Rare Adventures

Tag: travel

Ha Gaing Loop adventures – Day 1 to Dong Van

Before we could do the Ha Gaing Loop we had to get out of SaPa, and that proved more challenging than we expected. An hour to go 1.5km in a cab seemed ample but nope, the place was still gridlocked at 8.45am with people leaving the celebrations, so the trip to the bus station ended with us abandoning the cab and running down the middle of the road with bags on our bags in scene straight out of “Race Round the World”.

We arrived at the bus station bang on time, only to find multitudes of buses leaving in all directions except Ha Gaing, my head was swivelling in all directions until I accepted the situation was useless, found our travel agent who said our bus was late and not to panic.

So, at 1030, and after much anxiety, we boarded our sleeper bus to Ha Gaing. This was our first sleeper bus and it was quite an experience; they are beautiful things. I had a flat bed, that sort of propped up, a little cabin with a privacy curtain, lots of switches to fiddle with that changed the lighting atmosphere.

Eventually the bus pulled out, I laid down, and that was that for the next 6 hours, I couldn’t read as I was on my back and the bus rolled around, so I just listened to podcasts and stared out the window and eventually we were dropped off in Ha Gaing, and I certainly wasn’t ready for bed !

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Ha Gaing is a nice, clean and friendly town and we stayed at the De La Mont hotel that was really excellent. I went out for a walk and found myself having a beer in a little street café, at which point the clouds opened and once again I was drenched.

Ha Gaing itself seems to have absolutely nothing to do, in the centre, for food there is only very basic street kitchens and getting something to eat proved very difficult, so not a place to hang around. For such a famous location, tourism seems to have passed the main town by, I guess the bikers must stay out of town in hostels or something.

Next day, we were picked up for the Ha Gaing loop tour by our guide Mr Happy, and things took a definite turn for the better. We had a nice SUV to travel in and we had a guide who spoke excellent English and was clearly going to be a bundle of fun, so we settled down to 3 days of good company.

The Ha Gaing Loop can be many different routes, using the road system that runs through the mountains of Northern Vietnam and along the border with China, The actual route you take will depend on your tour guide and mode of transport, and as we set out from Ha Gaing it was raining again and I was feeling very smug that I had chosen the SUV option as we watched the bikers in their waterproofs huddling from the rain.

Mr Happy was a great guy and taking us to all the interesting places. The scenery is quite stunning, the Limestone Karst landscape in the Dong Van Geopark is covered in little peaks that jut out of valleys and mountains full of caves.

Unfortunately, the views on the first day we spoiled by the low cloud and fog, but that is life. We went to see the Booby Mountains, basically two hills side by side that look like a pair of tits and everyone does this photo!

This area of Vietnam literally was bandit country, ruled by warlords over the centuries and they seemed to take a lot of delight in beating of the Chinese and more latterly the imperial French. They united under one leader in the 20^th century and is one of their legendary figures, so we visited his palace, which wasn’t very exciting but had to be done.

The landscape was constantly changing and after one long climb through the mist was arrived at the top of a mountain pass, that looked every bit like I would imagine the moon, A rocky landscape with minimal soil anywhere, but there was a cafe, where the locals were blasting out their drum ‘n bass tracks to keep the travelers happy, strange but true.

We also started to notice that wherever we went on the mountains, the locals had used every crevice to grow plants, in particular, corn. According to Mr Happy this was so the could make plenty of Happy Water, their local brew.

Eventually we arrived in the down of Dong Van, our tour operator had organised a decent hotel which was nice. After a quick scrub up we went out for dinner with Mr Happy. We ended up in a big dining warehouse with lots of other groups who were travelling by bike, it was at this point things took an unexpected turn of events when we were introduced to the local custom of toasting and drinking Happy Water.

Happy Water appeared with the drink made from corn, (in other parts of Vietnam it can be made from rice) and upon tasting it you know immediately that this is not going to end well. Mr Happy was a very enthusiastic distributor of Happy Water and very keen on the toasting game that each group was doing, even though there were only 3 of us, we got roped into the game too.

