Mission to Vietnam

Hi all, (tbcompleted)

The good news is we got to Vietnam allright - although it did end up being a bit of a mission.

First stop out from Luang Prabang was Nong Khiaw, about 4 hours away by pickup. Nong Khiaw is a small town set in spectacular surroundings on the river. Most people use it as a transport hub to move onto lesser well travelled parts of North Laos. We managed to check oursleves into some terrible guesthouse which also seemed to serve as a dorm for a load of the local workers and the last foreigner to sign in the guestbook was over a month beforehand.

We wanted however only to stay there for the night, intending to catch a morning pickup to the next town and then hopefully change to get another pickup to the border town of Xam Neu. It was here we got a real introduction to how the Lao bus sytem works out in the sticks. The pickup was supposed to leave at 1030 but by 1200 the driver had decided that Charl & I, along with one other irish girl and one old local guy weren't enough custom to motivate him to take his truck out into the poring rain so decided he'd cancel. Luckily enough though another bus came past about another hour later going in the right direction so we jumped on that. The pickup's seem to be privately owned and run on a "if we can be bothered" basis.

The next stop was a small town called Vieng Kam. By the time we got there it was too late to get any transport to the next village so we had to find a place to stay and wait for the overnight bus - something we had being trying to avoid to start with. Our guesthouse duly assured us we could get some kip and they'd wake us up when the bus came past at around 0100 so with that sorted we went off for a stroll through the village. With us being the only three foreign people in the village we got the celebritary treatment good and proper. I do love some of the moments travelling provides you with sometimes, the little boy in his bright orange monks robes who got on the pickup grinning widely at us before proclaiming "I am monk" (I had to bite back the typical english response of "no sh*t sherlock") or the two little kids in the village who came running up to us and proceeded to shake our hands for about fifteen minutes (bit of a novelty for them - they do the buddha bow thing as a greeting here).

Anyway the reason for us not wanting to ctahc the night bus is we knew it would be cramped, crowded, long & possibly more dangerous as well as the fact we would miss all the scenery. Suffice to say it lived up to all our expectations. It was apparent from the minute we got on sleep simply wasn't an option. In additition to the fact I think the bus was designed specifically with the discomfort of your average 6 foot westerner in mind there was also the absolutely awful Laos ballods we were subjected to at regular intervals. Played at max volume I can only assume the purpose was to keep the driver awake as it's hard to imagine anyone taking any actual pleasure from listening to it.

We arrived in Xam Neu tired and aching. A quant little border town with the most obvious communist feel to it we had come across so far. Other than trying to guess what were the wriggling things wrapped up in banana leaves that the locals were devouring with such pleasure there wasn't a lot else to do here. The next day we pressed onto the Vietnamese border.

Incredibly the border crossing went relatively smoothly and required only pennies in the way of bribes. The hassle started a bit on the other side. There is a bus direct form Xam Neu to Hanoi, this we found out runs direct but once a week, inevitably though it went the day before we got there. There is also apparantly another direct bus that runs from the border town. Na Meo to Hanoi every two or three days depending on when the driver feels like it. Again we had just missed it. This left us with the choice between a bus train combo journey getting to Hanoi around 0100 am or a private hire MPV which would get us there by nightfall. By this time we'd hooked up with a group of about eight including, Dutch, German and French..... after a lengthly and multi lingual negotiation a group of us decided to splash the big bucks to get a nice comfy MPV straight to Hanoi.

If anyone who reads this is doing this journey this is our advice. We took four days to get from Luang Prabang to Hanoi but take at least a week. Take local pickups from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw, then to Vieng Kam, then Vieng Tong, then Xam Neu. Cross the border and hire a MPV to Mai Chau, then take public transport to Hoa Binh then Hanoi. If you had the time to spend a night in each place it'd be an amazing trip through some little travelled parts.

If arriving in bangkok from the UK is like a cultural slap to the face arriving in Hannoi is like being mugged. It is an incredibly louds and hectic place. The streets in the old quarter are quite narrow. The pavements are taken up by all the stalls and people generally using the streets as their lounges, this means you have to walk in the roads which have a continual stream of horn beeping mopeds going past in either direction. They use their horns all the time, seemingly to indicate "I'm coming past you no sudden movements please" but also to indicate everything from 'hello' to 'I fancy you, wanna come for dinner?'. We loved the city though

We took a 3 day trip out to Halong Bay which is a world heritage site and is naturally beautiful with towering lime stone karsts jutting out of the sea - much like the scenary in Northern Laos but in the water. However being in a tour group for the 3 days - the only real way to get out there - was a bit much to swallow. "Go left, go right, eat now, swim now, no jumping off the boat at midnight" (Simon broke this rule decisively and earned us some stern looks in the morning). We stayed for one night on this big wooden junk and then the 2nd night on Cat Ba Island - Torquay of SEAsia, and that's probably unkind towards Torquay.



