Some pictures from my first week's adventures

Back in Hanoi after a couple of exiting trips. Heading South tonight, with a halfday stop in Hue before going to Hoi An. Check these photos out for a quick summary of my last adventures ;-)

YES, I did it! Here I am at "the roof" of Indochina, i.e. the highest peak in Vietnam - Fan Si Pan (3143m...).

The trek up here was a great experience! After a relaxing first day (I was almost disappointed because it felt far too easy...), we got value for our money on the second day ;-) The first 1000m vertical were - almost vertical! Climbing up with a big back-pack and no security equipment other than roots and bamboo to hold on to was quite different from what I am used to... But as you can see, we finally made it up to the top ;-)

Noodle soup breakfast at 5am in the Fan Si Pan base camp.

The food during the trek was absolutely fabulous - the porters carried fresh meat, vegetables and fruit with them. Our dinner the first night was one of the best ones I've had here so far - a 6 course meal woked on the camp fire, including buffalo with ginger and lemon grass, tofu, ginger cabbage etc.

Our local porters on the first day hike up to the base camp at 2000m.

The porters were all from some of the hill tribes in the area, mainly Black H'mong. They carried all our food in their baskets, wearing traditional clothing and plastic sandals without socks.

I wonder if I would have been able to get to the top with the same kind of equipment...



Me and Jordan - a Canadian I met at Halong Bay who joined me for the Sapa trip - together with two girls from the H'mong hill tribe close to Sapa.





Rice fields in the Sapa valley.








Relaxing 2-day trip on the Bai Tu Long junk in the beutiful Halong Bay.