Northern Vietnam and Laos

The adventure continues. From China we made our way to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam to see the karst limestone islands that are scattered in the ocean. We took a boat tour for 2 days and 1 night on-board. Our group was a bunch of nice people and we had a good time despite a little foggy weather. As always here though you can never rely on the word of the tour sellers...


Our "english speaking" guide got daily lessons off an English couple who were on the tour and the crew was feasting on seafood when we ate dry toast.





Hanoi was next. A crazy fast moving sea of motorbikes, vendors and people. We loved it - somehow it just worked. We hung out with a Spanish couple that we met in Ha Long who were really cool and together we sat on tiny chairs and took US$0.15 draft beers in the street.


Ho Chi Minh was out of town. His corpse was getting it's yearly embalming upkeep ( three months worth in Russia)! We saw his monument anyway, built in true communist style. The city was a mix of old chinese architecture, shacks and communist buildings. The food was really good and supercheap, vietnamese coffee also hit the spot.





We decided to explore some things in the countryside so we went 2hrs south to Nihn Bihn and Tam coc. The place is similar to Yangshou in China, with the limestone peaks, but here we took a row boat ride through the peaks. The river had carved caves under the mountains. It was spectacular, even though the weather was not on our side. A storm had moved over northern Vietnam and an early exit to Laos became the best option.



With bad weather and worse roads we opted for the short flight to Luang Prabang. Set in a bend on the Mekong and dotted with Buddist temples, this place was the perfect laid back start to Laos. We hired bikes and went on the "easy" 72km round trip to the magnificent Kuangsi waterfalls and natural swimming pools. Showing complete disregard to the Laos landscape we trudged and sweated up and down hills on gear less bikes through beautiful scenery with many "excited to see foreigners" children wanting high-fives as we cycled past. The hard slog to the waterfalls made the swim all the more rewarding and gave us plenty of time to relax before the homeward journey. Aaran as has become the norm lost his chain and had it jammed requiring some locals assistance to get it back in place.

After some great days in Luang Prabang we took the grueling 11 hour night bus along the worst rd in Laos to the capital Vientiane. The city itself didn't seem to have that much to offer but we met some great people and had a great time taking in the sunsets each night with cheap beers on the Mekong river. The crazy budda park, an hours local bus from town was one of the highlights here.

A more relaxing sleeper bus journey alongside the Mekong found us in the town of Pakse. After a frustrating search we found a place that rented motorbikes to our liking and headed towards Champasak and the ruins of Wat Phu. Chapasak used to be the capital of Laos but is now a relaxed and charming little village that requires a strange ferry (planks nailed to two canoes) to carry the motorbikes the 1km across the river. The Wat Phu religious complex was amazing, set at the foot of some lush mountains with stone carvings and a natural spring feeding it.

Next day we continued on the motorbike doing a 220km round trip on the Bolaven plateau to the east of Pakse. It is criss crossed with rivers and accentuated with many stunning waterfalls. We visited a tea plantation and an Animist village (where the locals live subsistence lifestyles). It was quite an adventure on the bike on some challenging roads but the best way to see the countryside! (as usual got a puncture with about a km to the drop off point.....)

Last stop in Laos was the 4,000 islands in the Mekong delta bordering Cambodia. Wet made the last chicken bus of the day to Nakasang where one needs to take a fishing boat to the southern most of the islands. As it was pitch black when we arrived all the locals had packed up for the night but to our luck a guy on our bus had a boat and small guesthouse on the southern most island Don Khon. This eerie trip in the darkness was a great experience idling past the ghostly forms of islands and trees in the river. Next day we walked around much of the island, to the main waterfall past rice paddies and local grass and wooden houses and eventually ran into an old guy herding a few water buffalo. He asked where we were going and we said to the river to try and see the dolphins. His son, a local fisherman, had a boat and took us to the dolphin watching spot (technically in Cambodia and requiring a little bribe to the border police to turn a blind eye). as there is only 15 river dolphins left in the Mekong and the water a little murky we didn't pin too high hopes on seeing them. We were wrong in a big way, and got an hour or so show from these magnificent creatures fishing and playing with each other and a few just before the sun sank giving us a few jumps out of the water. Back at the fisherman's little hut, his dad wouldn't let us leave without a few shots of the local Lao Lao home brew whiskey.

