Category: Backpacking

Climbing Grouse Mountain in Vancouver

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Mitch and I are what I like to call occasional hikers. So far on our travels, our hike in Laos was probably the most challenging. That is until we were told to climb Grouse Mountain! Grouse Mountain is approximately 3,700 ft above sea level and walking up it’s just under 3km. It’s often referred to as “Mother Nature’s Stairmaster.” “Climb Grouse Mountain,” they said ‘Epic views over Vancouver,” they said. Unfortunately, the day we went, it was a tad cloudy.   As we set off in the morning, there was a slight drizzle in the air and it was cloudy. We knew …

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5 Things I Already Love About Seoul

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We landed at 5am Korean time, which was 3am Vietnam time (where we flew from). I didn’t sleep well on the flight due to a nasty travel bug we’d picked up a few days earlier (more in that in a later blog post). I was tired and disorientated, but we made it through immigration, got our bags, and headed on the bus towards our guesthouse. We arrived, slept for 4 hours, and then caught up with some work. By the time the evening came, we were so tired and had no bearings in this massive city. We hopped on the …

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Dong Hoi & Phong Nha: Two Years of Development

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As mentioned previously, this is my second time in Vietnam. As well as visiting new places, I am heading to some of the same places. Naturally, these places are new to Mitch, and I get a totally different experience travelling with him, rather than travelling solo. Two of the places I’ve visited for a second time on this trip are Dong Hoi and Phong Nha. The former is a small town on the coast, the latter is a National Park famous for it’s recently discovered caves. I loved both of these places last time. And, seeing as we passed them on …

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24 Hours in Dien Bien Phu

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Dien Bien Phu is located in the North West of Vietnam, close to the Laos border. We took a night bus from Sa Pa and arrived at 5am. Rather than hopping straight onto another bus to Laos, we decided to stay a night in this small town, to explore what it has to offer and catch up on some sleep we missed on the night bus. After checking into our hotel and having a quick nap, we headed out to explore the town in the afternoon. We left our guesthouse and walked out to a main road. We were struck …

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Uh Oh, Helen Fell in Love Again: Sa Pa, Vietnam

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It was just over a year ago that I announced that I was falling in love with Montenegro. Less than a year ago, I also wrote my passionate experience about visiting Xingping in China. Both of these places stole my heart and are places I would happily go back to. They are places which are ideal for relaxing, unwinding, thinking, and getting away from the hustle and bustle. Location number three has now been added to the list: Sa Pa, Vietnam.     I explored a fair number of places the last time I was in Vietnam. Sa Pa, however, …

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When Four British Couples Meet in Laos

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The only time I’ve ever travelled as a group is when I was 17. It was a post-college trip to Corfu after finishing our A-Levels. There were 28 of us. Naturally, being 28 people we didn’t do everything together all of the time. There were smaller friendship groups within the big group, but it was still really nice to have so many people to hang out with.   Since 2014, I’ve travelled solo and, of course, with Mitch. Group travel is not something I’ve done since those two weeks in Corfu. Until now. Mitch and I boarded the 5:30am bus …

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