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Vietnam

March 2018 - July 2025
  • Shahnavaz Mehta
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An open-ended adventure by Shahnavaz Read more
  • Shahnavaz Mehta
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  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    It always takes longer than you think...

    May 9, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    So we are about 30 km behind what we were hoping, but we headed off early for breakfast and to see the sites of Lung Cu including the fake and real most northern points of Vietnam and to see China! Its funny, when someone said we could see China I had this idea in my head that it would look completely different and there would be a Chinese flag etc. Nope there was nothing... Just another mountain on the other side of the river 😂

    We went back to the homestay packed, filled up petrol and even though we got up for 6am it was somehow 10:30am already! The original plan at the start of the journey was to do a very big loop which incorporates the famous Ha Giang loop, Ban Gioc Waterfall and the beautiful Ba Be Lake. The owner of our first hostel said it was easily doable in 6 days. Today was decision day whether we did the big loop or just the Ha Giang loop. So we had a quick look at the map and realised it was completely impossible. The Ban Gioc Waterfall was over 300km away. We were averaging under 100km a day so if we did everything it would take us about 8-9 days and Svenja only had 6. So we took the decision to do the smaller loop which was still going to take us 4-5 days. We had about 113km to drive today... The aim was to get to Du Già via the famous, beautiful, but most dangerous pass, the Mai Pi Leng Pass. So off we went via a few sights and we finally got to Dong Van and had lunch. It was now 2:30pm and we still had 90km to drive...

    We carried on to the beautiful Mai Pi Leng Pass and wow. Round every corner it got more and more spectacular. I just can't describe how stunning it was! It was a bit hazy so the photos might not do it justice but just wow!

    We finally got to a little town Meo Vac which was the last town/ place for accomodation until Du Gia which was still 72km away and it was now after 3:30pm. So we decided to stop here and find a hostel instead. It was a really lovely evening. We met lots of other people who were also doing the loop. Will chatted and drank with the guys and me and Svenja went for a wander and dinner out of the hostel. It was a nice and relaxing evening what felt like quite a tough day.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Yên Mình to Wherever We Can!

    May 8, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    So today's was to drive from Yen Minh Minh to the northern most point in Vietnam in Lưng Cu, which borders China, and then drive to Dong Van approximately 95km.

    We set off with more than enough time and once again had the most stunning scenery with lots of stops for photos. We stopped at a local Hmong village and the Kings Residence.

    We were on the very final 30km stretch of road when all of a sudden we came to a huge traffic jam. On these roads there is normally 0 traffic, sometimes you don't meet another car of bike for miles! So we nipped past all the standstill cars and eventually got to the front to find what we thought was a huge landslide blocking the road. In the end we found out that actually they are widening the road so they cause the landslides to happen so that they can crush the rocks and make the road wider. At first we waited for a while thinking it was being removed but soon realised we would be waiting hours. So we took the decision to take an hour an half detour round. It was super tough going but we finally made it round and we saw that the blockage had only just been elevated when we got there, phew, it was just about worth it. We were on the home stretch, but it was getting very very late now and they were doing this same type of road work the whole way. The roads were terrible and slightly dangerous in parts but we eventually arrived in Lung Cu and decided to stay the night.

    We stayed in a homestay in a local lo lo village and it was really cute and lovely! We had dinner with the family and tried home brewed corn wine. Gosh it was strong!

    So we didn't quite make our destination but we had a great drive, the weather was fantastic and we were safe so I can't complain!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Ha Giang to Yen Minh

    May 7, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The morning was quite stressful as the 3 night 4 day tour turned into a much bigger loop of 6 days and so we needed to pack very differently and take a bigger bike. Will then practised on the bike for a while to get used to his first semi manual bike. Then off we went. Now having a big bag which was packed in a rush and me and Will was a squeeze to say the least. Honestly towards the end it was truly the most uncomfortable thing ever. But... Oh my goodness... The views... The views... Did I mention the views?! It was wow. Just stunning. I don't think my photos can even give it justice! I have nothing else to say apart from wow, I think the next 6 days are going to be incredible!Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Bac Ha Market and off we go again!

