South East Asia - Week Eight
So this week we have crossed from Laos and into Vietnam. We have spent so much time on buses travelling thrugh amazing scenery but getting bumped and tipped about. We are pretty shattered and looking forward to a good sleep. Vietnam so far is stunning. This week...
Monday we caught the early bus back to Nong Khiaw. We all crammed into the long tail boat and set off slowly. Not far down, water started to pour in on the sides, not to worry though, hopefully. On the way back there seemed to be more rapids that on the way there and at places giant waves came into the boat, we got soaked! We made it back to dry land with wet bums but enough time for a drink before getting on our bus to Sam Neau, near the Vietnam border. When we enquired abotu the bus yesterday we were told it was the VIP bus, hence the price and that it was a big bus. When it arrived it was a local bus, small and just enough seats for us flanags to sit on. All in all there were 7 of us boarding here, some locals moved so we all sat together crammed into the back. at our first stop, the 2 swiss that sat next to us made the mistake of wanting a ciggarette before keeping theor seat. It seems there is no seat claiming ettiquate here and even when we explained to the locals that people were sitting there, they still went ahead and mived their bags of the seats and sat in them. We were trapped in the back next to an old village couple and it became apparent that the lady was very poorly. When the man asked if we were going to Sam Neau and gestures that they were to, we knew we were in for a bad ride. 12 hours of this poor lady being sick, crying out and general smells. It was a bumpy ride on twistign roads anyway and sitting at the back made it worse, sitting next to the couple unfortunatly made it a whole lot worse. The views from the bus were amazing and the only stops we made were wee stops next to bushes and one dinner stop for...noodle soup only. We are pretty fussy at the moment after our recentl poorliness os opted for pre packaged bisquits for our dinner, hardly nutritious but you only had to go to the toilet, sorry thats too posh, the hole with part of a door, to see the kitchen and decide that biscuits was the better option. We arrived at our destination at 11pm, glad to have stopped and following what later was realised to be an out of date Lonely Planet map, made our way aas a group to find a hostel. We walked for a km or so until we found one that was open and cheap and checked in. Our new Isralei friends made a fuss about the 'local' toilets but we werent bothered and just wanted a bed and somewhere to rest our battered bums.
Tuesday we made a trip to the caves in Vang Xai with Brent, a Canadian fellow bus journey from hell rider. We met in the morning and ran a few errands in town. Had noodle soup for breakfast and found some money, finally, from the western union, still no atms in this town. Once we were all organised we caught a tuk tuk, known here as a sawgethew (which i cant pronounce so its a tuk tuk) to the bus station to catch another 'tuk tuk' for the hour to Vang Xai. We got there just in time to start the english guide, which we first thought was the talking headphones we were given, until a little man arrived. There were 2 more German guys on the trip who wanted to see all 7 caves rather than the 3 you can walk to. They agreed with the guide that between the 6 of us, we should go twos up on their motor bikes and the guide should ride his, so we all jumped on and visited the first cave. The caves here were used to house the political leaders of the Laos peoples republic during the Vietnam war. The caves are pretty incredible and have everything down to panic type rooms in the cases of bombings which were daily occurences. The stories we were told were sad. Laos is the most heavily bombed country for its size in the world. During the Vietnam war, 2.7 tonnes of bombs were dropped per person in Laos. Laos wasnt even fighting the US. We still dont understand all of it, but we want to, we know that there are always 2 sides but the stories we heard were from civilians who had to change their lives and start to live in caves for the 9 years that the area was bombed. The sad thing was that they were mainly cluster bombs which are big bombs which releases smaller bombs which spread further and explode on impact, however not all did and even today, 35 years on, people are still getting injured or killed when an unexploded bomb is unearthed. We could only visit 7 caves as out of the 281 caves in the area, these were the only ones where the mine clearing had been compleated...35 years on. When we had finished in cave 2 we walked into a tour bus full of monks and Laos people on a trip. They all started screaming and saying hello, then they rushed over and grabbed us to have their photos taken with us. Celebrities of the area! The monks were snapping away and practising their English, we were all in hysterics, suppose it makes a change for us to be the ones being photographed! We visited the rest of the caves on the bikes listening to our meerkat like headphones. The bit that stood out was a cave you had to climb stairs to which had an amazing late afternoon view of Laos. The headphones talked about the sites they saw and the bullets they saw raining down, you could almost imagine it. When we finished the trip we hitched lifts back to the bus station on the bikes only to be told, through brokwn english, that the next bus was an hour. So we went for noodles and waited, and waited, and waited until 5.30pm when it became apparent