At this point, Mr Happy developed an even happier personality, very akin to Mr Chow from the Hangover films. Before we knew it, we were standing on tables and doing lots of toasting. One of the groups had an American sport teacher who was very used to this chanting idea and adopted Wooksie and taught her how to lead entire room in chorus.

When dinner was over, Mr Happy took us on a tour of a surprisingly lively little down that had been taken over my groups of people on bike trips. We ended up in the main square in some sort of community dancing game that made as much sense as the toasting game, but it was a lot of fun.

Mr Happy was on a roll now, we were oblivious to the time and next stop was a karaoke bar, where everyone from dinner had gathered. The Vietnamese bike riders were enthusiastically tucking away the Happy Water and every other Karaoke song was in Vietnamese and they joined in with gusto, then we would have a Western song, where we all joined in with gusto and the night rolled on into the early hours.

Mr Happy assured us that nobody gets a hangover from Happy Water, which I found hard to believe, so we drank beer as he sourced more Happy Water and headed off to join his local pals. Eventually we headed back to the hotel and agreed a 7am start wasn’t necessary and we would see him at 9.30am, which was definitely a good plan.

To be honest, Happy Water did leave us with clear heads in the morning, the only problem was we hadn’t gone to bed till the early hours.

Next morning, the sun was out, the weather warmed up, we connected our phone to the Bluetooth in the car and we headed off on day 2 of the Ha Gaing Loop.

Here is the full story of our big night out

04/07/2026
Sapa – a soaking tour of the rice fields

Having completed the tour of the man made attractions, it was time for a bit of nature. Sapa originally found tourist popularity from trekking. The ultimate trek is to the top of the Fanispan peak, although 99% of visitors to the peak probably use the cable car. Consequently, no trip to Sapa can be complete without a trek so we did our research.

Most of the advertised trips are 1 to 3 days, and depending on the time of year the routes will change. Most of the spectacular photographs of rice fields are taken in August or September, late into the rainy season.

We had limited time so booked the one day trek to have a look at the rice fields. The weather was chilly when we arrived and that turned to torrential rain by the morning, we set off. We booked the Hidden Treasures one day tour which looked like it would cover most bases.

Our guide turned up in torrential rain and explained there was no point in going up the hgher due to the fog, so we would head into the valley to walk through the rice fields, having never seen rice fields close up I was quite happy with the plan.

The staff in the Lacassa Hotel were very helpful and found Wooksie a traditional straw hat which did a great job of keeping her hair dry. Next problem was our footwear, as we had only one trek planned, we gambled on wearing light trainers which simply weren’t going to cut the mustard in the waterfall called Sapa main street.

Our guide said we would need Wellington Boots for the walk, which was a bit alarming, so next stop was a rental shop where we rented boots for Wooksie, unfortunately, they didn’t have my size so I ended up buying a pair of Wellies in another shop.

We then set off, splashing our way down the side streets in our Wellies as the rain continued to pour and started to penetrate our wet weather gear. To make matters worse, Wooksie started to get cold, the walk down the road to the valley was particularly depressing as the town disappeared behind us and the paths got rougher. At this point Wooksie stopped walking, looked around and declared she was cold and wet and had had enough and this wasn’t fun.

So, after some haggling, our guide organised a cab to collect us. It took us down into the valley where we could see something interesting rather than walking along a busy tracke/road to get there. The taxi then took Wooksie back to our hotel to dry out and warm up, whilst I continued the walk with our guide.

I really enjoyed the walk through the valley, I got to see the rice fields, learned about subsistence lifestyles of the farmers in Vietnam, basically they dependant on what they grow, they trade what is spare and tourists make a good target for tips to help their lifestyle.

In the absence of Wooksie, I had a huge lunch and was only just capable of walking the remainder of the route in the afternoon. Over lunch I met a group of Australians who were even less well prepared than we were and were equally wet, but gave us a few things to laugh about, and they expressed their admiration for Wooksie’s courage in bailing out.

This one day trek is basically the second day of the 2 day trek package; we just started halfway through the route. After the tour of the farms and through the fields we ended up in a small town, this is where all the hostels for the trekkers are based. This was a very different atmosphere to Sapa down, with a much more rural feel and bars designed to keep Western tourists occupied at night, namely beer, darts, pool and karaoke!

