Scooting around Langkawi

Well plans have changed again, we are going to Kuala Lumpur on the night of the 22^nd since the buses on the 23^rd were sold out. It's frustrating because they tell you to just book the day before and if we had left it another day we might really be SOL. Fortunately our guesthouse owner here was very nice and refunded us the money we had paid for the night of the 22^nd. Now we'll be spending that night in a bus seat. Ce la vie!

Dec 19 – Scootering around Langkawi

We set an alarm this morning so we could be up in time to get one of the first scooter rentals from one of the travel/Mini marts. It was about 7 ringgit cheaper if you were there for in time for the first 2 scooters of the day. And we made it! Rentals are much more here but they also seem more legitimate than the ones we rented in Vietnam etc. We actually had to produce a passport and drivers licence and have insurance. We had some breakfast, then set off to the north to explore the island. Our first stop was Seven Wells Waterfall. This is right near the cable car, which would have a very nice view from the top I'm sure but we weren't willing to spend $10 each. We climbed up the many stairs to the top of the pools. From here we could continue to the peak, which we did. It was quite a hike up and a little disappointing when we reached the peak. The view was obscured by all the foliage, it was quite a jungley trek. It was also very hot and sweaty. On the way back down there were a bunch of monkeys in the garbage can and playing in the woods next to the stairs. They were fishing out water bottles and food wrappers. We went down to the waterfall and went for a dip in the pools below. It was very refreshing. We went back down the stairs to the bottom where we had a nice lunch of fried rice. We hopped back on the scooter and went towards the north west coast. We drove along the coast for a little bit then the road started to climb. We went past a couple of fancy resorts but then we could go no further as there was a gate blocking the road. I'm assuming the road continued onto the resorts private property. We turned around and headed back along the coast. We stopped at two beaches, Pebble Beach and Pasir Tengkorak bbeach, along the way to check out the view. We then headed towards the north east side of the island. Along the way we stopped at the side of the road for some photos then went to a craft center. The craft center was okay, it had some really pretty batik wall hangings. We then continued on to Tanjung Rhu Beach. At low tide you can apparently walk out to the limestone formations in the bay. Unfortunately we were there during high tide. We sat at the beach for a little bit then had a snack. We headed back into town for a shower and some dinner. Beau finally got to try Nasi Campur which is essentially Malaysian buffet. After we went for ice cream as per usual.

Monkey playing with garbage

Seven Wells Waterfall

One of our roadside picture stops

Tanjung Rhu Beach, at low tide you can apparently walk to these formations

 

Dec 20 – Back to the Beach

This morning started a little earlier than most with Beau skyping his buddy Ryan from Brockville. It was good to talk to friends from home. We went for breakfast and splurged a little on Eggs Benedict. It wasn't as good as making it at home but it'll do for now. Egg Benedict is going on the “to make” list. We headed to the beach to soak up some sun and some heat. It's a rough life sitting on the beach reading. Later we went down the beach for some lunch then continued down further to the Duty Free shop where we picked up some beers to have at the pool. Tall cans of Carlsburg cost 2.50 ringgit or about 80 cents. We hung out at the pool for a bit with our beers and goofed around in the water some. We got cleaned up and went out for dinner. We've developed a little bit of a routine: wake up, breakfast, beach, lunch, pool, dinner, ice cream. Like I said it's a rough life :P

Tha Khet

We decided to get the heck out of Savannahkhet and escaped to Tha Khet.  Tha Khet is a much nicer town! This has meant that we have spent way too much time on buses and with us going to Vientiane it'll be 3 days out of 4 on buses... yuck

