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.

Xin chao!

After a couple of months waiting and a trip full of emotions & excitement I finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday evening. I thought I'd never arrive to the hotel without an accident - traffic here is really something else: hardly no rules (at least none that are followed) other than biggest has priority. The taxi was surrounded by literally hundreds of motorbikes & bikes going in all directions- so close to each other that they almost touched...
After one night sleeping with earplugs due to the continuos noice in the street, I headed out to discover the center of HCMC, i.e. Saigon... and came back to the hotel exhausted!!! If I thought traffic was bad sitting in a big car, it was a almost a life or death project crossing the first few streets as a pedestrian!
No matter how well prepared I thought I was, the cultural choc was complete, with the smells, the people, the markets etc.

The very same evening, my adventure continued as I took the plane to Hanoi. Arriving at the airport at midnight, no car was picking me up as promised... so I got into a mini-bus (much cheaper alternative) for the 45 min drive into the center. The only problem was that the mini-bus left all the passangers in front of the Vietnam Airlines main office - except me since the driver insisted on bringing me to my hotel for some extra money of course. Finally after a rather scary ride through dark narrow streets in the old town, I got to my hotel - only to discover that they had no room for me!!! The guy from the hotel insisted that he take me to another hotel where they had rooms available. So off we went, in the rain at 1am on a motorbike without helmets and me carrying a big back-pack on my back and a small one in front... already the second time that night that I wondered if I would really arrive at a hotel!!

After 2 days of walking around Hanoi (although motorbike or cyclo drivers offer you a ride every 2 minutes, I prefer counting on my legs for now), visiting some pagodas, museums, parks etc, I'll be heading to Halong Bay for 2 days tomorrow. Sunday evening I'll catch the night train to the North where I will try to go trekking to the summit of Fan Si Pan (highest peak at 3143m). I guess I will have another cultural choc (the first is already history ;)) when I get to the mountains...
To be continued...

Ollie at Chamchaude

Nice Sunday-walk with Ollie up to Chamchaude to enjoy the beautiful November weather. See you soon on one of the other peaks overlooking Grenoble!