Upon getting back to Hanoi rather than going back to guesthouse which was owned by the brother of the mother of the cousin of the dog of the sister-in-law's uncle of the person who drove us to hanoi, and at 9pm we didn't really argue, we treated ourselves to a hotel (something we'd promised ourselves since May - Viet Anh Hotel $25, great breakfast buffet, gorgeous room) where Si watched plenty of football.

We had another couple of days and headed to see where the embassy where Charlotte's Mum worked would have been and enjoyed the cheap Beer Hoi on the street stalls (2,000 dong per beer - 32,000 dong to the pound).

All in all well worth the trip over to Hanoi and we're now looking forward to a week on the beach in the Perhentian islands before we fly down to Sydney on the 12th.

North Laos

Hi all,

Southern Laos was a really cool place, very chilled out and really worth going to. Our next stop was the relatively tourist heavy north of the country starting with the capital city Vientianne.

Vientianne has got to take the award for the sleepiest capital city I've ever visited - Bangkok it certainly isn't. People we'd met on the road had slated it a bit as lacking things to do but to be honest we really enjoyed our couple of days there. The guesthouse we stayed at, The Orchid, was OK but not inspiring but the highlight of our stay was the food and in particular the meal we treated ourselves to at a french restaurant called the Cote D'Azur.

(Our guesthouse - good example of the colonial architecture that pervades the city)

We've been in Asia for almost six months and other than the roast dinner we had down in Don Det have had very little in the way of good quality western food. We had an amazing three course dinner and given it was owned by a frenchman we even felt we could trust the house red (wine is a lottery over here). One of the legacies of the French colonial times here are proper baguettes (amazing what you get happy over here - we've barely had any bread for months before arriving in Laos) and the occasional access to good wine.

Sunset over the Mekong from the riverside bars in Vientianne

A brief bit of Laos history (as taken from the national history museum) - pre WW2 was part of French Indo-China until the Japanese overun it in the war. Post war when the serious fighting was done with and they'd been bailed out the French then reinvaded, this time backed by the Americans who were sticking their noses in to try and prevent communism. The invading french were then booted out by the Vietnamese a few years down the line. A brief and probably slightly inaccurate history but what i picked up from the national museum. Always amusing going to museums in these parts with common mentions of "the American imperialists" & "Harsh French colonial masters" etc...

Next stop for us was the party town of Laos - Vang Vieng, on our way up we also stopped to do some kayaking at Nam Lik. The kayaking was ok but low waters meant the main rapid which was supposed to be a grade 3 or 4 wasn't that exciting. Probably the most nerve racking moment of the day was a rock jump a few of us did into the river. It was one of those where you get to the top and really start wishing you could bottle it, however I was up there with a Kiwi and a Spaniard so obviously couldn't let the country down.

(some random girl I met on my Kayak)

(right, now this is the rock jump - if you enlarge the photo I'm right at the centre, thankfully I was too far away fro the camera to pick up the look of abject terror on my face)

(Sunset as seen from our hut's veranda, Vang Vieng)

Most people go to Vang Vieng for one thing, the infamous tubing. Tubing basically involves hiring a rubber tyre inner and setting off in it down the river on a pub crawl. Bars range from a bloke sitting on a crate of Beer Lao holding a sign up to large properly constructed places with music pumping out. Activity of choice (other than drinking) are a variety of Zip lines and Trapeze style rope swings into the river, has to be said it is hilarious and some people stack it in spectacular fashion particuarly as the reflexes start to dull after several Beer Laos.

(Zip Lines into the river -can't beat it)

(We were wondering why this chap was shouting at us to stop jumping into the river until he rowed out in his boat to pull this fella out)

(bumping into Raleigh Participants on the river - inevitable really)




The tubing means the town is more or less permanently packed with young backpackers on the lash. Me and Charl did find it difficult not to get on our traveller snob high-horses sometimes. Six O'clock see's a whole host of hammered people coming off the river and staggering through town including a load of girls dressed in bikinni's (which I appreciate lads sounds like a good thing to us but modesty in Laos means a lot they do actually have signs up asking people not to do it). With western culture generally being looked up to it'd be easy for the local youth to start copying our behaviour. Having said all that though it is only the one place in Laos that really has this sort of reputation and we were out there tubing and drinking with everyone else. It is a great laugh and obviously brings a lot of money into the town - just be good to see a few people thinking a bit more about how they come across.

