Monday, January 10, 2011

Sapa, A Cultural Showcase

Hantu Laut

Our train left Hanoi at 9.15 p.m and arrived Lao Cai at 6 a.m next day and than two hours very misty drive up to Sapa.

I will not be writing a story.That will appear in my travel blog.

Just some photos of Sapa and how well the diverse cultural heritage are marketed in this country as tourism products.

Vietnam tourism is well established, thousands of tourist flocked to this place and Halong Bay every day.

It's amazing how fast they have moved after the war. They are well organised, efficient and very accommodating.The hotel we stayed in Hanoi is fantastic.They try their utmost to take care of your every needs, from getting electrical adapter, booking theater tickets to arranging your tours, they would do with a blink of the eye.

Vietnam is not shy to allow foreign investment in the tourism industry.There are many beautiful boutique hotels and restaurants owned and run by foreigners mostly Europeans and Australians.

In Sabah, rent-seeking politicians would want a big cut before they allow investors to come in which naturally drove away potential investors.First, they would jack up the price of land thinking that all foreign investors are suckers and then they would also want a free equity in the projects.

Kundasang in Sabah is a hovel compared to this place.It could have been better, just too bad we have brain dead politicians who travelled around the world but were as blind as the bats.

Sapa, a beautiful place with its varied ethnic hill tribes and terraced rice fields, it's really enchanting.

We trekked over 3 hours through numerous villages, sampling their way of life and braving the cold winter.It's freezing cold here.
Because of the high altitude it is very cold, around 3-5 C during the day and can drop to 0-1 C at night.

This is a very safe country, you can go almost any place without having any fear of becoming target of criminals.










1 comment:

Anonymous said...

our politicians are not blind as bats.....just greedy as pigs

kundasang is not the only hovel...look at what has been done at Cameron Highlands