Vietnam 2017

Days 11&12

The ride on the sleeping bus was really nice, it’s not the comfortablest thing in the world but you can really sleep in it, I can really recommend it. Especially for the price of 25$. You could also fly, if you’re lucky for about 35$, but because you drive in the night you don’t real waste your time on the bus.

When I arrived I went to the hotel I booked a day earlier, it’s a little outside, by foot you would have to walk about an hour to the city centre but because of that it’s pretty cheap, I’m spending about 13$ for three nights. It’s called “V Wander”. The owners are really nice and help you I you have any questions. You can also take a bicycle for free and the rooms are also very clean.
As you can see I ate a last time the noodlesoup with the marinated pork in Hanoi, because it tastes awesome *-* I also drank a lychee iced tea which was really good.

The other noodles you can see are from a restaurant next to my hotel. You can already see the difference between northern food and the food here, the noodles are different and also the greens on the side are others. It tasted anyway very good although it was pretty oily.

For lunch I had some shrimps and frog which I had to grill myself. They were really tasty and grilling by yourself is also fun. I forgot how the place was called but I’ll look it up and edit it. I can really recommend it, it has a big variety of foods you can try and they looked all very good on the menu.

After that I asked the owner where a good café is and he told me about the “Cong Caphe” which was really nice. The service was good and the Vietnamese green tea I drank too.

On the last picture you can see the river in Da Nang at night which looks pretty nice with all the reflecting lights in it 🙂
As far as I noticed on the first night now, there’s a little nightlife going on in Da Nang, but I didn’t find really big party locations or touristic bars, maybe I’ll find them the next days.

Vietnam 2017

Day 7

At about 6:45 I arrived in Lao Cai. From there we went with the bus to the village Sa Pa which is in the hills. Alone the way to the village is awesome you have such a nice view on the rice terraces *-* The nearer you get the foggier it gets, at least at this time of the year. It’s freaking foggier than in silent hill, no kidding look at the pics. When I was there I went to a nice hotel recommend from the travel guide I bought, the Green Village Hotel. I sadly forgot to take pictures of the interior but it’s alright, the room was pretty small, just enough space to fit three beds inside and a little bit of space to walk. The bathroom is inside the room and was okay, not the cleanest but really not gross or anything. The beds even have heating blankets which you can plug in to warm up your bed. This is really good because up there in the mountains it’s really pretty cold. The village itself is very pretty even though I didn’t see so much because of all this fog^^ The Hmong, which is the folk that lives there, specialized themselves on giving tracking tours through the hills. They all walk through the village and ask you if you want to book a tour with them, sometimes they are a little obtrusive but they’re still nice and don’t get mad at you if you say no to them. They also shout at every corner asking if you want to buy weed or opium from them xD. I ate some stir fried noodles with chicken but somehow I had not that much appetite… After that I went to a tourist center and booked a bus back to Hanoi, I went back to my hotel, canceled my booking (I still had to pay the first night but it’s understandable). There works a Polish guy who speaks pretty good English and helps you with everything you need. At 3:30 pm I went to the place I booked the bus, I drank green tea with honey and ginger, the ginger was pretty strong in it but it was perfect for the cold weather there. Then one of the employees drove me with a motorcycle to the place where the bus waited for me. It cost nothing. The bus seats were damn high class, almost better than in the plane! You had so much space for your feet. The bus drive is 100k cheaper than the train ride ( bus 300k and train 400k) and even was faster, I would recommend the bus now over the train, although such a sleep train is a nice experience. I was at 9:30pm back in Hanoi, I checked in to the Hanoi Backpackers hostel again and went out to eat something, I ate again the fried rice with chicken next to the hostel. There I met some American guys with which I then went to a pool bar and we talked about this and that a little, it was a pretty nice evening.