Nov 28 – To Tha Khet

This morning we went out in search of an ATM and breakfast. Our low opinion of Savannakhet was not improved by the our morning exploring. What was called romantic with some crumbling french architecture was really just a dump. We quickly found our way to the bus to get a ticket out of there. We purchased a ticket to Tha Khet and Beau zipped off to our hotel to pick up our bags and check out. We spent about 14hrs in Savannahkhet and that was quite enough. Our bus ride to Tha Khet was pretty uneventful although we did stop for an hour at some other bus station so again another slow ride. I think that will be the standard in Laos, buses taking a long time to go relatively short distances. I miss knowing that you it will take you about 2hrs to go 200km. We arrived in at Tha Khet bus station and started looking into getting a tuk tuk. We were talking with some other travellers and got a deal on the ride for all 6 of us. It was a pretty cramped ride. We started looking around for a room, the first two places only had more expensive rooms available but we found one for a reasonable price. We headed to the river front for a snack and got this really delicious pancake/crepe type thing. I don't know what it was made with, the guy used some sort of pastry, looked toffee like, and rolled it out super thin then put it on his grill and cracked an egg into it. Once it was all cooked up he poured condensed milk onto it, YUM! We then went to a restaurant and had a beer while we watched the sun set. While sitting there we saw two guys from the tuk tuk so we went for dinner with them and the other tuk tuk couple. We had a nice dinner together by the river side. We made plans to meet up with them tomorrow morning to discuss going to see some of the caves in the area. We realized when we got back to our hotel our room was right next to a karaoke club. The music was quite loud but some how we were able to sleep, I don't think it was open too late either.

Nov 29 – The Caves around Tha Khet

We met up with the group at the tourist information center, they were interested in going to one cave in particular which is about 7km long and you go through by boat. This cave is also about 200km from Tha Khet and chartering a minibus to go see it was just too big of an expense for us. The other four went ahead with the trip though. After having some noodle soup for breakfast, with not so yummy noodles, we rented a motorbike and decided to check out the caves near the town. The caves we went to were Tham Xang, Tham Pha Pa, Tham Xieng Liap and Tham Nang Aen. We were a little let down by our experiences. The caves we went into were mostly set up as alters and there wasn't much exploring to be had. Near the end of the we went to one which had more facilities but it was also more money to go in and there was the option of renting a boat. We had been let down by the other caves and decided against going in this last one. We just could drum up any enthusiasm to go in. We did go to a lake, Tha Falang, which was very pretty. The water was Caribbean blue, not really sure what made it this colour but it was quite clear. We head back into town and had a much needed shower. The roads were very dusty so we were covered in it. We went to the only restaurant that offered wifi, there were internet cafes though, and got some food and some beers. After eating and catching up on our e-mails and blogs we found the magnificent pancake man again and this time ordered two one with banana and one with egg. We had thought last night there was no way to improve on the deliciousness but the banana proved us wrong. We relaxed by the water front with another beer before heading back to our hotel. Beau and I have rediscovered TV a little but mostly its on the news station. Tomorrow we are going to try to catch an early bus to Vientiane.

Funky looking rock that looked like a face

Inside one of the Caves

Tha Falang, the pretty lake

Da Lat, Waterfalls, and Silk

We've had a good couple of days in Da Lat so far. The weather has been gorgeous although it cools off at night, reminds me of mid September in Kelowna. There is some beautiful scenery and many waterfalls. Da Lat has some interesting architecture, it's still French Colonial for the most part but the colours are not what you would expect. Many houses are very brightly coloured, lime green, sky blue, hot pink. Some have sparkly pillars and clashing roofs. The other thing I have noticed is there are more large houses, typically Vietnamese houses are skinny, tall and long, these much wider. I think it has to go with Western influence, a couple of houses could have fit right in anywhere in North America. 

