I made it to Lao Chai after a 10 km slog with a party of about ten people down from Sapa led by our guide Su. This cluster of Black H’mong hamlets hugs the Muong Hoa Valley—locally called the Golden Stream—six to twelve kilometers southeast of town. My calves held up, but my left knee’s […]

Read More A Night in Lao Chai, Vietnam: What a Black H’mong Homestay Is Really Like

The bus now hums along like a soft cradle, rocking me gently in my little pod on the upper deck of this HK Open Tour sleeper. It’s no fancy limo, just a reliable Vietnamese workhorse run by a Hanoi outfit that gets backpackers up to the mountains without the usual aches. I’m stretched out in […]

Read More Rolling Easy: Sapa Vietnam and the top of Indochina

Hanoi – A City That Remembers I’ve been here for nearly two weeks, moving gently from one guided day to the next by My Lee, the Customer Service Manager at the La Beaute Boutique Hotel and Spa that makes it all happen It’s the tourist rhythm: arrive, join a group, listen, learn, and move on. […]

Read More Trip to Vietnam’s Ancient Heart: notes from a quiet older, wiser visitor

Original story written on 1/11/2009: All the original details still hold: the last-minute planning, the freak swells, the duct-taped hood. The boats were slower back then, fuel was cheaper, and West Marine probably still opened on Sundays… but the ride? Same rush. Same salt in your eyes. Same idiot wave you throw when a bird […]

Read More Los Angeles to San Diego 220-Mile PWC Round-Trip Training Ride