To see the beauty of Vietnam's northern coast, without the hoards of tourists, unregulated cruise ships, multiplying hotels, gigantic resorts and all the trash you will find nowadays at Ha Long Bay you can visit Lan Ha Bay instead. Part of me wanted to keep this a secret since the more people know about it the fuller and less beautiful…

Getting from Hanoi to Sapa is an adventure in itself. You basically have three choices: Bus, Private Van or Train. While you can book all three on the same platform, the prices, departure and arrival times and the experiences will vary greatly.

While in Sapa I divided my time between the city and a homestay with a Hmong family in Ta Van village near Sa Pa. They offer half-day and full-day trekking tours and two ethnic handicraft workshops to their guests: a Hmong Indigo Batik Workshop and a Traditional Hmong Embroidery Workshop. I choose to do both.

Always on the lookout for unique things to do and more things to learn I stumbled upon a silver smith workshop in Hanoi. In the silver crafting village Dinh Cong, about 30 minutes from the Old Quarter of Hanoi inside a community house this workshop takes you back to the time where Hanoi was still called Thang Long (1010).