Tag Archives: vietnam

Mobile Phones

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When traveling these days, it’s difficult to travel without having some form of electronic communication. At the minimum, having access to the Internet via connection at an Internet cafe is useful so one can communicate with others during the trip, or use the Internet to find the latest, up-to-date information about the places to be visited. As you travel to different places in the world, it is also interesting to observe how the locals use technologies.

During our Southeast Asia trip in 2010-2011, one thing I noticed was how ubiquitous wireless communication was in the countries we visited, including places that one may think as a third-world or developing countries. In Cambodia, our local tour guide mentioned that one of the most well-known brands there was Nokia — almost everyone had Nokia mobile phones, some never even had or known the concept of land phone lines at homes or offices. In Indonesia, these days Blackberry is king. Even though in the US people abandoned their Blackberry devices for iPhones and Android smart phones, in Indonesia Blackberry had gained popularity because of its Blackberry messaging that is seen as more cost effective way to communicate in place of SMS / text messaging.

When we were in the mountainous region of Sapa, what was surprising for me to observe was how good the wireless signal reception was there — I had full 4 bars on my phone which was even stronger signal than some places in the Washington, DC, area where I live. In some areas, the developing countries today have more modern and sophisticated communication network as they essentially went directly to the latest technology rather than having to upgrade existing, outdated legacy infrastructure that’s in place.

The photo below shows my Blackberry with the signal reception I got in Sapa — full bars, even when we walked around in the nearby villages.

Mobile Phone

French Cafe

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As we walked around on the main street of Sapa, Vietnam, we saw many businesses established in the downtown area that were clearly targeted to capitalize on the increased interets for tourism in the area. There were many restaurants, hotels, and souvenir or backpacking supplies stores around.

Kristi and I started doing a new routine to begin our days in Vietnam during this trip, getting Vietnamese coffee as part of breakfast to jump start the day. Our hotel, Sapa Rooms Hotel, had a restaurant with a really good menu of both authentic Vietnamese and western dishes to choose from, and breakfast there was included in our stay. However, on the second morning of our stay, the coffee machine at the hotel broke, so we couldn’t get our coffee fix. Since our morning now opened up because our scheduled trek was canceled, we decided to explore the town and find a place to get the coffee. We thought surely we could find places that serve Vietnamese coffee.

As we reached the end of the commercial area on the main street of Sapa, we found a small restaurant/cafe aptly named the French Bakery that seemed to serve French-inspired pastries and drinks. The place looked nice and they had a nice display of some of the items they had on the menu, but it was empty when we got there. Nevertheless we thought we could still chek it out and hang out for some time in the morning there.

The Vietnamese lady who ran the restaurant seated us at one of the booths in the small dining area. We ordered the standard hot Vietnamese coffee served with condensed milk, and also an order of tiramisu to share. Later on some more customers came to the restaurant and it became more lively. Both the tiramisu and the coffee were good and definitely hit the spot especially on a cold and wet day outside.

The photo below was taken in the dining room of the restaurant, before more customers came. You could see it being pretty small but cozy.

French Cafe

Sapa Market

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The Sapa Market is a traditional marketplace at the heart of downtown Sapa, Vietnam. It’s still the main meeting place for people in the nearby villages to to buy and sell their produce and goods. Recently with the increasing popularity of Sapa as a tourist destination in Northern Vietnam, you also see the market evolving to also cater to foreigners who come to visit the market to look for souvenirs, backpacking supplies, and anything that represents the local culture.

We walked through the main street of Sapa and passed through a portion of the market. We didn’t actually get in to the market itself as we didn’t really have any particular need for purchasing anything. The market itself from outside looked similar to many traditional markets that we’re familiar with in other Southeast Asian countries, with stalls occupied by vendors selling fresh produce, mixed with stores selling souvenirs.

The photo below was the main entrance of the market as seen from the main street of Sapa.  The think fog in the morning added a unique feel to the scenery, though for the locals it’s just another beginning of a day in Sapa, nothing special.

Sapa Market

Gears for Sale

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When we walked around the town of Sapa, Vietnam, we noticed something that our Australian friends Dave and Anna mentioned the day before, there were many stores in Sapa where you could get trekking / outdoor gears in case you need them. The interesting part was that you would see displays of gears — jackets, hats, pants, shoes, sandals, etc. — that looked very much like what you would find in a sporting goods store, except that the price was significantly lower than what you would find in the United States or Australia.

There were items we saw that looked suspiciously like counterfeits (like sandals that looked like Keen sandals but if you observe closely you see that the brand was actually 3.ten (but shaped like Keen logo). But there are also jackets that looked like legitimate North Face or Columbia gears but at much lower price than what out would expect.

This reminded me to going to ‘factory outlets’ in Indonesia where you could find brand name clothes for cheaper price. What I learned in Indonesia was that those items sold there were typically coming from the same manufacturers who produced the real thing for the actual well-known brands, but some of those merchandise might have small defects that didn’t pass the inspection for export, but to regular consumers who are price sensitive, that would be good enough compromise to make. Compare that to going to a store in the United States to purchase the gear that is guaranteed to be authentic from the chosen brand name, but when you looked at the tag you find that it was made in Vietnam or Indonesia. Or even worse, going to an upscale company store in Jakarta, Indonesia, to purchase clothes that were imported from the United States but prior to that it was exported from a developing country. So you may end up paying the markup due to the exports, when you could get the same thing at much lower price if you know where to look. In the end, it comes down to how much you care for the brand name and the quality of the product, and how much you’re willing to pay for that.

The photo below was taken as we perused the merchandise at one of the stores. Notice the merchandise on display that looked like the real deal (or they could probably be, we just didn’t know).

Gears for Sale

Inclement Weather

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When traveling, sometimes you can have a well planned trip needing to be adjusted due to inclement weather conditions. This can be a deal-breaker especially when the activity you would like to do is outdoors. Such was the case for our second day in Sapa, Vietnam.

After trekking to a couple of villages on the first day, we wanted to do another trek that leads to a waterfall on the second day. The plan was to do this trek in the morning, then spend some time in the afternoon in Sap a relaxing before heading back to Lao Cai in the evening to catch the train back to Hanoi. In my mind it sounded like a great plan — checking out the mountains of Sapa and the natural landscape on the second day. What we didn’t account for was the unpredictable weather, especially during the winter season months.

We woke up on the second day to a foggy and a little bit rainy day. When we went down to the Sapa Rooms Hotel lobby to have breakfast and check on the plan for the trekking, the front desk mentioned that due to the inclement weather, the trek had been cancelled because the trails would quite slippery and a bit dangerous to pass. That meant the plan was shot, and we would have to figure a different plan for the day.

Since the only definite plan now was that we had to be ready to head to Lao Cai by 6 pm, the whole day was then wide open. We decided to play it by ear, and spend the morning walking around downtown Sapa and did our own trek to another village nearby. In the end, it was still an enjoyable and memorable day. I think the point is to not getting frustrated when the original plan got foiled by inclement weather, and instead use the time to find other activities that still make the best use of the available time.

The photo below was taken on the main street of Sapa that morning as Kristi and I walked around the town. You can see the thick fog that pretty much made everything invisible. It gave a different mood and sense of place however when I too some photographs of the town that morning, and for the locals, life went on as usual.

Foggy Morning