Foot and Fire

With our cheerful Guide Lala of the Black H'mong Tribe. Reaching Sapa Valley from Hanoi is one fun overnight ride of 12 hours via train. It was a smooth sleep for all of us when we were going there (we left nighttime and arrived in the morning) but it was like sleeping under a bowling lane when we rode an old train going back to Hanoi (we left in the afternoon and arrived around past midnight). We anticipated the stop to Lao Cai Train Station upon arriving a town away from Sapa. Since English just made it to Vietnam, we listened to the announcements very well as to which station are we already in. While our Vietnamese neighbors in the bunk seemed to be too happy to help and exchange words with us, the language just gets in the way. DAY ONE When we arrived in Sapa, we were greeted by a cool weather (think of Baguio City) and in fact, it drizzled. On our first day we went up to the Muong Hoa valley mountain and down to a waterfall in our Cat cat trekking. We enjo...

Please like this Facebook page of SAPA BACKPACKERS . We met Peter Thuong in SaPa valley, north of vietnam last year in his SaPa Coffee Corner, a non-profit org dedicated to teach English to street children in Sapa Valley, where one source of livelihood there is tourism. They now have Sapa Backpackers and Peters Coffee Corner, a Non-Profit Organisation supporting Minority Kids with Food, Shelter and free English-Classes where children can now sleep and learn. Also they can accommodate (Page says at 3$ a night) tourists as well as volunteers. If you happen to go to Hanoi this year, make it a point to go to Sapa too! *** Here are some of our photos when we passed by Peter Coffee Corner in SaPa when we had our vacation last July 2012. We stopped by and were offered the Vietnamese Mountain Tea which is bitter but has a surprising nice taste. My friend Bernadette sitting beside Peter. This makeshift coffee corner is facing the small classroom where minority children...

From Marijuana to Lotus Seeds and Tree where chopsticks are born, these are the photos of various fruits, flowers and yes, vegetables we feasted our eyes on as we walk along Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi and the market route in Sa Pa, Valley of Vietnam. If we were not walking, we must be riding the cyclo around Hanoi or ran a bit because of drizzles in SaPa.... What a memorable vacation because of these colors.    Can't help it. In Tam coc, when i saw a vietnamese woman  holding out her lotus to another vietnamese woman,  i excitedly extended my palm to ask for one.  I bought the preserved crunchy and nutty lotus seed... and because of that curious moment in tam Coc,  i can compare it with the raw peanutty texture of the fresh lotus seed.. Tastes good, actually.Yahoo!  We are all familiar with this fruit: its appearance and smell... Love Durian... Beside the watermelon, what's that??? Note: --My friend says that's a...