Sa Pa Trekking

Went up north into the mountains to Sa Pa, probably the most beautiful place I have ever scene, although the weather still isn't great as it's monsoon season it didn't dampen the spectacular scenery for us, our two day tour booked through Sinh Cafe Tourist, was a bit of a rip off as we were supposed to do two days of trekking and because of 'weather conditions' which wasn't that bad we only ended up doing one but I think it was literally because our guide couldn't be bothered. Day one was amazing we were met by local village women from the Black Hmong tribe and they trekked with us 14km through the mountains down the paddy fields to the village where we were staying. The trek itself was really difficult especially as it had been raining the night before so it was pretty slippery, also someone had thrown away my shoes so I only had flip flops to scale down the mountain in which wasn't very useful. Anyway heres some photos of the amazing views on the way to the village.

This was my guide Sho (on the right) and her friend from the Black Hmong tribe who saved me multiple times from falling down the mountain. 

We stopped for lunch in a village about 5 hours into the trek where we met the two other tribes in the valley, all three tribes have their own language and their own traditional dress, the one annoying thing is people are constantly harassing you to buy bags and bracelets especially the children, who are incredibly talented at making you feel terrible, be warned once you buy something off one person they will all gather around you, but tourism is their main income so fair play. I went to Sa Pa to get some great portraits so I ended up bargaining with some of the children that I would buy a bracelet if I could take their photo, here were the results. 

The kids were so beautiful and such great saleswomen after having lunch and driving some bargains we then trekked onto the homestay whose name I can't actually remember,  It was amazing a cabin in the middle of the jungle with mattresses on the floor and mosquito nets, and out of the makeshift window (hole) you could see the whole mountain view and listen to the crickets and the rain. I could easily live somewhere like that for months it was so peaceful, I would 100% recommend visiting Sa Pa, and doing the trekking, just check the weather beforehand.

Mui Ne

5 hour sleeper bus to Mui Ne from Ho Chi Mi City which was pretty dire with this weird reclining top bunk seats literally cm's from the ceiling but it was only £5, we're now staying at Mui Ne Backpacker Village a beautiful hostel minutes away from the beach with a pool for (wait for it) £4.50 and we have air con and the bar do spaghetti (although i am trying new food mum i promise)

The monsoon hit again around mid day and like sensible people we decided to go swim in the sea because it seemed it would be fun, to be fair it was but to the locals we probably looked like complete nutcases. Tomorrow we're doing a tour of the Sand Dunes before we head to Dalat in the evening!

pretty much a drowned rat

Mekong Delta River tour; 2 Day 1 Night Homestay

Been out of crazy city civilisation for a few days, touring the incredible Mekong Delta river through Kim Travels tours, I would 100% recommend visiting Mekong Delta and it's floating markets, I would also massively recommend if you have the homestay option to do this instead of a hotel, not only is it much more authentic you are literally fully immersed in river life staying in a kind of shack made out of leaves right on the riverside in the middle of the Vietnamese wilderness. So through the tour we booked we got picked up by a bus around 7:30 AM at the hostel to part of Mekong Delta river, once there we boarded a longboat and cruised down the river, our first stop was one of the on land markets where the locals sold anything from sarongs to skinned alive frogs (I kid you not I watched it happen by accident it was gross), the market was really interesting to walk around as the produce was so diverse but be warned it is pretty graphic in terms of animal parts and doesn't smell particularly wonderful. After we then went to see how the locals made rice paper for spring rolls, how they made coconut candy and honey tea, i'll break this up with some portraits I took at the market and the local cuisine introduction.

lady selling seafood- on land market

little boy sizing up the tourists 

lady selling various meats - on land market

Local Cuisine- How they make Rice Paper

a stall holding relaxing after the market rush

two of the trader market boats on the river 

Mekong Delta continued - ft pictures of me a sweaty mess

Next up we drove the boat to a nearby restaurant and had lunch (included in tour) a simple meal, local cuisine (fish, rice, salad etc) after this we were then taken out in a one of the long canoe boats and rowed through a quite jungle river it was very idyllic and we got to wear the traditional sun hats. This marked the end of our first day and we then journeyed back in the boat to the meeting spot in the town, this is where my friend and I were meeting our homestay hosts who preceded to turn up on motorbikes and signalled for us to hop on to get to our final destination. If you've never been on a motorbike in SE Asia be assured its absolute chaos and you spend the whole ride fearing for your life (its also really fun). The homestay itself (Hung's Homestay) was a group of stick and leaf shacks right on the river in the middle of the local village, it was so ridiculously simple and beautiful literally being right in the middle of nature, pictures do not do it justice.

our jungle shack - Hungs homestay

After a meal cooked by our hosts (with us helping) we went to bed in our mosquito netted cabin (bring a ridiculous amount of mosquito spray you'll need it) . The next day was visiting the floating markets where traders and farmers brought all their produce to sell and exchange, it was pretty cool to look at but we weren't able to get too close to the boats unless we were buying. After this we stopped at the garden nearby (basically a jungle) and went for a wander around and played with puppies and that concluded our trip. I'd hands down recommend it (roughly $45 which is 1 million and 50 VND)