Sa Pa & Ninh Binh 🇻🇳

I spent the last night on the bus from Ha Giang to Sa Pa, like so many people before. Oh yes, these night bus romances, it's far too cold, far too narrow, far too rough, you get woken up in the middle of the night to get out or maybe not, but hey you save €4 on a night in a hostel! This time we arrived in Sapa at 3 in the morning and had to get everyone off and then get back on because we could sleep on the bus until 6:30 in the morning. Well, you might not call it sleep, but at least you can call it a roof over your head. Fully expecting better weather, I got out in the morning and was initially greeted by even worse weather. The motivation was to go hiking, which is what Sa Pa is known for. I first walked to the hostel and had breakfast. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't the only one who had lost the desire to hike in fog, rain and cold. After breakfast with an open fire, we were motivated to join the trekking tour because, after all, that's what we're there for. We hiked through very remote local villages, across rice fields and through streams. We were accompanied by a few local girls and women, which was really exciting to talk to them about their lives here in the mountains of the countryside of Vietnam. If you get married between 14 and 18, have your first child by 18 at the latest and make money, the woman goes into tourism while the man does agriculture. We then had lunch at our trekking guide's home right on the river next to a waterfall. It was really a shame that we had almost no view at all because what little we saw was pretty nice. In the afternoon we went to another village and then went back to the hostel. In the end I was really happy to have taken this tour because it was really super interesting! The next 3 hours were spent by the fireplace with quash and, above all, warming up. In the evening we only went out for dinner and realized that the city should actually be pretty nice if only the weather was better. Since the weather wasn't any better the next day, I decided to drive on to Ninh Binh in the evening. So I tried to organize a bus in the morning, which fortunately worked quite well. The morning was then spent playing by the fireplace with the owner's 5-year-old daughter. The children here in Asia are just heartbreakingly cute! At lunchtime I dared to leave the fireplace and we went into town for something to eat. Since we were all planning to leave in the evening, we decided that we had to do something with this day even if we didn't get to see the highest mountain in Southeast Asia. So we went to MoanaSaPa, nobody knows exactly what it is but it wasn't far to go. When we got there, we first tried to negotiate to get a discount because the whole “attraction” was based on the view, which unfortunately we didn’t have that day. But unfortunately there was nothing that could be done! So we paid the entrance fee and made the most of it. But we actually had a lot of fun taking photos without a view. Somehow it was almost mystical just to look into the white. Then we went back to the hostel and continued playing until I had to get to the bus. As bad as the weather was, I definitely made the most of it and had a pretty good time. I continued on with the night bus to Ninh Binh. The weather here was at least a little warmer and the fog a little less. Here I rented a scooter and explored the area. We looked at some pagodas and temples. Some more spectacular, some less so, but once again racing around on a scooter was pretty fun. This evening I finally went to bed earlier again because I lost a few hours of sleep due to all the night buses. The next day, after breakfast, we went back on the scooter to see what else there was to see. The best thing that happened to me that day was the sun, I finally saw it again after what felt like an eternity. In the afternoon I went up 500 steps to a viewpoint - Huang Mua - which was quite crowded but still pretty beautiful! After a meal I went back to the hostel because I was driving on again in the evening. On the way back I probably took one of the most remote roads where no tourist has probably ever driven before. But it was by far the best idea I had that day. I simply drove between small lakes, high mountains and remote villages. By the way, I had to try not to get run over by all the trucks because there was an earthmoving plant right there. I then enjoyed the sunset in the middle of the rice fields from the hostel. In the evening I took the night bus again and headed south, finally to Hoi An! ☀️