Sa Pa, Vietnam ( Nov. 12-16 )

Day: (I dk...haha I'll put it in later when I find out) 

November 12th- 16th

Sa Pa, Vietnam 

Phil and I just got back from our first Adventure trip alone together here in Asia. 

It was quite an experience not only planning it but trusting God to provide and keep us safe.  

 Due to our Visas, every 90 day we have to leave the country 

so what better opportunity than to visit Vietnam.

We had heard from several friends here that if we were to go to Vietnam that we'd need to visit

the little Mountain town called Sa Pa. 

After a little research and prayer we thought why not! 

A quick run through of our travel there:

It took us a total of 12 hours to get to the border. We first took a 35 minute Taxi ride to the bus station. Around 7:00pm we left on a sleeper bus headed to the city of Haikou. The 18 person/bed bus travelled up and down the Mountains of Asia to finally reach its border with Vietnam. We stopped twice for a bathroom break. These bathrooms breaks were an experience in itself. They were mini stalls that went up to maybe your hip so every person was visible. Thankfully they were split up to a men's and women's side but in these mini stalls was a gutter. So everyone went in the same nasty gutter. Blah! An experience I wouldn't mind skipping but at least they stop to let us go on the 11 hour trip. It was so hard to sleep in those little beds. After 7 hours on the bus, we slowed to a stop and pulled off to the side of the road. Confused, Phil and I had not a clue to what was going on but lack of sleep as well as the inability to do anything else we slept as well. The driver and all of us passengers ended up sleeping on the side of the road for 4 hours. 

After those 4 hours were up, the driver woke up and drove off to Haikou.

 [Only after we got back did we find out that its a new law that sleeper buses drivers have to take a nap from 2am-6am because they were having problems with driver falling a sleep at the wheel. 

Good to Know.] 

Once arriving in Haikou around 6:30am, we took a 10 minute Taxi ride to the actual border. 

We sat on the boarder buildings steps from ~6:40am until they opened at 9:00am. 

Talk about one boring wait! We ended exchanging 1/2 of our money into Dong with some random guy taking his kid to school. [Weird]. When the building opened, we showed passports and etc. then crossed the bridge into the Vietnam border building. We got to advise another fellow foreigner (Austrian) traveling the opposite direction about the country we live in (Its always so much fun to meet other foreigners randomly throughout Asia). We did another custom/passport show for the Vietnam border building then walked right into Lao Cai, Vietnam. 

Walking onto Vietnamese soil, It hit me that I knew absolutely NO Vietnamese. 

I couldn't even say Hello or Thank You. 

I had no idea how much I had learned and felt comfortable with the language of the country I was leaving until I realized my discomfort of not knowing any of this new language. 

Somehow we exchanged the other half of our money for Dong then tried to find the mini bus that was recommended to us to Sapa. We ended up taking a 15 minute Taxi ride to the "Bus Station" [A parking lot of vans and taxis]. We stepped out of our Taxi and told the first guy who ran up to us, "Sa Pa" then he urged us into a Van full of other foreigners.... and here is where the pictures begin:

Part of the "Bus Station" [Parking lot of Vans and Taxis] 

So this is the "Mini Bus" we took to Sa Pa.
2 1/2 hour bus ride up the Mountains
6 girls/guys from France
1 guy from Germany
6 guys Vietnamese
2 Americans (Phil & I)

On the Road

A view I saw from the "Mini Bus"

Thai Binh - Best B&B in Sa Pa

Our AMAZING Bed & Breakfast!
We loved this place so much. We found it on Trip Adviser.
It's a 8 room bed & breakfast owned by a local. We talked with the owner before we got there and the whole time we were there. He had left Sa Pa and studied in New Zealand before coming back to open up his own B&B.
Not bad for a little Town in the Mountains of Vietnam. 

Taken a few minutes after we had arrived. 

It felt good to lay down our packs. 

They gave us hot tea right when arrived. Mmmm! 

I loved this fire place.

