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Published: February 26th 2007
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Good Times
A whiskey bucket with Jake and Ryan at a bar we don't remember Again, it has been a long time between posts. It is hard to keep up. Since I last posted, we have travelled a fair bit and covered a lot so I will try and tell you where we have been and what we have seen.
We travelled north to Hanoi, Vietnam capital and spent almost a week there staying in the old quarter. It is an old area of town where the streets are narrow and alive with action. From Hanoi, we toured to Halong Bay which is a bay with thousands of beautiful islands. We spent the day on a boat where we had lunch and boated through the islands. We also went to Perfume Pagoda which is a temple in a cave at the top of a mountain.
We were actually 10hrs south in Hue the day before and it had been quite cold there. All I had were shorts and t shirts and had heard Hanoi will be colder so I was trying to figure out what to do. It is hard to find clothes to fit me in Asia and I was freezing. But luckily we stumbled upon a store in Hanoi that had my size
Bamboo Bridge
Crossing this bridge at a high speed wobble 15 ft above the river and on sale. So Hye Young and I went on a spree and walked away with a few bags of clothing. I bought a couple pairs of pants and three jackets. All brand name and all cheap. Hye Young bought a nice Columbia jacket for 6$. What a place. I also bought a bunch of DVDS (Seinfeld, Band of Brothers, 24, and some others) for about a buck apiece. I should have got more.
We wandered the streets of Hanoi all the while getting hassled by cyclo drivers trying to take you somewhere. These guys are probably the single most frustraing part of our whole trip. We enjoy walking and always toured the city on foot when possible. We actually had one guy who followed us for nearly 45 minutes starting at 12$ and then down to 1$. By then I wanted to throw him off his bike and could care less if he said he'd drive us for free. The other thing that started to get on my nerves was the double pricing. One time we were eating at a local restaurant and we were charged more than the people beside us who ate more. When we go
Lets Go
1st day of tubing in Vang Vien to beaches or temples or pretty much anywhere, there is a sign showing two prices. This is in all SE Asia countries.
From Hanoi, we hopped on a 20 hr bus to Vientienne, Laos. Let's just say we weren't happy campers. I also left my watch on the bus and was quite choked as it was a good watch. Not expensive, just good. One nice thing is that Laos is a nice laid back country where Beer Laos (probably one of the best beers out there) is only a dollar. We stayed in Vientienne 2 days in shitty overpriced rooms at 10$ a night. Just a few old temples and the Laos Arch de Triumph there. Not a very exciting place and wouldn't recommend it. But it is where I got a ticket for failing to stop. Hye Young always wants me to rent a motorbike but I don't want to bc i dont have a license or insurance. But I gave in and we rented one for the day. We were just taking it out for a quick spin to get the hang of it and get to know the city when I heard the cop whistling me
Fox Line
Hye Young flying over. He couldn't speak English but kept pointing at the white line and saying stop, stop. Then writing down 60,000 kip on his notepad. We tried for 10 minutes to play dumb and try to get off but he wouldnt have it. I was trying to point out the other drivers not stopping nad the 12 yr old kids driving but that didnt matter. He knew I had money and wanted some. We bargained and got him down to 50,000 kip. All said and done, I was out 5$. Not a big deal, but I sure didnt want to paying 5$ tix every 20 minutes. So I made sure I drove slowly and carefully the rest of the day.
We left Vientienne for Vang Vieng the next day and arrived 5 hrs later. If you want to go to a place where you will have fun, this is it. This place was one of our favorite places. It is a small town where people just lay around and do nothing. Lay down at these restaurants where you watch Friends or the Simpsons all day, or hang out by the river. Drugs are easily accesible here and alot of people are
Look ma, no hands
Here I am dropping to the cold, cold water smoking weed or on mushrooms. We met 3 American guys on the bus ride up and hung out with them the 1st night. We met up while playing trivia and got a little drunk. The bars close at midnight and people said if you want to keep parying to follow them. We didnt even think twice, we just blindly followed these guys for 15 minutes in pitch black across 2 bamboo bridges(where i am surprised i didnt fall off) to some bar blaring music. We stayed there for i dont know how long where we somehow managed to find our way back. Was a very strange but fun night.
The next day we decicded to meet up again and do what Vang Vien is iknown for. Drinking beer while floating down a river. You pay 4$ to rent a tube and they take you up the river and drop you off. Depending on you, it takes about 4-5 hrs back to town. Along the way, locals pull you in to their riverside bars to buy another beer and jump off their swing or fox line. They have these swings set up on the side of the river and you swing
Smile
Our tubing group, 3 Americans, 2 Koreans, 1 Japanese, 1 Portugese, and 5 Canadians off like a pendulum. These towers are 30 feet high and very intimidating. When you drop, you are 30 feet in the air. It was so fun, we did it 2 days. People just hang out at these places jumping, drinking and partying. One guy in our group bought a bag of weed for 5$. It was huge. We couldn't believe it. He said it'd cost him 10x that back home. The local tribes grow weed, mushrooms and opium and dont see what the problem with these drugs are. This is why its so available.
After hanging here doing nothing, we hopped a 6 hr bus north to Luang Prabang. Is a World Heritage city bc it is a nice old city filled with temples. Is very nice with a great market where we bought some beautiful local handicrafts. They make these duvet covers and silk scarves that you'd pay a lot of money for back home. We bought enough for our future home and wish we had bought more. They are really gorgeous. We also went to Quang Xi waterfall, pretty 3 tiered fall. Had a nice swm in the freezing pools. We had been having a great trip,
but I got sick yet again. Good ole travellers diarrhea... I think it was my 3rd time. The 1st time was in Bangkok. Note: DO NOT DRINK WATER FROM THE FOUNTAIN AT THE GRAND PALACE... So being sick, I had had enough. We were going to travel 20 hrs to southern Laos but the thought of a bus again and only 2 weeks left anyway, we went to the travel agent and bought tix back to Thailand where we wanted to spend a few days realxing on the beach to end our trip.
So thats what we did. We got to Bangkok, bought our return tix back to Korea and headed to Pattaya, 2 hrs south, and hit the beach. Pattaya is not the greatest place but it did in a fix. We hung out at the beach, rented a jetski, swam, bought some Ipods, more beach and next thing you know we are on our way to the airport. We were talking how it had been so long we had been gone and then we arrived in Korea and it seemed like we hadn't left. Funny. So we are back in Ilsan, S Korea and just trying to get
back to usual. So I ll send out one more blog after this and that'll be all you have to hear form me.
later
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Turnsy
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Junes, Good post.....Serena and I will have to hit up this "floating drinking party" you speak of. SOunds like a great time!!!! I don't know about your water theory though......I drank the water at Grand Palace and was fine. Maybe it was all the Chicken on a Stick you ate???? Sounds like you guys had a good one! Prob nice to be home in a way...but ya, back to reality! Hopefully we'll see you guys in the next couple years, but if not, we'll see you in Korea or Thailand on our world trip!!!