After Hanoi, we took a
horrible night bus down south to Hue which was an awful journey.
It was something like this:
Hue was nothing special
– just a small town with a few heritage sights that we looked
around in one afternoon. We also took one of those pedal taxis for
the first time, where a man peddles you around town. We both got on
one together.
Getting a ride around town
Ancient city of Hue
We also had an AMAZING hostel, which was more like a
hotel than a hostel. We spent a day watching TV and chilling out in
the massive, luxurious room. That night we met up for dinner and
drinks with one of my colleagues from work (James, a placement
student). The next day we had to catch another 4 hour bus and I was
so hungover I didn't think I'd make it but a tuna sandwich and chips
soon perked me up.
Our nice hostel in
Hanoi packed us off on our night train to Sapa. When I say packed us
off, I mean they literally carried all of our bags, put us in a taxi,
got someone to meet us at the train station and then put us on the
train! The night train was our first train in Vietnam and it was a
lot higher quality than Thailand. Comfy bunk beds and a cabin of
four. We shared with two Vietnamese men, one of which had tissue
stuffed up his nose. I slept ok, the train was still as shaky as
those in Thailand but not as loud but the air con was far too strong
and I shivered the whole night. I woke up with a sore throat and
running nose, no prizes for guessing who I got it off.
Night train
Our train arrived at
6am and we were met by a minibus that took us along some winding
country roads into the mountains of Sapa. The scenery was out of this
world. Layers and layers of Rice paddies, greenery, blue skies... it
was stunning. I was very tired though. We got to our hotel and they
gave us breakfast (egg and bread) and then we checked into our room,
had a shower and had about an hour to get ready before our trek. We
were both so exhausted! Anyway, we got ready and our guide met us
downstairs in the lobby (a little tribal woman with a gold tooth) and
then took us out into the town with 4 French boys and 3 Malaysians.
As we began walking along the road towards the mountains, a group of
hysterical tribal women began following us (we had seen this group
earlier when our minibus pulled into the hotel, they were all
screaming and running after the minibus). The group consisted of
about 20 women, all carrying baskets on their backs, and being naïve
and new to the ways of Vietnam, we had no idea why they were
following us.
The women who followed us
Then they started talking to us and asking us questions
'How long you been here? Where you from?' and we got chatting to
them. I naively assumed they just wanted to practice their English,
but it was a very stupid assumption to make; why would a group of 20
women follow us on a 4 hour trek in the mountains just to speak
English? Anyway, the trek went on, and we clambered through and
across rice paddies, those ones that are like steps and lead all the
way down the mountain. It had been raining earlier and it was
extremely muddy and slippery, to the point where EVERYONE in the
group fell over at some point. Jemma actually slipped off the edge of
one of the rice tiers and jumped into the one below, submerging
herself up to her knees in water. She was very lucky she didn't go head
first and soak her whole body.
The rice steps - Jemma slipped & fell from one level to the one below
We were all so muddy, having slipped
on our bums so much. I slipped down a steep hill at one point and
just gave up and slid down the rest of it on my bum because I
couldn't stand back up in the mud. It was kind of fun though. And all
the long, the women were there to help us, holding our hands to stop
us from falling, catching us when we slipped. How lovely the
Vietnamese tribes are we thought! What a great authentic experience
we are having, trekking with a tribe in the outer reaches of rural
Vietnam.
Stunning Scenery
And then we came to the cafe in the mountains where we to
have lunch and what happened next can only be described as a swarming
attack. The women were all over us, in our faces, 4 women to a
person, shouting at us for us to buy what was in their baskets.
'Please buy from me, my baby needs food' 'buy me I helped you' 'buy
present, buy for my village, I need money'. The 8 of us were sat
around these little tables and we had no escape. The tour guide
disappeared and our lunch would not come until we had all bought
something. I wouldn't mind, because the women had helped us a lot
during the walk, but the prices they were asking for were so
unreasonable and they wouldn't budge on them at all. We ended up
buying two purses that we didn't even like/ want/ need!
French boys being hassled
Then the food
came, and then after that, the tour guide, who we hadn't seen for the
whole of the trek, reappeared and announced it was time to move onto
the next village, at which point the first tribe of women scurried
away, and we were joined by a new 'tribe' of women, dressed slightly
differently, in different colours who swarmed around us and each one
latched onto a different person. 'Where you from? How long you been
here? I from new tribe, different tribe, poorer than that other
tribe. How old are you? Do you have brothers or sisters?' We walked
through a small village that was scattered with 'home stays'. The
French boys were doing a home stay, we weren't, and when we saw the
home stays, which were actually just concrete hostels that had been
put up in the middle of a village and had nothing homely about them
whatsoever, we were glad we weren't staying there. We were especially
glad, when we saw a minibus pull up to take us back to the main town
of Sapa. We literally had to run into the bus and tell the women 'no
we don't have any money left on us!!!' They chased us and I shoved
the equivalent of about 40p into their hand and jumped on the bus.
They weren't happy, and shouted at us they wanted more, but
thankfully the bus drove off, and I was so relieved to get away. The
countryside had been so stunning, breathtaking, like nothing I have
seen before, and I had been so enchanted in the beginning to be
getting an 'authentic Vietnamese experience' but the women just
ruined the whole thing completely for me and I would never want to go
back.
