Lao, Vietnam and Cambodia

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On the morning of the 7th July we crossed the Mekong river over to Lao and to Houei xai. After an extremely easy and hassle free border crossing we got on another boat and set of on a 2 day boat trip down the Mekong river to our first main destination in Lao, Luang Prabang. The boat journey was a little uncomfortable on the first day but the views along the river were beautiful and it was cool seeing all the various little villages along the river. After around 6 hours on the first day we stopped overnight at a place called Pakbeng. As soon as we got there we booked in to a guest house for 25000 kip each (under two pounds) and headed out for a meal and our first taste of beer Lao, again being stupidly cheap at around 60p for a big bottle. The next morning we were back on the boat, this time having comfortable seats and arrived in Luang Prabang at around 5 in the evening, 8 hours after leaving Pakbeng.

On our first and only full day in Luang Prabang we just walked round taking in all the scenery and the extremely laid back atmosphere the little town offered. We visited various different temples and museums as well as walking along both the Mekong river and the Nam Khan river. At around 6pm we headed up the Phousi mountain and checked out the amazing views over the town and also were there for the sunset which was pretty cool. The followed the same kinda theme of the day i.e. chilling out and enjoying the laid back nature of the place. For dinner we went to a place called Smilelao and had cocktails and a lao style bbq which we cooked ourselves at our table. The bbq included a soup stock, meat, fresh vegetables, noddles and an egg and was extremely tasty, probably something to do with the cook, ha! After we headed to another bar called laolao and after a few more cocktails all being buy one get one free we headed back to the Muonglao guest house where we were staying. On the morning of the 10th we got on a bus heading down to Vang Vienge. The views and the scenery on the 6 hour drive were just spectacular and despite the bus being very sweaty made for an enjoyable journey.

As soon as we got to Vang Vienge we found out some devastating news, that a very good friend and house mate from New Zealand had past away, R.I.P Dazza your a legend!!!! After this news the mood obviously changed considerable and after having a big night out toasting our mate with every drink the next day was spent recovering from a hangover and trying to get our head around the news we had just heard. On July 12th we decided to go tubing as that was what Vang Vienge was famous for. Tubing involves sitting on a rubber ring and floating down the Mekong river getting puled into various bars along the river. This was great fun and at one of the bars there was a crazy trapeze swing very high up which was not only good fun but a little painful if you let go at the wrong time and landed badly!!! After a few days here we were on the road again and heading down to Vientiane the capital of Lao. Are main reason for going to Vientiane was to get a bus over the border to Vietnam and to get up to Hanoi. Because of this we didn't do a great deal here apart from have a little walk round on the 14th July before getting on our bus to Hanoi.

Its safe to say the bus journey up to Hanoi was something of an experience. When i first got on the bus my seat was situated over a massive puddle of water, then there were far to many people on the bus so you had people seating in the aisle and to top it of after around an hour of the journey it started to rain and there was a leak directly over where i was seating. After an extremely uncomfortable few hours we got to the border crossing at about one in the morning and had to wait till 7 to cross as it wasn't open. Again the border crossing was anything but easy and proved to be an awful lot of hassle after pretty much getting no sleep. First getting out of lao was like entering a wrestling match with all the local folks pushing and shoving to get to the window to get there passport stamped. Once that was achieved getting into Vietnam was equally as challenging with first not having the right currency of money and then spending 10 minutes trying to convince a non English speaking guy the the photo on my passport was actually me.


So we arrived in Vietnam on the 15th July and after around 9 more hours on the bus we arrived at our destination of Hanoi, 24 hours after leaving Lao. Once in Hanoi we met back up with Sam's brothers, John and Tom, went for a meal and a few beers and discussed our game plan for the next few days. On the morning of the 16th we got a bus up to Halong bay and started a two day one night boat trip around the bay. We got on the boat at around midday and had lunch, which was vietamese food and extremely tastey considering we were on a boat. After lunch we headed off out into the bay and could immediately see the hundreds of small islands and rocks the bay has on offer. After around an hour we stopped at the first attraction of the trip, Dau go and Dong thiencung caves. Here we got off the boat and had a look around the caves. From here we went on towards a fishing village on the boat and got on a long boat to go though the caves into private bays, which was beautiful. That evening we ate dinner, cracked open a bottle of johnny walker whiskey and enjoyed a night on the boat. In the morning we went kayaking before returning to Halong bay city. We got back to Hanoi at around 5 o clock and jumped straight on a night bus to Hue, which is 12 hours south along the coast.