At the end a car picked us up and took us back to the hotel in Sapa, where I found Wooksie, still suffering as she still hadn’t warmed up as there are no heaters in the hotel. The only solution I could come up with a full body massage, which starts with a hot water foot soak, after which she cheered up a lot. Though I hadn’t realised that I had confirmed “firm” massage at some point, meant we would spend the next hour being battered by frighteningly powerful little women but at least Wooksie was warm again.

Next job was to offload the Wellies, I gave mine to the shop that did rentals, I was pretty sure I would not be using them again, or at least, it was what I hoped. It was also time to top up with those very cheap Patagonia t shirts !

Finally, I went for a stroll and bumped into our pals from the Fansipan trip who were also chilly, so I came up with a great idea to have a nice warm drink or beer, and before I knew it we were drinking their deadly happy water and a fun night began right there and ended up with them losing their credit card.

Next stop would be Ha Gaing, for the 3 day tour, but first we had to get there.

24/06/2026
SaPa – spectacular attractions from Cat Cat to the Fansipan Cable Car

Nobody comes to Sapa by accident, it isn’t on the way to somewhere else so there is a purpose, and is mostly to see some of those iconic photogenic places that make their way into Vietnamese marketing materials, or you are here for the trekking, which was established by the French in the last century, presumably they were bored of the Alps and the Pyrenees.

Top of the list for most people are Cat Cat village, Moen Park and a trip to the top of the highest peak in Indo China, Fansipan mountain. After a bit of hunting around we found this tour that meant we could tick all the boxes in one day.

We started at the old stone church in the centre of Sapa where we met our guide and our fellow travellers for the day, boarded the bus and headed to Cat Cat village, important to note that there are no cats in Cat Cat village, in fact, I don’t recall seeing any in Vietnam generally.

Cat Cat village is conveniently located in the valley below Sapa, and lot of people simply followed the footpath down the hill. On the way we noticed lots of shops selling or renting traditional outfits, mostly for women. They were all in a very oriental theme, and they could have make up, hair and all sorts of other beauty treatments in these stores, it seemed a very odd thing to do on holiday.

At the start of the tour of Cat Cat, you get the chance to do a huge slide on an inflatable ring, which seemed a bit of an odd tradition too, but we had a go as it was more fun that walking down the steps.

Cat Cat village is entirely made for tourists, It is very quaint, with a river running through the middle of it, with manmade weirs to cause waterfalls and along both banks are examples of traditional buildings and cafes, but nobody lives here anymore, I suspect them might have been moved on to make way for the tourists.

It was a very pleasant hour, drinking coffee, watching the traditional dancing, avoiding shops, listening to bands and generally just chilling out. There was also the strange spectacle of the Koreans getting dressed up in traditional costumes and having their photos taken, they were everywhere and we couldn’t really work out why, it seemed like some sort of wedding ritual, but nobody was getting married. These people were everywhere you went, posing on bridges, posing on horseback, posing in the river – it was all very weird.

The guide then ushered us back to the bus, and on to the Moana Park, which the guide introduced as the Instagram park. We were looking forward to seeing some of these iconic and mystical structures from the brochures.

This was a truly fake place with lots more Koreans queuing up for their Instagram photo with each of the structures. Basically, this was a park, with a beautiful view of a valley, which makes for some great photos, unless it’s foggy, which it often is at this altitude.

So, we took a few photos and headed for the Fansipan cable car. This was an incredible journey that starts with the Mường Hoa Funicular railway from the centre of Sapa, a line that runs across valleys and through tunnels in the hillside to arrive at a mid-station, with an amazing terraced area that would have offered fabulous views, if it were not for the fog, yet again.

We stopped here for lunch, before heading for stage 2, the cable car. Having spent many years in the mountains of the Alps a cable car journey is hardly a novelty, but this journey was. It is the longest ride in the world at over 8kms, the cars flow between gigantic pylons that are mounted on rocky peaks. They carry you across valleys and up to the top of highest mountain in the region.

