Me on top of Mt. Fan Si Pan - highest mountain in Vietnam

3143 meters (but google earth topography shows 3148)

It was a hell of a climb - quiet difficult - 20 kilometers one way - many times scaling steep angles...

And one awesome experience...
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Dog to get

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How to get back to real life after backpacking :)

"Make a hostel out of your residence"... Just funny things

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SPF 90?

Didn't know that there was SPF of rating 90 until I met dead white westerners - and get this: they were complaining that they were not getting tanned "as much" so I asked them what SPF they were using

But hey let me tell you - better this then the half of people I meet that complain how they were down right burned by spending just a few hours in the tropical sun...

I learned my lessons years ago and its part of a morning ritual to apply some sun screen
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Cave in Halong Bay

The lighting that they did is outstanding
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Cobra + Scorpion + ? Drink that!

Yea got it for 100,000 Dong = $5 USD (sold everywhere) to try it

And it was the nastiest thing I have ever drank
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Riding my motorbike in Cat Ba

Cat Ba is in Halong Bay - about 3 hours from Hanoi - capital of Vietnam

Its quiet beautiful scenery - but water quality, etc can't be compared to that in south Thailand (Phi Phi islands etc... Where similar scenery exists...)

I was on a 3 day 2 night trip for $39 and it was pretty good...

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I've seen 5 ppl on a motorbike

But there are pictures of 7+ people on a regular motorbike; not for show but for real life

Southeast Asians are good with motorbikes - Driver SMS while the passenger(s) behind them take a nap

While for westerners all it takes is a wrong move to get a special "tattoo" - slide and burn - falling on a bike often results in losing lots of skin and having a Southeast Asian "tattoo"
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Hanoi - feels like one big village

The wide French roads did not help transform this into a corporate city it still feels like a once small village it was - and its also a good feeling
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I am planing to tour SouthEast Asia on a motorbike

Some sites for my reference

www.asianBikeTour.com

www.gt-rider.com

www.overLandSolutions.com

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Fansipan (aka Fan Si Pan) base camp #2 at 2710 meters

Its been quiet a hard walk up from 1800 meters to base cam #1 at 2200 meters (3 hours) and another 3 hours to base #2 and another 2 hour climb up to the top awaits us in the morning

If you haven't been to the gym regularly lately or etc - don't try to do it in one day
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"Helps prevent tooth decay & strengthens teeth"?

Never seen that statement in US - is that just a made up statement for marketing and sales?

I think in the states such statements need to have some ground behind them and then be FDA approved - no?

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Beautiful Sapa, Vietnam

Nice little town n northern Vietnam, just 39 Km south of China (Lao Cai, Vietnam boarder town) its at about 1500 meters altitude and is the gateway to Vietnams highest peak which is at 3500 meters
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Vietnam is modernizing

Building new roads, new cities...

Replacing old with the new - like the bridge pictured

Moving well ahead

They have more heavy machinery per square mile then any other place I have seen

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Motorcycle crash

Wow I'm on my way from Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam to Sapa and we just drove by a crowd of people that had horrific faces on them

I look out and down and I see two people lying there - unconscious - bikes wrecked - blood ...

What looks like to be that they crashed into each other

I have seen maybe 4 or so motorcycle crash scenes in Thailand so far and 2 times when people fell on a wide turn

But I have never seen it this close, this vivid, this bad...

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Truestory: "I thought it would be funny to put peanut butter in my roomates ears. he thought it would be funny to shave off my eye brows the next night. BMS" from BMS

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Vang Vieng, Laos

This place is funny
Its full of 20 year olds - actually never seen just sooo many wild open minded youngsters getting it on - of course I joined and in a big way...

They are caught up here - as this place is "the party place" - every day is like Spring Break - only at its worst - the crowd goes to the river "tubing" bars around noon and drink cheap alcohol from sand buckets then some thing in the evening to the many bars

Due to the very laid back atmosphere its easy to get caught up and stay longer then you would in most other places - reasons: 1 dirt cheap; 2 beautiful; 3 nothing fun to the north or south or any other way till maybe the hectic Bangkok 17 hours south; 4 all the other young people are here

I've met some people that are here for months - record was 2 years and 4 months - wow

But the place has some real beauty that its known for amazing deep caves, springs, mountains...

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