HANOI

Hanoi, the state's capital is a wonderful city filled with history. Smaller, easier and less crazy than Saigon but worth the visit. I was here two weeks ago. Flew from Saigon and got to know a wonderful Italian on my flight. He was on his way to Sapa and we spent the whole day walking around the city. He kept a little travel-life-whatever diary (Moleskine of course) with beautiful drawings, quotes and other shit you put in these things. I love it. Three days later I read it got stolen by some stupid Vietnamese man. Poor Giorgio. 

The old quarter in Hanoi is a space with small crowded streets with wonderful food, little shops and bike stalls with flowers, herbs and other stuff. 

Other things were The temple of literature, exceptional old building, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, upscale bunker honoring the man and the one pillar pagoda, a lonely planet top pick but in reality a stupid 2m2 pagoda on an ugly concrete pole. 

There is a wonderful lake which enlightens at night in a full spectrum of changing colors. Not too far is the wonderful METROPOLE HANOI HOTEL. A very authentic luxury hotel, founded in 1901.

Afterwards I went to Halong Bay and Sapa.

HALONG BAY

Halong Bay is a group of more than 2000 islands at a four hours ride East of Hanoi. 

It is beautiful. 

I was on a cruise for two days with people from all over the world. None of them beautiful. 

We did kayaking, climbing, chilling at the beach, singing-Britney-Spears-karaoke (stupid), drinking wine...

Best luxury cruise at AUCO CRUISES  

SAPA

Sapa is a little village in the mountains in the North-West of Vietnam. I took an overnight train (love them) to Lao Cai, 5 km from China. A bus took me, true to the wonderful views of the North, to the little village. It reminded me of Saint Moritz in Switzerland. 

The black women are a minority population that live there. They're called Hmong. They sold fancy jewelry. I always wondered if there are people in the world that have no clue of the existence of other things than themselves. Here they are...

There is a small village near Sapa called Cat Cat. Seems very staged. Shops and naked children are the main part. I felt like entering a theme park. They charge money to enter. 

Normally the rice fields are very colorful but they harvested everywhere.

When going be sure to check out VICTORIA RESORT & SPA

Hotel with wonderful views and suites. They have their own train, the Victoria express. 

STOP STOP STOOOOOOOOP

I am so disappointed + sad that a stupid motorbike stole my bag in the city. I bought it in London three years ago. SAD SAD WORLD

This bag was a wonderful project between Marc Jacobs and Creative Growth, an non-profit art organization where adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities can create wonderful things.

I guess it looked like this (even more stupid) when I was trying to catch them