Our Beautiful Room!
It even smelt wonderful and clean!
What a Blessing! 

WHAT!! An UPDATED Bathroom?!! - Was my expression when I first saw this!

I think the perfect view! After living in a huge city for 3 months I just loved
opening my window to see this beautiful healthy green tree right outside.  

Yes! We even had a TV with the International Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, TLC,  and etc.
What a nice treat to just lay in bed for an hour and watch the TLC (Food Network's Dinners, Drive-ins and Dives)
What a wonderful comfort of home!

Outside our Door.

The Vietnamese Dong.
I felt so rich there caring around over a
1,000,000 (Million)  Dong =  $ 47 Dollars.
However, everything cost thousands of Dong so the rich feeling wore off fast. 

Sa Pa is made up of mostly Minority groups: Hmong, Dao (Yao), Giay, Pho Lu, and Tay. These are some of the Hmong women I met. They actually asked if I could take their picture rather than me asking if I could get one with them.
Sa Pa as well as the villages these minorities live in around the town heavily rely
 on tourists making the long rough trek there throughout the year. 

This Catholic church (the only one in the town) was built in 1930 by the French and sits right in the middle. 

The day we got there was perfect for the fog was so thick it made the town mysterious and beautiful.
We didn't mind we wanted a little seclusion. 

This Restaurant, Nature's View ended up being our Favorite.
After living in Asia, we felt no guilt digging into all Western food while we were there. 

Fanta! in a Coca Cola glass... Can't get any more American than this! 

My Babes and I at lunch! 

Check these guys working up this huge cliff. 

Day 2 in Sapa!

Breakfast at our B&B!
(I had) Yogurt w/ Fruit, (Phil had) Omelet, lots of Baguettes w/ jam & butter, Cheese, and Hot Tea!
Yumm! 

Such a nice comfy place. 

Just walking a Water Buffalo down the road.

God answered our prayers of one clear day so we could see the sights!!
He is Awesome like That!! 

Those Mountains were Breath-Taking! 

Oh there's the head of our Lunch. We were wondering where it went off to. 

Phil and I 

Of Course! Phil would find a rooster in every country we visit. If you are friends with me on FB then you can look in our Honeymoon Album to view him chasing one all over the Bahamas.
 hahaha
He's so happy! 

The look on his face. I'm getting the feeling this guys isn't as happy as Phil. 

What a funny dog! He was right beside the rooster. 

Since the fog lifted we went on a "some-what" guided hike down to the villages.
Beautiful!

They use this plant string to make their clothing. 

A vietnamese guide, 4 Hmong women on their way home, a guys from Holland (Renee), a guy from Texas that now lives in the Philippines (Don), 2 guys from England, and us Americans on a Trek down the Mountain. 

Children we saw on the way. 

I actually slipped and slid on my butt for a second going down this hill. Frustratingly, these Hmong women were overly kind. They wanted to hold my hand the rest of the way down the mountain to make sure I wouldn't fall again.
 It took a good while before I convinced them that I was fine.
haha.  

I didn't get a picture but it was a delight to discover that under this hen were a dozen little baby chicks who would peek out for moments at a time to see the world then scurry back under the mother hen. 

 Our KuJo's long lost vietnamese cousin

Phil wasn't too excited about this wall-less bridge.  

Through the Jungles of Vietnam. 

Just a slab of concrete on the top of the bridge. 

This little guy walked with us for a good 20 minutes. It was a show watching him weave in and out of our feet as everyone skipped and jumped around him trying not to step on him. A local ended up picking him up and tossing him into a house up the road. 

What a view!

Our "peasant" lunch of a Baguette, Cheese, Eggs, Bananas, Pears, Cucumbers, and Tomatoes.
All the tables around our group got tons of Vietnamese foods that our small group of 6 called our lunch a peasant lunch because we only paid $12 for the "tour" down the mountains and for the lunch. Don said that bread and eggs were cheap meals for peasants. We couldn't complain most people paid $50-$70 for their tour.
We all ended up getting tea and coffee thinking it was apart of our meal only to find 20 minutes later a vietnamese guy  chasing us down a path on a motorcycle yelling at us to pay. haha
We all had a kick out of dinning and ditching in Vietnam. 

