March 2009 Archives

After a hellish 24 hour bus journey we finally arrived in the Laos capital of Vientienne.

I had never been so tired in all my life. The bus ride from Hanoi was actually only supposed to take us 17 hours, but because the Vietnamese drivers were transporting goods along the way, including, raw fish, fridge doors, computers and blocks of wax, we had an extra 7 hours to endure and we arrived little more than 24 hours after we had set off!

The Vietnamese people on the bus were so rude and disrespectful to us all too, I was getting seriously annoyed!

It was a shame because all the other Vietnamese people we had met previous to Hanoi had been so lovely and friendly, but the experience of the bus journey kind of tainted our view of Vietnam a little.

We were also crammed right to the back of the bus because the Vietnamese were taking up two seats, had blankets and pillows, and we so unwilling to move for us we didn't feel we wanted to sit with them.

The bus was absolutely freezing, but luckily I came across a pair of gloves in my bag which I can only think my Grandma slipped in sneakily before I left, so I stuck those on!

When we finally arrived at the Laos border it was so cold I thought they had taken us back to England! It was raining, very windy and just absolutely freezing. As we had planned to go Tubing in Laos a couple of days later it didn't fill me with a great deal of confidence.

Luckily, when we finally made it to Vientienne we were met with warm weather. We quickly found a place to stay for the night and went for a drink with three English girls called Kat, Jasmine and Fin, a French couple, and some Canadian guys who all had to endure the same horrific bus journey as us. We were all so grateful not to be on a bus!

Vang Vieng:

After a much needed good nights sleep Sarah and I got up and booked a bus to Vang Vieng. To be honest, at the time the prospect of another bus ride was the last thing we wanted to do but as it was only a four-hour ride and we were pushed for time we decided to leave Vientienne that afternoon.

Vientienne is lovely with nice restaurants but there isn't really a great deal to do there so we didn't feel we were missing out on anything in particular.

This time I was determined to get a good seat on the bus so I made sure I was the first one on there and got a couple of nice seats at the front with lots of leg room. The journey was heaven compared to the previous and we arrived in Vang Vieng at the time we were supposed to.

We found ourselves a nice little cheap guest house on the Friends strip, where the bars basically play Friends every day, all day - could life get better!

We had a day to catch up on sleep and sunbathe before we did what we really came to do in Vang vieng - Tubing. Tubing basically consists of a rubber ring, a river, lots of whisky buckets, lots of whisky shots, a zip wire, a slide and a mud bath...... I think you all have the picture! It was possibly the most fun I have ever had in my life; a day I will definitely never forget.

The night before tubing Sarah and I decided to go for just a couple of drinks..... but that turned out to be a few buckets and rolling in at 4am as we met a girl and a couple of guys from Preston called Louise, Gary and Craig, who are doing a gap adventure tour, and had a few drinks with them.

They are probably three of the nicest people we have met so far and arranged to go Tubing together the next day. Despite the late night, we still made it out of bed for 10am, had breakfast, met up with Gary and Craig (Louise was too hungover to come!) and were at the first bar by the river by midday.

I can only think I was still a little tipsy because the first bucket went down surprisingly well. Before we knew it we were zip wiring from a swing into the river, playing tug of war in the mud, and doing one too many Whisky shots! We were supposed to have the rubber rings back by 6pm but that clearly wasn't going to happen, and after the last bar we found ourselves lost and floating down the river in the pitch black for about half an hour!

Sarah had a slight near death experience on the slide at the last bar as she winded herself when she landed and started swimming into the path of the next guy coming down the slide.

She didn't hear me and Gary screaming at her to turn round so that was pretty scary! The guy who nearly hit her saw us that night actually and bought her a bracelet to apologise.... that was quite sweet considering it wasn't his fault at all!

The day after the day and night before, I think I experienced my worst hangover ever in my life! I was so sick, we didn't make it out of bed till 3.30pm. The hangover actually lasted about 5 days. The thought of any alcohol turned my stomach. I tried convincing myself it was something I had eaten but I think we all know it wasn't! When we finally dragged ourselves out of bed we headed for the first Friends bar, and watched Friends for five glorious hours - I will never tire of that show!

Luang Prabang:

We would've like to have spent a few days longer in Vang Vieng, as it was such an amazing place and a close second to my ultimate favourite, Koh Tao. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time, so the next day we headed further north to Luang Prabang. That was another 7 hours on a bus and as I was still heavily hungover, the journey was pretty horrendous!
While in Luang Prabang we visited some stunning waterfalls with Kat, Jas and Fin, where there was also a bear park. The park had rescued the bears from cruelty and torture. Many of them were orphans because their mothers had been killed. The story behind them was so sad but it was so nice to see them being able to play in a big nature park and looked after well.

