Hi from Sapa, Vietnam highlands.

We hope you are all doing well, once more we escaped from a big hub as Hanoi and went up to the mountains looking for a better Vietnam, which we did not find in Hanoi. Sapa it's a big town with beautiful surroundings with smaller villages around which can be reached either by walk or riding a motorbike.
Hanoi city was stressful, at least for us, crowded with people and motorbikes, extremely noisy and too orientated to tourism. We did not come across any unforgettable spot or moment there, what's more, we had a few bad experiences with the local people who try to rip you off aggressively. So far Vietnam is not that great for us, to many scams, and is not easy to travel independently as the tourist circuit has to be booked through travel agencies. Sorting out simple things as train tickets can be a nightmare, like yesterday while trying to buy in advance our return ticket to Hanoi in Sapa we were told by the same police to get out of the train station! and go to a travel agency which might charge you double price. Madness...
Beside all of these we had a great time sailing around Halong Bay for 2 days among 3,000 limestone islands and visiting fisherman villages. We slept at the boat and had there our meals.
In Sapa, we are having a good time so far. Yesterday the weather was sunny and enjoyed a nice walk trough stone forest on a hill close to town. Today we rented a motorbike and roded to the surroundings villages and waterfalls until started to rain and had to shelter in a cafe, where we are writing for you!
We will skip south of Vietnam and enter Laos by the border around Hue, city located half way south.
Hey people! leave some comments in the blog as we want to know how are you getting on! Take care.