We had been waiting to get to the North, to do some hiking and see the stunning scenery that we had heard so much about, in the end some of it lived up to expectations, some of it disappointed due to the weather and some of it turned into a nightmare!
Ha Long Bay/ Cat Ba
So we flew from Da Nang to Hai Phong and spent 2 nights on Cat Ba Island, allowing us to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site site of Ha Long Bay 1600 limestone islands in the turquoise seas of the north east coast of Vietnam, this is a must-do for anyone visiting Vietnam.
But the weather got us. The overcast day took the edge of the 7 hour boat trip. It was nice, the kids enjoyed jumping off the boat, swimming and kayaking but the views just didn't have the wow factor that they definitely would have with blue skies and bright sunshine.
Still very impressive to see but we would probably have skipped if we had been able to predict the weather in advance.
Tam Coc
Beautiful place just a couple of hours south of Hanoi.
Stunning scenery, great bike rides, lovely Homestay hotel, we were loving it until this happened.
Enough said.
Hanoi
Due to Guy's accident, we had to change plans and stayed in Hanoi for a week. It wasn't a great time, Guy could not walk and we were having to make daily visits to the doctor so we were very restricted in what we could do.
So we did the terrible tourist open top bus, we waited to 'wave' to Donald Trump, went to the great Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and spent some time with our friends Dan, Marina and kids who were spending their last few days in Vietnam.
All in all, after 7 days in Hanoi and the all-clear from the doctor, we were delighted to be leaving.
Sapa
In reality, this is the place we had been waiting for. Although we weren't able to stay with a 'Mama', we still had a wonderful 2 days in Sapa.
We took an overnight sleeper bus from Hanoi, arriving at 3am and were allowed an extra 3 hours sleep before they kicked us off. So it was an early 6am start, we headed to our hotel to dump the bags and start exploring.
Sapa is home to a great number of the ethnic groups still thriving in Vietnam. Their traditional dress and customs make for fascinating viewing and add a real vibrancy to this mountainous region.
Day 1, we took the cable car up to Fansipan, the tallest mountain in all of IndoChina at 3143m. The cable car in itself is mind-blowing, a Guiness record holder, being both the longest non-stop three-rope cable car in the world and having the greatest elevation difference by a non-stop three-roped cable car, taking passengers up 1,410m into the mountains. On arriving, there is still a 1-2 hour walk to the summit, through various temples and monuments. The air at the top is thin, it's a struggle to walk but the views are breathtaking and we got some amazing weather to help.
This was definitely one of our Vietnam highlights.
Day 2, we trekked down to the traditional village of Cat Cat and spent the day exploring local cultures, enjoying the wonderful scenery and basically just enjoying our last day in Vietnam.
That evening, we took another night bus back to Hanoi, ready to fly to Hong Kong the following morning.
We had been very worried that after the accident to Guy in Tam Coc, we would finish our 1.5 month Vietnam adventure on a low but Sapa gave us he opportunity to turn things around and with Guy able to walk a little, it turned out to be the perfect ending to a brilliant leg of our travels.
