24th April 2010 The train journey from Lao Cai to Ha Noi last night was a nightmare and neither of us slept a great deal. Luckily we shared a cabin with an Australian couple who were really nice and we chatted with them for a while before turning in, but once the lights were out, the lurching movement of the train and the smells of smoke coming from the toilet didn’t help with sleeping. We arrived in Ha Noi pretty tired. ...
23rd April 2010 It turned out to be a good job that we had bought our North Face coats yesterday, this morning we awoke to torrential rain and a thunderstorm. We were lucky to have done our trek yesterday and that we were going back to Ha Noi later this evening. With such dreadful weather, there was no rush to go out, so we spent a good part of the morning chatting with our Israeli friends Batya and Nir in reception. They have given us some great information and recommendations for Cambodia, Laos and Japan all of which they have visited recently. ...
21st April 2010 Sapa was established as a hill station by the French. The overnight train took us as far as the border town of Lao Cai, right on the Chinese border. We arrived into Lao Cai at 5am. Luckily we had our minibus already booked and were able to push our way through the throngs of drivers offering us rides to Sapa. Once we were on the minibus we had to wait for the next train to arrive and in the meantime fend off the ladies selling Sapa maps and sexy “boom boom” torches amongst other things. ...