Asia...the land of (terrible) karaoke!

After being woken at 7 am...again...by the locals practicing their karaoke in their tiny houses (think cats screeching mixed with the determination of a weight lifter), I decided I would write a little update!

Since Chiang Mai in Thailand (where we stayed an extra two days to watch Thai Boxing, only to find it was cancelled because the Prince came to stay…gutted as it only cost 7 quid there and would have cost 80 pounds in Bangkok!) we moved onto Chiang Khong, where we literally crossed the Mekong to enter Laos!

Met some fab people here - a dutch and Danish girl, a couple Rowan and Abby from Brighton and two lads from Southampton, Ben and Jimmy, who we pretty much traveled through Laos with and had lots of fun (although our plan to save has gone down the pot, as like most British they like a good drink!). We took a two-day slowboat (about ten hours a day on wooden benches - ouch) along the Mekong which was novel - not much to do but enjoy the views and buy a few bottles of Songserm (Thai whiskey) to pass the hours! Beautiful scenery and a really relaxing way to travel. Stayed a night over in Pakbeng, a tiny town with no electricity, but plenty of Lao Lao (Lao whiskey, or whikky as they call it!) flowing! Ended up in Luang Prabang, the cultural centre, and a beautiful town with amazing night markets, temples and views of the Mekong river.

Laos has been surprisingly expensive - which was a bit of a shock to the system! We thought it was going to be cheaper than Thailand, but (apart from the beer) everything costs more! Still - Luang Prabang was fun - had some great local food and noodle soups from the street-stalls, and watched the sunset from a beautiful temple up the hill where you get fantastic views of the mountain scenery all around, and the Palace Museum. Laos is stunning - even on the drive between Luang Prbaang and Vang Vieng, you could stare for hours at the karst limestone mountains and rolling hills, and see how the locals live (not unlike Indonesia) in little wooden huts on the cliff edges.

After an early start to watch the monks walk the streets collecting alms (offerings) we headed to Vang Vieng, backpacker central, and a tiny town again on the Mekong river! Bit of a hippy town - spent a day cycling around the caves - Seriously hard work as the roads were pure rubble, but we ended up meeting some Irish on the road who tipped us off to go to the Blue Lagoon. A good 7km cycle away, we finally made it in the heat and it was definitely worth it! Rock climbed upto the cave which was huge and very impressive, and then cooled off swimming in the blue lagoon - beautiful water! On our cycle back stopped off at a few local villages to get some water and met some great kids who wouldn't stop giving us the thumbs up!

We also went tubing - what Vang Vieng is famous for! You get a tuk-tuk about 10km along the river, and all of a sudden you're in this crazy atmosphere. The water is pretty low - but you can tube down river and stop off at all these bars. There's an area of about 8 bars together which you float between and they throw you sticks to drag you in. Everywhere gives free shots, lots of buckets and beer and is filled with mayhem seekers! There are zip-wires from trees, swings that you jump off into the water, a massive (and lethal slide) and people just doing nuts jumps out of these trees into the water!! It was really good fun, but kind of dangerous as everyone had had a few too many and the water was so low, rocks were jutting out everywhere. I'd say half the people were injured, and we saw someone get their face smashed in on a rock - only the week before a girl had died there by breaking her neck! So we took it pretty easy - did a couple of swings, and had a few drinks and a very good time!! As we floated down one bar even had a mud pit which you could fight in - hilarious! Then Rowan, Abby me and Sean floated all the way back to our guesthouses and the main town
(took about 3 hours and a lot of pushing as the rapids were pretty tame given the dry season) and made it back with a minute to spare before being charged for the tubes! Good times! Luckily it's a pretty relaxed place in the evening - almost too relaxed, you could spend entire days sitting on mats in bars watching endless episodes of Friends and Family Guy here…!

We then moved onto Vientiane, a tiny but capital city with huge French influence. Good to sit by the Mekong and see Thailand over the other side, but other than a few monuments and temples, there is not much else to see and do here (luckily as me and Sean had become ill off dodgy water, so couldn't really leave our dirty guesthouse anyway...the guesthouse in which Sean electrocuted himself. not fun). We then took a 29 hour journey from hell to Hanoi in Vietnam. As if dreading it wasn't enough, we were put off a couple of days as me and Sean were both pretty ill (Lao-Belly, migraines and weirdly sore necks?!) so we had to wait around in the humid heat a couple of days before facing it. Journey itself was pretty insane - took 27 hours in the end. We were on a local bus, and I've never experienced anything like it - they had Asian music DVDs and Karaoke on at a volume I never even knew existed, complimented by the drivers inability to remove his hand from the horn! All the other westerners were soon joining us on the migraine front! We parked up at the border at 2am and were told to sleep on the bus until it opened at 7am. Took two hours to get through as they had to search all the bus, and of course we got last place behind hundreds of locals' passports! Eventually we arrived in Hanoi, having booked a hotel ahead, only to find they had double booked and had no room for us! Not the best journey, but the scenery made up for it! (reading back 9 months on (editing the blogs), 27 hours bus journey seems like a piece of pie, but at the time it seemed like hell...plus the goats on board and sharing 2 seats between 3 didn't help!)

