Laos

(exploring in Vang Vieng)

I took a bus from Hanoi (Vietnam) to Vientiane (Laos), taking about 20hrs. I've heard it referred to as the "bus from hell", but it really wasn't as bad as I expected. The only thing that was crazy was the amount of people they crammed on the bus, everytime we stopped to picked up passengers I was astonished. Most of the seats had 3 people jammed into two seats...and there were at least 20 people jammed sitting in the isle...it was crazy. BUT, we made it and it was cheap, that's all that matters.



Vientiane

Only stayed there for one day, didn't do much.

The crazy Swedes eating Swedish pizza at a Swedish pizzeria. This pizza has ham, banana, and curry....apparently it's a normal pizza in crazy Sweden (it was actually really good).



Vang Vieng

What a ridiculous place. It's super laid back, made for backpackers to come and hang out with eachother while pretty much doing nothing. MOST of the restaurants play re-runs of "friends".....ALL DAY! The tubing is kind of fun though, even though there really isn't much tubing to do. You start on the river, and about 50metres away is the first bar. There are about 8 bars along the way, each with ropeswings that are sketchy to say the least. This would never be allowed in North America...feed a bunch of backpackers buckets of alcohol, then encourage them to climb up a sketchy ladder to a sketchy platform and swing off a rope into a river that is only a few feet deep at times. Never-the-less, I had fun trying backflips on the ropeswings. No pictures from tubing as me+water+camera=bad, but Klara brought a camera one day so there is one vid that I put on facebook. Another day we (I've been hanging out with a couple from Sweden, we met on the "bus from hell") rented motorbikes and searched out the area finding some cool caves. Yeah, that's about it.

Hehehe, we found some AWESOME BeerLao shirts in an amazing color...I call it electric salmon. We rented bikes with baskets and bells and rode around feeling pretty special.

Exploring caves.

A mid-afternoon lagoon dip...




Luang Prabang

Cool city. I really like Laos, the people are much more friendly than Vietnam, and it's WAY more laid back. Today we (me, the Swedes, and Julian - from California) went for a walk around the city to see some sites. We found a trail that went down a hill, then crossed this sketchy bamboo bridge and swam in the river with the local kids...and a bunch of monks...strange. We searched farther on, I'm guessing no tourists get that far, we found a school and bought some pepsi in a bag with the kids at recess. It was awesome :) Oh yeah, it's coming up to the New Year here in Laos, which is celebrated in a water festival....basically it just means getting everyone wet. The New Year isn't for another week, but people were out in full force today, including a group of monks! Sssooo, we bought some really big waterguns and soaked the monks, that was also awesome :) Tomorrow we check out some cool waterfall, then head North somewhere.


Me coming out of an attempted front flip, swimming with monks and kids in the Mekong River in Luang Prabang.


A monk....possibly reflecting on monk things.


The Swedes, Julian, and me in Luang Prabang.

Sapa

I met some people on the Ha Long Bay trip (most I met on the boat, the two Swedes I met the next day) so we all decided to go to Sapa together. The train is pretty expensive there and back compared to the rest of Vietnam, so it's good I had some insentive to get to Sapa....it ended up being a memorable trip. First of all, it's cold in Sapa; my polar fleece jacket was constantly in use. We checked out different trekking tours and prices, ended up finding a cool looking two day tour with a homestay in a village, including our own private guide...and bargained a decent price. Sapa is breath-taking! The mountains are all cultivated into rice fields....it's crazy looking. The tradionally dressed mountain village women follow tours for many kilometres in hoping to sell a few trinkets, sometimes with babies attached to their backs. Sapa mountain villages sometimes don't even speak Vietnamese as they originally came from China....although they don't speak Chinese either....mountain language. Within the first hour of trekking I managed to lose my balance and step into a rice field thing, which is pretty deep with water...but even deeper with soft mud. I lost my balance even more and ended up putting both feet/legs in the mud water...then somehow smashed my knee on a rock trying to get out. I was soaked, completely muddy, and my knee was gushing blood....perfect start to the trip!! Hahaha, it was actually pretty funny, the village women were laughing at me.

