A Tale Of Two Travelers

On our trip to Sapa, Pea & I met 2 people, 2 men traveling alone to the Sapa.

The first guy, we met in the dining cabin of Victoria Express (US$170 return) on the way to Sapa. He was already there when we got there, and we stopped to chat. He's English, traveling alone (had a train cabin all to himself, expensive...) to Sapa. Been to many southeast-Asian countries before and will be visiting more after Sapa.

We bumped into him at Victoria Hotel, so he was staying there too. (Rate rates start st US$215).

At the train station for the train back to Hanoi, we chatted again. He said that he had a guide all to himself, and that he had gone further than some falls... He also said that he had a cobra. To eat. The heart, the gall bladder, then the snake was cooked in 6 ways.

After Sapa, this first guy's off to even more places to see even more things. We had bumped into him at the Lao Cai station waiting for the train back to Hanoi.

The second guy we met was at the first dinner we had at Sapa Global Hotel. He is Chinese-American, and he spoke in Mandarin with us at dinner. He's a retired professor, and he was in Vietnam for a conference in Hanoi on Sunday. The professor said that he bought his Sapa trip from the tourism desk at the airport in Hanoi.

For US$130, he got the overnight train to and from Sapa & Hanoi (we didn't ask which class), a couple of nights at Sapa Global Hotel and the half day treks, plus the transfers to and from the Lao Cai station and Sapa.

The professor was leaving Sapa the day after we left, after Hanoi's conference, he's going to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, then meeting his wife and daughter somewhere in China, then he's going somewhere else again...

Note: Not all hotels in Sapa have heating... and Sapa Global Hotel has no heating... you have to ask to either electric blankets, a heater, or just loads more blankets!

I find these 2 gentlemen very interesting 'cos the first guy looks 60+ and traveling alone using the expensive route & having a whale of a time. The professor is retired so maybe a little older than the first guy, but also traveling alone and using the more budgeted route and still have a great time. I think they're both really cool, I just hope that when I get to their age I'll still able to do such things :) Thank you for having met them both :)