    May 6, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    The next day we went to the really famous Bac Ha Market which is the largest market bringing together tribes from villages all around wearing their traditional dresses and making the market so colourful! We went with Lan and Phat and it was so interesting! We learnt that a buffalo costs about £1000 and a songbird about £100!

    We then very quickly decided it was definitely time to move on so we booked a super last minute bus to take us to Ha Giang, well two buses.

    The second bus had yet another crazy driver and it was sooo full of furniture and even a car windscreen in a wooden frame. We literally had to climb over it all to get to our seats! It's hilarious when you are on a bus as a tourists being thrown completely out of our seats and barely comfortable when the conductor of the bus stands the whole way barely moving with the manic bus. A girl on the bus described it as "its like the bus off Harry Potter" and honestly I couldn't have summed it up better!! The weather was glorious the whole journey and the views along the way spectacular! On the bus we met Svenja who decided to stay in the same Homestay as us. That evening we decided we would all do the 4 day motorbike loop together.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Can Cau Market and Tribal Villages

    May 5, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    I was feeling much better after my herbal bath and slept very well. God knows what was in it but it seemed to work. So we borrowed the bike and went to Can Cau Market, famous for being the largest buffalo market in the area. When we left on the bike Phat looked at us with his huge puppy dog eyes for leaving him. But we hadn't done anything for 3 days so we headed off to the market. Well the ground was absolutely sodden from the rain and the sheer number of buffalo's that had trampled their way through. It was a lovely drive but as always in the mountains the weather is very unpredictable, luckily we were on our way back and were able to take cover in a cafe when the heavens opened. After waiting 45 mins it turned to drizzle and felt it was as good as we would get so we grabbed Phat's treat cake and headed back to the homestay. The afternoon was spent playing games with Phat and then having the honour of visiting various local tribal villages. Will even tried their local tobacco! The weather was stunning and the views were lovely on the bike along the way!

    That evening I cooked Aubergine Saak and Chapattis for the family. It was so much fun both Lan, the mum, and Phat joined in rolling the chapattis and they loved it! It was sooo nice to have home cooked food too! Then the family invited us to go to Bac Ha night market. Wow do they put a show on for tourists! First they have performances of their local dance on stage and then they build a huge fire and everyone dances round holding hands. It was so so so much fun!!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    The bug hits again...

    May 2, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Well the next day the plan was to have a lie in and begin planning for our next destination. Well I've not updated my blog for a reason. I've been hit with the flu. Luckily I'm at the end of it it now but by god it was like I had been hit by a car. My temperature was through the roof, I was just sleeping in a puddle of sweat, I couldn't move and let's just say I was quite upset... So I won't go into much detail about the last couple of days apart from how amazingly sweet and kind the family have been. They have been cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner for me everyday, giving me herbal remedies which they "grow in their garden"..., cleaning our bedding and washing my clothes, making me endless cups of tea. Honestly I just couldn't have asked to be in a most comforting place when ill. The family have a son who is 5 and he is just the cutest. No matter how ill I was I just couldn't help but play and watch TV with him. He loves Peppa Pig, Tom and Jerry, The Incredibles and very surprisingly Mr Bean!

    So yes it has been annoying to be so ill but I've been in a beautiful location (to be honest it's also rain quite a lot so a good excuse for a duvet day), incredible and endless food with such a caring and loving family. I don't have many pictures, so this ones a short one!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Can't travel without being scammed...

    April 30, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    So we had a bit of a lie in and then headed for our next destination. How typical, the weather couldn't have been nicer. You could see Fansipan in all its glory (see pic below)! Typical! We didn't realise that the last bus for the day was at 1pm from Lao Cai. After a bit of a panic we arrived in Lao Cai just in time! Then we jumped on the bus to Bắc Há and of course they took the opportunity to scam us. Luckily we had read an article about the scam price and it even had a price on the bus in Vietnamese!! He tried to charge us 200,000 đồng each when it was supposed to be 60,000 đồng. He was screaming at us telling us to pay and get off the bus. We stood our ground. He then went down to 200, 000 đồng for the two of us. Again we just sat and said no. Eventually he got bored of screaming and got off. He wasn't even the bus driver or bus conductor!! What really upset us is that no one on the bus helped us. They all just sat in silence. Normally in this situation someone on the bus has backed us up and told the scammer to go away. But they didn't. Its truly upsetting when these things happen and really makes us not like a country but we have to remind ourselves about the 90% of the people that we have met who have been so caring, friendly and hospitable. Anyway off the bus went.

