I’m back in Hanoi and its cold as ice here. Now preparing for a 10hour overnight trip down south. Hope it will be a bit warmer; but hey you’ve got to man up if you want to see one of the biggest caves in the world!

This time it’s really time to say goodbye to Hanoi for now. But who knows I might return here someday.

J from Hanoi; over and out!

Sapa, the town up in the north of Vietnam. Famous for the staggered rice paddies.

Renting a scooter was the best idea ever! Me and my travel buddy visited a waterfall;

After the waterfall; had some lunch and went the other way, some roads where really really impossible to drive but I managed to keep the scooter going.

The weather was not as bad as expected. Although today it is pretty bad; so I’m heading back to Hanoi to get south to see the sun as soon as possible.

So the plan is to go to Hanoi at 9:30 and sleep there one night and go to Paradise caves (in phong nha) Then continue south and follow the sun.

Until the next post!

Sooo… This isn’t gonna be a long post because I have to catch a bus in a bit. Crazy as I just came off a party island / booze cruise and am catching a bus to Sapa in a bit (3hours)

Backpacking can be hectic I guess, but its great fun in the end. The island was filled with ppl from “stralya” and the accent is pretty bad ha-ha.

Ha long was really nice, kayaking and I did my first ever wakeboarding… Got up at the fist get-go and then lasted for 10minutes jumping wakes and avoiding boats. Even the Vietnamese driver was surprised; me as well… But I’d recon that’s pretty common… I suck at ballsports but am a natural at all on water or requires balance.

I hope Sapa is less hectic so I can update this post a bit and get a good rest tomorrow…

— update from Sapa:

So ha long bay… What can I say. A bit of a mix between bootcamp and spring break. If you got caught using the words “ten” or “mine” you had to do T-E-N pushups…

So that was pretty funny, people getting down for pushing up regularly; in the mid of the dancefloor, in a kayak on the beach. There was a group of “shakas” from Australia that had to do all kinds of challenges.

– 1 before 9, 11 before 1.
– sleep with a tour guide
– little spoon a stranger
– get naked

Just to name a few; and most of em had them checked off already. The booze ran out on our cruise because of the insane amount of liver bashing being done. But in the end a great experience I didn’t want to have missed out on.

See you soon!

Yo people,

I will be off the radar for the next 3 days, so probably no internet thus no updates…. Ineke sorry I missed your call!

Off to ha long bay in 4 hours!

XXX j

Hello all,

Yesterday was crazy (like always here in Party Hostel Hanoi)
I finally decided i got accustomed to the Asia atmosphere and after booking one more night again (because i don’t want to leave tomorrow at 6:00) i’ve booked a 3day 2 night trip to Ha long bay (Castaways, again some sort of party tour… but hey, what’s life without a party?!?).

I kind of like all the crazy people i met so i’ll be hanging with them for a bit longer.

After that i’ll be returning to Hanoi and then i’m planning to head south.

Ha Long Bay Trip starts at 19 JAN

-xxx- Jay (as Jeroen is not pronouncable, Toi La J(ay)