Village
Just wow
But far too much hassle off the various tribes
We got back to the
hotel that afternoon and went straight to sleep. I felt so ill, fluey
and my nose wouldn't stop running. It was the worst cold I've ever
had in my life. I dragged myself out of bed for dinner, where we had
a lovely meal and got chatting to a Chilean and Israeli about
politics, but then I had to go to bed early because I felt so rough
and couldn't breathe because my nose was so blocked. I had the most
sleepless night of the whole trip, literally could not breathe and
went through about two toilet rolls from blowing my nose every two
seconds. We were supposed to go on a second trek the next day, but I
was too ill, and Jemma couldn't be bothered with the women hassling
her, so we stayed in the room and I slept whilst she watched films.
She went out to get me some medication and I took it and it knocked
me out. Then we had dinner, before getting on the night train again,
back to Hanoi. I wore extra layers this time, in preparation for the
freezing air con, which was a mistake, because the air con in our
carriage was broken and I sweated the whole night long. At least I
was sweating the cold out though. When we got back to Hanoi at 6am,
the guy from our hostel came to collect us, with a brolley to shelter
us from the rain, and we checked into our hostel and slept for the
whole morning.
Halong bay is that
place you see on all the pictures. I think its been in a few films,
incliding James Bond, which makes it quite recognisable around the
world. So we decided to do a boat trip there, and booked a 2 day, one
night cruise on a luxury boat around Halong Bay including all meals,
kayaking, a tour of the caves there and karaoke on the boat. We were
very lucky to be placed with an extremely nice group of people. We
got into a minibus with a load of other travellers in the morning,
and it took 3 hours to drive there. On the way they stopped for a
break at this art place for tourists where disabled people make art.
We got to Halong bay and they dropped us off right outside our boat
and we sat down for lunch with our new boatmates.
Our room on board
They were all so
nice. 2 German sisters who had lived in Mallorca most of their lives,
2 Aussie/Indian/Sri Lankan medics who were really funny and 3
students from Britain who were all studying Chinese and living in
China. We all got on like a house on fire which made the trip what it
was. We set off through the stunning scenery on the boat and then we
stopped at some magnificent caves (the best caves I've ever seen),
where we went for a tour round inside and then we all got to kayak
around that area. Then we went to a beach with a mountain on it,
where some people swam and some climbed up the mountain. I climbed up
the mountain because the water was filthy.
Halong bay is stunning and
a world Heritage sight, but my god the water is polluted. I climbed
the mountain and got bitten to death by mozzies but the view at the
top was stunning. When we came back down, Jemma and the German girl
ran in the sea to cool off. After this, we all got back on the boat,
showered and had dinner (really nice Vietnamese food like curried
veg, rice and spring rolls – Vietnam does the best spring rolls).
And then after dinner, a few people went to bed, but a lot of us
stayed up and got really hyper doing karaoke.
Karaoke
Vietnamese Karaoke
I didn't drink any
alcohol but I felt like I had. The tour guide was trying to make
everyone drink this strong Vietnamese rice wine but it was foul so I
didn't drink any. Those who did got quite drunk. After the karaoke, a
few of us went up on deck on the deck chairs and put the world to
rights under the stars.
The next day was a
beautiful sunny day and it was very hot. We sailed amongst all of the
stunning fjords and mountains and it was breathtaking – some of the
best scenery I've seen in my life. It looked a lot like Milford sound
in New Zealand but better and bigger, and for the same price we paid
for a day trip in New Zealand we got a 2 day boat cruise in Vietnam.
Scene from James Bond
After a morning of cruising, we ended the day at and oyster farm,
where they showed us how they make pearls, and then it was back into
the minibus with our new friends, where we laughed all the way back
(especially with this one guy Gareth from Nottingham who was so
funny). And on the way we stopped for lunch in a restaurant, that was
air-conditioned and I felt like I'd gone to heaven because the bus we
were on was really bouncy, rickety and the weather outside was
boiling.
Hanoi is completely
different to any of the other Asian cities we have experienced. It
feels more 'authentic' i.e lots of women with those cone hats
wandering round selling fruit from baskets balanced on their
shoulders and lots of tailors selling silk and food stalls selling
proper Asian cuisine (*ahem, dog, and bull's testicles), but at the
same time, its also more modern. I'm not sure I would go back there,
it is VERY polluted and busy, but it was an interesting experience.
When we first arrived in the taxi and I was looking out of the
windows, I got an 80's vibe from it. It reminded me of East Germany;
everything drab and concrete. And then Jemma pointed out that it was
probably due to the communism. During our time there, we visited the
little castle in the middle of the lake and also went to see the
embalmed body of Ho Ch Mihn – Vietnam's saviour. That was weird –
he looked a lot like a wax work. We had to queue for ages to get in,
in a queue that wrapped around the mausoleum, but was constantly
moving so it wasn't that bad. We got up at 6.30am because we'd heard
the queues were bad and it was a Saturday so lots of locals were
there on pilgrimage (we were the only Westerners!). The mausoleum is
shut on Mondays and Fridays, which was annoying because it meant we
had to come back to Hanoi one extra day especially to visit this.
Uncle Ho
Also in Hanoi, I met a
random student whilst I was sitting on a bench by the lake. She
approached me and asked if she could practice her English, and 2
hours later she was till there chatting to me. I was quite lucky it
wasn't a scam (I later read in the guide book this is a common scam).
She took me around the city and bought me some Vietnamese ice cream.