(this is me showing off my new walking on water trick in one of the lagoons outside the caves..... actually we where just jumping from the top tree branch, great fun)

(rice paddies in the surrounding area)

If you open your eyes a bit (Charl heard one particuarly bright example of our youth complaining that "there's nothing to do around here but go tubing and watch Friends" - the bars continually play reruns of Friends so people don't have to engage their brains and actually talk to each other) there's loads to do in Vang Vieng. You can trek or bike out to several caves in the local area, some of which have icy cold, turquoise streams flowing out of them. We found one stream where you can actually swim against the current up a narrow cavern into the mountain with the water being illuminated intermittently by shafts of light coming through gaps in the rock. We also had our first go at rockclimbing on the limestone cliffs that surround Vang Vieng. The climbing was cool -to those who it might mean something we did a 5a, a 5b, a 5c and a 6a. The one experienced climber who was with us reckoned it was quite a toughy for a first timer, the first climb was 28m.

(Charl & I doing our spiderman/woman impressions)

Next up we moved onto the historic city of Luang Prabang. It's a beautiful place and kinda felt like being on holiday in Europe as there's a lot more older tourists and families here, as well as lots of french style architecture. Again there is a huge range of cool stuff to do out of here but we kicked it off for going out to the elephant park project to spend some time with the Mahouts (handlers). We learned some basic controls ( shout really loud and hit them with a stick and or any pointy object to hand), rode them to and from the jungle where they were left to feed for the evening, rode them into the river to give them a bath and fed the baby elephant the project had recently acquired. It was a really cool couple of days, the elephants are all ex-logging elephants and the tourist trade is much easier work for them. Riding elephants is actually relaxing once you get into it - other than the couple of times mine decided to detour off through a thorn bush with me frantically shouting at it to stop . If anyone's ever in trouble with an elephant you could try shouting these at it in the hope it's of the ex-Lao working type

"Bayee" / "Houyee" - go

"Hau" - stop

"Sai" - right

"Kwai" - left

"Song" - please hold you knee up so i can use it as a step to climb up on your back.

(the little fella - 3 years old and cheeky when it came to grabbing food off you)

(Charl on her elephant)

(Bathtime)

There's also kayaking, rafting and trekking etc... to be done from here. You can escape the heat by finally giving into one of the incessant tuk-tuk drivers and going out to the spectacular waterfall just outside the town. We had perhaps our real mix of people going out there - 4 columbians, a spaniard, a Pole and a thai and the only common language between us all was french which was quite bizarre at the time.

(Charl on a temple summit above Luang Prabang)

At the time of writing this we were just about to set off on a road trip across to Hannoi in Vientman via a little used border crossing at Na Meo. Should be an adventure that takes a few days going through some little travelled parts but if we haven't posted another entry in a months time or so if someone could send out a search party that'd be much appreciated.


Cheers

Si & Charl

Bangkok and Super Southern Lao

Last day in Bangkok

We spent the day at the grand palace which was very grand for want of a better description. On our way in we were stopped by an 'official' at this side entrance we were coming to and had one of the oldest scams in the area put on us which was 'palace closed today for Buddha holiday, come on Tuk-Tuk tour of city instead for cheap price only 50baht (about 75p)'. We smiled politely and left to go to the main entrance where streams of tourists were going in and out. It's crazy though because despite reading about this scam (they take you on a cheap tour that ends up at their uncle's jeweller's or something) my first instinct was still to trust and want to believe him. We both clicked pretty quickly though. It's a shame because the more people like that that approach you the more you distrust someone who is genuinely trying to be helpful or friendly.

Bangkok to Pakse

We eventually settled on taking the overnight sleeper train to the Thai border town of Ubon Ratchatani. We had a pretty good night's sleep despite the strip fluroescent lighting and body shaking lurches of the train as it left each station through the night. Breakfast was chicken legs on a stick - yum.

At Ubon we picked up an already full local SangThiaw (kind of like a pick up truck) to the main bus station. A interesting ride as Si hung off the back and I practically sat on an old womans lap (we would get used to similar journeys over the next week!). We stopped for breakfast at one of the stalls at the bus station where we both picked omelettes off the menu. 10 minutes later we both received delicious platefuls of chicken and vegetable fried rice. We're getting used to not always receibing what was ordered but that one has been the most different.

From the bus station we picked up a coach to cross the border and go to the nearest Lao town of Pakse.

Pakse was a refreshing change from Bangkok - few tourists, quiet, dusty streets and a real local atmosphere. We stayed in a prison cell like room (bars on the one window high above my head, flaky blue walls and a foot or so of space around the hard bed. There was also a whole army of termites on a mission from the shared toilet, down the corridor and under the door mat to our room. They didn't go into our room thankfully - a good spray of DEET saw to that). I hated it but Si thought it was fine although they did do some great Indian food downstairs which kind of made up for it. We spent the evening chatting to a couple, Ben and Jo, who'd been down in Australia working for a while and were just on the last part of their trip. It was a pleasant evening enjoying our first Beer Laos and putting the world to rights.

