Vietnam, Sep 19 2026

Day 1: Background + departure Oslo

Index

Day 1	Departure Oslo
Day 2	To Hanoi
Day 3	Hanoi sightseeing and night train to Lào Cai
Day 4	Sapa: Mường Hoa Valley
Day 5	Mường Hoa Valley to Nậm Cang
Day 6	Sapa: Mường Hoa Valley
Day 7	Fansipan climbing rest stop/station at 2800m
Day 8	Mt. Fansipan – Bắc Hà
Day 9	Bắc Hà
Day 10	Bắc Hà to Hoàng Su Phì
Day 11	Hà Giang
Day 12	Back to Hanoi
Day 13	Departure Hanoi

Background

Anne has over the past decades gone on several commercial trips to faraway destinations, such as Ethiopia, Bhutan, India, Jordan, and Réunion – to name a few. From her pictures, I could clearly see that the trips looked fantastic, but I never really felt for taking part in one. Maybe because the trips didn’t focus on mountain tops, even sometimes there was a mountain top in the program. Or maybe because I didn’t feel I had the social and cultural interest that was needed to get something out of it. As such, I had never gone on a trip where I hadn’t – to some degree – taken part in the planning.

Vietnam

Earlier this year, Anne mentioned that Norrøna Adventure (formerly Hvitserk) had a trip to northern Vietnam in September, and that the country high point (Fansipan / Fan Si Pan / Phansipan – 3143m) was on the program. She strongly considered going.

From time to time, I force myself to do things that I really don’t want to do. Flying to Vietnam and spending 12-13 days with a group of people isn’t nearly as terrifying as going on a sailing boat from Svalbard to Jan Mayen, when the ocean is my biggest fear. But there were absolutely things I could worry about, and I didn’t even have to think hard to find them.

“Reasons not to go” list…

Workwise, the timing was terrible. In addition to the projects peaking at this time of the year, my two colleagues would have to cover for me and one of them was likely to become a father while I was away.

Then there was the headache. I always get a strong headache when I go on an outbound flight lasting more than 3 hours. Not to mention the headache I would get while trying to get up to Fansipan. I typically get headache at 18-1900 meters.

The “reasons not to go” list was already solid, but I might as well do my best in making it “bullet proof”. Food poisoning should clearly be on the list. Then there would have to be a vaccine program. Still, that would not be a guarantee for not being stung by some odd mosquito and end up in a shady hospital. What else? Snakes, extreme heat and air humidity, being stuck with people I don’t know.

The list was coming together nicely. I had very solid reasons for not going, and that is exactly why I told Anne that I would be coming along. Every now and then, I just have to escape from the comfort zone.

Vaccines

I was happy about getting connected with a nurse (male) that seemed to have a very good knowledge about vaccines. In addition, he was a good salesman and my (very expensive) program looked like:

• Dengue fever
• Diphtheria
• Hepatitis B
• Japanese encephalitis
• Pertussis (whooping cough)
• Mumps
• Measles
• Rubella
• Poliomyelitis (polio)
• Rabies (x2)
• Tetanus
• Typhoid fever

In addition, I was on a Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) vaccine. Fortunately, I didn’t get a very negative reaction from all these shots. I could feel a touch of an emerging flu for a couple of days, but that was it.

To Oslo, Sep 18 2026

Friday: I drove from my home on Sunnmøre to Sogndal on the 17^th, after work. We spent the evening getting our bags and backpacks ready. After working half day on Friday the 18^th, we took a Widerøe flight to Oslo. Then we took a bus to Årnes, to our good friends Anne May and Jan, where we got a nice dinner and a nice bed.

Tension headache had kicked in already a week ago and the stress was clearly for real although I tried to focus on “positive thoughts”. I had a headache when I got to Årnes and it was still there when I woke up the next morning.

To Istanbul, Sep 19 2026

Saturday: We left Årnes in the afternoon and took the bus to Oslo Gardermoen airport.

There wasn’t any clear plan for the check-in, so we checked in using a self-service check-in kiosk. At the baggage drop, we met others from the group. At the gate, we met the whole group and tried our best to quickly learn each other’s names before getting on the 7pm flight to Istanbul. We were told that several in the group had gotten randomly assigned seats, typically the middle seats.

The flight to Istanbul took only 3h:40m but as I had headache already when getting onto the plane, I had an even worse headache when getting off.

The group assembled before moving over to the Hanoi flight.

The group consisted of: Anne Kristin (guide), Carl (Kalle), Aud, Astri, Tove, Nina, Inger, Marit, Bodhild, Kirsti, Line Gry, Odd, Anne and me. Everyone in the group had been on several / many commercial trips, except me. The youngest persons in the group were 55 years old, and two persons were 75 years old. The average was somewhere in the 60’s. It was a “seasoned” group, on all accounts. My first impression of the group was very positive.

Then we moved on to find our connecting flight to Hanoi.

The boarding was on time…

The flight would take around 9,5 hours. With the headache, this would be a strenuous flight. Entering the plane, I had no idea how strenuous it actually would be. But Anne was in a good mood and looked forward to getting to Vietnam!