Sa Pa

Time to blow the virtual cobwebs from the trusty blog once more as we're out and about in SE Asia again, or as I like to think of it, our second tour of Vietnam. Singapore Airlines had a really quite silly sale on earlier this year and we basically couldn't say no - so here we are. (We alway said we'd come back, I didn't think we could/would so soon!)

We arrived in Hanoi a few days ago and it's not really changed. It's still the hectic, noisy place from three years ago, with added Wifi. I'm typing this up from my netbook (also not invented three years ago) supplied with Wifi from a coffee shop. Even Rach doesn't mind this as it means no more internet cafes and random Skype video chats with people half way around the world...

After wandering around bits of Hanoi we missed last time (French Quarter), we caught a night sleeper up to the far north to Lao Cai and caught a minibus over to Sa Pa, trekking capital of Vietnam. It's quite pretty and very Alpine, tall pines and some strange Alpine / Chinese architecture together with sherlock holmes-esque mists and sub zero night time temps! However the humidity skyrockets during the day. We went out and about today deep into the Mountains to a couple of minority villages. Despite trekking in Laos earlier this year, this was quite different, (I didn't get ill for a start!) and really enjoyable. No piccies with me right now, but I'll try and post some ASAP.

Some stats
Average coffee intake - 5 per day
Number of things lost - 1 - A pair of glasses at Heathrow airport :(
Hours sleep on 'sleeper train' - 1(ish)