 

Oct 30 – Da Lat

We were up early since we were told to be at the bus stop for 6:30am. We had Pho for breakfast and by the time we finish our hotel reception had actually opened so we could check out. We trekked down to the bus stop and waited and waited. The bus showed up at 7:30am and then we picked up 2 other people and set off for Da Lat around 8am. It would have been nice to sleep a little more instead of waiting for an hour for the stupid bus. Also there were only 4 passengers on the bus! We are now wondering if the bus was actually full yesterday or else maybe it would have only been us on it. We slept a little on the ride up but as we neared Da Lat, it's 1500m above sea level, there was some incredible scenery. The clouds were lifting from the mountains so it looked almost like it was raining up. Very Cool! We arrived around 11am, much soon than we had expected thank goodness. We checked into the hotel we were dropped off at, it was clean and I was being lazy. We had my computer issue to take care of, the power adapter stopped working last night. We found a computer repair shop very easily (I was shocked how easy it was) and while we had lunch the guy replaced to cord for under $5. SWEET! We had a nice leisurely walk around Lake Xuan Huong, the man-made lake in the middle of Da Lat. It was quite hot in the sunshine but nothing compared to the coast. There's no humidity here. Near the end of the lake are the Da Lat flower gardens. They were quite pretty. Da Lat is apparently known for it's plants and produce. We saw many green houses during the drive up. To cool off we stopped for drink at a cafe and thought the fruit syrup drinks sounded interesting. Beau got lychee and I got apple, they were very sweet, surprise its syrup. Beau watered his down so he could drink it. We cooled off a little too much in the shade. The nice breeze which cooled me while walking now made me cold. We nipped back to the hotel to get some sleeves on before finding some dinner. Dinner was pretty good, chow mein noodles with squid, but we got talking to the guy at the table next to us, he was an Aussie. We had a nice chat with him and walked around the night market a bit. There were some hot drinks being served at some stalls, it was hot soy milk. We had one that was peanut flavoured, it was tasty and weird. It had a fuzzy texture to it but I liked it.

Lake Xuan Huong

 

Da Lat Gardens

Oct 31 – Elephant Waterfalls and Silk Center

One of the handy things about our hotel is free breakfast. We had “Egg Bread” and coffee; it was scrambled eggs and a baguette. While we ate the motorcycle Beau had rented for us the night before was dropped off. It was only $3 for the day, I guess we've be getting ripped off for $4-5. We knew we wanted to check out some falls and a silk center near Nam Bam village. We set off into the countryside. It was a lovely drive, very lush and scenic but quite a winding road. We stopped a few times for pictures, there were coffee plants growing everywhere and some other big shrubs that looked similar to poinsettias. We saw some easy rider bike pull into a house just outside of the village so we pulled over too. There was sign out front about rice wine/whiskey making and coffee. We tacked on to their little tour about how to make the rice alcohol. The guide poured a shot into a metal pan and lit it on fire. There was a huge flame and all the liquid burned off till the pan was dry again. Pretty potent stuff. In another area the guide showed us were the people kept weasels. They had quite a few of them. The reason for the weasels is because what they call Weasel Coffee is a delicacy. The weasels eat the coffee beans and poop them out. The beans are collected from the poop and then dried and roasted. The price of weasel coffee is about 5 times that of regular coffee. At this same place a couple that had been on our boat trip in Nha Trang came in. We got talking with them and their guide and the guide said we could follow there car to the silk center and Elephant Waterfall. We followed them to the Cuong Hoan Traditional Silk Center. It was so cool! There were all the silk worm cocoons and we could watch the process of making silk. They boil the cocoons, then spin them on to large wheels, the wheels are then spun to dry the threads, the wheels are then spun on to spools and the spools are used in the looms to make fabric. On the looms are these bamboo sheets which are the pattern for the fabric, they tell the loom, mechanically, how the fabric should be woven. I was in a little bit of heaven and they sold fabric... I bought myself some to make a dress. I couldn't resist but the fabric is beautiful and how often do you get to buy silk from the manufacturer which is a traditional silk center in Vietnam! While I was trying to pick fabric the other group had left but we got directions from one of the workers to Elephant Waterfall. Turns out it was just down the road. It's an awkward climb down to the bottom of the falls but the view was spectacular and worth the muddy hands and shoes. You could get quite up close to the falls but you got quite wet too. Beau got up close and wet while I didn't. It didn't take long for him to dry. We got some great photos. There was also a little restaurant at the top by the parking lot. We had some yummy Pho soup, it would have been even better if it was made with rice noodles not instant noodles, they use those a lot here. Next we continued along the road for a bit till we found another waterfall we had read about, Lien Khuong Falls. We stopped at a cafe that over looked the falls while we enjoyed a beer. There was yet another waterfall on Beau's list that was close to Da Lat, Datanla falls, so we decided to stop in there on our way back to the city. The falls were nice but there was this weird roller coaster type thing that could take you up and down through the trees to get to the falls. There were about 6 water falls in the area but only Datanla Falls was accessible by foot. Two others could be viewed from a cable car but we weren't willing to pay. Datanla was a nice looking waterfall, there was a couple there having wedding photos taken. We went back into the city and stopped at the Hang Nga Crazy House. It's this guest house built by some lady architect that is just totally bizarre. It has weird passageways, odd shaped rooms, caves, awkward bridges. It's described by Lonely Planet as Alice-in-Wonderland like. It was very odd and definitely crazy. We got some dinner at a place that advertised the vermicelli bowls I love. Unfortunately for Beau, they only had enough left for one serving, so he had some sort of rice dish with egg and pork. We got some of the hot soy beverage again, although this time we were told it was coco flavoured but tasted like the one last night. We picked up some dried fruit and nuts for a hiking snack for tomorrow. We are going to tackle Lang Bian Mountain, it's going to be a 4hr hike round trip. I think we are going to pick up something more for lunch in the morning.