    Number 2 fiasco. So the homestay said they'd contacted the bus driver and asked him to drop us off at the homestay. The bus driver refused and refused to ring the homestay. So we were again stranded in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was a nice bakery so I sent Will to get us something to eat while I watch the bags. He came back with two of the biggest chocolate covered doughnut with sprinkles. Haha well it did make me laugh! So we are just sitting in the bakery until we can get hold of the homestay 😊

    So we decided to pay a tiny bit extra for our accomodation this time due to reviews that we read and it was definitely worth it. When waiting at the bakery we met up with Rob who we hadn't seen since chiang Mai it was so nice to see a familiar and smiley face after such a rotten bus experience. We then all headed to the homestay together and they were so happy to see us and offered us warm tea. Me and Rob then headed out for beer and snacks. We had such a great evening catching up on the last 3 months. We had dinner with Lan and her mum. Wow can her mum drink. She kept telling us to drink happy water and she just kept going too! The food was just amazing and it was so nice to have such a family vibe again! She even made fresh onion rings! It was a really lovely family feel to remind us that Vietnamese people are generous and caring.

    The next day Lan, the owner, took us on a very fun hike the next day. To be honest we were still quite sore from Fansipan but it was fun and we kept getting so lost. She took us to a local Hmong family, we picked and ate orange raspberries, we walked down random rice terraces, down buffalo tracks and up corn fields. She then took us for lunch to her friends restaurant where we ate Phở Cháu Bac Ha, which is completely different to to the traditional Phở we know. It had less soup, thicker noodles, peanuts and lots of herbs cut in already. Really delicous! And she didn't let us paying anything towards it and said it was a gift!

    In the afternoon we just chilled out and caught up on some Vietnamese (we keep skipping it!!). It's so peaceful and beautiful here. We could easily stay a week!    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Fansipan Conquered

    April 29, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Our guide then brought in our breakfast... It's 3am!! He's mental! We all then went back sleep, well attempted, before finally getting up and heading out around 6:30am. The rest of our group decided they would get the cable car back down from the top so me and Will were the only ones left to hike. So we headed up on our own again to reach the top. Let's just say the weather was god awful, we were soaked to the bone, we were freezing cold but we got to to the top and we were starving! Well having breakfast at 3am has that effect... We met a lovely couple from Belgium who were presented medals and a certificate from their guide. We were very jealous 😔 They leant us their medals so we could get a photo at the top. We were now super happy! 😊 We then got lost in the fog walking round the site at the top which is full of Buddha statues, Temples, Pagodas and signs in Vietnamese. This is when a guide would have been useful!! Emotions were running low so when we eventually found our way back we stopped in the cafe for an apple and cinnamon tea. Yum yum yum it was like having a warm caramelised apple doughnut. We then headed back to basecamp to have lunch and pic up our bags. I think this was the hardest bit of the walk to be honest. I was so cold and wet and hungry now. As the others in our group had got the cable car down I think our guide just cooked all the food anyway so we had quite a feast... and it was warm!! ☺️

    We then set off in high spirits and made pretty good progress, but it's always the last hour that's a killer. Let's just say there was mostly silence... It's supposed to take about 7 hours to get down and we did it in 6 including stopping for lunch which was pretty good to say it was horrific weather wise. The worst part of the day was having to wait for a minibus to pick us up for over an hour. We were so so cold and weren't anticipating the wait so it was a bit of a shock!

    We then went to pick up our stuff, move hostel and have a long hot shower. Oh my goodness it felt so good!! We are in dorm rooms as its so busy in Sa Pa but it has a hot shower, a comfy bed and so far it's quiet. Can't ask for more!