that no bus was coming. No one really speaks english here but we got the jist that the buses were finished for the day. So we asked shopin the market near the stationa nd he said that he would take us back for 300,000 kip, when the bus was 10,000 kip each it was quite a difference. So it was either stay the night and get the mornign bus, then miss the bus to Vietnam or pay big and get home. We tried to negotiate and after a while they called over a little girl who went to school and spoke English. She was adorable, probably only 9 and very eloquent. We negotiated a cheaper pricfe and the man blasted off on his motorbike to get the pimp mobile,. It was such a posh comfy van, we understood the price. We got home and dropped at the bus station so we could see when the bus went in the monring and whether we had enough kip for dinner or not. WE decided we probably didnt so walked home and settled in with hungry stomachs. After a bit, Gilli and Roi, a couple from the bus knocked. They were doing the same route tommorow but not going as far as Hanoi as it was cheaper to get the local bus from where we could get the bus to. WE decided to join them, which meant we could have dinner tonight. We headed to an Indian resturant where a guy we had met earlier owned and had tea. Then ned in time for our early mornign stroll across town to meet Gilli and Roi and the bus.
Wednesday, out for 6.45am and walking across town for the bus. We got there in plenty of time, which we needed to try to get to bus station people to understand where we wanted to go. It took a while. Gilli and I let the men get to it and held bags and ate our make shift breakfasts and canned coffee. The bus jpourney was again long, this time we got front seats so plenty of leg space, just had to keep yourself on the seat or you fell out of the door! The scenery again was amazing. Mountains all the way, winding and turning. Very green and jungley. WE got to teh Vietname border corssing after a few hours and then spent abotu an hour getting through immigration out of Laos and into Vietnam. The difference between the crossings were huge. In Laos, we waited for 2 guysa to open the window then take our passports, stamp them and re write our departure cards. They were in civy outfits and gave no indication that they werent just off the street. However the crossing into Vietnam was posh. Huge building, armed guards, uniform. Very militaryish. We even had to sign a decleration that we were not ill in any way and see the quarantine man. We then had to open our bags and have them checked, becasue the x ray wasnt working. My hairbrush got pulled out, he said he thought it was a gun! We stopped for lunch staright after There was again nothign but noodle soup in a fly infested kitchen. We decided against it and went shopping for anything ele. We came up with prawn crackers and peanut brittle. Not a proper meal by a long shot but it felt safer. The rest of the day was on the bus, travelling through Northern Vietnam and towards Thong Hoa, our stop for the day. An odd guy joined us after lunch,he seemed to work for the bus company but you never know. He tried talkign to everyone but was cleary out of his mind on drink or something stronger. He just wouldnt stop. Up every 5 minutes, fallign on the driver, making a fuss. HJe needed a tranquiliser and fast he was doing everyones head in..this was until the driver stopped and let him take over. Now we had already experianced him trying to move the bus back and forwards when we had stopped earlier to cool the brakes off (yes we stopped every hour to oour water over the brakes which were probably metal to metal). He was so useless that everytime we were meant to go forward, he stalled it and we drifted back down the hill. I could have done a better job so when we got in the drivers seat, everyone sighed, loudly! Just minutes into him taking position and everyone readilying themselves for a crash, he slammed the brakes on just missing a truck being filled with bamboo. One near miss. 5 minutes later we hurtled round a corner, all screamign at him to slow down and came face to face with a lorry. Both were cuttign corners and we were lucky not to have a small head on. He was a royqal plonka and found it funny that everyone was obviously worried and screaming at him to get the hel out of the drivers seat. Luckily it didnt go on for too long, once in the next toen he said his goodbyes which mist peopel returned with a 'good ridance'. WE still dont know why he was drivign or who he was but we were glad of his departure. Vietnam was here. Everything you imagine about Vietnam was there. Rice paddy fields full of workers wearing bamboo pointed hats. People on bikes. Noodles, noodles noodles everywhere. Amazing. The mountains and the jungle disapeeared as we got further towards the coast and late in the afternoon we stopped at our destination. The driver was trying to sell us a ticket further on to Hanoi for 300,000 dong each, they demanded the money before we got off the bus, we didnt pay. When we got off the bus the fare on the local buses was 60,000, cheeky gits. Even when they knew that we knew this they tried to barter with us. There were 6 of us that stayed in Thang hoa for the night, we found a nice cheap hotel which was posh by our standards and went out for some dinner. Suprisingly we found plenty of noodle soup places but we were on the hunt for fried noodles. After walkign into every resturant and playing charades as to what we wanted, we settled for one and ate the most bland noodles ever. After dinner we went back, not much to do in this town.