Who could resist this adorable little girl?
Phil bought me a bracelet for me from her.

Captured for that night's dinner. 

This was a memorable moment. Renee getting bombarded by Hmong women wanting him to buy their
 jewelry and purses.  They wouldn't give up until he was pretty fed up with it all. haha
 You can see his friend Don having a good laugh watching the whole production.

Beautiful ending to the day

Mango, Pineapple, and Banana Smoothie

Dinner that night

Day 3: Last Day

This sweet girl lived right outside of our B&B.
I was so delighted to find that she loved to be petted and loved so I took advantage
of feeling like I had an animal for a few days.

(I miss Ed & KuJo often)

One last look at Sa Pa

All decked out for a Trek

A Water Buffalo in the middle of the town by the school's track.  Why not?

Phil and I had extra time to spare before heading back to Lao Cai  so we deciding to step into this bakery in town to have a snack. 

Do you see how delicious and scrumptious looking this cheesecake appears?
I actually saw it the night before and was so tempted to get it then but thought better of it.
However  it was our last day, I thought since we were craving something sweet I would break down and go for it.
The cheesecake almost made my day until I took a bite into it.... how deceiving and disappointing it was disgusting!
Lesson Learned! 

KuJo? Edward?
 What are ya'll doing here?

After the Bakery, we still had spare time and heavy packs on our backs so we stopped at this hole in the wall place for the unbelievable view. We ended up having fun playing Phase 10 and drinking tea and Vietnamese Coffee.

A blind man playing some kind of Flute. 

One the way back to Lao Cai we travelled in another "Mini Bus" with 3 guys from Spain, 5 guys/girls Vietnamese, and us (Americans). It was pretty uneventful aside from talking and the 2 1/2 hour rouged carsickness feeling trip back to the border.

The Vietnamese Border

Back to Haikou and Beyond. 

Now coming towards the latter part of our trip we crossed over and walked about Haikou a bit to find food. We then picked up a Taxi (Happy to speak and understand at least some basics of language again) and travelled back to the bus station. We had about a 2 hour wait so between eating and unnecessary bathroom breaks we ran into to faces we recognized. Well we didn't really run into them one came running over to us so excited to see us again. We happen to not recognize this man but understood the language enough to know he was excited that we all were traveling to the same city. We did however recognize the second guy once he walked up a minute later. He spoke a little english and had helped us make sure we were on the right bus on the trip there. 

I have to say the ride there was so much enjoyable than the ride back. I don't know if we were optimistic because it was our first time or what but it was not as fun on that stinky, crowded, noisy sleeper bus. I do know it wasn't as nice as the first one and I was more awake so I didn't go to sleep until we were parked an hour outside of the city. I recognized the area so I knew we were so so close. Yet, I realized the bus was pulling over and Boy was I ticked! I knew how close we were and how long this nap would be. I just wanted to get home. To top it off the diver first smoked on the bus then laid down for a 4 hour nap and the old women behind me talked in her sleep (loudly). I eventually fell asleep for those few hours then awoke to find us pulling into the bus station 12 hours later from when we begin. Thats roughly 16 hours since Sa Pa. We caught a 35 minute Taxi ride back to our apartment opened the door, dropped the packs and opened our arms to tons of adorable little hugs from our 5 nieces and nephew. 

And to one special hug from the Birthday Girl Viv who turned 3 years old that day (November 16).

After a nap 

We had a jungle party in the court yard with all of our friends.

Then Youth Group that night from 6:30pm-9:30pm. 

It was quite an Adventure of a Trip but very much worth it. 

I look forward to another 90 days of planning the next trip.

Thailand anyone?

God has been so amazing to us for blessing Phil and I with opportunities such as these. 

What a beautiful world He has created!