Champasak & Wat Phu

Once again we took local transport south to Champasak. This time it was a local bus full of cement bags on the middle aisle and already full when we turned up. The bus conducter type person shooed a couple of children onto laps so we got some seats - obviously designed for much smaller people than Si or I though and we neatly folded ourselves in half and tried to get comfy for the 2 hour journey. Well that was what it said in the book. It didn't take account of the numerous stops for extra pick ups (there is no such thing as full), deliveries, collecting goldfish in plastic bags etc.. Maybe 3.5 hours in all.

Champasak is on the other side of the Mekong river (which flows 4888km from Tibet through China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) which our bus crossed on a wooden rickety contraption made of 3 long boats with boards across and a lawn mower engine powering the whole thing. Stayed in the Vong Phaseud Guesthouse (left) with a guy who spoke good French and his family including his 4th son the lady boy. We had gone to Champasak mostly to see the World heritage temple there which we cycled to. It's origins aren't completely clear but it dates from over 1000 years ago and has a mixed religious history with both Hindu and Buddhist influences.

(View from the top of the temple and elephant engraved rock)

Champasak itself was a single road and on the 8km cycle to the temple, where we passed rice fields and water buffalo and a few small settlements both our voices got tired responding to the constant sabaidees (hellos) from the locals but which also put big grins on our faces. Whilst they have a fair few tourists it in no way feels touristy and the local people still seemed pleased and happy that we were there. We stopped from the rain on the way back for some food - noodle soup - with a Laos guy who spoke a little German. Si and I quickly realised that our GCSE German was suffering from 13 and 11 years respectively of no use and resorted to drawings and hand signals to learn a little about each other. At the guest house in Champasak met two other couples Dylan and Stacey from Oz and Ant and Michelle from back home.

We all ended up heading off for our next destination together again in a SangThiaw and again sharing it with 2 tonnes of grain and bugs.

(Back on the cobbled together boat crossing the Mekong)

And then with some tough negotiating from our Australian friends we changed to another pick up (again already full) which Si sat on the back next to a basket of piglets and I sat upfront in between a couple of Irish lads and some local ladies. It soon started to rain - again (you'll notice from the pictures that the weather wasn't so good - but pleasantly cooler at the same time) - and I got out my waterproof to try and cover the holes through which the rain was drenching the local ladies whilst trying to avert my eyes from the fact the pick up had no windscreen wipers. Raleigh Risk Assessment......

Si Phan Don - 4 Thousand Islands

Scrimping once again on accommodation we found ourselves a one pound a night hut (Sunset Bungalows) on Don Det (same island that Steve and Alex stayed on but I don't think Alex would have passed the hut for staying in) with a great balcony over the Mekong river, shared hole in the ground and tap and a partial view of the sunset. Don Det is an odd little place with the locals carrying on their daily life of tending the rice paddies and enjoying their family life with this backdrop of young back packing tourists taking some time out to relax. It was pretty wet and we didn't get much sun but saw some great waterfalls and had a long cycle trip to the neighbouring island over a bridge built by the French when they were here. The islands were an important point in trade from Cambodia since the rail line traversing the islands meant cargo wasn't prevented from getting upstream by the waterfalls in the area. One highlight of this part of the trip was our first roast dinner since leaving home. We had gravy, roast potatoes and chicken (and lots of it). The lady running the guesthouse had lived in Australia for 30 years and went back annually to visit her daughter and bring back gravy powder.

From Don Det we ummed and ahhed about our next step but decided to do the big trek all the way up to Vientiane. This started at 11am with a boat back to the main land, a mini bus journey back to Pakse - which took about 2 hours (compared to the total local bus journey time of nearly 6 that we'd experienced on the way down) and then an afternoon in Pakse where I got a foot massage and Si once again checked upon the fate Newcastle United and other football related things online. At 8pm we went to get our bus. We'd heard from Ant and Michelle about the 'bed bus' a bus with real bunk beds, so decided to book on. As we got onto the bus we wondered whether it was a mistake as once again we are just so big compared to the average person here in Lao. Still we squeezed into our double top bunk and enjoyed some Saturday evening quiz show on the TV at full volume (we were the only falangs (foreigners) on the bus) before this was promptly switched off at 9pm and everyone went to sleep except for us as we tried to read for a bit. I then spent the rest of the night pressed against the cold window and Si tried not to fall out into the aisle. Hilarious. The yellow and blue teddy bear bed covers were particularly attractive. We arrived in Vientiane at 5.30 the next morning and I believe that Simon is going to pick up the story from there.

We hadn't originally planned to go to Southern Lao but so glad that we did as we really felt we had a taste of the real country and whilst the landscape was relatively flat and gentle compared with what was to come it had a welcome sense of tranquility that we very much enjoyed.

You may spot the mixed spelling of Lao / Laos. The official one here seems to be without the 's' which the French added during their rule.

Hello to everyone and thanks for the messages and updates from people.
Charlotte & Simon