Travel Log Day 115 to 119 into Halong Bay towards Sa Pa!

Blessings!! Its been a long crazy journey this past months and i am glad i am sharing this experience with whoever is watching.. its been a fun and amazing ride.. specially traveling with so many people sometimes its so hard to adjust to what others want to do but we all managed to somehow made it to fit all of us needs in order to keep balance in the group.. We had captain papa ( dana ) on the team always helping on strategic planning and budget we had rafa on paparazi and keeping us all laughing asuka and machiko keeping the flow at all times high and teaching us japanese at all times ( mostly ) Barrat on lock lock down making sure we kept all good flow and me entertaining and logistics and surreal street entertainment..

By the time we arrived in Hanoi we were fried by the crazy hassling and the non stop tricking and cheating of the vietnamese people specially taxis i got into so many arguments with them because they would charge us extremely ridiculous prices like 10km almost 40US dls come on! so when we got there asuka and barrat had to leave to the airport to fly back home to Singapore so we had a noodle soup all of us and they departed back home.. Our team then consisted as of dana and machiko and rafa and myself.. We rushed back to the backpackers area of Hanoi and found a nice hotel we were not sure what to do if we wanted to leave to watch Halong Bay or to rest we all were so tired but we just wanted to get it over with and go and see this magical beauty our planet left for us to admire.. So we rushed things and we decided fuck it come on lets go see it I left without charging my phone so i couldn't take any shot of Halong Bay so the pictures i have are the only ones from Rafa's camera

When we arrived to the bay which was 3 hours away from hanoi we were super tired but we were excited to see it we were on a tourist tour since this is the only way to see halong bay since is almost impossible to rent a giant boat yourself or it also cost about 150US dls to rent one..

We kayak all around the bay it was really nice but unfortunately was filled with trash and debris from all other boats and bad tourists.. We were also very tired and we were like mm ok..

We Then went inside another big big cave which was very similar to the paradise cave we saw few days before.. it was very impressive was also another unesco world heritage site..

We returned back to hanoi was a very long ride.. we were dropped off in the central tourist station and the streets were filled with thousands of moto bikes and people in the streets because of the chinese celebration of new moon which is a very big big holiday mostly all over south east asia.. As we were walking we got covered by thousands of people trying to walk the streets when all of a sudden they were so many we couldn't even move and then they started they pickpocket us to death right at this moment this guy we met at the boat from malaysia was like HEY GUYYYYYSSS watch your pocketsss!!! and all of a sudden he disappear as if he was eaten alive by them and as soon as we cleared the area i checked my wallet and my two pockets were opened it was horrible all my stuff was inside all my credit cards money banks everything so you can imagine i was tired and all of a sudden get robbed is the last thing you want at that moment o yeah hungry as well!! Anyways you know the rest calling making sure nobody used my bank cards trying to call but connection sucks on skype to call my american banks bla bla bla western stuff was big reality checked.. i locked myself in the hotel and slept the night next day i felt even more weird with the people and i was thinking to just leave vietnam completely and go straight to china and dont go to Sa Pa which in the beginning was one of the main reasons i wanted to come here to be with the minority people and enjoy life with them.. So after waking up the next day fresh i let go of those bad expectations and i went ahead and booked a train ticket to Sa Pa which was the best thing to do. the train ride was soo smooth our cabin was for 4 people so fit us all perfect i slept like a baby but rafa and dana had cold in night ejejejje We arrived in the morning took a mini van to Sa Pa which is about 1 Hour away from the train station the ride was epic super nice cloudy but made it look even more mystical it was a fun ride we then arrived to Sa Pa and we were asked to stayed in a hotel where they drop of us was perfect view and perfect price as well..

As soon as we arrived i met up with this woman she is part of the Hmong People a tribal minority group living in Vietnam, China, Laos, Thailand, they are soo sweet!! she invited me to her village we rented dana and me a moto bike and went to see her family and had lunch and check out how they live, she was very respectful and courteous the mountain people all over the world are such magical beings their genes are pure and are still intact with the old teachings and old traditions of the ancient world.. i was soo happy to be there and see the magical people..

it was a very funny scene riding the scooter dana me and her people were like what!

We were invited to her village, her brother and her cooked us lunch while the mom wanted to sell my traditional clothing belonging to her son it was a very cute moment me trying to squeeze myself into those tiny vietnamese size..

This are some snaps outside of their home chilling with the family

We then returned back to Sa Pa and had lunch dinner and chill rest mode into the next segment of our day... Goodnight!! Next = Adventuring around Sa Pa..