Thursday we were up and out for 6.45am again to get the first bus to Hanoi. Our isreli friends had already made a dash for it and bagged themselves seats. When we arrived it all kicked off. The driver wanted to charge us for our bags, the price of a seat each. I thought he was jokiing so laughed. With the help of the locals we managed to get our bags onboard. ONce one he brought loads of others in and demanded money. We tried to negotiate that they put the bags in the boot or on the roof but they refused and even tried to charge more than the price of a seat. We had agreed thatw e wuld stack all of our bags, the girls and ours, on top of each other and pay for one seat between us. They still didnt like this and wanted us to pay for 2. At this point Tom got up and went to talk to the bus station, where we should have paid any money to anyway. She walked in, shouted at the men and agreed one eat was fine for us to pay for. This did mean that Tom and I had my bag on our laps and as we were already seating in the no foot room because there is a wheel arch seats, had 2 day sacks and then the additional big bag, it was pretty tight. Neither of us could move our legs which felt like they set after 2 hours. Luckily when we stopped for wee's and food, we managed to re stack our bags and get mine in, the next 3 hours were more comfy. We reached the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, it was hot, motorbike drivers were everywhere offerign you lifts, there were loads of people, manic. We had be friended a guy on the bus who had explained what bus to get to where we were heading so we made our way to the stop. The bus took ages to appear and then as soon as it had it was gone again letting only a few on. A woman saw that we were tryong to catch it and walked us to the next bus stop, she was really helpfull. We waited at the next stop and our bus came along, it was crammed, the driver wouldnt let our bags on, again, but still the isralis managed to squeeze themselves on and leave us 4 standing on the road, great. This is when a nearbu lady came over and said she would call us a cab, then a girl came over to talk to me and asked if she could help, she also called a cab. The next bus came and we werfe ready to get on but felt bad as so many people had tried to help us. Its nice to be in a place where people are like that, but it also costed us more in a taxi fare we didnt want!!! We arrived in the Old Quarter of Hanoi where most backpackers head because its cheaper. We found a nice place, checked in and went out. Today we strolled abouit, brought a new day sack, a nice fake 6 pound North face one. We figured that here you could spend a bit more on what you think is a real one but the fakes are so good you would never know, or you can buy what you definatly know is a fake and not expect too much. We went for that option. We had a nice brunch of homemade burgers and mooched around. Today was also a bit of a domestic day, one long overdue. We were down to wearing no pants and any reminants of clothes that were avaliable, we had all of our clothes washed. This is one of our luxuries, there is something pretty satisfying when yoiu get clean clothes back and pack them in your bag. In the evening we went out again in search of food, we bartered with the street food corn man and thought the 60p he wanted for 2 cobs was extortionate, cheap skates. We then found a supermarket of sorts and spent 2 pounds on australian mint slices, a contradiction to our earlier thoughts. We got hooked on these in oz, they are the same as viscounts, minty biscuity, chocolate, very yum. We rationed them to one a day from the ice freezer in our van and here they were in their loveliness, however, we are in Vietnam, hot places, imported stuff doesnt always work. Tom had the first one, it was sunlight damaged and stale. He suggested i didnt have one fr it would break the spell for me. So we walked back and asked for an exchange. We left with Riesen chocolate chews and hello panda biscuits then lay in bed eating them all and loving every minute.