 

Our Scenic drive from Da Lat to Nam Bam

Boiling the silk cocoons and spinning the silk treads

The Loom, the upper left is the fabric pattern

Elephant Waterfall

Beau getting wet next to the falls

At the bottom of the falls

Elephant Waterfall

Hang Nga Crazy House

Hoi An - Great City

I think Hoi An is my favorite city so far! It so pretty at night with all the lights everywhere.  There's lots of good food and all the tailor shops have such beautiful colours.  It's really lovely.  I'm a little sad we'll be moving on tomorrow but I'm excited for the next stop, Nha Trang.  I would definitely come back to this city!

Oct 24 - Marble Mountains

Beau, the silly man that he is, woke up early to watch part of the Packers game, the third quarter started at 5am... Silly man. After going back to sleep for a bit we had breakfast at the hotel and rented a motorcycle from across the street. We decided to head towards Da Nang and go to the Marble Mountains. Typically, we missed the turn and drove for awhile in the not quite right direction. We were at least going north but on the wrong road. We did make it to the Marble Mountains after a guy stopped to help us lost looking tourists. We climbed all over the main mountain. There were all kinds of caves which are actually temples. There were Buddhas all over the mountain. We headed up one set of stairs and made it to the very top of the mountain. The view was pretty spectacular, with all different scenes depending on the way you looked. One way you could see the other mountains, another the city and another the sea. It was well worth the buckets of sweat it took to get up there. It was a hot one. We headed down from the mountains and went in search of lunch. We stopped at a road side seafood restaurant but it was much too expensive. We drove around a little and Beau followed his nose to a BBQ. We didn't know what to order as the menu didn't have anything recognizable on it. We ordered the little bird the guy was bbqing (might have been pigeon) and a chicken leg. It was delicious, seasoned really nicely. We were still hungry so Beau pointed to one of the cheaper things on the menu and order us that. We are pretty sure it was snails but again very tasty although a little spicy. It was an interesting lunch experience that turned out very good in the end. We headed back towards Hoi An and hit up the beach. While we were parking the bike the parking guy serenaded us with a song about Canada and the beach and swimming and looking after the bike. It was random and hilarious! We went for a nice swim in the ocean and then headed back to the hotel. We decided to keep the bike for tomorrow since it was only $4 a day. We got cleaned up and met up with Mark and Christina for dinner by the river. The food was quite good and we had strategically placed ourselves to watch the free local dance show that goes on every night at 7:30. It to entice people to come watch the full show. After dinner we headed to a tailors shop that had a bunch of recommendation from our hotel. Beau and I thought about having suits made up but it would be too much effort to send home. I did buy a green Asian style dress with embroidery down the front. It quite pretty, although after ordering I did see other dresses that I liked a lot too. We then had some cheap local beers at a riverside restaurant before heading to bed.

