So overdue but here goes! Image heavy yo.

Went to Vietnam with my aunt from 19 Oct – 27 Oct. It’s been three months since and my memory’s bad, so this is just roughly what we did and went, not the whole itinerary.

Ate Vietnamese food for dinner the first night. Vietnamese food is crazy healthy, all soup and noodles.

Here’s a pretty tree-lined boulevard in Hanoi.

Cobra wine.

Traffic in Hanoi is truly a nightmare.

Halong Bay

So as anyone would tell you, no trip to Vietnam is complete without going to Halong Bay.

Here’s our boat.

The dining room.

Our room – not a lot of space but they have the basic essentials, including toilet and shower. Not to mention gorgeous view of the Bay!

Halong Bay is really beautiful! But I think it would be more magical if there weren’t so much boats everywhere. Oh well… commercialism, I’m part of it too since I joined the cruise, I shan’t complain.

Still it was a very captivating place and the view was just incredible.

Sunset.

The photo above is my favourite one during my trip to Halong Bay. My aunt went to bed early so I went up to the deck to read, equipped with my Kindle, beer and smokes. It was really peaceful to listen to the waves and see stars above you, and just relax in a deck chair and read.

The next day was springroll making time!

Returned back to Hanoi and then got ready for our overnight train to Sapa.

Sapa

Sapa! Sapa is my favourite part of Vietnam. I would love to go back.

Sapa is located in the mountainous region of Vietnam, about 10h away from Hanoi by train. It’s cool up there and very lovely; the buildings all look quaint and storybook-ish and they even have fireplaces! They have tons of awesome looking cafes, bakeries and restaurants there, and I felt as if I were in some European alpine town instead of Vietnam sometimes. Awesome.

The indigenous Hmong people living up in the mountains.

So Sapa is mainly about trekking…. and more trekking… and more trekking. During our treks, the Hmong women will follow you around in big groups. At first I was a bit uncomfortable – why are you following me? No I don’t want to buy your things – but then the guide seems okay with them, and the Hmong women were following every single trekking group of tourists in droves. It was a ratio of maybe 5 tourists to 10 Hmong ladies?

They are actually quite fluent in English, pretty friendly and helpful, and sweet too.

Cute girl.

The Hmong ladies made this for almost every tourist!

Posing next to their houses in the distance!

So anyway, I kept wondering why were the Hmong people so nice to the tourists, but when we reached their village, we realised that it was because they didn’t do their hardselling on the way there, but at their village itself. Literally surrounded by dozens and dozens of Hmong all trying to sell you their things.

Still, they had been incredibly helpful to me along the way (because I am a sissy who is scared of heights so they had to help me up and down the slopes), so I bought pouches from the two Hmong ladies who were always by my side.

Our hotel room! Really bigggg.

The view during breakfast.

The man in white is our guide – Hien. I actually found this photo damn amusing because while the rest of us tourists had our backpacks and sunscreen and all, all he carried was this green umbrella. Halfway up the mountain he just casually opened his umbrella and continued guiding us, while we were scrambling and stuff.

Watched a dance performance.

“I WANT TO PLAAAAYYY”

Drank traditional Vietnam drip coffee! It was incredibly concentrated and strong – me like it very.

Mist starts covering Sapa in the evenings and it can look a bit eerie sometimes.

People hanging around the town square.

This man found a snake and I guess he’s trying to sell it to the medicinal shop? But look at this group of schoolkids going all crazy over the snake.

Ready to return to Hanoi!

One last photo of Sapa.