She also showed me how to cross the road without getting killed. We
met her again when we went to the Ho Chi Minh museum and she took us
around that and her friend bought us some Vietnamese drinks which
were quite nice. At the end, we had to go back to our hotel to check
out and were running out of time so they offered to take us on their
scooters. I didn't want to because I was afraid for my life, but in
the end we did it and it was quite an exhilarating experience driving
around one of the world's busiest cities with the dodgiest traffic
system, on the back of a moped. Later, we had to go on mopeds again,
this time it was a dodgy taxi driver, and that WAS a near death
experience – weaving in and out of street stalls and other
motorbikes coming head on.
A busker band in the park
Vietnamese food & Service
Our first time trying
Vietnamese street food was a success. We found a little stall on the
corner and the woman picked a dish of the menu she thought we'd like
and we did. We paid very little for it and both enjoyed the meal.
Our first meal
The second experience
was not so good. We picked a little street stall, but I did something
which extremely out of character for me (I have never done this
before in my life, I must have been relaxed), I forgot to check the
prices. I guess I just assumed it would be like the other stall the
previous night. Anyhow, we ordered some food; I ordered sweet and
sour chicken and rice and when it came, it was a black bird in a
black sauce and just looking at it made me feel sick. It still had
its curled claws and beak on and the restaurant owners were all
laughing at us. Clearly it wasn't chicken. Neither Jemma or I cared
to taste it and just ate the rest of the meal (which for me was just
a plate of fried rice) and then when we went to pay, a big grin came
across the woman's face as she charged us triple what the meal should
have been worth. Whereas in the other place we had paid £1 for a
meal, here we were asked for £6. We had no choice but to hand over
the money, and when we questioned why it was so high, the woman
smiled and said 'you should have asked me the priced first'. So yes,
that was our first, and so far, only (fingers crossed last)
experience of being scammed in Vietnam and it hasn't really ruined my
impression too much, after all it was only £6. After that food
experience, we ate every other meal in a New Zealand restaurant
around the corner from our hostel. We also ate once at a good
restaurant, where I tried 'chicken porridge' which was, ok actually!
What I have found
(having been here about 2 weeks now), is that rather than try and
scam you in the traditional sense, which is what I'd been expecting,
they are very nice to you and over charge you, but because they are
so nice you feel guilty and can't complain. Also, I feel a little
apprehensive about complaining because I've heard they can get
aggressive, so so far, we've just paid that little bit more and all
has been splendid, in fact I'd go as far as to say they have been the
friendliest nation yet.... just don't want to step over that 'line'
we've heard about.
The hostel in Hanoi
The hostel in Hanoi
really made our stay there. As I mentioned in another post, the men
working there treat us like Kings and did everything they could for
us, organising all of our tours and really taking the weight off our
feet. It was a really nice experience, service I have never before
come across in my life, but as mentioned above, I think there was a
price tag to it (we later found out they'd added $10 here, $10 there
to the various tours we'd booked when we compared with others on our
tour who had booked elsewhere). BUT, for this we got service out of
this world and they gave us a room to relax and shower in when we
were checked out and waiting for our train/ bus so that was really
nice. I'll definitely give them a good rating on Trip Advisor.
Sorry for the clichéd title, it had to be done. Well, we did arrive in Vietnam in the morning so its justified. We flew out of Laos, from Vientaine airport to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. We chose to fly and pay £80 for the flight rather than take a 28 hour bus ride for £25. We justified the price difference to ourselves because again, we had read horror stories on the internet about the journey being hell and unsafe. Also, with us both not feeling well, a long bus journey would only have knocked us down more. So we were quite happy we chose to fly, and we saw lots of other travellers in the airport that we had seen in Laos doing the same thing. Vietnam is a country I have heard so many tales of warning about as we've been travelling. Almost every single traveller we've met round the world has hated Vietnam for some reason or another, mainly because they've been ripped off or found the people unfriendly towards Westerners. A few people told us they hold a grudge toward Westerners and feel they are owed something after the war, so try to rip them off at every moment. With this in mind, because I usually always hate the places people love and love the places people hate, I was really looking forward to Vietnam and was determined not to have the same experience as the other people we've met :D
So we arrived at the airport and had pre-arranged a pick up to take us to our hostel (thus avoiding being ripped off by the taxi driver at the first turn). We later found out we paid a little more for this privilege but I was happy to do so. We got to our hostel/ hotel and it was really nothing like it had looked on the internet. The rooms on the website looked luxurious but the first room they put us in stank heavily of mould.
Our final room did look a bit like this
I told Jemma I wasn't prepared to sleep there and went downstairs to complain and they immediately changed us into a different room, which didn't stink, but still wasn't that nice. After 10 minutes in this room, they knocked on the door and told us they'd found another room, so we moved again, and this room was much nicer (still not as nice as the photos) but none the less, it cost us £5 each, had a plasma tv, fridge and ensuite with free soaps and shampoos :). The best thing about the hostel was that it was without a doubt the most outstanding service I have ever experienced in my life! Every time we entered the hostel, they rushed to us with a glass of cold water, and took our bags up the stairs. Every time we came downstairs they were extremely smiley and wanted to know how we were. They escorted us across the road to breakfast, held umbrellas for us when it rained and came with us in a taxi to the train station. We have yet to pay the bill however, for this amazing service: everything has gone on a tab, so I'll have to write another post once we've paid to clarify whether this outstanding service has been included in the price or if we've been charged extra for it all. None the less, it has been a fantastic welcome to Vietnam and for our first few days here, I have been left wondering what all the fuss is about - Vietnamese people seem to be the friendliest people in all of Asia! I hope I wont have to eat my words!