Friday was explore Hanoi day. We treated ourselves to one giant english breakfast to share in a western pub. It was lovely, we evenb had marmite for our toast. We savoured this along with a proper mug of strong tea with milk. Recently Marmite has been the topic of many conversations. It is one of those things that we love and miss and when we meet people it comes up as a 'what do you miss' topic, it is always cheese and marmite. Simple simple things but impossible to find. After breakfast we walked through around the lake and through town to a giant electrical store. We had laptop issues, it wouldnt charge and the battery was quickly dwindling. We have become so reliant on this that we were both a bit miffed and sad, esspecially as we know we have been so carefull. So we went in search of a new cable, no where seemed to have one, even the three story store with dance music pumping everywhere. Instead we went in there, enjoyed the air con and danced on the escalator, we didnt rush to leave. We carried on walking to the Ho Loa prision which was used in the early 20th centry for prisoners who were against the political party and then again during the VIetnam war. This was where John Mcain was famously held, the now senator who cant raise his arms above his head due after his stay here. It was an eerie place with gilotines and pictures of the aftermath of those. I freaked out and Tom had to drag hug me through it, it had a weird feeling and not a good one. Some bad things happened there. The vietnam war part was interesting, the films they showed were blatent properganda. Most us pilots that were shot down were brought here and the films showed them enjoying christmas and set the places us to look like a holiday camp. It even said that they ate better than Vietnamese and that they enjoyed their time. There was clearly some truth as a few have gone on to be ammbassadors for Vietnam and the people here are so warm it must have changed their views but the films were still a bit over the top. After prison we went bookshop hunting and laptop cable shopping. We got lost but found the electrical street. Same as most big cities, if you want one thing there is a street for that one thing. Here there is shoe street, bag street, electrical street. I dont know how they make money, you dont have to go far to get a cheaper item, next door usually. Makes it easier for us to barter though. 10 shops down and one guy had tested our cable said it worked, didnt sound good for mr laptop. Disheartened and achy feet we went home. At night we went to sort out a trip for the morning to Halong bay. We managed to get the cheapest in town, $26 each for 2 days and 1 night, most places wanted $35. You see the same but the food or bed will be different, oh well. The guy we saw liked us and we pretty much set the price for that and our` bus North when we got back, we got a good bargain. We had noodles for dinner and visited the night market haggling over belts and shorts then home and packing for the morning, we were off on a trip. I get excited llike we are going on holiday, weird but good.
Saturday up and out. This morning i had a tangle with my bag and fell over. Not a usualy occurence but something that made me giggle. 2 people stood and watched, that was nice of them. Tom was still upstairs so i had to try to untangle myself, what a pleb. We left our bags at the palce we booked our trip from and went in search of a takeaway breakfast. Bit early, not much open. We managed to find some bagguettes, crisps (yes naughty) milkshakes, even chocolate croisants from the lady who stood and watched me trip over.We waited for ages for our bus then boarded and made our odd breakfast, Tom with his cheeto crisp baguette. The trip to Halong City from Hanoi is a few hours. When we arrived we boared our boat which was brilliant. We had 14 of us on board and the boat was huge. We had lunch straight away which was really nice, so cheap and good food, bonus. The trip into the bay is slow but gives you good time to look around. We sat on the top deck with beers, made new friends and watched. It is stunning. The water is green, the sky was overcast and misty and there are thousands of rocky mountains in the water. There are so many junk boats that it looks as though you are part of the spanish armardour but these in trhemselves are fitting to Halong Bay. We first stopped at a giant cave. I nearly fell in when we were getting off because the pilot pushed me while i was on one foot, not a good idea. We ran up the stairs, glad to not be out of puff at the top, only a month till base camp, staminas doing good. The cave was very nice, all the way throiugh there are formations that they point out to you that look like something., There is a