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Sapa adventure had us begging for more

Travel to Sapa - Photo by An Bui

Having lived in Vietnam all my life I feel embarrassed that I have not visited so many of the beautiful sites our country has to offer.

My husband had been nagging me to go to Dalat but I decided to shock him by taking him on a surprise trip to Sapa.

We took a five day tour from Hanoi and it is one I highly recommend. We firstly got the overnight train from the capital to Lao Cai Station where we caught some shut-eye in our cabin.

We arrived a little weary due to the bumpy ride but it was the first day of our trip and we were excited. A bus awaited us at the station and took us to our destination. We dumped our belongings at the hotel and quickly showered and had breakfast before we took a car ride along the gorgeous Muonh Ha Valley to visit the Rattan Bridge, the stunning silver waterfall and then visited in Giang Ta Chai village which is home to the Red Dzao tribe.

It was time to build up a sweat as we trekked through the forests of the Fanxipan range which was daunting but rewarding before we reached the Seo Chong Ho Village. Not many tourists reach this part of the area and we enjoyed a wonderful waterfall which is apparently the nicest in Sapa.

We rested up had food and were put up by a lovely Dzao family, who were so nice and even made us breakfast the next day before it was time to trek up another mountain to Ta Trung Ho village which is located 1450meters above sea level. Which was great news for those who suffer from vertigo like my husband, he barely survived. We had lunch and then headed downhill, thankfully for my hubby’s sake, to Ban Ho village to meet the Tay people and their stilt houses.

We had a little party and stayed the night in a stilt house before seeing yet another waterfall Lavie which was discovered by the French and then Supan village and finally back to the car and Sapa.

At last we got some time to ourselves to explore the town, buy some souvenirs for family, have a nice romantic meal and go for a stroll around. We were hoping to stay the night in Sapa but forgot we had to get a late bus to Lao Cai Station where out night train to Hanoi awaited us.

I wish we could have stayed that extra night as I felt our trip was just beginning. Oh well, maybe next time.

By Nga Phan
Source The Saigon Times .vn

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Aquatic adventure in Tam Coc is wondrous

Tam Coc Tourism Site - Photo by An Bui

Halong Bay, one of the seven wonders of the natural world, is a hard act to follow that is for sure.

Twenty-four hours after our stay there we visited Tam Coc and the three caves along the Ngo Dong River.

We arrived tired and grumpy and we expected to find it the ugly sister of the North East but the reality could not have been further from the truth. During our time there my boyfriend and I experienced a whole new definition of natural beauty.The first thing which warmed us to Tam Coc was the fact that getting to the caves involved an aquatic adventure.

The only way to reach the caves is via a three hour round-trip by boat, where skippers maneuver the oars with their feet instead of hands (which takes some getting used to).The caves are sold as the main attraction but they were outshone by the vibrant scenes we paddled past – rural life, vast limestone columns and rice fields with vivid green shoots.

We stopped in silence to watch kingfishers, woodpeckers and starlings at play, and marveled at the hundreds of butterflies and dragonflies which zigzagged by. Aside from the caves there is plenty to do. After a delicious lunch along the banks of the river we opted to explore Ninh Binh by scooter. In a few hours we saw the surrounding areas including the ancient capital of Vietnam (Hoa Lu) and the country’s largest National Park, Cuc Phuong. It was only when our camera memory cards became full that we realized it was time to go home. Our brief experience, packed as it was with beauty and wildlife, is a small illustration of the amount there is to see and do in this small corner of Vietnam.

Source The Saigon Times.vn

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