We left Vang Vieng both feeling quite ill - me with a migraine, Jemma with terrible back ache. We took a minivan down south to the capital of Vientaine. It took 4 hours and we had the world's worst driver. He drove like a madman at break neck speeds around the winding country bends which started to make us feel really sick. We had one travel sickness tablet left over from Thailand, so we decided to chop it in half and take half each. Such is the potency of Thai travel sickness tablets, it zonked us both out and we slept most of the way. When we arrived in the capital, we were both so tired we could barely stand up. I had an excruciating migraine caused from twisting my back in the wrong position for too long. Jemma somehow managed to navigate us to our hotel and when we got there we collapsed into bed and slept for a few hours. When we woke up, we decided to try and get tea and see a bit of the city before we left Laos the next day. Jemma felt really ill and shaky, so we went to the nearest cafe and then it started to bucket down.
Monsoon
We sat there for a bit, ate, and then went back to the hotel for another lie down. Later on, we got up and walked around the city, hitting all of the major sights. There's not much to see in Vientiane apart from an Arch-de Triomphe- like- building and a couple of French looking buildings. A lot of the roads have French names and the city was very developed compared to the rest of Laos. After our city tour, we looked around for a restaurant for tea but couldn't find much, so ended up in a Western steak house which cost us a bomb (well, £5 each, but that's a lot in Asia) and they undercooked our steaks (in fact I don't know if they even cooked them at all?) they were red raw and we had to leave them. Must be something to do with the French influence. By the end of the day, I was ready to leave Laos. I feel like we missed a trick in Laos and didn't really go to the right places. The countryside is so amazing and it is so untouched but we didn't get chance to venture into it much because we were in a rush to get to Vietnam because of our Visas. Laos is a friendly country, and has a lot of similarities to Thailand, but is much less developed and I would like to return there one day before it turns into one giant Vang Vieng.
Once upon a time, Vang
Vieng was a very small rural village in the depths of the Laos
countryside. Set amongst a stunning back drop, surrounded by blue
lagoons, a river and spectacular mountains, it was a place of
spiritual importance to the Laotians. Originally, it was a place
where few backpackers visited, and those who did were just there to
enjoy the nature and the basic way of life. And then... tubing
happened. Basically, someone had the idea of renting out rubber inner
tubes from tyres, to travellers so that they could float down the
river and look at the scenery. Today this has developed into a mini
Ibiza on the river, with bars along the way, that travellers stop at
to get get wrecked, whilst playing on things such as trapezes and
throwing themselves into the river. I really can't describe it better
than this article does, so if you are interested in knowing more,
read this:
Also, for a laugh, watch this, it made me cry with laughter:
Anyway, so that's Vang
Vieng, but before I get into our experience of Vang Vieng, let me
first write how we got there. We got up early on our last morning in
Luang Prabang to catch a VIP bus to Vang Vieng. The reason we had
booked a VIP bus and not a min van as most travellers take, is that
we had read various horror stories about the minivans. So we paid a
few pound more to go on a coach, and we were waiting for our pick up
to take us to the coach station, which was meant to come at 8.15am to
get us to the bus station for 9.00. It got to 8.15am and a tuk tuk
came and picked up some other girls from our hostel but told us we
weren't on that tuk tuk and we couldn't get on. So we waited and
waited, and it got later and later, and I asked the owner of our
hostel if she could ring and see what was happening. So she rang and
they said they were coming. It got to 8.50 and I started to sweat
with worry. If our tuk tuk didn't come soon, we'd miss our VIP bus
and waste the money we'd paid in advance for our hotel in Vang Vieng.
8.55 it finally came, hardly enough time to get us to the bus
station, and it wasn't even a tuk tuk, it was a minivan. At this
point I guessed that the company had taken our extra money for the
VIP bus and put us on a hellish minivan anyway. Luckily, I was proved
wrong, when the minivan pulled into the bus station and told us all
to get off. It was now 9.05. So we all got off, and were told to get
into another, much more cramped minivan, with no legroom whatsoever
and no aircon. The travellers were packed in there like sardines. We
got in anyway, even though I was angry at having paid for a VIP bus
and was now going to have to do the nightmare 6 hour journey cramped
in a minivan. When we were in, there was a big commotion because
there weren't enough seats for everyone. That's when I told Jemma to
show the man our tickets and tell him we thought we were on the wrong
bus. So she did and a big grin came on his face and he told us to get
off and that our VIP bus was just around the corner. We couldn't see
any VIP bus around the corner, so we were convinced he was tricking
us, so we refused to get off. He started to get quite angry at this
point, but we stood our ground and said we didn't want to get off
because it was too late for the VIP bus and it would already have
left without us, leaving us stranded in Luang Prabang with no refund.
Eventually when we could see he was getting very angry, we got off
because we didn't want something bad to happen, and then we ran round
the corner, dragging our rucksacks, hoping that the VIP bus was still
there and that he wasn't lying.
VIP bus
Luckily, we got there just in time as
it was about to pull off, and we were so relieved. It was a much more
comfortable coach, with aircon, meals and lots of legroom. When we
got to Vang Vieng, the people who had come on the Minivan we were
supposed to go on said it was pure hell.
