Backpacking in Vietnam

  (Just us coping the professional Phototeam that was there 1min ago) From Ninh Binh we went by train to Hue. In the train Joni could almost fit.  Hue was the capital of Vietnam around the year 1000. The gigantic Palais area of the dynastie is still existing, but buildings were mostly rebuild after the American Vietnam War. The gardens were beautiful, especially the Bonsai trees. For us the food in Hue was the best and the worst experience. The best were all the different tastes, herbs and consistencies. The worst was a dessert we got from a street shop, because the dessert restaurant was closed. 5h later the dessert was seen again and again and again. This is the culprit: Before: After: In between before and after we went to a local shopping hall where you could literally buy everything in any color, size,.. Task: Find the 3 sales-ladys. One is easy ;) And if you need a shoe, this might be the place to go:

You recognize that you are travelling and not on vacation after stepping out of the bus after a 11h ride and a night of 3h of medicore sleep to arrive at another amazing place. This place is Ninh Binh, the exact region where the movie King Kong was made. Ninh Binh is a city in the Red River Delta and has a special landscape being completely flat except the limestone mountains. Those mountains appear mystical especially in the dusty evenings. The flat land is used a lot for rice fields.  In the region there are a lot of temples which show the high spiritually of the vietnamese culture.  In every cave you can find at least on altar. The temples are mostly build into the mountains away from the city to encapsulate from the crowds and the noise. Spirituality and Religion plays a big role in Vietnam. Temples are visited frequently, worshipped and new temples are still build.  In our experience the visit of a temple is a daily break and meditation for a lot of people. People we...

Sapa is a village in the mountains of the Hoàng Liên Son. In 1880 it was founded as a resort for the French soldiers, who colonized Vietnam and wanted a retreat for hot summers. Nowadays it's a peak touristic place with about 1500 travel buses a day coming from Hanoi which is a 6h travel. We were astonished by all the (vietnamese)tourists, hotels, restaurants and massage salon's. For us this was the starting point of our trekking tour. One of the most harsh impressions in Sapa were young girls dancing and begging for money. The region is home of many ethnic minorities, one of them totally adapted to the tourism. Seeing children beg for money really breaks your heart. The Vietnamese tourists visiting Sapa are not leaving the village and are there to eat and drink. Eating is all about meat. You could find meat restaurants all over partly run by children. 3-Day Trekking Tour Day 1 We stayed there for one night and headed into the mountains. Soon the hustle and bustle was left behi...