. I don’t like the Saigon backpackers area really, and the Hanoi one was even more confusing. The city is more French-influenced, but luckily it has a lot of open historical space, and a sweet Museum of Ethnology. I love tribes so I got to learn about all 56 of them in Vietnam in this beautiful & modern French-built space.
Lao Cai, border between Vietnam and China
Lao Cai is the train station closest to Sa Pa. It’s RIGHT on the border of China. Omg, so exciting. I totally saw China across the river! Chinese script and all! So tempted to jump in, swim to the other side, and get caught by the cops. I mean…
