http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Adam-Hammy/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Adam Hammy en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:09:50 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:09:50 +0000 We left Hoi An and drove to the railway station at Da Nang to catch the Reunification Express sleeper train to Saigon. it was a really good journey and I've never slept so well on transport so farWe arrived in Saigon about 5am and got a taxi to where the cheap hotels and bars were. Of course being 5am none of the hotels or guest houses were open yet so we found a 24hr bar called GO2 and had a be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-383276.html We spent a few days in Hoi An visiting our first real beach of the trip so far and the tailors in town. You can literally fill your wardrobe here getting everything made however you want it. We went to one place called Mr Xe and he was hilarious. He was basically the Vietnamese John HumpfriesThere's also loads of souvenir shops and art for sale. I bought so much stuff because it was so cheap. I w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-376351.html we spent another couple of nights in Hanoi so i could find a new camera and Adam wanted to try and find the girl we was with in the Solace bar. he tried and failed unforunatelywe left Hanoi on the 7th to get an overnight bus down to Hu in the middle of the country. was about a 12 hour drive. we only paid for a normal aircon bus but somehow managed to blag our way onto a sleeper bus. glad we did http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/North-Central-Coast/Hue/blog-376344.html We left Hanoi on the train on 2nd to go to Haiphong so we could get a ferry to Cat Ba island and see Ha Long bay. We stayed a night in Haiphong which wasn't a great town. Not a lot there.Got a hydrofoil the next morning to Cat Ba island which is a beautiful island only about 30km from top to bottom. We got a nicish hotel on the seafront in Cat Ba town and then paid about 4quid to rent a motorbike http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Halong-Bay/blog-371166.html We spent the next few days exploring Hanoi. I really love this city and could happily spend a long time here. Annoyingly the first day was Friday and most of the museumsetc are closed. But walking round the town is just brilliant. The area around Hoan Kiem Lake is beautiful and its great just walking along it in the evening just watching all the couples sitting by the lake enjoying the view. We w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-371153.html We got the local bus to Nong Het near the LaosVietnam border. It was amusing to see how much they packed the bus full of people and cargo including about 20 planks of 4x2 down the aisle Was a right laugh and I guess we were a bit of novelty one guy took a photo of us. I much prefer travelling the proper local way compared to the tour buses.We got to the border early in the afternoon and pas http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-371151.html We stayed in Vang Vieng for another day of tubing. I can now see why people stay there as long as possible. It's a wicked place. This time we found the bar with a massive mud pit which was fantasticOn the 26th we got a local bus to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars. I gotta say it wasn't the best journey to take on a tubing hangover especially with the bus stinking as much as it did Every time we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-371146.html Woke up pretty hungover but a strang fryup later I was set for the tubing. Adam and I went with John from the bus and Andrea and Kristin we had met last night.Basically tubing is floating down a river on a tractor tyre inner tube. There are about 67 bars along the way you stop at. We saw some people at the first bar who we had met last night. They said then they were gonna have a day off today t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-368981.html Got a minibus today to Vang Vieng for our tubing experience. Wasn't a great journey in the back with my knees in my chin through windy mountainous roads. The fantastic scenery made up for it though. Chatted with a cool bloke sat next to me though John from Derby.Got to Vang Vieng 6 hours later. Got a tuktuk into town with the rest of the minibus crew and when we stopped somehow in the confusi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-368978.html Looked round town today. Had an English brekky to start the day off but had Laos tea still wanted to be a bit authentic. Looked round the palace and some temples today. Not as impressive as some of the ones in Thailand but still beautiful and rather fitting to the somewhat quaintness of the town. We walked up the 300 steps to the temple in the centre of the town and it was a fantastic view of th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-368973.html Woke up at 4 again to bloody cockerals Had my breakfast of omelette sandwich and ridicously strong tarlike 'brack coffee'.We left Pakbeng at 8am so we could visit a few places along the way before we arrived in Luang Prabang. It was freezing on the boat but thankfully the sun came out at 10 and it was the normal tshirt and shorts affair. We later found out that Laos is all like that possibly http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-368698.html Got up early again after being woken up by cockerals going off at 4am. We met Europeans to go get tickets for the 2day slow boat journey down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. After meeting some Italians and more English thank god we managed to bargain with the captian and charter our own boat the whole way for not much more than the normal ticket. We managed to get one for 18 people instead of the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Pakbeng/blog-368678.html Got up pretty early to catch our bus to Chaing Khong. Waited at the station for ages for the bus about as punctual as England. We arrived 7 hours later in at the Laos border after very painful Thai music the whole way on the bus.We followed some Europeans who looked more like they knew what they were doing and where they were going. We crossed the Mekong on a ferry to Houay Xai Laos and after ab http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Northern-Thailand/Chiang-Khong/blog-368674.html Had a bit of a lazy day today. Went on internet then organised a Songathaew to the bus station so we could book a bus to Chaing Khong the Laos border. Also got the same driver to take us to the Tourist Information Office T.A.T and Tourist Police so we could find out what we could do about getting some money back for our suits. Eventually the driver found the TAT office after many examinations o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-368672.html Woke up at 7 not feeling great Got in the minibus as we drove North to the Long Neck Tribe. Caught up on some sleep on the long journey.We arrived at the Long Neck Tribe where the women would put rings round their necks to stretch them. They have an extra ring put on every year up to about 27 rings. They are never allowed to take them off even at night. It looked quite painful but they seemed hap http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Rai/blog-364538.html We woke up quite late after catching up on sleep after the trekking. Decided to have a lazy day because we hadn't had a chance to relax with everything we've done.Went to internet cafe and tourist agency to try and sort out our bus to the Laos border and our trip to see the Golden Triangle and the LongNeck Tribe.Went back to the hotel and went for some food with the German we had met on the trek. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-364530.html We all woke up with a huge hangover and not looking forward to our walk that day. We walked for a few hours through the jungle to the bamboo rafting place. This was great fun just floating down the river on a load of bamboo canes tied together with a bloke at the front steering it. The Thai version of the Venetian boats. It was really relaxing and serene just taking in all the scenery apart from http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-363969.html After we all braved the 'hole in the ground' toilet we left for more walking. We walked a little way up the road and saw a little village with a school and shop. I thought we were in the middle of nowhere but this was civilisationWe walked about 2 hours of so to a little village for our lunch. We all helped the woman preparing rice to make us seem useful. We played cards outside the church whils http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Phu-Toei-NP/blog-363961.html We left the hotel at 9.30 in the back of a converted hilux truck with our tour group which consisted of us Woody our guide the 2 kiwis we'd met 2 norwegians 2 french and 1 german. Our English pride was at stakeAfter stopping at the market to stock up on rum we arrived at the elephant trek around 2 hours later. We got to trek on top of elephants and it was fantastic. It was truely amazing and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Dao/blog-363957.html We arrived in Chaing Mai early at 5am. I didn't get much sleep on the bus I was too worried about the driver's manic driving Because we arrived early our cab wouldn't be there till gone 7am. So we bundled into a tuk tuk and went to the hotel. After changing our worst room yet because they gave us a double we went to bed.got up at midday to go into town. Hopefully Chaing Mai would be better than http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-363954.html