Chang Mai:

As we were pretty eager to get back into Thailand to Chang Mai, we booked a flight from Luang Prabang, and arrived in Chang Mai on Saturday (14th). We did pay about £90 to fly there, but it only took an hour on a flight and we couldn't face another 24 hours travelling on a bus!
A guy we met in Laos recommended we stay at a place called SK house, so we got a taxi there to the airport, and it actually turned out to be one of the cheapest and best places we have stayed so far.

We had a lovely room, and had a big swimming pool, which we didn't get to take advantage of as we were too busy trekking through the jungle!

We booked a two day jungle trek through the guest house so we just had a night there before heading for the jungle the following morning. There were 10 of us in our group: two French couples who were travelling together, a New Zealand couple called Kelly and Izzy, who were absolutely lovely, a girl called Lyla from Holland, a Japanese guy called Tommo, who bless, couldn't speak any English, and then me and Sarah.

Our two tour guides, Bee and Micky, picked us all up in a tuk tuk and we headed for the jungle.

Our first stop was the elephant camp where we had lunch (if you can call a plate of plain rice lunch!) then went on an hour ride on an elephant. Our elephant was called Elu and was 40-years-old, she was six months pregnant to Mutab the male elephant who was her toyboy at just 26.

It was good fun, but I coupldn't help feeling so sorry for the poor elephants, afterall, it's not their job is it! They were treated really well though by the people at the camp - I've definitely seen worse in Thailand and it's heartbreaking.

We then began a gruelling three hour uphill trek through the jungle and up to a mountain to the Gutcap Village where the Lahoo tribe live. I think it was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, we were all so tired when we reached the top but Bee and Mikey had barely even broken a sweat. They do the trek two to three times a week! They are crazy!

When we arrived we all had freezing showers (as there is no electricity and the camp is run on solar power), then me and Sarah had our first Chang Beer and my first can of beer ever in my life. It went down surprisingly well considering both of us hate beer.
Whilst Bee was cooking tea we noticed a small fire on the other side of the hill, and were told it was started by someone just throwing their cigarette away. By the time we had finished eating it was a full forest fire, and was spreading right across the mountain side towards a village.

We were all very panicky but Bee and the tribe couldn't care less. They said there are a lot of streams that will put it out and the villages are used to forest fires. I had to be assured on quite a few occasions that we weren't all going to be burnt alive out there.

Dinner was absolutely gorgeous, a far cry from the plain rice we had for lunch. We had rice and Massaman (potato) curry and a vegetable stirfry. We ate by candlelight and after dinner Bee got out a bottle of whisky and his friend came out with a guitar and played Paul Weller, the Eagles, and The Beatles. It was such a fantastic and special night. It was actually really humbling to see how happy the tribe live on practically nothing. It definitely made me appreciate things a lot more, they take nothing for granted. Really amazing people.

We all went to bed about 10pm in a hut which had double beds and pillows, blankets and mosquito nets. It was pretty dusty but brilliant at the same time!

Day two of Jungle trekking:

The next day we were up at 8:30am...it is pretty cold on the mountain so no one braved a cold shower. The fire had burnt out on the hill but it was really smoky and hazy all the way across the mountain.
After our breakfast of tea, toast, boiled eggs, jam and watermelon we headed down the mountain. This was nearly as bad as going up because there are so many leaves on the floor it makes it really slippy. After about an hour and a half we stopped for a break at a gorgeous waterfall, where a few people had showers. We then walked for another hour or so, before getting to the water rafting place. We were split into two rafting teams; Sarah and I were with Tommo and Izzy and Kelly...Rafting was great fun and not as scary as I thought it would be. Then we did about half an hour on a bamboo raft, but our tour guide kept trying to tip the raft and poor Tommo didn't get the concept of shifting his weight to balance so he kept falling in. Eventually he said "Tommo not ok" so the tour guide stopped and let him dry off!
After we had lunch we headed back into Chiang Mai for hot showers and food! At one point during the rafting we stopped for food and for some reason me and Sarah braved eating some pork thing! Some of the guys ate intestines so I don't even want to know what I had! Tommo ate a raw crab as well but had to spit it out because it tasted so bad!

On our final day in Chiang Mai we went to visit Tiger Kingdom. It was the best day ever! We found some crazy guy called Eddie who referred to himself in the third person to drive us there and back for four pounds. Tiger Kingdom is a reserve where you get to go in with the tigers and stoke and lie with them. We went in with three babies, Lookshin (meatball), Kao Neaw (sticky rice) and Sai Aui who were all five months old. We then went in with two sisters and a brother who were 11 months and called Champoo, Paula and Mikey. There was 2 baby lion cubs as well called Simba and Dev who we could have gone in with but it was 10 pounds and you can't really go near them because they are so young and not really tamed or trained so they could do some pretty serious damage!