We are LOVING Vietnam & Ha Noi! There's some fantastic history, we actually spent hours in the military museum (dad would be proud...and would love that place!), were careful not to 'laugh' and get arrested at Uncle Ho's mausoleum, and were warned off wearing Pjamas inside the Temple of Literature (we have actually seen a lot of locals walking the streets in their PJs - a good idea if you ask me, and very comfortable!)Hanoi has an amazing buzz (especially as we fluked another festival - reunifaction holidays, when the Vietnamese finally managed to kick America out of their country, 30 April 1975, so good fun and busy) - lots of lakes with brilliantly tacky 'love swan' peddle-boats, and some delicious 'street kitchens' in the Old Quarter with fantastic cheap food on offer. Apart from the constant spitting on your feet and rain - nothing to complain about here! Although I did get 'run over' by a man in a car on the pavement - impatient locals...

We did a great trip overnight on a boat in Ha Long bay. Its such a beautiful place - and goes on for miles. It's a shame so many tourists go (I guess we're adding to the problem), as its turned into a bit of a natural-wonder Disneyland. But still - waking up on the boat with views like that out of your window is novel enough to make up for it! Met some great people - a couple who live in Dubai (Welsh and Brummy…ring any bells!?) and a wonderful couple from Australia who were kind enough to offer us to stay with them in Melbourne. We then took the overnight train (amazing - the best night sleep we've had in AGES!) to Sa Pa in the far North of Vietnam. Bunked up with some fantastic Malaysians - Goh, the leader of the pack, was a chatterbox and made us laugh in his perfect English!

Sa Pa is simply stunning. Set in beautiful mountains, with rice paddys, shrouded in mist, and with all ethnic and traditional villages. All the locals wear their traditional clothes and are really friendly - its fantastic. Zee, our guide, took us on a beautiful short, 3 hour trek down to Cat Cat village, in the Muong Hoa Valley, home to the local Hmong people. We walked through the mountains where they grow rice in the paddy fields, and hemp (which they use to make their traditional dress as well as smoke!). They also drink the local rice wine, with apple to sweeten it up, or with snakes in! We were taken through the local village and shown how they make the hemp, and dye it, and through to a small waterfall at the bottom of the village - the water is used in pumps to do many of the tasks, like de-husking the rice. Whilst everyone else took motorbike taxis back up the mountain to Sa Pa town, we walked up with Zi, who insisted I find her a husband (I said she could have Sean) and loved to walk arm in arm! The second day trekking was equally fantastic - Zi took us on a long trek to her village, Lao Chai (Black Hmong people), and its amazing views of the rice paddies. We ate lunch at her village, and then moved onto neighbouring Ta Van village (the Day people - pronounced Zay) and looked around their local schools and workshops. They wear different traditional outfits, and speak a different dialect even though they are just down the valley. We absolutely loved our trekking in Sa Pa, such a beautiful area and a highlight of Asia.

After the sleeper-train back (arrived 4.30am - fell over on our walk back to the hotel, but was nice to sit and watch the locals open up shop, staple newspapers on the street, do their morning stretches and Tai Chi - was real Vietnam life ), took the overnight bus to Hue - and arrived the next morning pretty exhausted! Too much over-night travels!

Hue is a really relaxed place - the ancient city, it was beautiful to walk around the citadel and walled forbidden city (smaller but similar to Beijing's) in the sun (we'd almost forgotten what the sun looked like!) Hue is full of ancient tombs, pagodas, and relics, but loads of it was destroyed in the Tet offensive in 1968 (Vietnam war) and they're only just rebuilding some of it now. To be honest, it was too expensive for us to go in, so we walked around the forbidden city and moat with loads of gorgeous lakes and gardens, and into the local market. Hue is also known for its speciality foods - we had some great local delights - Banh Khoai, a rice-flour and egg crispy pancake stuffed with different meats or shrimp, with beansprouts salad and egg-plant on top, dipped in fish sauce. It was amazing - and the women who owned the café (mum and daughter) were great characters and plied us with free Vietnamese (herbal) tea and fruit for afters. Great to sit and watch the world go by on the streets, and relaxing on the banks of the Perfume river. Good times all round!

We then took the bus from Hue to Hoi An…. Fell in love with Hoi An instantly - it's a cute old quarter, with crumbly old buildings and some beautiful architecture, filled with merchants' houses and Chinese assembly halls, a covered Japanese bridge and a scenic river. We bumped into some friends from Australia, that we had met in Ha Long Bay, and had a nice beer (large pint for 20p, not bad) and a pancake over the river. We also scouted out the millions of tailors, and put in a custom-order for some high-top trainers each for ten pounds - not bad! We decided to get a suit made for Sean and Em is having a dress, so we'll see how they turn out! The 14th of every lunar calendar month is full moon - and we once again managed to fluke being in the right place at the right time for the festival. The whole city turns its lights off at night, and everywhere is lit by lanterns. We ate overlooking the river, which had lanterns floating down it - very serene and beautiful. Tasted some more great local specialities - cao lau (a type of yellow noodle soup), Banh Beo ('white rose' - a rice flour dumpling filled with shrimp) and wonton noodle soup - all very nice!

Off to the beach here tomorrow and then the overnight bus (again!) down the coast, and hoping to be in Ho chi Minh City by Em's birthday! Sorry for all the details! Its written as we go along, so i can make sure i bore everyone to death sufficiently!