So, we got to Vang
Vieng and it was raining heavily. We decided to just to go straight
to a restaurant for tea. That's when we had our first experience of
Friends re-runs. Almost every bar/restaurant in Vang Vieng plays
Friends re-runs on a loop. Either that or Family Guy. Vang Vieng is
like an extreme case of Western Tourism making a place ugly: A
beautiful river with drunken, rowdy western backpackers floating down
it, a small town that's been turned into a mini Ibiza and restaurants
that serve western food and play nothing but Friends: It was
dreadful.
They play my worst programme Friends, everywhere!
Anyway, the next morning, we got up and went tubing
(Paradise is ruined already, us not going tubing isn't going to save
it). We got these big rubber rings and then a tuk tuk dropped us off
at the river, where we got in and floated down. The first bar we came
across was at the riverside and was selling drinks with a sign saying
'buy a drink, help children' purporting that any profits from the
drinks would go to help children. We didn't intend on drinking (I
don't like drinking in the day, and there are far too many horror
stories about travellers dying whilst tubing), so we skipped that,
and floated down the river past a few bars, hoping to spot our
friends in one, but we couldn't see them anywhere. At each bar, a man
would throw a bottle attached to a string to us for us to catch so he
could pull us in. We ignored these bottles, and Jemma actually got
hit on the head by one. We floated on, on the river that was quite
fast due to it being the wet season, until we eventually went past a
bar that was called 'the last bar'. We hadn't seen any of the drunken
people/behaviour we had read about online or in the news papers; all
the bars were really quiet and our friends weren't in any of them. So
we floated on, assuming that the bar was lying and that it wasn't
really the last bar. It turned out to be the last bar and so for the
rest of the river, we just floated along in peace, looking at the
stunning countryside, and burning simultaneously. (I hadn't put on
much cream because I'd assumed we'd see our friends at a bar and get
out to talk to them/ put more cream on). It was quite an uneventful
tubing session, which I wasn't sure whether I was happy or
disappointed about. On the one hand I'd quite like to have witnessed
the drunks throwing themselves off trapezes, but on the other hand,
it was nice to have the river to ourselves and not have some drunken
yob landing on our heads. When the river came back round to the town,
two small boys swam over to us and pulled us ashore. When we got out,
they demanded money. When we gave them money, they demanded 'more,
more!'. They were cheeky, enterprising little scoundrels, who I have
no doubt will grow to be the next generation of riverside bar owners.
Tubing
That night, we went for
food, finding one of the few places that wasn't full of drunks/and
Friends re-runs. And then we went to bed. We were both quite ill; me
with a migraine, Jemma with back pain.
The next day, I really
wanted to go on a bike ride to the blue lagoon – a wonder of nature
where you can jump into the unusually blue waters (made that way by
minerals) but we were both so ill we couldn't get out of bed. I had
the worst migraine ever and was actually sick from it. It was an
awful day, trapped in a dark room, trying to sleep but not being able
to. At one point I managed to get myself out of bed long enough to
walk down the street to book tickets out of Vang Vieng. I was so
happy the next day when the migraine had gone down a little bit and
we could finally leave Vang Vieng. That will not be going down on my
list of places to return to!
We left the Luang
Prabang bust station in a Tuk Tuk, with the driver promising to take
us to our specified hotel. When the driver dropped us off somewhere
we hadn't asked for, we tried to argue with him but he didn't speak
English. SO we ended up in the middle of a town, at 6am, not having a
clue where we were. We asked around for our hotel that we'd booked,
but no one could help us. One old man spoke French and directed us
the wrong way and everybody else was just clueless or didn't speak
English. Finally, we happened upon a Guest house with its doors open
and a man sat inside on a laptop, so we asked him if we could use his
laptop to see where our hotel was. Eventually we found it, and they
let us check in early, which at 6.30am, having just been on a night
bus for 22 hours, we were very grateful for. We check in, had a
shower and then slept until midday. When we got up, we went for a
walk around the town and to get some food. First thing we noticed was
how much more expensive it was than Thailand, which didn't make sense
to us because Laos is a lot poorer (one of the poorest nations on
earth according to LP). But that's how it was. So we begrudgingly
paid more for a breakfast than we would have done in Thailand (only
about £2 more, but still). And then we wandered around the streets
of Luang Prabang, which had a very French feel to them (the French
occupied Laos at some point in history and lots of things like signs
are still in French). There were lots of boulevards, with cafes and
old French style buildings, with Buddhist temples scattered around
for good measure. It was a really nice town with a good vibe and not
too many tourists. At night there was a night market, so we wandered
around those and then went for dinner in a restaurant on the main
street.
One of the temples
The next day, we took a
minibus to go to the waterfalls nearby. We were joined in the bus by
a group of British travellers travelling with Stray Travel. It was a
weird mix of people, some older (in their 50s) and some very young
(just finished their GCSEs), but all terribly posh. We assumed this
must mean Stray is an expensive company to travel with. We got
dropped at the waterfalls and had about 4 hours there. Jemma and I
decided to walk to the top tier first and work our way down. This was
no easy feat: it involved scrambling on muddy branches and climbing
some really steep rocks to get to the top, but when we got there, we
were glad we'd made the effort as the view was lovely and there was
nobody else up there (all the tourists were at the bottom tier). It
was the closest thing I have seen to Iguazu falls, except you could
swim in it. We climbed back down to the lower tiers and then got in
for a swim, jumping off a waterfall and into a deep plunge pool which
was lovely.