I have to admit to being gobsmacked by the human ambition and achievement to build such a structure in such an inhospitable environment. There seemed to be no access roads to any of the structures, which meant men had to walk there, carry the materials and live there while it was being built, it is truly incredible and the sort of thing no Western country would ever consider building, but this is Vietnam and their cousins to the north (China) seem will to help.

Arrival was also spectacular but inevitably spoiled by thick fog. We climbed to the platform with the enormous buddha, which we could hardly see, but not to the top, is the fog just gets thicker. Luckily, they had thoughtfully built a Starbucks at the top of the mountain so we huddled in there and warmed up.

As I was having my photo taken with my Plymouth Argyle shirt to prove we are most travelled supporters, a bloke came over and said “I hope you lose on Saturday”, unbelievably he was a fan of Luton Town, and we were in a head to head with them at the weekend for promotion, talk about a small world. I tried to work out why they had built a shrine to Buddha, when they aren’t really Buddhists, or in fact why they had built the cable car all the way to the top of this distant mountain, and it was the same reason as for Cat Cat and Moen. Nearly all these attractions have been built for tourists and without doubt, they have invested billions in this up and coming industry.

23/06/2026
Exploring Sapa and unexpected victory celebrations

With Hanoi completed it was time to head off on our adventures around the north. First stop was Sapa for the trek and the trip up to the Fansipan peak on the longest cable car in the world, but first we had to get to Sapa.

We considered the train, as it would have meant going through Train Street, but when we mentioned it, the locals thought we were mad. It takes much longer than the bus and involved a taxi from the station up to Sapa, and apart from that it is booked weeks in advance to it wasn’t an option.

The coach to Sapa was our first experience of their travel system and it is unbelievably good. Half the route is by motorway, after which you end up back on their slow old roads and the long windy route up to Sapa.

The coach was amazing, generally referred to as VIP, it was like being on a business class flight, the seats were huge reclining seats and loads of leg room. As a person of 6 foot with long legs, I notice such things and these buses are fabulous.

After sea level and claustrophobic heat in Hanoi, Sapa is in the northern mountains at about 1500m above sea level and the change is immediately noticeable, it was raining and noticeably cooler,

The other thing that you immediately notice is that is steep, in every direction, when you leave your accommodation, it is steep. You will also quickly discover that it is really and lively at night.

There has been a huge investment in Sapa to build it as a tourist centre. Much off the tourist infrastructure has been built in the last 15 years, so you are not visiting a historic centre in any way. The investment to exploit Fansipan mountain infrastructure has been incredible, to the extent that the train runs right into the centre of the town is built into a shopping mall and apartment block for the privileged.

The other unexpected factor was that how busy it was, there were crowds everywhere. The entire town was gridlocked, our bus dumped us outside of the town and told us to get a taxi. We then discovered that we had arrived in the middle of huge event to celebrate the Vietnamese victory over the US 50 years ago. A huge stage was built in the central park area, with a huge celebration that dominated the days we were there.

We watched the celebrations involving singers and dancers with video screens behind them, it then dawned on us that the videos were images of bombing during the war and glorifying the power of their military. In such a fun loving country, with lots of people celebrating and having a good time, it was a real culture shock to have the full force of the Communist Party machine in our faces. It’s their country and we enjoyed the celebrations but it was a wake up call about the reality.

Sapa itself is a real mountain town that is busy establishing itself as the trekking centre of the north, and the commercial development reflects this. There is a steep, busy main street that is full of shops selling trekking gear. This was very handy as I had come equipped with no suitable clothing for heavy rain or cold temperatures, so I had an excuse to stock up with new T shirts, fleece and a puffer jacket, none of which I wore after the 3 days in Sapa.

There is more to Sapa than the big park and one shopping street. There is a lovely lake around at the top of the town around which there are bars and restaurants and I suspect that if the war victory celebrations, then the area around this lake would have been much busier.

Lots of people we met were staying in homestays outside of the town and used Grab taxis to get in, there was cheaper accommodation was either further up the hill or further down it. it wasn’t expensive, so we stayed at the grand looking Lacassa Hotel 500m from the centre, it seemed to be the legacy of the French occupation period, or rather a relic. Its grand appearance wasn’t matched by the internal décor, but to be fair it was being redecorated and presumably it will be a lot nicer when it has finished. There was an amazing mural on the walls on the walls of the staircase.

