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Published: March 6th 2011
We are sailing up the Mekong River, (SE Asia's answer to the Nile) for the second day now, travelling from Luang Prabang in Laos and heading for the Thai border. This is a particularly rugged and scenic setting, as the river meanders its path through unchartered jungle and mountainous landscapes. The river is sometimes quiet and still, like a mirror, and at other times agressive and hateful with whirlpools and rapids - not a bad setting to write our blog we think!
After we last wrote to you, we travelled north up to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city. On that journey we met Katja, a German girl travelling on her own. We were on a bus, the majority Vietnamese with only 3 'westerners'. So the three of us got talking, and got on well enough for the three of us to travel together for the last 14 days - we only parted company 2 days ago, as we were heading to Thailand, and Katja wanted to make use of her Laos visa and spend more time there. I think she travelled with us partly for company and partly for safety, but we had some great times together and it was a
pleasure to know her for this brief time.
Anyway, back to Hanoi.........We were really using Hanoi as a base to see the beautiful Halong Bay, but nevertheless we explored this huge city and had mixed feelings. We stayed in an area where there seemed to be quite a few hostels, on a busy road, but suited us as it was nice and cheap, was pretty central, and included breakfast. The sun never seemed to rise above the buildings, so our days seemed grey and cold. Away from the busy main roads were the side streets which are fantastic places to explore. You would often find us relaxing after a hard days walk around the city sitting on small plastic chairs on the pavement outside a local cafe, drinking Vietnamese coffee (strong stuff, which is why they only give you a small amount), as well as eating the local noodle soup - a great time to relax and 'people watch'. It's a good city to explore on foot. The furhter away from our hostel we walked, the more we saw of the real city, and less of the tourists; locals trading chickens, noodles, mango's, and an entire STREET selling only
mechanical parts for cars and motorbikes. Another street was lined with thirty or forty small stores just trading spices, the smell was unforgettable. How one shop can compete with the shop next door for business I don't know. Another street had EVERY shop selling bamboo products - baskets, mats, chicken cages, rows and rows of bamboo scaffolding, you name it. Bamboo is such a useful product of the land here - and so strong. They build pretty much everything with it.
HOWEVER.... we felt that the North Vietnamese were the most unfriendliest people we have met on our trip to date. There were a couple of exceptions, but unfortunately most of the North Vietnamese we met or dealth with, tried to lie, cheat and take our money at every possible opportunity. For example, we go to a restaurant, order beers for 15,000D - the bill comes and they have charged us 20,000D, then they 'suddenly' don't speak any English or tell us that that was 2010 prices. After having a few beers it soon adds up. Marieke had a heated argument with the manager on the phone in an attempt to pay what it stated on the menu but
was cut off. Upon leaving the restaurant, fruit was then thrown at us! Another example - The bus to Laos was $30 (US$), we want to pay in Dong (Vietnam's currency), they convert it - not by the official exchange rate of 20,000D to the dollar, but to 23,000D - it happened every bleeding day and we really had to make sure we didn't lose money. It was a tiring, stressful experience and one that has slightly tarnished our thoughts of Vietnam. Tourism is very important to the local people and they should respect us as much as we try to respect them, and not use as like cash machines.
The day before we arrived in Hanoi, Marieke received a text message from her step mum Jane, asking if we were alright and hoping that we weren't involved in that terrible accident in Halong Bay, where at 5am, whilst everyone on board was sleeping, part of the hull of one of the boats carrying tourists broke off, and sank within one and a half minutes, tragically killing about 12 of the tourists and two crew members. Thankfully we were two days behind schedule on our trip, but had we
been on schedule, we could have potentially been on that boat. A very scary thought. Our hearts go out to the families of those who lost their lives. Our next dilema was whether we would risk doing the exact same boat trip that killed all those tourists, or to not go at all. We came all this way to Hanoi to see Halong Bay and it's full glory, but we were quite scared and reluctant to take the same boat, just two days after the accident. After a lot of hestation, we booked the 2 day trip to Halong Bay from Hanoi. If you haven't heard of Halong Bay then please 'Google' it because it was the most impressive landscape we have seen - ever! We took a boat out into the bay where we sailed through these majestic islands. Thousands of huge tree clad rocks rise vertically up from the sea. Sea eagles soared above our heads, occasionally diving for fish near our boat. The bay was eerily calm within the islands and all was quiet and echoey, it was very serene. Barrie took a canoe into the bay, and explored caves, stacks and stumps. We stayed on dry
land that evening because of the unfortunate boat accident that happened 2 days before. We wandered whether that was why there weren't as many boats on the water as we were expecting, Nevertheless, we had some bays to ourself which we didn't complain about!