Before getting to Hue our bus stopped of at Dong Ha for breakfast. Whilst eating breakfast we had a tour guide come over to us and tell us about a trip he does to some war tunnels so we decided instead of heading straight to Hue we would do this first. On the trip our first destination was Doc Mieu military cemetery. Before looking around there our guide who was extremely knowledgeable on the Vietnamese civil war and all other wars took us to an area of old battle fields where he showed us some mines which were both still active and ones that had been de-activated which was extremely if not a little scary and made us walk extremely carefully through the field. The cemetery itself was only for the north Vietnamese army and the Guerillas, which i found strange as we were still in the old south Vietnam. From the cemetery we went to the old border control/crossing on the Ben Hai river and had a look at the war museum there which again was extremely interesting and allowed me to learn more about the war in Vietnam which before this trip i knew very little about. After going over the bridge and crossing over to the old north Vietnam we got back on the mini bus and went to the main attraction of the trip the Vinh Moc Tunnels. These were just incredible and really made me realise the way the Vietnamese people live during the war. The caves took 18 months to built and were just amazing with the guide pointing out the various different rooms in the caves and the many different exits and entries into the cave. The trip finished at around four and we got down to Hue at 6.

So we arrived in Hue on the evening of the 18th and had a big night out with lots to drink and lots of bad dancing which was beginning to become a theme. In one bar we managed to clear the dance floor!!! The next day i went on a little walk around the city of Hue, I went over the Huong river on the Truong Tien bridge and had a look around the markets before heading to the Citadel. The citadel is a massive area of Hue which is surrounded by a wall, kinda making it separate to the rest of the city. The next morning, 20th July, we were on the move again and got a relatively short bus journey down to Hoi An, again along the coast. Here we immediately took advantage of the vietamese fresh beer, which cost 4000 dong which is around 13p, result!! The next day we hired out bikes from our hotel and cycled along the Hoi An river until we got to Cua Dai beach where we spent around 3 hours enjoying the clear blue sea and the extremely hot weather. We had another night out where every bar seemed to have a buy one get one free offer or something to match and we even enjoyed a bit of table football in a place called the Dream Bar. The night ended at around 4 in the morn and meant the next day was spent lounging around and not achieving a great deal! On the 23rd July we rented out motorbikes from our hotel (An Hoi) and went to the Marble mountains (Ngu Hanh Son). After around 40 mins of enjoying the open highway we arrived at our destination and headed straight up the mountain taking in all the various Buddha statues and sculptures and also enjoying all the natural caves through out the mountain. In the afternoon we did a cooking course at the Citronella restaurant which was great fun again learning a lot about the Vietnamese culture. We cooked spring rolls, deep fried prawns with coconut crumb, crap and asparagus soup and the main dish, grilled squid with lemon grass and chili. It was really interesting learning all the different and unusual cooking techniques shown to us from our teacher. After a pretty fun filled day i left sam and his brothers in Hoi An and headed down to Nah Trang on another 12 hour night bus.

I spent 2 days in Nah Trang both of which were spent on the beach as that is pretty much all to do there, on the second day i met back up with barbs and we headed down to Saigon on another 12 hour night bus. Again we only spent 1 day in Saigon where we had a little walk around going to the market, the reunification palace and the Saigon notre dame cathedral. The next day on the 27 we headed to Cambodia and to the capital Phnom Pehn.


Once we arrived in Phnom Pehn we got on a tuk tuk with a couple of girls from the isle of white, kim and Rhian and headed to Boeng Kak lake as this is where all the cheap accomadation is. All four of us ended up checking into a place called smile guesthouse, which immediately put a smile on our faces as it cost 1 doller 50 each. After checking in we had a little walk around and dicovered every bar seemed to have happy hour from 5 o clock. As the time was around 5 we decided to start drinking. This continued into the night and we probably got back to the guest house at around mid night. The next days was a bit more of a sombre affair as we decided to visit both Choeung ek killing fields and the s21 prison which is now a genocide museum. Both sight were totally shocking but extremely interesting and pretty hard to believe that the Khmer rouge regime ended only 30 years ago in 1979. At the killing fields they had on display 1000s of human skulls and pointed out many graves some with as many as 400 people buried in them. At the museum we walked around the cell blocks that the prisoners were kept and read all about the Khmer rouge regime and both the victims of it and the various different leaders. As the day was a little depressing me. barbs and kim decided that another night out was needed to lift our spirits. So after having a few beers at the guest house we headed out ending up in the heart of darkness bar which was a really cool place. On the 29th we spent the day watching movies with a serious head ache and then on the 30th we got on a 6 hour bus journey up to Siem Reap.

We spent 2 full days in Siem Reap with the second day being spent at the Angkor temples which are just spectacular and something you would struggle to see anywhere else in the world!!! The temples we visited were Angkor Wat, the Angkor Thom area (Bayon temple, terrace of elephants and the leaper king) and Ta Prohm which is a temple right in the middle of the jungle and is extremely cool!! On the 2nd August we decided it was time to leave Cambodia and head back to thailand to meet up with some Aussie friends we first met over a year ago on the Inca trail.

Until next time people, take care x

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