Sopa de massa / Noodle soup: Vietnam North to South

After Ho Chi Minh City I flew to Hanoi to meet Pete who had arrived earlier that day. The broad plan was to move from North all the way to the South again, which we are doing. The details of that plan kept on changing all the time (as it should in a proper travel). At the end we started in Hanoi, caught a night train to Sapa in the mountains, night train back to Hanoi, flight to Danang, taxi to Hoi An, night bus and motorbike to Jungle Beach. Most of the time we spent in transports was during the night, which allowed us to save money and time.

Getting the night train from Hanoi to Sapa

The futuristic night bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang (Jungle Beach).

Vietnam is colourful, frantic and diverse! The cities are beautiful, the nature is stunning and the food is from another world!

Hanoi an Hoi An are just beautiful! Both have a Mediterranean look (probably as a result of French colonisation) and the food is fantastic. Hanoi has some of the frantic vibe of Ho Chi Minh's streets and the size of a capital. Like in most countries in Asia life happens on the streets! People eat, do business and socialise on the streets.

Having a Bia Hoi - draught fresh beer brewed in the same day - 20 euro cents!

Sapa is a mountain resort town up in the north. We went there for some mountain trekking, but unfortunately the fog was so thick that didn't let us see the vistas with mountains and rice paddies. During the trekking we did see some villages where different tribes still live.

Rice paddies in Sapa. We had some visibility during the first day.

A kid from a village in the mountains around Sapa.

A young water buffalo and a villager near Sapa.

The fog in the mountains around Sapa. Pete and our guide.

Hoi An's centre is a UNESCO protected site and is by far the most pretty/romantic town I've seen in Southeast Asia... It is also a food Mecca! Despite it's small size, we ate in several restaurants and market stalls and we didn't even scratched the surface! One could easily spend months without repeating a dish and a restaurant. But at the end Hoi An is a place for the tourists and travellers.

A street in Hoi An.

The river in Hoi An.

And here we are now, in Jungle Beach, a remote resort in a deserted beach somewhere in central Vietnam created by a Canadian guy 12 years ago. A bunch of bamboo huts between the beach and the jungle, communal lunches and dinners with all the guests and chats until bedtime (some times as late as 9PM)! For the first time I don't hear the constant humming of motorbike engines and the buzzing of horns...