A 5 hour wait in Melbourne for my flight to Hong Kong......thank goodness for Qantas Club lounges

Well today is the big day...the start of my trip of a lifetime. I'm excited and cant wait to get there. Left home at 4.00 pm and headed to the airport full of excitement and anticipation as I embark on this wonderful adventure.....But as you all know me and flying are not good partners so the nerves have taken over today!!! I am totally packed and ready to go just got the shakes!!! Oh well a few stiff drinks should assist with that problem. Not looking forwar...

Well our planned itinerary was that we arrive early in the morning on the train, have day use of a room at the hotel and then head to the airport for our scheduled flights home.....all well and good for everyone else. I arrived back in Hanoi as sick as a dog...so sick that the tour guide took one look at me and promptly took me to the SOS Medical Clinic....i was too sick to put up any argument. At the clinic I had IVs put in, examined by multiple doctors of multi...

The first thing we noticed when approaching Sapa were some detached wooden mansions and villas perched on a hill top or hillside, behind thick pine forests and almost invisible on this foggy morning. Old and new villas with red roofs appear and disappear in the green rows of pomu trees, bringing the town the beauty of European towns. Sapa is an old French hill station set amongst the Hoang Lien Son mountain range (the highest in Vietnam). Home to the Black Hm...

After spending the night on the overnight sleeper train we arrived at around 5am - 6am. Looking completely disheveled after our night on the train(thank goodness I was with a great tour group as I had been put in a cabin with 3 men - luckily one of our gentlemen swapped with me!!) we were met by our guide and taken for breakfast. There is little to see or do in Lao Cai - it really is a stopping off point for the train or for those crossing the VN-Chinese border....