“Travel is an investment in yourself.”
I fell in love with vietnam, hanoi, years ago and have since visited more than twice. What drew me the most was the food, fresh, tasty, affordable, one could find a satisfying meal by the sidewalk. In the many times i visited, i always stayed in hanoi, it was enough for me. It has the old town feel that i always favored, enough hustle and bustle to make you feel like a local, spots to go to and things to do. There are other places that i’ve been meaning to visit, sapa being one of them.
It took less than a day to go to sapa from hanoi, we took a bus, had a few stopovers and next thing i knew we were there. they say sapa is like vietnam’s version of baguio, i disagree. Except for the travel time and maybe location, it is very different. i liked how hanoi offers the charm of its old town, sapa doesn’t have a lot of historical structures within the town proper but its views and temple more than made up for it.
visiting fansipan mountain was an experience, an experience that i don’t plan to do again. i consider it one and done, not because it was horrible, far from it. The temple was majestic, the stairs even more so. At a certain age there are things im not afraid to admit, like how out of shape i am and my knees cracked and heaved all the way down.
back in town we spent one more night exploring what sapa has to offer. They had a night market with some parlor games, naturally i played a game or two. We went around in their version of tuk-tuk or trike and soaked in the sights illuminated by hundreds of lanterns and lights. We woke up to a misty morning, i went out to have my breakfast in one of the food stalls – banh mi and their noodles (hanoi’s was better), before heading to the bus terminal for our trip back to hanoi.
when we got back in hanoi we did some last minute shopping, for coffee beans, naturally. I spent half a day in a spa before catching dinner (in a street food stall) and dessert (also by the street). I could & would never stop recommending vietnam to anyone wanting to take a vacation out of ph. My first time visiting happened many years ago and im still surprised by how economical the prices are and how varied the experiences are to match any traveler’s preference. There is still so much more to visit and hopefully i get to see those places in the future.
it begins with a step 