At 6pm we boarded the night train to Bangkok. The beds were huge and really comfortable so I slept for about nine hours and woke up in Bangkok feeling refreshed and ready for a day of sight seeing.

Bangkok:
We got a taxi to Ko San Road and managed by some miracle to get into the D&D where we stayed when we first arrived! Sarah had emailled them but they had said they were fully booked, and it is the most popular hostel on Ko San Road so we were very lucky! Once we'd had a shower and breakfast we decided to get the sightseeing doing so hopefully we could sunbathe the next day!
We asked a guy directions to the Grand Palace and he told us that today was Buddha Day (Buddha's birthday) so the government were supplementing the tuk tuks that had yellow stickers to take tourists around the city for only 10bhat each (25p) and he marked on the map all the temples we should visit and also the export market which had 15% (tax) off that day! Also, all the palaces etc were open free of charge. So we found a tuk tuk driver who was lovely and set off.
First of all we went to The Big Buddha, and then he dropped us off at the Lucky Buddha. When we went inside we met a teacher who taught English at the school nearby and he showed us how to make a wish etc! This made me feel highly uncomfortable as this involved praying to a gold statue of a Buddha. As I don't really have a religious bone in my body and am pretty cynical when it comes to things like that I couldn't wait to get out of there!

The next couple of temples we went to were closed as there were special ceremonies going on, and by 11am we had seen all the ones we wanted to see. The Grand Palace wasn't opening until 1:30pm as the King and Queen were there at a special ceremony with the city monks, so we went to a fabric shop. Sarah needed to get her friend some silk, and ended up spending £60 which I thought was a bit steep for material! We also went to a jewellery exporter and I bought some earrings, which cost me about £10. I needed them to replace my white gold ones which I unfortunately lost whilst tubing, I was gutted! At just £10 though these were slightly cheaper than my beloved White Golds which I'd had for 10 years!

The last stop before the Grand Palace was the Golden Mount, so we went inside and had a look around but when we came outside the tuk tuk driver had gone. We waited for about ten minutes but we couldn't see him and we couldn't figure out where he had gone. We saw some other tuk tuks with yellow stickers and asked them about the government deal but they wouldn't listen and in the end we had to get one for 40 bhat to the Palace. When we arrived, the Palace was open but the entrance fee was 350 bhat (7 pounds). Sarah asked the lady about Buddha day and she just replied "everyday is Buddha day". Then it suddenly dawned on me that our tuk tuk driver was obviously on commission from the jewellry and fabric shops and once we had spent some money he had made much more than 10 bhat and b*****ed off!!
We couldn't believe we had been duped but thinking back it was so obvious! Whenever we came out of a shop he was like "oooh what have you bought, how much was it???" "oooh thats cheap!!" I thought he was being nice but actually he was totting up his commission. Sarah had also been going round for the whole day wishing people "Happy Buddha day!" like an absolute fool!!

When we got inside the palace we also saw a sign that read "Do not trust strangers who say they will take you to a lucky buddha!" so God knows where our donations have gone to! So it was all a lie. There were no special ceremonies they just took us there so we would believe the Grand Palace was closed until 1:30 and they could get us to the export shops.

There wasn't 15% off anything, and it wasn't Buddha Day! I think Sarah was scammed more than I was though. I spent so little on a pair of sterling silver earrings, whilst Sarah spent an extortionate amount on fabric. She text her friend to ask how much silk cost in England and apparently it was the same as she had paid in Thailand! Sarah was not happy!

I think being in SE Asia for three months and meeting such lovely people made us forget how different and obviously how dangerous Bangkok can be!

After a day of being scammed, we went to the MBK market to see what the shops were like but it was absolutely rubbish. They also sold the same silk Sarah bought but I told her not to look at the price, as no doubt it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than she paid!

We met up with Sarah's brothers friend Rob and his girlfriend, Alice that night for food and drinks. They are doing SE Asia for the next four months so we gave them some advice on where to stay and where to go...and Rob who has been to a lot of places in USA told us about some things to do.

We have had the best three months in South East Asia and I can't believe it has come to an end so soon. Our trip so far really couldn't have gone better, and we are literally having the time of our lives! I have fallen in love with Thailand and can't wait to go back to do more diving.

In the meantime, I will speak to you all soon in sunny (hopefully) Australia!

YOU'll have to bear with me if much of this blog doesn't make sense as I have had no sleep in almost 36 hours and have a 17-hour bus journey ahead of me tonight to go to Laos so I'm pretty shattered and finding it pretty difficult to remember what I've been doing over the past couple of weeks.

I think I last left you in Ho Chi Minh City which was our first destination in Vietnam. We only stayed a couple of nights which is more than enough as the sight seeing only takes about a day and once you've done that there isn't really much else to do other than shop and drink! It is very much like London only a lot busier!