There were not many fish there this time, which made it
even nicer than the ones in Thailand. There was also a rope swing,
which people were queuing up to go on, with everyone watching and
cheering. I decided to have a go, and did the most pathetic plop ever
off the rope into the water.
Someone getting ready to swing off
As I swam back to the bank, something
(probably a fish) bit me really hard on my leg and drew blood! Also
in the same river, were a group of locals washing their hair! We
assumed they must have paid the £2 entry fee to have a wash in the
clean water as it must beat washing in the dirty Mekong. Perhaps they
do this once a week to get really clean? I will never know because we
didn't ask them, so this is just a theory. After rope swinging into
the river, it was then time to leave, so we got out and walked back
to the minivan, stopping to have a look at the bears on the way back
(there was a little compound with black bears in it). One of the
bears started to get aggressive, and there was only a small fence
holding them in, so I told Jemma to get away and we walked swiftly
off. If that had been Australia, there would have been at least two
6metre fences between the tourists and the bears!
That night, we went to
the night markets where we had an all you can eat buffet for less
than a £1 from stall where there was a boy stood wafting the food
with a plastic bag on a stick to keep away the flies. God knows how
we didn't get food poisoning. After this, we wandered to a lovely bar
called Eutopia.
Wine by the river
Eutopia is a famous bar in Laos that is set next to
the river, with cushions for you to lie on and has an excellent
chilled out vibe. We ordered a big bowl of wine each (thanks to the
French, Laos has good wine and good baguettes) and we settled
ourselves on some mats facing the river. It was really relaxing.
Whilst we were eating
our buffet, we had noticed a poster asking for people to go to the
Library to volunteer to teach English, with no experience required.
So the next day, that's what we did.
Jemma teaching English
We went to the library, where
there was a room full of young boys, mostly young monks, and each
English speaker got assigned to a pupil. A man came in and said it
was time to start and then we just had to speak with them and help
them practice. Jemma had a really good student, who already spoke
very good English and wanted to know more about the grammar, whereas
mine could hardly say anything and I had to go right back to basics
with him. Jemma's was from the Hmong tribe outside of the city and
was really poor. His family could only afford to send one of their
children to school and had sent him. Jemma wanted to offer to take
him round the rest of Asia with us and treat him to a nice meal but
in the end, she refrained. After teaching, we were going to hire
bikes and cycle around the city, but Jemma has had a really bad back
for a few days now so we decided to just walk instead, and went to
our favourite bar Eutopia for an early tea. They did really nice
food, and I had a tuna baguette with chips (despite promising myself
that Laos would be the beginning of my chip ban). The chips in Laos
are the best I've tasted in Asia, if not the world (UK
notwithstanding (or Flunch)). That was our last night in Luang
Prabang and we had organised to leave the next day, with a minivan to
pick us up from our hostel and take us to the bus station where we
would catch the VIP bus to Vang Vieng. That was when we had our first
experience of 'Laos time'...
We first took a minibus
out of Chiangmai to Chiangrai and this took about 4 hours, we stopped
in Chiangrai briefly to take pictures of a white temple, and at some
point, whilst doing this, I either lost or had my precious mp3 player
stolen :( It wasn't an expensive one, but it was more the fact that
it had all of my round the world songs on that I'd collected from the
start, and I now had to do a 22 hour coach journey with no music or
any form of entertainment!! :( I think it may have slipped out of my
pocket on the minivan and the driver stole it when we got out to go
to the toilet but I will never know.
So, we carried on with
our 22 hour journey, with nothing but Jemma's mp3, which she rarely
ever cracks out, and was given to her by her mum in haste just before
we left. It has nothing but songs from musicals on it, which is not
my favourite genre of music, but beggars can't be choosers.
When we got near to the
Thai – Laos border, we all got herded off, waited outside a wooden
shack for a bit and then got herded onto a rickshaw, which took us to
the border. We queued at the border, got our passports stamped and
then were directed onto a little wooden boat, which crossed a river
(the Mekong) and hey presto,we were in Laos. Whilst on the boat, a
snake slithered along side us in the water and I was scared it might
slither into the boat, but luckily it didn't.
Snake in the Mekong
At the other side of
the river (about 30 metres from the Thai side), we got our visas for
Laos from a little office. We paid about £35 for them, which was a
bit steep, I thought. Good job we had US dollars because those who
only had Thai currency had to pay more. We waited in the boiling heat
whilst the whole group got their visas, and then a woman came and
directed us up a street, where we were put onto a little bus, that
looked like those trains you get at Disney Land. She said she hoped
we all had Laos money because there'd only be on stop for food on the
way to our destination and they would only accept Laos kip. I was not
happy to hear this, as I'd not eaten since breakfast and we hardly
had any Laos kip on us, which meant I'd have to go hungry for another
22 hours. The Disney bus dropped us at a bigger 'VIP' bus (a normal
coach) and on that we sat for the next 22 hours. It was a very bumpy
journey, not too dissimilar from what we had experienced in Bolivia.
