“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Mid of 2009, I made a list of places I wanted to see both in and out of Pinas. Happy to report, i'm slowly crossing off down the list... slowly but surely :-) Although not no. 1, i was very excited to travel up Northwest Vietnam to a little-known place called Sa Pa. My mom and i took a 9-hour sleeper train from Hanoi, and arrived at Lao Cai early in the morning. Being close to China, it can get really cold. In fact the temp when we arrived was close to 8deg Celsius. But the sights were spectacular and reminded me of Sagada -- with more exposure with the locals. Many ethnic minorities live in Sa Pa, or the "Tonkinese Alps". The Hmongs and the Daos, garbed in their clothing full of colorful stitches. Striking up a conversation with them can be very interesting, and you'd be surprised at how good their English is --- i guess much like up North of the Philippines... except that they wont ask for money before u take your picture with them. But they will try to sell you one of their trinkets
The main activity in Sa Pa is trekking, and apparently you can discretely ask for "happiness" from the locals. Cors i didn't dare try :P So far, given that this town is not that well known to tourists as Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, mostly Europeans travel here. But visiting this small patch of invigorating paradise is definitely a good experience