It's a miracle if you don't get run over crossing the road - you literally have to dodge traffic as they won't stop for you! Not my cup of tea at all really. Having said that, the shopping in Ho Chi Minh looked great but unfortunately I was unable to indulge in that side of things due to lack of funds.

Like London, one end of the city is quite rough and run down whereas the other side is very rich! Some of the shops included Marc Jacobs, Chloe, Gucci, and Prada. It took a lot of effort for me not to go in and have a nosey but I decided that would be too torturous and even harder to tear myself away!

Instead, Sarah and I stumbled across a French Connection and bought ourselves a couple of nice tops with a 70% discount...... slightly cheaper than Gucci!

We then got the night train to Nha-Trang which is on the coast and has a beach.... we were both ready to get back to the beach after a week of sightseeing in Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City.

We came across a lovely family run hotel by the beach, which has turned out to be one of the best hotels we've stayed in....and very cheap. We felt like part of the family by the time we left!

Unfortunately, we both went a bit mad with the sunbathing on our first day, got a little bit burnt and had to spend the whole of the next day in bed...... that could have had something to do with the previous nights drinking too though!

We also booked to go diving in Nha-Trang as we hadn't been able to do any for a few weeks and was missing it so much. We had fun and had a couple of good dives but the diving in Vietnam is so much colder than in Thailand, and there wasn't really a great deal to see that we haven't seen before.... no sharks this time! I imagine our next dives will be in Australia where i'm sure we won't be disappointed.

We spent six days in Nha-Trang then headed to Hoi An by night bus. It took 12 hours to get there and was a horrible journey, I really hate buses! It was supposed to be a sleeper bus but the supposed 'beds' were absolutely tiny. God knows what people do if they're tall as I only just managed to fit in one! Very uncomfortable.

Anyway, once in Hoi An we loved it and definitely our favourite place in Vietnam. It is exactly what I imagined Vietnam to be like - a small town with lots of cobbled streets, locals on their long tailed boats in the river and dozens of lovely hand made craft shops. The food we had there was so delicious, the restaurants were amazing and such friendly people, although many of them can't speak very good English so it can be pretty hard communicating with them.

We spent the first day wandering around the old town, visiting the Japanese Bridge, the Chinese Assembly Hall and the Tran Family Chapel. You have to pay to see these but to be honest the best things about Hoi An old town are the shops and the restaurants.
We went out one night and met a group of Canadian guys who were really nice and showed us around the best bars which we were grateful for as we would have never have found them had we been on our own. Unfortunately though (or not) it turned out to be yet another heavy one so I'm now on a bit of a detox for a while until we get to Laos and go tubing!

Our final day there we went to Marble Mountain, which consists of lots of caves, pagoda's and temples. Our last visit to a temple in Krabi we had to climb 1,237 steps to get to it so I was grateful Marble Mountain wasn't quite like that, although we certainly got our fair share of exercise for the day!

Our next stop in Vietnam was Hue, which is only 4 hours away from Hoi An so we got there by bus.

We only stayed there for one night as we decided we could do the sight seeing in a day and there really isn't very much to do other than that. It's a very small place. The main place to see is the Citadel, which is a huge, ancient complex, housing different tower blocks and ten different access gates. It looks across the perfume river and is home to the Capital Citadel, the Royal Citadel, and the Forbidden Citadel. It costs 55,000 dong (just over two pounds) to go inside but it is definitely worth a visit.

It opens for about 10 hours a day, but you really only need a couple of hours to look round the whole place.

That evening we took a night train to Hanoi, which is where i'm writing this blog from, and is part of the reason why I am so shattered! We arrived in the city at 4.30am this morning, and having found a place to stay easily enough. I was so looking forward to going to sleep for a few hours only to be told our room would not be ready till 7.30. Our plan was to stay here for the night then head to Laos tomorrow but there are no buses tomorrow so we have to go this evening at 5pm.

It is so cold here too, I can't believe the difference in weather from Hue. For the first time since my travels I'm now wrapped up warm in my combats and a jacket! I have been eaten alive by mosquitos though so it's probably a good thing i'm covering myself up for a day or two!

Although I am really not looking forward to another sleepless night and 17 hours on a bus, had we been staying in Hanoi another day I really don't know what we would've done as we got through the sight seeing in a couple of hours this morning. It really isn't all that great a place to be honest, nothing special at all.

We wanted to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh was buried but it was closed so that was a waste of time. So we headed to the One Pillar Pagoda which really wasn't anything special, then the Ngoc Son Temple which is built on a lake.

And this is where I'm at now. Very excited to go to Laos for a few days, by all accounts tubing is a lot of fun and very sociable, if you're lucky enough to remember it! I hear it can get pretty messy, so the detox will no doubt go out the window by then! After Laos we head back into Thailand to Chang Mai for elephant trekking, then leave for Australia on March 20th.

Will let you know if tubing lives up to its reputation before I arrive in Australia!