The end of vietnam and Laos
Hey guys,
Sorry it has been aggeeessss. Internet in Laos is not ideal and we’ve been pretty busy but here goes for a big catch up. Hope all is well at home. We miss you all very much but are still loving it almost 5 weeks in!
We went to Hue where it was raining again, but we had a look round the citadel anyway which was beautiful. The next day we had a boat ride down the river to some temples and tombs and we also saw a native marial arts performance which was awesome. The weather held out as well so all in all that was a really good day.
The next day we were on a very noisy bus to Hanoi and for the first time we didn’t sleep very well, but we arrived safe and sound and found an awesome cheap guesthouse. We met a dutch couple on the bus and spent the next 6 days in Halong Bay and Hanoi with them which was cool. We spent the first day exploring Hanoi and saw the lake and just chilled out a bit. The next day we went up to Halong Bay on a 3 day trip. It was incredibly beautiful. Throughout the 3 days we saw some amazing caves and trekked through the beautiful national park on Cat Ba island and did some Kayaking. But we also spent time waiting and waiting and watching buses get washed?!? Vietnamese organisation and customer services are not quite there yet. They never seemed to know what was going on and kept shouting when anyone asked the simplest question. It was impossible for that to deter friom the beauty of where we were though. I can’t think of many places better to wait!
We then came back to Hanoi for another couple of days, did some sightseeing, saw the literature museum and the ho chi minh museum (he is scarily idolised) and the prison. We also saw a turtle in the lake which apparently is very rare, the tour guide we spoke to said this was the second time he’d seen it in 20years and it was meant to bring good luck. I’m not sure if it brought us luck, Chris almost got his wallet stolen in the crowd but felt it so grabbed the guy and got it back!! yey-maybe lucky he felt it?! We wern’t feeling that lucky or welcome by the vietnamese who were generally very unhelpful and unfriendly. Although we did meet some nice ones.
So we decided to leave sharpish and head to Laos. We met another English couple, Jess and Nelson and we were all going to Laos so we decided to travel together so we travelled with them for about a week which was really nice. Laos is INCREDIBLE. By far the most beautiful country we’ve seen for general countryside. Such friendly people, amazing hot weather, so chilled, just awesome and definately what we needed. We took the overnight bus to Laos which was comfy but PACKED. They sold twice as many tickets as beds so there were loads of Laos people sleeping in the isles. Also there was soooo much luggage that most of it was on the bus also in the aisles. At thye first stop we found out that the reaosn there was sooo much luggage was because the “out of order” toilet was infact a cupboard full of t-shirts which they were smuggling. So they put the rest of the t-shirts in there and took some more bags underneath – unbeleivable! Anyway we made it to Vientiene and chilled with Jess and Nelson. The next day we hired mopeds and went to Buddha Park which was an awesome day. We also saw That Luang which is the temple on all the Laos money. We did break the visor of the helmet though and thought we would be ripped off for mending it, so checked the price of a new one 25,000kip (about 1.50) and then when we asked the lady she said 20,000. We then told her there was about that much fuel left in the tanks as we’d overfilled them at the start not knowing how much we needed and she said that was fine as payment! This is definately not vietnam anymore and we loved that attitude!
The next day we headed up to Vang vieng. The bus journey was beautiful! Vang vieng is pretty hard core but incredibly stunning. The mekong is beautiful- I could have stayed for aggess just chilling out there. We went kayaking and tubing in the cave the first day which was great fun and we stopped at some bars on the way down the river and Chris had a go on the wild swings and zip wires which looki very unsafe but fun! The next day we tubed all the way down the river and stopped at loads of bars abnd got VERY sun burnt. But had an awesome day. There is a great picture of nelson and chris on a swing where Chris is white and Nelson is very brown. But the next day Chris is red and nelson is brown.
We then bussed up to Luangm Prabang. By far the most beautiful bus journey I have EVER been on. Here we went to an amazing waterfall!! Kuang Si waterfall is lovely! We also went to the night market which was stunning and I bought 4 art pieces for 7 pounds (they need framing though sibby thanks :-)). We also spent a day seeing the museums and the town and eating food at jomas italian bakery-AMAZING cake!
We’ve spent the last 3 days travelling. We went on the slow boat for 2 days up the mekong -beautiful and then bussed it from the border to Chaing Mai today.
Tomorrow we go trekking which includes elephant riding and bamboo rafting. I can’t wait!! Soo excited.
Photos to come soon – we’re going tio wait till after trekking so you can digest this essay first!
Love you and miss you all! Please comment or message us and let us know what you’re up to.
Katie and Chris xxxx