Halong Bay was one of the highlights of the trip so far for both of us, and we are so pleased we bit the bullet and faced our fears about another boat sinking. What eased the fear was the fact that the government wasn't allowing anyone to sleep on the boat overnight. The police were going through the long process of checking all the boats have been maintained, and are safe to anchor overnight. This meant that the tour company put us up in a hotel on Catba Island for the night, to our delight! The only complaint was the weather, due to the topography of Vietnam, the north is cold - 10-15 degrees, and when you have been used to 35 degrees plus, it comes as quite a shock to have to put your fleece and rain mac on - yes we actually saw rain for the first time since we left England!
We headed back to Hanoi and got a Day//Night/Day bus down to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. The journey was 26 hours - believe us, that is a long time to be lying down in our bunks on the bus, without showering, cleaning your teeth etc. I think we began to get a bit of cabin fever when we got to Laos at the 10 hour mark, with 16 hours still to go. The the first time in our trip, we were a little unprepared as we didn't have any local currency on us for the rest of the journey. We assumed they would accept American dollars in Laos, like in Cambodia and Vietnam... however they didn't. We had run out of water and food, and had no money, with no sign of an ATM for 16 hours in either direction. We had to beg a kind hearted fellow traveller for some money (Kip) for water and crisps, how could he say no??? We survived the 26 hour journey on little water, and two packets of spicey crisps.
We spent a few days exploring our first destination in Laos, Vientiane, one day by foot, the other by bicycle -
Katja was a bit crazier than us on a push bike, and led the way through the busy scooter filled streets, not afraid to pull out infront of trucks, buses and cars - it was quite an experience. Vientiane was only a place to stay for no more than 2 days and we were soon bored, so it was time to move on. We travelled north to Vang Vieng, Barrie's favourite stop off to date.
Vang Vieng is small town of two sides - huge jagged mountains with shear limestone faces and a river flowing in front of the cliffs, only a stones through away from the town. Its natural setting was perfect. However, it has a reputation for being a bit of a party town due to the infamous 'Tubing', where travellers are taken 3km up river, given an inner tube and expected to float back down river to the town. Between you and the town are LOTS of makeshift bamboo riverside bars, slides and swings, and people just stop off and have beer, cocktails, pot, opium, mushrooms, 'happy shakes' (if you are inclined to), and swing from a rope into the river - it was great fun,
so relaxed and we really wish we had the time to do it again. Unfortunately, people drink and smoke too much on the river and at least 2 people die per year due to drowning. For that reason we took it easier on the river and partied in the town afterwards. A beautiful, very cheap place to stay, we could have spent 2 weeks here!
We then travelled further north to Luang Prabang, by now, we'd realised how much we were enjoying Laos and really wished we'd had more time to explore this lovely country - we should have taken a week off Vietnam - oh well!
Luang Prabang was lovely - French colonial architecture, windows with aged shutters, flowers, white walls, a small historic peninsular (a world heitage site), and many temples. We relaxed, and sat in cafes for the first day, just soaking in the atmosphere. The second day was spent at some waterfalls - 35km out of town, here we swam in blue lagoons and sat on rocks under waterfalls. We decided to walk up the steep side of the biggest (100ft) waterfalls (all Bear Grylls like) - that turned into an awsome jungle trek,
and we suspect more interesting than the type you pay $30 for over here! We finally got to the top of the waterfalls, walked through the streams at the top, some of which resembled jungle swamps, 1ft from the edge of the drop, pearing down 100ft to the bottom. We contimued to walk through the jungle, not really dressed for jungle trekking as we hadn't expected we would be in the middle of a humid jungle, rife with flora and fauna, and with the sound of insects. We didn't have a map either. Marieke had left her leatherman in the room, as well as the compass. So when Marieke and Beth (a 19 year old Canadian, travelling along with us for a few days) thought they heard a distant roar, panic set in......now Barrie had only read recently that there were still all sorts of wild animals in Laos, including the Tiger! We turned and walked VERY quickly back to the falls, where we found the path and descended down the other side, adrenaline pumping! Barrie got bitten on the forehead in the jungle, a spot the size of a 10p piece - very attractive.
So we left Luang
Prabang, Katja and our other travelling buddy Beth (Katja seemed to attract other single female travellers, as it was cheaper for them to share a room), and we both got on the Long Boat bound for the Thai Border. We are going to explore the North of Thailand for a short time before flying down to the South Islands and then on down to Singapore for the 21st March - rush rush rushing unfortunately.
We hope all is well back in sunny U.K? We are having a lovely time, still so interested in everything we see. Keep in touch, write us a message if you want and take care!
Love Barrie and Marieke xxxxx
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Albert
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Pffff
Sending you our love from New Jersey, where the snow has been washed away by the rain and it is gray... very gray...! Happy for you guys though. Enjoy the South Islands, and I hope you're ready for the shock of capitalist 'civilisation' (Signapore)...