On Top of Marble Mountain

The view from the top, some of the other Marble Mountains.

Happy Buddha and temple

On the mountain.

Oct 25 - Lazy Beach Day

We woke up to another beautiful day! We set off to the beach again after having some breakfast. We arrived at a different beach from the one yesterday which had fewer tourists. We parked the bike and walked down. We were approached by several Vietnamese women who said we can use their beach loungers and should eat at their restaurant later. We said we might eat there later and thought we could use the chairs anyways... wrong. After sitting in the sun and going for a nice swim we wanted some lunch. We checked out the woman's menu but it was quite expensive compared to the other restaurants prices. We chose another and sat down only to have the woman from earlier hunt us down and demand we eat at her restaurant or else pay for the lounger. None of this was to our understanding and she was being quite rude so we decided to leave that area all together, without paying to use the lounger. We drove down the road near where we had been the day before and found a reasonably priced seafood restaurant. We ate some delicious clams and shrimp while standing under a patio umbrella because it had started to pour. The weather cleared up again so we were able to enjoy the beach for a bit. We went for a little cruise around on the bike and then headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up. I had to get my dress fitted, which was a little tight across the bust, surprising since it's not too big to start with.... We got a early morning tour booked for My Son tomorrow and our bus onwards to Nha Trang. We wandered around trying to find some deals on pearls and had to go back to the tailors for another fitting. It was still a little tight but they need to do the embroidery on it still anyways so it should be good tomorrow. We met up with Mark and Christina there and went to a restaurant that advertised cheap local food. It was quite good and had recently been opened by a younger guy that thought there should be one price for tourists and locals alike. Good Man! It had been pouring intermittently through out the evening, fortunately we were always under cover for the down pour. We went for some beer and dessert and parted ways for the evening. Beau and I have to be up early tomorrow.... Yuck

Hue and Onwards

We were a little disappointed with our guided motorcycle tour.  The guy was more of a driver than a guide.  We had hoped to have him with us at the sites so we could get more information about each place but he just gave us a little spiel and sent us on our way.  We felt like we could have done a similar tour on our own so we'll probably stick to doing it ourselves. Since it wasn't a great experience we decided against motorcycling to Hoi An especially since we already had tickets.  I guess we know to ask more questions in the future so we can fully understand what we are paying for.

