Firstly we'd like to apologise for the blog overload as we are about to leave! It would not have happened had travelblog not had so many problems. We fly home tonight, after spending the last couple of days in Bangkok doing things we'd missed the first couple of times here... e.g. A thoroughly relaxing massage (well deserved we think!) We wanted to use this page as way to say "Thank You" to all of you who have taken the time to read our blogs and follow our Journey and for all your support throughout. Our travelblog has meant such a lot [View Full Entry]

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Our time in Vientiane was short as we aimed to cross the border the day after we arrived. Despite this we still managed to cram in a few things. First we visited the Buddha Park, a field full of concrete Buddhist statues, with an enormous reclining Buddha statue. This was a quirky little place, made better by the entertaining bus journey there. We are by now used to people's reactions towards us when we travel on public transport, the usual stares, smiles and attempted conversations in the native tongue. But for once it wasn't us who were centre of attention. A [View Full Entry]

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Originally we had planned to go straight to Vientiane from Luang Prabang, but after much discussion from other fellow travelers, we felt we ought to pay Vang Vieng a visit. We arrived at 11oclock at night after another lengthy but scenic bus ride. We needn't have worried about an open guesthouse as the one main street of this small place, was lined with lively bars. There are so many guesthouses that they are all at cutthroat prices. We were whisked into one for $3 between us! Vang Vieng has nothing really of cultural value to offer but sometimes its nice just [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop was the town of Luang Probang in the centre of northern Laos. This town is a world heritage site and it’s hardly surprising. Its magnificent surroundings of mountains and river create the perfect setting for this beautiful town. Luang Prabang's buildings are heavily influenced by French colonial architecture. Bakeries spring up all over the place amongst the pretty French designs. On our first day, we enjoyed a walking tour of the town mapped out for us by our guidebook. We looked in at the Royal Palace and observed a multitude of Wats. The most special being a steep [View Full Entry]

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Finally in Laos, we spent another tedious 24 hr bus trip, travelling to the north of Laos, fairly near the Chinese boarder. All in all this meant a total of about 36 hours sitting cramped in rickety old buses. Although highly uncomfortable, we felt it best to get it all over and done with in one go. A huge compensation was the fact that Laos is absolutely breath taking! The land is so mountainous that the roads are windy and poorly kept, which is why the journeys take so long. All we passed was thick jungle, forested hills and villages made [View Full Entry]

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Hanoi is Vietnam’s capital, although smaller in population than the south’s Ho Chi Minh. Hanoi’s streets are narrow and crammed with all sorts of stalls, which consequently made it so difficult for us to navigate. Everywhere looked so similar that we were constantly getting lost. For us, the most wonderful thing about Vietnam is its people. We have been greeted with nothing but warmth and smiles and made to feel so welcome throughout our time in the country. We were therefore a little disappointed by Hanoi’s cooler reception towards us. People endlessly tried to rip us [View Full Entry]

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Today was a wonderful day spent at Halong Bay, to the east of Hanoi on the coast. Getting there was a little hairy to say the least! As we come to the end of our travels, money is our greatest obstacle and consequently means we try to do everything in the cheapest possible way. There are plenty of packaged tours advertised around Hanoi, but we opted for the local bus and arranging a boat tour around the bay at the "Tourist Wharf". The bus would have taken a good hour had another bus not crashed in to the side of us! [View Full Entry]

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Hoi An is pretty much a half way mark on the east cost of Vietnam. It’s an extremely pretty town with a river that separates the old town section. The French colonial influence is highly apparent in the picturesque architecture and little crème coloured boutiques and cafes. On our first full day in Hoi An we hired a cyclo (bicycle taxi with a carriage for two at the front of it) and were peddled around the delightful old town. It was so relaxing to sit and absorb this old fashioned town within a more modern town, where the Vietnamese people carry [View Full Entry]

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Our second day with Scimitar and Hien was again amazing. After rising to the sound of cockerels and piglets, we ate noodle soup before boarding a boat to cross Lak Lake. The journey to the nearby island was spectacular, with elephants crossing the deep water in front of a mountainous backdrop. Hien was very proud to show us round the island, claiming that no other Easy (or Cheesy) Rider knew of this place. We were taken to a "feeding hole", where the very superstitious villagers fed their dead relatives, for two to three years, through specially designed holes in their tombs! [View Full Entry]

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From Cantho we took a long mini bus journey up to Dalat, via Ho Chi Minh City! The bus conductor tried to fit four people onto every three seats - not something you want when you are spending 20 hours on a bus! Bex wasn’t too pleased with the wandering hands of the drunkard sat next to her. Eventually we arrived in Dalat at 2am and were whisked off to a hotel by two helpful Moto drivers. Luckily Vietnam has a 24 hour reception system, where someone sleeps behind the desk, so if you bang hard enough and long enough on [View Full Entry]

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