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Published: November 17th 2005
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Hitching a ride
Just hanging out on one of Laos' many virtually deserted streets, waiting for a ride. Vietnam came and went in the flash of an eye...
I barely spent 2 weeks there, before the call of Laos got louder and louder.
Vietnam went a little like this :
Arrived in Hanoi to be greeted by Sarah and a few of the rest. There was a brief Monkey Janes Reunion before all the swedes followed their own paths for a while.
Hue was a beautiful city, close to a secluded beach. Old, very French buildings in an assortment of different colours. The Perfume River running through it to the ocean. We spent a couple fo days pottering around the town, taking in the Citadel, Hue is an old Vietnamese capital, so is full of history. Being reluctant to pay to enter old monuments, mountains, temples, or well anything that you are ‘supposed’ to see, we sort of just looked at it from the outside, and distracted some kids from their daily exercise routine by giving their teachers rabbit-ears. I love being a kid again.
I can now ride a motorbike. The best way to learn how to swim is to throw yourself in at the deep end. This I did- I just jumped on and after a
Vang Vieng Sunset
Similar to Yangshuo with it's limestone Karst. Vang Vieng is idyllic, particuarly at sunset few kangaroo jumps, bundled Sarah on the back and rode to the beach. Ah, heavenly- diving into the waves for the first time in a couple of years. I have missed the beach. Laying there reading, making sand castles and angels, interacting with real local kids. Wandering through the abundance of elaborately painted tombestones. There are a huge amount of them in Vietnam. After China where they see burial as a big waste of land space, it was surreal to see them stretched all along the highways, on the beach, down country lanes. The ride from Hue city to the beach was well worth taking your time over. So there wasnt too much erratic driving, in fact we only nearly crashed once. The tracks we rode along wound through small, well-organised villages, very unlike the ones I was used to seeing in China, where chaos reigns daily. Rice paddies and fields full of graves and grazing cows either side, small catholic churches and barn-style residential huts. Smiling kids playing in the roads, tiny old ladies walking hunched back, sobre looking nuns riding their bikes and of course the obligatory local rude boy cruising the short cuts. The way back gave
Climb-Take 1
The first photo of my new favourite thing. If you didn't believe it... us one of the most impressive sunsets of my life. Away from the smog of a city and the constant grey skies of China, orange and pink clouds rolled in front of the ginormous glowing ball, reflecting in the river, the continental houses gave the impression of being somewhere in Europe, whilst the bamboo boats and nomadic people in triangular hats reassure that you are in fact still in Asia.
Two of our boys had a rather unfortunate ripping off incident in Hue, and were abandoned in the middle of nowhere, minus 240,000 dong and a flip flop. I have also manage to lose about $50, a good couple of days living, which is a total mystery, and one that momentarily pissed me off, until I realised that its only money and I am still in one of the most beautiful and amazing places.
Hoi’An was our next destination. Another ecclectic mix of two worlds. I managed to spend a bit too much money on kitting myself out with a new made-to-measure wardrobe. Managed to get one day in at the beach, but the time there was spent mostly shopping. Now out of my system, christmas presents bought and sent, woohoo, managed to cross one thing off my ‘to do list’. Now, I really never want to shop again. It’s not like in China where you get given one ridiculous over-price and you pay a third of it. They don’t bargain to well. It wears me down when I can’t get them to budge.
The last day in Hoi’An brought about a disappearing act from Rob. He was there one minute, and gone the next. If anyone knows his whereabouts, please be in contact !
We also had suits made up, matching ones, with the ingenious plan of getting to Laos, and in Vang Vieng hiring motorbikes and going on a cruise for a couple of days, all swanked up. Rob- We need you for this dude.
We have managed so far without him, or at least with his replacement, a lonely marlboro hat, gets its own seat on buses, we’re rooting for ya buddy.
Got back to Hue from Hoi’An and spent a couple of hours sleeping, then shit, it was only yesterday, we got up at 6am, and you think we travellers have an easy life eh ? Hurtled up to Dong Ha, made friends with a local, who took us to see the DMZ (de-militarized zone) including the Vinh Moc tunnels and the Ben Hai River. Not so interested by the rockpile, church gate and all the other shite they advertise in the ‘tours’, we fucked it over and spent a morning in the pissing down rain wandering 25m underground.
Having managed to convince our fella to take us to the Lao border, only 50km west, we decided, seeing as it was only about 1pm (our general waking up time) we may as well try and cross into the promised land.
Promises of isolation, amazing coffee and bread, good weed, and something really quite different.
So far so good.
We crossed the line, getting slightly stuck in the mud that ran thick through it, and were promptly picked up in the back of a pick-up. Trundling through villages with children who looked almost Indian in origin, and who were totally fascinated by us, we were soon dropped off in one, where we considered spending the night. The sun was still up though, and when the local guy laughed at our decision to stay, we made the decision to hitch hike a little further. The same guy gave us a lift to the next town, and there more luck came our way when a mini-van gave us a lift to Savannakhet. Which is where I am now.
A city, which feels more like a small road-side town so far, is on the Mekong River, wich is the official border between Laos and Thailand, it is our itinerary to watch the sun go down over the Land of Thai this evening. We have not been let down by any of the promises as of yet. Moving on tomorrow, going to get up at a reasonable time, and yet again hitch to Vientiane. Wish me luck.
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