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Published: October 11th 2010
Got a bit sidetracked the last 2 weeks it seems...
We had a remarkably uneventful and kind of downer last 6 days in Lao. There is a massive complex of caves near the Vietnamese border where the revolutionary soon-to-be government of Lao lived during the massive US bombing campaign called Pathet Lao. We tried 2 times to go see them but ran into funny hitches along the way. Lao is the kind of place where the phrase later doesn't nessesarily mean later today and often mean much later than you thought possible. This is fine as long as you realize that you may just not get to do what you thought you could. We were, after 3 1/2 weels in Lao very aware of this but it still hung up our Caving plans. The first day we tried to go we got too late a start and took (a pleasant) long breakfast. We arrived at the bus station where trucks leave for the cave town of Vieng Xai but when we realized that the caves closed an hour after we would arrive we decided to bail on the plan and try again tomorrow with an alarm set, faster feet and
fresher faces. This failed...
We arose early and ate quickly but ended up still missing the early bus by 15 minutes. (we didn't find out how close we were until much later that day) We were told another bus would leave later and sort of had the feeling we would be waiting for hours but really just wanted to see the caves and there were other locals waiting for the same ride so we figured it wouldn't be too long. 3 hours later the bus arrived and we were off to Veing Xai. We arrived 1 hour before the caves closed and were denied a tour not on account of being late but that the organizers wanted us to have a good time and see the history but felt that we couldn't posibly see more than 2 of the dozen caves. It was nice of them to not take our money and lie to us but we were really dissapointed as the next day, even if we wanted to go AGAIN, our visas were up for Lao and we had to go to Vietnam.
You can't win them all and we ahve already seen many amazing caves in
guard lion
isn't he cuteLao so it was a bittersweet end to our trip in that lovely place. The town we spent our last days in had a very frontier feel and actually was cool at night enough to warrant a 2nd layer which was a wonderful reprieve. The town itself had nothing but 2 net cafes, 2 small markets, and a bunch of war monuments. I made a couple faux pas when dealing with local merchants while trying to buy memory for our camera and caused them to "loose face" which is a big no-no but that sort of thing usually doesn't happen to us and we were leaving anyways. Still we avoided a few streets to not run into the merchants again LOL.
NEXT STOP VIETNAM!
The crossing that we planned to use is the most remote and mountainous between Lao and Vietnam... it is therefore a beautiful, if wildy bumpy, bus ride. Up and down and down and up and .... all around (?) for 6 hours before we reached the lowland plateaus. The border itself was painless and for whatever reason the guards waived our departure fee. (funny to have to pay to leave somewhere) Our first stop
Hanoi Hilton Enterance
the red sign praises the 1000th birthday party was Thanh Hoa which we only stayed in because you can save a lot of money by spending the night here and taking a local bus to Ha noi. It was nice to be in a mid sized city instead of a metropolis after so long in small towns and villages anyways and we met a bunch of funny children playing in the street. In the morning we caught a ride to Hanoi and were there in a few hours. The roads in Vietnam are rather splendid and wide compared to Lao and that is good because the traffic is wild with motorbikes, large trucks and buffalo carts. Getting into the Old Quater itself was tricky as we took the wrong city bus but we worked it out and were setup in a hostel without much trouble. We were hungry enough to eat a motorbike and sweaty enough to drown but unscathed.
Hanoi is about as far removed as one can get from peaceful mountain villages but after being away from cities for so long there was a certain comfort in the choas. Also good to mention is that the city just celebrated its 1000th birthday and we arrived
1 day before the massive culmunation and biggest celebrations. Jubulant as HECK. Everyone was smiling, there were easily a million vietnamese tourists visiting, there were parades, classical opera, giant dazzling circus performances, colour and light everywhere. Party time indeed! With all of that it still didn't compare to the visceral nature of most indian cities and was downright plesant as long as you didn't need to cross a street.
There are 3.7 million residents and everyone has a motorbike...PLUS the tourists (vietnamese) all riding who don't know the rules of the road so traffic was a force to be reckoned with. The sidewalk isn't for walking in Hanoi, it is for makeshift resaurants, mini-cafes, bars made up of 2 kegs and kiddie chairs as well as parking for thousands of motos but you get used to being forced to walk on the road even with all the traffic and people and mess. Hanoi is despite its age and size quite clean and free of the troubles one would expect. The buildings are glorious and cramped narrow alleyways lead to backstreets hidden away; there are things piled on stuff piled of everything; old men on bikes carrying more than you
think possible; at the same time as all of this the whole scenario is quite modern and efficient in a weird manner.
We visited the infamous Hanoi Hilton, the french built prison used for revolutionary Vietnamese that later was used to house American POW's. Not that we expected a jail tour to be bright and cheery but the place was quiet creepy. There are lots of shackled mannequins, a giant guillotine, original (uncleaned) cells, and tons of historical information that we knew not before. The only thing that was a bit off was how there was particular effort to make it seem like the vietnamese took lots of care to make the americans comfortable which i believe to a point but not as far as it was portrayed. All in all it was great to visit.
Currently we are seaside at Cat Ba island. It is remarkable built up here and there are construction sites nearby building resorts and hotels but it is almost eerie as everywhere seems to be empty or closed but otherwise loosk shiny new. Hopefully we haven't wandered into a horror movie but if so i am ready to slay some damned zombies. We
haven't been swimming for over a month and although its a bit chic here for our tastes its cheap enough and pretty enough to stay a couple nights.
Otherwise we are taking a slow boat to halong bay, the place that everyone has seen if you have seen any pictures of Vietnam then back to Hanoi where we will plan our venture southward.
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amelia
non-member comment
lime leaf parade
Hey! i really enjoy reading the placards! I liked the perspective and way of wording. So, other than beautiful glorious coconut rice, what should i do with a bunch of lime leaf??? In your opinions. I've also got some fresh thai basil. I think i'll make something fancy.