I was a bit disappointed with the "homestay", the village was more developed than the rest of the little mountain tribes, and the family we stayed with didn't really want to be around us...we slept in a totally different area...fair enough. SO, we saw a bigger group at a "homestay" just down the road, so we crashed their party :)

The last day in Sapa I went hiking by myself (everyone else had left) to another village, it was a fun day. They built these rock stairs that go on for km's and km's, up and down the mountains. I imagine this is what the great wall of China is like....on a much larger scale of course. I'm back in Hanoi...and I'm bored....so I'm taking "the bus from hell" (this is what everyone refers to it as who has taken it) from Hanoi to Vientiane tomorrow; apparently it's like 24hrs. Then I need to catch another bus to Luang Probang...brutal. I won't be disappointed if I never take another bus again in my life.




Starting the hike with our guide....and the mountain village women taging along in hopes of making a sale.





Our group.


Ladies I bought a few trinkets from.


Stunning place.


I can't believe she made me pull her...with my injured knee and all.








Random pool table across from the place we ate lunch.


Rub-adub-dub. "hotsprings" (more like lukewarm) at the village we stayed at.


When we crashed our neighbours party, a shot of rice wine with the local guides.


No comment.


I'm a wee-bit nervous here.


Me and the Swedes eating Pho in the local market.


This has a long story to it, but these two chaps are eating a bowl of dog....I tried a piece (which was gross), but they ate the whole bowl!


My solo hike to Cat Cat village.

Ha Long Bay

I took an organized tour to Ha Long Bay, really it's the best way to do it. There is so much competition in regards to this tour, that the price is really low. For 3 days/2nights tour, includes everything (food, transportation everywhere, etc) I got it for $45. What I realized after is that everyone there paid different prices, and all through different companies....but it's the same tour...everyone gets on the same boat (but there are a crap load of boats....it's ridiculous!). Ha Long Bay is cool...but honestly not that impressive. The crazy islands are cool looking, and there are a billion of them. Everyone on the boat was complaining cuz it was kind of foggy...but I liked it, thought it added to the mystical affect :) Visited a huge cave, but it's kind of ridiculous inside, technicolor lights everywhere...but still impressive. Then we cruised throught some islands, and parked. That's it for that day, hahaha. It was ok cuz there were some pretty cool people on my boat, so we played cards and stuff, then slept on the boat...I liked that. In the morning we went kayaking, and I was lucky enough to go with a guy who wanted to explore the area (most people just paddled around the boat...I think that's what the tour wants, they only gave us an hour). Aitor (the guy I went with, he's from Spain) and I found a little cave to go through, then we found an island with a strange staircase and arch thing. We parked our kayak and ventured up the stairs....they went no where...just stopped. It was really weird, but super cool. Then we figured that we were lost....all the islands started looking the same, but we ended up getting back to the kayak dock...only a few minutes late :) Haha, then the dog on the dock bit Aitor right in the ass, truly funny for me because usually the dogs go after me. The dogs here are mental, and none are on leashes....I think they just go for foreigners.

I was dropped off on Cat Ba Island after that...only I was dropped off, the rest of the people were on a 2 day tour...seemed like the whole trip I just got added to other groups...but I didn't mind. Hiked a small mountain with a cool look-out spot (a rickety tower about 50ft up...I guarantee this thing is going to fall in the next few years), made some friends with that group.....then I got dropped off by myself again at a hotel.....so I rented motorbike and cruised around Cat Ba Island for a bit. After dinner a bunch of us went to a floating restaurant for a beer, then this rowdy group of Vietnamese kept bringing over shots of rice wine. After a while I told one guy I liked his shirt....he said he liked mine...so we traded right there and then!! Haha, so random but it was funny. I think I got the better deal, I'm pretty sure he traded away a real Burberry shirt (I know because I also bought a cheap fake one earlier)...those are like $60...sucker. I'm sure he just wanted to trade to make a good story...so did I :) That's it, I'm back in Hanoi. I'm off to Sapa with some cool people I met on the first night on the boat.

















Some random grave in Cat Ba Island....figured it was picture worthy.

Hanoi

Took another night bus (I'm so sick of buses!) from Hue to Hanoi a few days ago. Carmen (the German girl I met in Cambodia) met me here with her Vietnamese friend, and I got my mp3 cable back!!! I was musicless for over 1.5 months...and I'm stoked to have it back. Also I met some Norwegian girls here, we got off the same bus and took the same free ride to a hotel. We saw Ho Chi Minh's body, the security was crazy, no pictures inside, no talking....no shorts...no nothing! It was a bit creepy, but cool none-the-less. Mmmmm, found a shoe market....and I bought two pairs of shoes....but ONLY because I bargained such a ridiculous deal :) Yeah, prety much I've just been eating pasta buffets (every day, same restaurant...I'm getting fat) and walking around the city.