Erm... I'm still in Laos! Actually not really in Vang Vieng but that's where we just spent the last 4 days. Being having a pretty amazing time to be honest. I love Laos! But first I', going to try and cast my mind back and finish off our 2000km journey through Vietnam. Be forgiving of spelling and grammar in this blog guys; I cn't really see the keyboard very well. (I'll explain later!).
So our last day in Hanoi we spent doing our usual thing when waiting for night buses; drinking iced coffee and fruit shakes in cafes and generally wandering about. But this time we had the added excitement of the cheapest beer in the world to enjoy! Bia Hoi is basically just unnamed draft beer that you get in this little cross roads in the middle of the old quarter. It's 4000 Dong. That's about 17p. ebough said! You sit on tiny little stools on the pavement and watch the motorbikes zoom by all sorts of stuff on the back. very nice end to our time in Vietnam. or so we thought... little did we know that disaster was about to strike! Okay maybe a bit dramatic. The bus man showed up to pick us up... NO BUS. Apparently it was stuck or something and he wanted us to pay more to go on this other bus. We didn't like the sound of that. Also we had just spent our last Dong on beer... oops. So we told him we wanted a full refund and Nai charged off into Hanoi to find us a nightbus that was leaving that night. Ive honestly never seen Nai move so fast! haha! But she did really well and found this lovely guy who gave here 2 minutes to go and get me, rang round and found us a great deal, and then drove us basically all the way across Hanoi on the back of his bike, at full speed, to this local bus station. (I was slightly scared for my life; on a moto, with a complete stranger, 15kgs on my back, 5 on my front, no helme, weaving through rush-hour traffic... sorry mum!!!!) But he was actually a total legend and we got a really nice nightbus. He worked for Adventures Indochina (yep tht's a plug!). So our trip into Laos was a long one; 24 hours. The border was quite confusing, but we made it through without too much trouble. It's just confusing because you have to pay to leave Vietnam, then get a visa about 500m down the road in Laos, and nobody spoke any English. Just smile alot! Some final thoughts on Vietnam... They seem to be the most incrediblely hardworking and enterprising people. Everyone works non-stop, from the ladies selling bagettes on the side to the motorways, to moto-drivers and shopkeepers. It's all about contrast in Asia. You've got the busiest, craziest roads you've ever seen, then feral chickens on the pavement. Life is a slow pace, but the same time it's so hectic in the cities.
We were glad to arrive in Vientiene and take the pace down a notch. It's so tiny for a capital city, and everything's alot more chilled out here. And then we went to Vang Vieng.... Oh Vang Vieng, how best to describe you? It's pretty indescribable; JUST GO! This is where you going tubing. Its a little town on the banks of the Nam Song river, under huge limestone moutains, where you rent a big inflattable ring, drive up stream and float down.. via several bars... and rope swings, and slides, and mud-volleyball. Oh yeah and everyone drinks from buckets. Yeah the ones you get at the seaside! It's the most fun I've had in ages. We chose to do probably one of the most dangerous things we will do on friday the 13th... haha! But all went fairly well. My camera doesn't really like river water that much... It's kinda part of the fun that you injure yourself, and get the dreaded 'Pink Eye' was a basically conjunctivitus that ALL the travellers get who come trhough here. We're unsure whether it's the muddy river or just the 24/7 partying thing that causes it. Poor Nai got it the first day and really struggled. I have it now... hence not really being able to see so great. It's really painful and looks like you've been a) punched in the eye, twice. b) done alot of drugs c) been crying for days. Non of which I'm that keen on! haha. Were on antibiotics and it clears up after afew days. Nothing to worry about! So we tubed for two days, recovered in between, made loads of new friends. ON my last day i completely lost my tube and everyone else but just ended up swimming down river, under a the moon and stars. It was pretty amazing.
Were back in Vientiene now and flying to Kuala Lumpur tonight. We are just about in one piece! Laos is really nice. They do great sandwiches here, because of the french influence (It was a french colony). We've lievd off them because they are so cheap.
Okay, time to fly, see you in Malaysia!
lots of love El & Nai