Laos is mainly rainforest
I took my last remaining travel sickness tablet, which really helped
because the roads were very windy. We were worried when one girl told
us you can't buy sickness tablets in Laos and that we should have
stocked up in Thailand. Schoolboy error. After about 5 hours of
listening to Billy Elliot and Wicked songs, the battery ran out on
Jemma's ipod(hooray!) and we stopped at a cafe for food. (When I say
cafe, I mean a hut that sold pringles and sandwiches). Luckily, the
accepted Thai Baht, so I gorged on my first Lao tuna baguette and
crisps. We paid 30p to go to a squat toilet in an outhouse near the
hut, and then we all got back on the bus, ready for the 18 hour
journey ahead. I was very happy for the sickness tablets at this
stage, as there were locals all around us throwing up into plastic
bags (they're not used to riding on buses, and the Laotian roads are
windy by anyone's standards). Another advantage of the sickness
tablet, was that it more or less knocked me out, so I slept better
than I ever have on any overnight bus, despite the uncomfy seats and
bumpy roads. I woke up every hour to look at the clock, until finally
it was 5.30am and we pulled into our destination; Luang Prabang. We
arrived just in time to see the daily procession of monks, walking
through the town collecting food off the locals who had gotten up
early to offer them. We could tick this sightseeing activity off our
list. The bus kicked us out at the bus station, and at first, nobody
got off because I don't think anybody clicked that this was Luang
Prabang, I for one, had been expecting somewhere a little bigger,
seeing as it is Laos' second city, but it just seemed like a town in
the middle of nowhere. We were all so sleepy, we stumbled off the
coach and into the first tuk tuk that would take us.
After we left Pai, we
went back to Chiangmai and stayed there for a few days, unsure what
we wanted to do next. We didn't know whether we should go to
Chiangrai or go straight to Laos because it was getting nearer and
nearer to the time our Vietnam visas would begin and we didn't want
to eat too much into our time there. In the end, we were so
indecisive, that we ended up wasting 2 days in Chiangmai doing
nothing because our hotel was so nice. We did venture out at one
stage to go to the mall, which was nice, but nothing compared to what
we'd seen in Bangkok. On the third day, we kicked ourselves into gear
and did a bout of sightseeing. We hired a tuk tuk driver for the day
to take us to all the places we felt we should go. Actually,
there wasn't anything we really wanted to do, but we felt guilty for
doing nothing, so I decided we should go and see a hill tribe and a
temple. Lots of people go on treks in Chiangmai to see the hill
tribes, but we'd heard they weren't that good, and as we'd already
been on elephants, we didn't want to do that again. So rather than go
on a trek, we just took a tuk tuk to go and see a tribe, which I'd
read was going to be very touristy, and not a real tribe at all.
There were even signs pointing to where each tribe was
In
fact, there is some controversy surrounding these tribes and
questions as to whether or not they are forced into dressing up just
for the tourists. Anyway, we went, and saw the long necks tribe, and
it was so staged – just like Lake Titicaca had been – we had to
pay £5 to go into a 'village' made up of different tribes, which
looked like they had just been dumped there and dressed up for the
tourists. Oh well, at least it got my need to see a tribe out of my
system.
After this, our driver
took us along a really windy country road that made me feel really
sick, especially because of the fumes coming out of the tuk tuk. We
went to the most famous temple in Chiangmai which has views over the
city. It was quite nice. Once again, once you've seen the temples in
Bangkok, this doesn't really stand out. It was nice though, but we
couldn't look round too long because a monk told Jemma off for
wearing shorts and we had to get out.
I felt like we had
finally accomplished something in Chiangmai after our day out in the
tuk tuk rather than just staying in the hotel all the time. We went
back to Chiangmai and could finally book our tickets out of there –
a night bus to Laos, via Chiangrai.
For the rest of our
stay in Pai, 'Team China' were inseparable. We did everything
together. From drinking, to Thai boxing and moped riding. Dinner
breakfast and lunch, we were together. Why team 'China'? Well, that's
an inside joke that we came up with on our first night out, where we
got very drunk and went to every bar in Pai, including a bar/club
called Bebop which had live music and a resident tranny. It was right
on the outskirts of town so I had to get on the back of Inge's push
bike to get there. She cycled faster than most people go on mopeds.
Jemma on Inge's bike
After the first night out clubbing, the bond within our group was
officially sealed, and when me and Jemma were immobilised in our
guest house the next day with the worst hangovers ever, they came to
check on us and to invite us out to dinner.
Our first night out
We went for dinner
together (as we did every night) and then we went to a festival in
Pai, where there was fire dancing and live music. We only had one
drink that night. They also had a fire skipping rope there, which I
have heard/seen a lot about online but have never actually seen one
in the flesh. I was very excited to watch and video the drunken
travellers jump over the skipping rope on fire, but I would never do
it myself!
The next day, we all
went fro breakfast together in our usual cafe just next to our guest
house (It did excellent full English breakfasts with big hash browns,
milkshakes and hot chocolates and it was cheap). Then it was decided
that we should rent mopeds and ride into the hills to look for the
caves. Myself and Inge were the only ones who were scared of doing
this, so we begrudgingly agreed to get on the back of other more
experienced driver's bikes. Jemma was keen to rent her own. SO off we
went, me on the back of Dutchie Nicole's and Jemma on her own moped
for the first time ever.
