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.

New Saigon,Old Charms

Taken from HantuLaut's TravelPod.

New Saigon,Old Charms

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Monday, November 23, 2009

This is the best time of the year to visit the Indo-China region.This is the time of the year when the climate changed from hot and humid to cooler weather, possibly a spin-off from winter in the Himalayas.The cool breeze takes heat off the land making it much more pleasant to walk around without suffering the intense heat of the hot and humid season that covers greater part of the year.

Cambodia ,Laos and Vietnam shared common borders with each other.With better roads now, overland journey from one country to the other is less arduous than ten or twenty years ago when overland travels were not only difficult and time-consuming but were also very risky particularly when going through less-traveled routes.

I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City.The journey took about 6 hours with about 4 hours spent on Cambodian soil and the rest through Vietnam densely populated areas before reaching Ho Chi Minh City.Although, there are some similarities between the two countries, the contrasts and differences are more obvious.

For those who are not well-versed with the history of the region, it would be hard to understand how the difference in ethnicity, color and culture could be so diverse and endemic to a region that were so closed in history for thousand of years.The image, color and culture changed conspicuously as one crosses the border from Cambodia into Vietnam.

The Khmers looked very much like the Malays,Indonesians or Filipinos and are of darker complexion.The Vietnamese are more Chinese looking and in contrast with the Cambodians are fairer.In Vietnam, some of the phonation of the Vietnamese words even sound Chinese.

Ho Chi Minh City, is a city of motor-bikes, there mush be million of them here.After a few hours walking the street I realised they also form part of the city public transportation system, unofficially though.You can either hire a bike and ride it yourself, if you have the courage to meander through the maze of motor bikes in highly congested roads and the possibility of being run over by another motor bike or worse still, by a car or truck.For a first timer, it could be very unnerving.The easier way is to hitch a ride from one of them for a fee.There are always a few of them hanging around any side streets looking for business.They are cheap, fast and seemed dangerous, if you are not used to it

Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica

.There are three million of them in the city.

Taxis? It can drain your pockets very quickly.This must be one of the cities of the world where the taxi fare is ridiculously expensive.Never pay your fare in US currency, the mistake I made when I first got here.

Coming from Cambodia where the US Dollar is common denomination anywhere you go and you don't have to worry too much about exchange rate, I assumed neighboring Vietnam would be the same.Based on this assumption I didn't change currency at the border.

The taxi driver will take advantage of the exchange rate if you pay in US currency.The one I took converted US1.00 at 15,000 Dong.When I got to my hotel I checked the hotel rate was around 17,500.Read more...