Oct 22 – Bike tour around Hue

We were picked up at the hotel at 8:30 this morning. The first stop on the tour was the Temple of Princess Huyen Tran and her father King Tran Nhan Tong. To get there we drove through a massive cemetery. It was quite beautiful and interesting to see the similarities and difference to the cemeteries back home. Some grave markers were quite colourful and ornate. We arrived at the temple and were told we had about 50min. Our guide just hung out while we went in, so he really wasn't much of a guide. It was a beautiful set of temples. We could have spent a bit longer there. There was a small mountain to climb and a bell at the top that Beau rang. There was next to no one there, possibly because it was fairly early. From there we went to a war memorial where there were many soldiers buried. We didn't spend very long here because we needed to get to a Buddhist temple to see their daily prayer ceremony. Three times a day the Buddhist monks prey with chanting and music, each time for about half an hour. We arrived in time to see the last 10 minutes of the prayer and it was quite interesting. We spent a little time looking around the temple and the were on our way again. We stopped at a roadside stand that was selling souvenir crap but we were shown how they make incense, which they burn everywhere, and the conical shaped bamboo hats, here they put poems in the hat so you can see them when you hold the hat to the light, so I guess it was okay. Next we went to a hill top that had some American bunkers on it. We did a little off roading to get up to the top. There was a pretty good view of the Perfume River, which wasn't the prettiest of colours. There wasn't all that much to see of the bunkers besides some cylindrical concrete sticking a couple of feet above the ground. Next we went to the Tomb of Emperor Tu Duc. The tomb originally had 50 buildings but many of which have succumbed to the passage of time, although the tomb is only 100 years old. It was very nice in a mossy sort of way. Our guide asked us if we wanted to stop for lunch, there were a bunch of little restaurants outside of the tomb but they all sold the same thing at inflated prices. We told he we wanted local food so we hopped back on the bikes. Our next stop was an arena used to fight elephants and tigers. The elephants always won because the tigers were declawed and detoothed. The elephant represented the emperors power so obvious it had to win. We headed back into the city where we did get local food. The guide took us down an alley to a restaurant where there were a bunch of Vietnamese eating. I finally got my vermicelli bowl that I have been dying to have it's called Banh Thit Nurong we also had some delicious fresh spring rolls. Our last stop was the Thien Mu Pagoda. Another pretty site. We were a bit disappointed with our tour. We assumed that our guide would come into the sites with us and tell us about the places. Besides finding us really good food we probably would have been fine on our own. We did talk him into let us keep the bike for the rest of the day but we had to change bikes. We then went to into the citadel which is the old walled city and into the Forbidden Purple Palace, the former home of the emperor. The palace is slowly being restored so it was interesting to see the difference between how it did look and how it looks now. The grounds were beautiful as was the architecture. We cruised around Hoi An a bit then headed back to the hotel. We stopped off at the Backpackers hostel again for 2-4-1 beers and ran into a couple, Mark and Christina, who were our dorm mates in Hanoi. We had dinner with them at another restaurant our guide had suggested, also where we returned the bike. The food was quite good too. We were all on the bus to Hoi An (Beau and I decided against motorcycles since we already had the ticket and we weren't impressed with dude) so we decided to go out. We went to a bar that was handing out fliers for 2-4-1 drinks. Beau and Mark played some pool with some locals and Christina and I got to talking with a Vietnamese girl that works at the bar. We had a really fun night dancing and drinking.

Beau ringing the bell for good luck

The monks praying

The Perfume River

Emperor Tu Duc's Tomb

Thein Mu Pagoda

The Forbidden Purple Palace

Oct 23 – On to Hoi An

We were leaving for Hoi An today so we packed up our stuff and headed out for breakfast. After eating we went to the Backpackers hostel because that's where we got the bus from. We had about an hour or two to kill before the bus but I got to Skype with Elaine!! We got on our bus but it waited around for a bit before we left. It was about a 3 hour bus ride to Hoi An. Fairly scenic but I can't imagine doing it on a motorcycle now with how crazy the traffic is here! We arrived at the bus station and of course there were people saying come to my hotel. We caught a ride to a hotel which was supposedly in the city centre, it was more like the edge of the city centre. It was okay but we thought we'd keep looking. We found a reasonable and clean hotel and set off for dinner. The restaurant had reasonably priced meals and cheap draught beer. Some of the local food here is crispy wantons with meat and vegetables in a pineapple glaze. It's very good, like nachos but better. We walked around Hoi An. It very pretty at night with little paper boats with candles floating down the river. Most places are little up with colourful lanterns. So far I really like the feel of Hoi An. There are also tailor shops everywhere!! I'm definitely going to have to exercise some restraint!

The Road to Sapa

We arrived in Sapa this morning after a relatively comfortable train ride.  We cruised around on a motorcycle here and have seen some of the beautiful scenery.  We booked a trekking tour and get to do a home stay in an off the beaten track area! We are pretty excited for tomorrow and had a wonderful but exhausting day today.