Next day was the short walk over to Don Det island. Another relaxed little island with nothing more to do than take a beer and read a book in hammocks overlooking the Mekong as life slowly went by. Great finish to Laos before another gruelling night bus over the border and back into Vietnam, but that's for another entry.

Hong Kong, Macau and China

Gday all, after the dry heat of Jordan Frida and I continued our travels to the Humid heat of Hong Kong. We arrived late in the night and found our way out to southern Kowloon and checked into the Beverly Hills Mansion (but those of you know the Mansion houses synonymous with lower Kowloon will forget any thought of luxury). We walked around that night and went back around 3.30am with Hong Kong still buzzing!
After heavy rains the next day we did a little sight seeing around town and finished our time in HK next day with the famous tram ride up Victoria peak for fantastic views of the entire city and surrounds. That night was the anniversary of 60 years of the Peoples Republic of China which culminated in a fantastic fireworks display over Hong Kong harbour. We stood amongst 10s of thousands of people listening to communist propaganda songs (we think as who understands Chinese). The food here was definitely one of the highlights!!

Up early the next morning we jumped on the ferry to Macau to see the fusion of Portuguese and Chinese architecture, colonial buildings, pagodas, temples, small fishing villages and macanese food. The next day we caught up with Darren Mcloed (a friend from Melbourne), his wife Micarla and their house mate who showed us great hospitality. They all work in the biggest casino in the world there - its massive!!!!! They rustled up for us tickets to circ du soliel and then it was Micarla's birthday which we celebrated with vigour and got to have a few beers with another old friend who lives and works in Macau.

The big challenge came when we crossed the border into mainland China. Not only did all English disappear, but so did any recognisable letters of the alphabet. First stop became Guangzhou after a taxi driver took us to the wrong bus station and after much visual actioning, found another bus there. It is a huge city of 12 million or so that are just in a hurry. It has no particularly nice redeeming features except maybe a few of its inner city parks which are a welcome relief from the masses. One day proved enough.

Yangshou lived up to all its hype, karst peaks formed over millions of years from the limestone mountains surrounding the area on a river setting - picture perfect. Hiring a cycle was the perfect way to see the areas offerings and even though we got lost and and i got a flat tyre 2.5 hours out of town we got off the beaten tourist track and found sleepy villages still living subsistence like they did thousands of years ago, harvesting rice with bare hands and Buffalo's.
We caught a bus one day to the town of Yangdi and walked the 25 km to the town of Xing Ping along the river Li for fabulous views and some refreshing dips (which drew many confused looks from the locals trying to sell us rides on their bamboo rafts, Hello Bamboo became the catch cry).
We found a cool hostel named Monkey Janes after the crazy owner who was definitely schitzo, that had a rooftop bar and many travellers with whom to swap stories and information with. We even learnt a fun new drinking game - chopsticks - hayeee yaa!! Uutttzzz!! We can explain when we see you.....

Nanning became the next stop on our way towards Vietnam. It was a pleasant surprise with enough sites and sounds to keep us occupied for a day or so - the food market was the highlight!! Some of the food we ate didn't taste like it looked though.... live and learn! Dumplings in China are must and their seafood and noodles exquisite.

China proved a big surprise in one way in particular - everyone wanted to say hello and have their picture taken with us - especially Frida who was treated like a movie star with screaming girls and comments on her beauty and giggles as embarrassed girls said hello to her, and guys stared like they had never seen tall fair skinned woman before. Nothing threatening or perverse except a group of guys who followed us one time asking for Fridas telephone number.....

Recommended to all, China has many wonders and the people are generally friendly even if they have no clue about body language - even the smallest gesture of pointing was asking too much sometimes!! As we were in China during their national holidays we saw a people proud of their country with flags flying everywhere and a willingness to travel mostly within home borders. Contrasting to Jordan and so far Vietnam, China was very clean with bins everywhere which was a pleasant discovery. The journey continues..