We did a couple of trips, firstly we did the tour of Cat Cat village, Moan Park and Fansipan mountain. A major reason for the trip was to trek through the rice fields, which was a bit of a disaster. We will cover both in later blogs.

22/06/2026
Exploring Vietnam – 3 surprises

We are just back from our adventure in Vietnam, a truly wonderful experience and one that I will remember for the rest of my life. There are millions of words out there about all the things you can do on a trip to the country, and I will be adding to them over the coming weeks as I pull together the blogs about the places we visited.

Vietnam is a country in the midst of a modernisation revolution, on the one hand it has a become a massive manufacturing sector that most of us know for sports shoe brands, it even has its own car industry. Whilst on the other hand when you venture out into the countryside the rural communities are subsistence farmers, living off their land and selling goods at local markets. So not only it is exciting and vibrant, but it is also a place of contradictions, between the claustrophobia of Hanoi to the peace and tranquility of the mountains.

I thought I would start with 3 things that I did really expect when we were doing our planning, and hopefully these will really help you with your plans.

Vietnamese money

Their currency is an absolute nightmare, you can have a wallet full of paper money and not have enough to pay for a coffee, the notes come in lots of different denominations with the biggest being 500,000 dongs, and the smallest is on 500 dongs. Even worse, they all look quite similar, so it is possible to get into a horrible mess.

What makes it a little more difficult is that for all modernisation in Vietnam, they haven’t really moved towards credit cards, which are rarely accepted, so you don’t have the simple alternative to just tap and go. It is very much a cash economy and they use a payment system between themselves that involves a QR code and WhatsApp, which looked fraught with danger!

So, before you go, try to get some basic understanding of the notes and how they work, as everyone, young and old, are confused by the currency.

Tourism industry

You are probably planning to go because you have seen beautiful images of the limestone peaks around the north, or the twinkling lanterns in Hoi An. After I had been there a months it dawned me that this is a massive part of their national strategy and there has been enormous investment over the last 20 years to move the country from a back packers destination to a perfect destination for adventurers of every age, with massive influx of visitors from Japan and Korea in particular.

It is not a coincidence that the buses on the major tourist routes are modern sleeper buses or VIP coaches that are like travelling business class on a flight, these haven’t arrived by coincident. Hotels are all high quality, including the hostels, and as you move around the main centres you find endless trips and attractions on Tripadvisor. After a while the penny drops that these are all quite recent developments, whether it’s the Fansipan cable car in Sapa or Bana Hills near Da Nang, most things have been built in the last 15 years.

Where the Vietnamese have been super clever has been how the exploit their stunning landscape by creating things that make for brilliant Instagram or Facebook holiday photos, whether it is Train Street in Hanoi or you have to climb a mountain in Nim Binh, there is always the Instagram shot ready made.

Vietnamese food

I love Asian food and was really looking forward to this aspect of the trip, but I have to be honest and say that a lot of their food is quite bland. Breakfast might include a croissant, but it wouldn’t taste of anything because it didn’t have the sweet coating, similarly with other meals, we found ourselves reaching for the Soya Sauce to give it some kick as they sauces didn’t have much flavour. It is a far cry from the food you find in Thailand or even your local Chinese takeaway.

I think it is because they don’t use sugar and salt in the way Westerners use it.

Finally, you can’t but love the Vietnamese people. They are so much fun to be around, they are primarily a kind and polite race. To be honest, I’m not sure race is the right word because there are so many different ethnic groupings and something like 50 different local languages still in use. Around Sapa alone there are at least 5 different languages spoken in the villages around that region, as well as Vietnamese, and increasingly, English.

They are fiercely proud of their heritage and happily talk about beating three super powers, the Americans in the Vietnam war, before that they fought off the Chinese and even Genghis Khan couldn’t defeat the Vietnamese warlords, so they might be fun, but don’t truck with them.

Hope that provides you with a few hints to plan your holiday.

01/06/2026