Vietnam

Halong Bay is said to be the must see in Vietnam. A group of us booked ourselves on a two day, one night tour there that included meals and a night sleeping on a boat. There are many petitions for Halong Bay to become the eigth wonder of the world, from the pictures you can see why:

There are thousands of vast islands and cave systems that really are amazing. Unfortunately it was really overcast and cloudy on the day we went there so sunbathing wasn't an option.

Next we went to Nimh Binh which is a really run down town but we managed to hire push bikes and get outselves out into the countryside which was really amazing. We climbed up a hill and the views were immense. It was probably the first time I have heard quiet in Asia. This is the view from the hill we climbed:

Next we stopped off in Hoi An which is a gorgous little town. We'd had a battering at this point by awful bus companies, overnight bussess and people generally being rude to us so we sought some refuge in a fairly nice hotel and spent most of the day sat by the pool. In the evening though we wanted around this gorgous little town and meandered through the markets.

 After Hoi An it was time for another overnight bus which I really wasn't looking forward to. We got lucky though and the seats were okay (albeit designed for tiny Asian people). We were really looking forward to Na Trang as the weather had been overcast and often rained throughout Vietnam and we heard the people were friendlier in the South. The weather didn't improve much in Nha Trang but we booked an amazing little tour for five dollars and went round some islands. This tour was the highlight of my time in Vietnam, the men on the boats were really funny and set up a little band and sang us 'Jingle Bells' and other songs Vietnamese style!

I am currently in Mui Ne. The weather is amazing, the sea is blue, the sand is golden and we have found a place with nice people (which we are sticking to)! Later on this afternoon we are going to check out the famous sand dunes and surf down them.

Tomorrow we are off to the massive Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) which is going to be mental. Luckily we have perfected are Vietnamese road crossing skills: don't look, just walk slowly so should be alright. Will only stay there for one night then it's on to Cambodia.

Viang Veng

Got a minivan from Luang Prabang to Viang Veng over windy mountain roads. One passanger was sick, but I managed to stomach it. We stopped at a service station and they had a massive jar full of Lao Lao (whisky) with a baby bear inside it. Got chatting to a man about it and he says if you drink it, according to Chinese medicine, you become strong like the bear. I was up for it but didn't end up trying any. Bus journey took about five hours and was really uncomfortable as I was on a little fold out seat with no seat belt so was sliding all over the place! Was great getting to Viang Veng and we managed to find a lovely and cheap guesthouse without too much effort. We went out for a couple of drinks in the evening for my birthday but I wasn't really feeling it so got an early night and was rested for tubing the next day!

Viang Veng is really crazy... it's surrounded by beautiful mountains and very poor Laos but the small town is full of foreigners getting drunk and going tubing. It felt really weird and I was very conscious of this while we were tubing but after a few drinks kind of forgot about it. Tubing is just one big party; the bars line the river and you float from one to the other on giant rubber rings. The bars give you free shots and play loud music; it felt a little bit like I could have been in Magaluf. Heard so many horror stories about people having accidents tubing; copius amounts of alcohol combined with swing off ropes and shooting down slides into the river aren't a very safe mix but I was with a group of eight people and we all looked out for each other. Tubing was great fun but the exact opposite of why I went traveling so the next day I took myself off to the Organic Farm.

Staying on the farm (http://www.laofarm.org/) has been the highlight of my trip so far. I arrived at about  three in the afternoon and got straight to work doing some raking and then helped feed the baby goats some milk. In the evening I went for dinner with a Swiss girl and we got along really well. The farm is right next to the first drop off point for tubing and in the evening I got to hear the real story of how it impacts the local community from the founder of the farm.

The music from the bars is really loud and can be heard from the farm all day; plus all the drunk Westerners wandering around doesn't provide a great influence for the local children. He referred to what he called 'The Tubing Mafia' in that a few companies run a monopoly on the tubing business and don't do anything to help out the local community. I was really saddened to hear this. At night time we also heard a digger, really loud which was taking the stones out of the river to make it deeper for people tubing. He told us this was totally illegal but there was nothing he could do about it.

The next day we chilled out in the morning by the river before the tubers arrived and had a swim. Then after lunch we went to work in the farm collecting banana leaves for the goats. Then we went and collected some other leaves for the goats - they eat so much! Mr Pai climbed a tree like a monkey and was cutting down branches while we collected them. I'm not sure what type of trees they were but the sap was blood red. He found a bee's nest in one of the trees so we ate some honey.