Scenery on the moped ride
At first she was shaking with fear, but
after a while, she loved it and you could see she had found a new
passion for motorbike riding. We rode quite a way up into the hills,
when some of the bikes started flashing on empty. Realising we didn't
have enough petrol to get us to the caves, we stopped at a view point
and then swapped bikes so that the people on empty didn't have two
people on the bike. Then we rode back down to Pai. It was an amazing
ride through the hills, with stunning scenery and it is a nice
feeling being on a moped, zipping along with the wind in your face. I
relaxed into it by the end however I was still relieved nobody had
gotten hurt.
That night we went for tea at the local markets and then
decided to hit the clubs and pubs again. Pai is such a small place,
that by now, we recognised nearly all of the faces there and kept
bumping into people from the previous night out who would wave at me
and I wouldn't have a clue who they were. This time, the night out
wasn't so messy for me, I was the one who looked after everybody
else, and when we got to our last bar, bamboo bar, where I had been
incredibly drunk last time, I noticed there was a lady boy behind the
bar called Sara who everyone was friends with and knew. This shows
how drunk I was because I had no memory of her. Also there, was a bar
man who told me I had tried to barter him down the night before for a
portion of chips. I also had no memory of this! A few people in the
group got drunk and then we all walked back home together, and on the
way home, we stopped at 7eleven for a snack and a bloodied boy came
stumbling in, saying that he needed to go to the hospital. He had
ridden his moped drunk and had fallen off, cutting out a massive
chunk of his chin and leaving his legs and arms bleeding everywhere.
This was the second such person we had seen in Pai and really made me
never want to get on a moped again. We took him to the hospital which
was just up the road, and left him there with his friend (who was
also drunk and insisted on riding his moped to the hospital). The boy
had to wait 2 hours to be seen because there was only one nurse on
duty and she was treating a local man who had something in his ear.
We left him there with his friend and by the time we got to bed it
was 6am and the sun was coming up!
Relaxing by the pool
The next day we all had
a lazy day, and after meeting again for breakfast at 12.00, we all
went to Pai's swimming pool together. 'Fluid' the swimming pool, is
located up a hill just on the edge of town and is a perfect place for
hippies and travellers to relax. It has little bamboo covers to lie
and shelter in, tatami mats to put on the grass to sunbathe on and
there's a DJ who pumps out chillout tunes all the day long.
It is the
perfect place to recover from a night out, and of course, all the Pai
characters were there, except Rochelle the tranny, who isn't a true
tranny really, rather a retired Ozzie man in a dress who sprinkles
everyone in Bebop with glitter.
So we relaxed by the
pool for a while, listening to the music, chilling and eating at the
bar. And then we went home to relax and shower, before meeting up
again for tea. Before tea, we all met at Inge's for cheese and wine
on her porch. She and Nicole were both staying in the same resort,
which had a lovely fairy light-lit path outside and decorated trees
and fish ponds.
Wine on Inge's porch
After this, we went for tea somewhere I had been on
about going for ages: Burger Queen. It does the best burgers in Pai,
for an excellent price, and I was not disappointed, in fact, to
everyone's astonishment, I managed two, because someone else placed
the wrong order and didn't want theirs with BBQ sauce on. After
Burger Queen, everyone just wanted an early night and a few of us had
agreed to get up early the next morning to try out Thai boxing with
Inge.
The next day I got up a
7am and walked down to the Thai boxing place to meet Inge, Nicole and
Andre. Inge had been really keen to try it as its a good workout and
convinced the three of us to do it with her. I walked the 30 min walk
on my own through Pai centre in the early morning to the boxing ring,
observing the locals go about their daily business before all the
farangs (foreigners) got up. It was a nice walk. I waited for Inge
and Nicole outside the hospital where they had said the boxing place
was, but it got to 8.00 and they never showed up! I asked a few
locals where the Muay Thai school was and they pointed me in the
right direction. Eventually I found it, and Andre was there all ready
to go, but no Nicole or Inge. I looked around and was a bit
apprehensive about being the only girl, but the Canadian owner said
it was fine, and told me to get in the ring and start warming up with
all the others. After about 20 mins, the two Dutch girls showed up
and started warming up with us. What followed, was one of the most
intense, but enjoyable workouts of my life. I learnt the Thai boxing
methods first on a kick bag, and then was able to get in the ring
with a little Thai boxing champion who kept laughing at me every time
I tried to feebly punch or kick his big mits. It was really great
fun. At the end, we all had to get in the ring and do about a
thousand sit ups and press ups. That was really hard. Needless to say
by the next day, I couldn't move. I felt like I'd gone 10 rounds
with Mike Tyson.
Inge in the ring
After boxing, we went
back for a shower and Jemma picked me up on the moped. We then all
went for breakfast together and everyone decided they wanted to go
out to the caves and actually find them this time on the mopeds. I
wasn't keen, so whilst everyone else went out mopeding, I spent the
day relaxing by the pool and had an oil massage. We all met again for
tea that night, and had our last ever dinner together at the curry
shack, our favourite local, that does excellent curries. And then
Nicole starting feeling really ill with a fever, so Inge took her
home and we decided not to go out drinking because we were worried
about her. She turned out to be fine in the end, and the next day,
Jemma and I finally caught our bus out of Pai back to Chiangmai,
which we were originally meant to catch 5 days earlier, but had
changed our tickets twice due to loving Pai so much and getting stuck
there. We were sad to leave our little group and to leave the Pai
community, but we knew we had to move onto our next destination, if
nothing else because the time clock on our Vietnam Visas was ticking.
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