Oct 16 – Hanoi & Train to Lao Cai

Well I didn't sleep in as much as I had hoped too but still slept better/more than I had in a few days. I spent the morning updating my blog and got to Skype Mom and Dad. We took full advantage of the hostels internet even though we had checked out. We were able to leave our bags in storage at the hostel while we headed out for the day. We grabbed some lunch and then went to the Temple of Literature. It was pretty although fairly overrun with tourists. There was quite a lot of noise from the traffic around the temple so it wasn't all that peaceful. We were going to check out the Army Museum but it was closing in about 30min so we'll go after our Sapa trip. We picked up “hop on, hop off” bus tickets so when we return from Sapa we can go directly to Hue. We had the brilliant idea to go directly to the bus station to check prices but we couldn't find the bus station. We settled for buying our tickets from the hostel. We bought a 6 stop ticket for about $50. By this time we were fairly foot sore so we were lazy and ate at the hostel. Luckily it was still 2-4-1 beer time. We lounged around a bit till it was time to go to the train station. We didn't feel like walking so we hired a motorcycle taxi. It was pretty cool. My bag was in front of the drive, I was between him and Beau with the little pack and Beau was on the back with his bag on. It was kind of thrilling weaving through the traffic. We had middle bunks on the train but the baggage storage was right at the foot of the top bunks. We were a little leery of that so we kept our bags on the bunks. The train wasn't as nice as the Chinese trains but we had more head room than we did on the top bunks.

Bell in Temple of Literature

Drum in Temple of Literature

Oct 17 – Sapa

Beau and I were under the assumption that our train arrived in Lao Cai around 6:15 so when the train stopped at that time we thought it was time to go. We had grabbed our stuff but the train started moving!! We raced to the door but it turns out we still had another 2hrs before we reached Lao Cai. I guess we could have had another 2hrs of sleep. I actually slept well on this train, maybe it was the rocking motion. We for real arrived in Lao Cai and were bombarded by guys trying to get us on their minibuses to Sapa. Of course the prices were outrageous. They wanted 100,000d per person, the books said it should be about 25,000d. We ended up paying 40,000d so $2. The road was very twisty, turny and steep. It was around an hour to Sapa. We arrived, looked at a couple of hotels and checked into one. We asked around at a few places about trekking and homestays. One looked particularly interesting, it followed a different route that not many tourist took. We would be meeting up with a guy already on the trek but it would cost $40 each, the easier tourist ones were only $25. We decided to think on it for the day. We rented a motorcycle to cruise around the area and check out some places. It was only $7 with gas. Sapa has some beautiful scenery. The mountains reminded me a little of home. It was pretty foggy though. We started by trying to find the village of Ta Phin but somehow missed the turn and were confused about where to go so we headed back to Sapa. We got better directions but instead set off to find Thac Bac, the Silver Waterfall, near the top of Tram Thom Pass. The water fall was very beautiful and impressive. The biking was a lot of fun. Fortunately the roads aren't too busy so we didn't have to do too much dodging. From there we headed back towards Sapa and on to Ta Phin. We found the village this time and were flagged down by some women from the H'Mong tribe. They took us to the one woman's house. It was pretty sad. Very much a shanty home, more like a barn. Her one son also had deformed hands and feet. They then tried to sell us purses and wall hangings. We bought a purse mostly because we felt sorry for the conditions they live in. We continued on for a little ways and then decided to head back to Sapa. Back at our hotel we ran into Beau's kayaking buddy for Halong Bay (not a surprise since we shared a mini bus with him to Sapa). We talked to him about the home stay which he was very interested in. We went to book the trek and with Mike with us it was only $32 per person. I'm sure it'll be well worth the extra $7!

Rice terraces around Sapa

Thac Bac, The Silver Waterfall

In front of Thac Bac