In the evening a group of us went to the local school and helped teach the kids English. The kids were so lovely and it was such an amazing experience. I had a group of girls congregate around me and was only sorry that I didn't know any Justin Beiber songs to help them learn! I was really sad to leave after this and have looked into similar projects in Vietnam but can only find the ones that charge you 300 dollars a week! I will try and find something locally to get involved in. That evening I sad and shared papaya and a few beers with the family.

The next day I got a lift on a scooter back to the town and found the people I was traveling with. This was the mentalist bus journey ever and we were on it for over 26 hours. We had booked a normal bus rather than a sleeper because it was half the price but luckily we got an upgrade (not sure why) to a sleeper. This could not have worked out better because I don't think I would have been able to cope on a normal bus.

The sleeper pulled over somewhere at 1am and I got off to have a smoke and ended up sharing some food and drinks with the bus drivers that had pulled up. My glass kept getting refilled and refilled so felt absolutely awful when we got to the Vietnamese border at 7am. Everyone I was traveling with had also made the same mistake as me (never, ever, again!) of not having any Vietnamese currency - Dong - so we were starving by the time we arrived into Hanoi at about 8pm.

We found taxi and they agreed to drop us off at ATMs so we could get some money out to pay them. It being Sunday, every ATM in town was either down for maintenance or had run out of money. In the end we got dropped off at the hostel who pointed us in the direction of a HSBC!! Then we all ran out for some food and ended up in, what I would describe as a Vietnamese version of a Phoenix Nights hooker bar. I ate some food and pretty much went straight to bed!

Today I wandered around Hanoi with Holly, a girl from Manchester and we had fun getting lost in the city. This city is so random; there's always something to have a good stare at. I have booked a trip to Halong Bay tomorrow (apparently it is a must-see) and have also secured myself an open bus ticket to Ho Chi Minh City so can travel through Vietnam at my leisure. Looking forward to getting out the city again and seeing some more of Vietnam!

Down the River Mekong

Left Chiang Mai in a Minibus on (I think is was) Thursday to go to the Thai/ Laos border of Chiang Khong. The journey was fine and we stopped off at the White Temple on the way which looked like it was out of a Disney film - even the fish in the pond around it were white.

There was a Buddhist Monk meditating in the temple inside who was so still I asked someone if it was a wax model. You literally couldn't see him breathing or blinking. Chiang Khong ison the bank of the River Mekong. You can look out across the river and see Laos on the other side. I shared a room with a guy from Australia and one from Turkey. We found a Yoga teacher there by following some signs on the walk along the river and booked in for a class in the evening. The boys ended up  chickening out though so I went along by myself. The class was taught by an Australian lady who lived in a gorgeous wooden house there.

The next day we got up at 7am and went up the road to the border and got a boat across the river Mekong into Laos. Immigration was a bit of a shambles but not too bad. Learnt how to say 'Hello' and 'Thank you' in Laos while I was waiting; very handy. The Slow Boats down the river Mekong take just over 100 passengers. The boat I got was mostly full of tourists but I made some friends and we all sprawled out on the floor at the back of the boat. This was the noisiest part of the boat because it's right next to a massive engine but if you can put up with that it's better because the floor was much comfier than the wooden benches looked. The views down the Mekong are stunning - totally recommend it!

We stayed the first night in a small village called Pak Ben. I shared a room with two sisters from Wales. The room was okay enough except there was two massive cockroaches on the wall. We managed to sort this out though - Lisa grabbed a massive stick and flicked them off the wall while Dennis (the guy from Turkey) caught them in a waste paper bin. Job done. We all went out for tea together and met up with some other people from the boat. I had the nicest curry I've ever tasted - Laos curry with water buffalo (which you can see along the edges of the Mekong), we also had Mekong seaweed for starters - yum.

Day two on the boat was also good, again the views were really impressive. We arrived into Luang Prabang, our destination, at about 5pm and found ourselves a not too expensive guest house. A group of eight of us who were all on the boat together went out for dinner. Yum.

Today we went around on a mission looking for a cheaper guest house. Managed to find one for about two pounds a night each (twin rooms) so we're sorted for tonight and will probably stay here tomorrow two. After that we hired push bikes and cycled around Luang Prabang. It's a really nice, very small town and the people are lovely. We checked out a few temples  and climbed to the temple up a hill at the centre of town and watched the sunset.

Tomorrow we're going to some temples nearby and the day after catching the bus to Viang Veng which will take about five hours - a walk in the park now! There's some caves in Viang Veng but the main tourist attraction is floating down the river on a giant tracktor tyre, aka tubing. There is a group of eight of us now who are going to do it together so it should be more fun and safer. After that I'm going to check out the organic farm nearby.