buddha, turtle, lion, heart and other things. They look vaugely like these, if you squint your eyes and look for what your being told it is. The cave goes on for miles, when we were done we got back on board and over to get some canoes. I picked up the poo lifejacket, liteeraly covered in poo, which stunk and was on my hands, great. We waited for ages, The chinese pushed in front of us, does no one understand what a queue is? We finally got our canoe, with a makeshift lifejacket seat and paddled out and around some of the islands. One of the girls said we looked like pros, we named ourselves the brady bunch as we didnt have to say which side to start (been 5 months now, you're in tune then), although its not difficult to do left and right when canoeing but some of the group just couldnt get the tandem thing. In the bay there are little boats which collect rubbish, there is loads of it here and also boats which look like people live in. It was a nice paddled about. After we were done we got our room key, we had one of the doubles on the top floor. Th eview from our window was spectacular. The bed faced the window and when you opened the curtains the window was the width of the bed, it was incredible. Plus the bed was the new most comfy and so were the pillows. Dinner tonight was great again, loads of it and all good seafood. Turns out that one of the girls lives in Oxford and knows 2 people that i do, one i went to school with and 1 i worked with. After dinner we walked around and looked out into the bay. Around us were all of the junk boats, now dark they all had their lights on and sparkling against the darnkess of the surrounding rocks. You could hear distant voices, music and laughs, everyone on their own party boat. After dinner turned into a drink fest as we all drank the beers dry and chatted the night away. Tom, Me and Jason, who incidently lives in Newbury and drinks in the same places as Tom used to, oh and knows 2 people we do to, were the last to bed. We had all had a few too many and were tempted to jump in and swim over to the nearby party boat. It sounded like they were having a good old boogy from the music, we decided turning up wet and cold wouldnt be a great end to our evening so decided that it was time for bed.
Sunday we were hungover. Some more than others, namely me. Waking up to the view made your heart race. We set the alarm for sunrise but as it was another misty morning, wasnt a good view, we went back to sleep for an hour. Not wantign to rise from the penthouse suite we got a knock that ot was time for breakfast. We had eggs and ant infested bread, the only food shortfall, we picked them off though and tried to cure the hangovers. The boat moved on, sailing through the islands and over to Cat Ba island, the largest one in the bay where 4 people got off to stay for a night and more people got on to go back to Hanoi with us. We stopped at a floating village were you could pay locals to take you to more caves but we decided to stay on board. The boat arrived back at the harbour in time for lunch at a nearby resturant. Our new guide was a lookalike for Micky from Only Fools and Horses. He was a feisty one so taking a photo of him had to be subtle. We arrived back in Hanoi in time for a walk around, some dinner and then we were ready to get the night bus up to Sapa. We were being collected from the hotel but the SUnday night traffic meant that the bus couldnt get to us. The guy told us that he would order us a motorbike taxi to the station. Motorbikes here are crazy. Crossing the street takes 10 minutes at best because there are thousands of mopeds, and not even going in the right directions. They come at you from all angles and so getting on one, with a huuge backpack and daypack was no go, esspecially as it seemed we would be sharing one. Afte rmuch no ing, he ordered us a taxi. The bus was good, leather seats, blankets, not the best, not the worse. The journey however was up there with the worst. we got some shut eye but once we were awake it was immposible to sleep again. The roads were mountainous and winding, you just recovered from hanbging on to do a hairpin left before you did a hairpin right, this was non stop, for hours. The bus stopped in Lao Cai, which is a border town between Vietnam and China. The driver put cushions down and settled on the floor to sleep, odd, we still had 40km to Sapa. We asked an dthey told us to wait, so we made the most of the stillness and just as we fell into a good sleep were haken awake an dtold to move bus. This bus was full. One seat remaining, people standing. In the end Tom took the seat and i took the floor (because the gangway was so narrow that Tom didnt fit) and curled up to sleep. Another restless night, no wonder we are exhausted.