Tag South East Asia
The good thing with not making any plans is that you have the freedom to do what you want. The bad thing about not planning is that you can get into trouble which is exactly what has happened now. My idea was to ride down to Dien Bien Phu and cross the border to Laos from there. The night before leaving Sapa I googled for a bit and found out that it might not be possible to bring the motorbike across at Dien Bien Phu but that information was at least a year old and I figured things might have … Read the rest
We had hoped to do a bit of trekking today but when we woke up it was really foggy. Thinking it might clear up later in the day we headed up to Sapa town and the market which was supposed to be good. The owner of our homestay told us the market used to be in a different place but it’s recently been moved to a big concrete building. Apparently the rent is too high because the place was rather empty. The vendors were basically selling the same kind of things, some had dried fruits and herbs, some had outdoors … Read the rest
There is a highway connecting Hanoi with Lao Cai, the city closest to Sapa, which could get us there in about five hours. I knew we couldn’t get on the highway with the motorbike but looking at Google maps I saw a normal road that looked to be more or less next to it. I figured with a few stops along the way we could get there in maybe six or seven hours; a long ride but not impossible.
It was quite chaotic getting out of Hanoi but eventually we made it without too much trouble. Out on the main … Read the rest
We’ve spent several days in Hanoi taking in the sights at a relaxed pace and generally just kind of hanging out in the city, walking around in the old quarter. Thanks to Yini’s research we’ve also had some really good meals in nice restaurants.
Except for the markets in the old quarter, most of the things to see in Hanoi are museums.
Hoa Lo prison museum is pretty powerful as the old cells are still there and you can sense the brutal life of the prisoners.
The old door looks very solid and imposing 
Being shackled to the bed couldn’t
The goal of the day was to reach Hanoi, but it’s only 90 kilometers from Ninh Binh so we could take things easy. What we missed when we went to Tam Coc was Hang Mua, a temple high up on one of the karsts overlooking the river. Spending the morning there was a given choice. Though the karsts are not particularly tall, they are steep and the climb up was pretty hard work with the sun beating down on you. Once at the top though, that hard work pays off because the view of the landscape below is pretty spectacular. … Read the rest
Ninh Binh itself is a pretty small town and not much to see inside the city. The reason people come here is to see the countryside. The landscape is somewhat reminiscent of that of Halong bay with the same kind of karst cliffs but instead of islands in the sea, they stick up out of fields, rice paddies and rivers. The best (or at least most famous) place for seeing this landscape is Tam Coc, some seven or eight kilometers from the city centre. You rent a boat for two or maybe three people and a local person rows (using … Read the rest
After two wonderful days on Halong bay it was time to leave. The guy at the tour company told us the ferry back to Tuan Chua left at 8 am, 11 am or 3 pm. We figured we could take it easy in the morning and slowly make our way to the ferry terminal at the other side of the island and catch the ferry at 11. It took us a bit longer than expected to pack our stuff however, so when we left the hotel we were in a bit of a rush. When we were just a few … Read the rest
One of Vietnam’s most famous landmarks is Halong bay and the thousands of limestone islands (often called karsts) that stick up from the turquoise waters. There are plenty of operators that run boat tours to the bay, most of them out of Halong city. We tried to skip the crowds by taking a tour from Cat ba island instead. To get the most out our experience we went for a somewhat more expensive option and took a two day tour with a night on the boat. This worked out really well, we only had nine people on our boat, we … Read the rest
The night bus arrived in Hanoi around four in the morning. Still groggy with sleep I rode my bike to the hotel which was completely dark. I rang the doorbell hoping someone would answer. After a few minutes the hotel owner, who I must have woken up, let me in and quickly ushered me to a room. I slept for a few hours then took the motorbike out to the airport to pick up Renegade Wife. Since she was tired after her early morning flight, we took it very slow during the day, just wandered around the Hoan Kiem lake … Read the rest
I normally don’t get hung over when traveling, I don’t know why but seems to work whenever I’m abroad. Yesterday I relied on this a bit too much and partied a bit too hard with some friends from the hostel. I had planned to take the bike and just ride around in the national park but when I woke up I was in no state to ride a motorbike. So, I skipped that and joined another cave tour instead. The Phong Nha cave is up the river from the village so the tour starts with a 45 minute boat ride … Read the rest