    And the highlight of our day... We did it... We gave in... We had a chicken burger. Its our first burger in 3 months and I was so worried it wouldn't be good but wow it was soooo good and the chips were perfectly cooked and they had mayo! I was in mayo heaven 😍 The perfect end to a not so perfect day.    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Fansipan Base Camp Day 1

    April 28, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    The weather is terrible, but we optimistically head out to the agency to begin our 2 day trek up Fansipan. We had one guide a lady porter. She was just incredible. I couldn't believe the weight of her basket and she was carrying 2 trays of eggs on the very top. There were 2 groups with the agency, we were part of a small group of 6 and then there was a huge group of students in the other group. Naturally we started chatting to the students who were super friendly offering us all their sweets and treats during the breaks. During lunch they pulled out a karaoke microphone and sang lots of Vietnamese songs. It was really fun. For lunch we had a yummy egg, pork and salad baguette (I must say the bread was the nicest I've had in a a long time)!! After lunch we headed off and naturally with that many people there was a breakoff and myself and Will marched on ahead. I'm not going to lie, there wasn't much of a view going up and the fog was quite settled. We made it to basecamp I'm no time. The trek was very well laid to be honest, still very steep but easily doable without a guide! In fact we did 60% of the trek without the group anyway! Unfortunately you're not allowed to trek it without a guide 😔 When we got to basecamp we were very tempted to carry on to the top but met some English people and got chatting instead. To be honest we could barely see our hand in front of our face at this point so it was the right decision at the time, or so we thought...

    That evening we all ate dinner together and was so called we all just jumped into our sleeping blankets. We were sharing the slab of wood for a bed with the other 4 people in our group who were from Singapore. In the evening we played Werewolf which was really fun!! (Will was a terrible liar and kept forgetting his character!). To be honest we didn't sleep a wink all night, one room were chatting, the father was snoring all night and there was a huge storm again, it was a bit of a nightmare to be honest. We then got woken up at 3am to see if we wanted to start early to see sunrise... Uh hell no, we could barely see the door to our room (yes the fog came in our room!).    Read more

  • Shahnavaz MehtaTravelerVietnam

    Storms, Waterfall and Karaoke!

    April 26, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The next day the storm was once again crazy over night so we were feeling pretty dead in the morning but up we get and go for a trek to a near by waterfall. Now as I said Sa Pa is very touristy and if the locals see you walking anywhere they insist on walking with you, act like your guide and then insist on you buying something from them. The walks around here are super easy and all very well laid out. A lady insisted on doing this to us and from the beginning I told her I will not be buying anything as we have no money and we can't carry things in our luggage (we actually haven't bought anything for ourselves as we only have our small backpacks!). She didn't believe us and just followed us the whole way! It was actually very uncomfortable and made the journey quite unpleasant knowing we were constantly being followed. We met 2 guys along the way so it was nice to chat and get advice for Indonesia from them! As predicted when we got to the waterfall she wanted us to buy items and wanted money and shot off as soon as she realised she really wasn't getting anything from anyone. After the waterfall we went on a bit of a detour back, I fell on my ankle (it's ok, just slightly swollen) and to cheer me up we went for a hot chocolate 😊 Will had a mulled wine! Just what the doctor ordered on a slightly chilly day.

    In the evening we passed a homestay that advertised family dinner outside so we decided to join and had an absolute ball of a time!! They had huge amounts of food and a bowl that looked like it had water in for cleaning your fingers. We soon realised the bowl was actually full of "Happy Water" and throughout the dinner the host would say "Let's go swimming" and everyone would drink a shot of local rice wine. It was very fun. We met a really friendly guy called Jamie and chatted to him all night! After dinner the karaoke started, it was so much fun. Will sang Backstreet Boys and I sang the Karaoke classic Unbreak My Heart. It was a such a good laugh.

    That evening it absolutely poured it down, but to be honest I slept like a baby! When we woke in the morning there were actual blue skies and we were so excited, but we got excited too soon... While having breakfast the heavens opened. Good job we had planned to have a simple day! The plan for the day is to move from our little village Ta Van Văn to Văn to the tourist centre of Sa Pa in preparation for a big hike up Fansipan on Saturday. Fansipan is the biggest mainland mountain in Indochina. We are a bit nervous and the weather isn't great but hopefully it will be awesome anyway!    Read more

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