Wandering and Wondering

Hanoi & Halong Bay

The 24 hour overnight bus ride from Laos to Hanoi in the north of Vietnam went surprisingly smoothly, once we were actually on the bus (the bus company was of course two and a half hours late picking us up). It's worth mentioning that we were on the same bus as many of our new friends from Vang Vieng. The sleeper bus was actually comfortable, though anybody over 5 foot 8 was too tall to fit in the usual bunks, and my giant (US12) feet had no chance of fitting the foot compartment. I learned an important tip about Vietnamese sleeper buses; the back bunks are bigger and don't have foot hoods. If you are an average sized westerner, you may really want the back bunk, though there is a down side to those beds also (discussed later). If by chance you are more than 6 foot 2, you should bring a sleeping bag, as you will want to camp on the floor of the bus in the aisle(you probably wont be alone). With nothing much to do but read the lonely planet and watch a movie on the netbook, we spent a lot of time discussing plans for tackling Vietnam. Crystal suggested that we could buy motorcycles and drive through the country, which we had heard alot about.

Sleeper Bus

The idea of driving in Vietnam went out the door only moments after arriving in Hanoi. The 2010 Lonely Planet for South East Asia has a list of the 20 best things in S. E. Asia; number 1 is traffic, without saying specifically where. I believe that they are referring to Vietnam. About ten minutes out from the bus station a lady hopped on the bus to sell her hotel and offering to arrange shuttles for everybody. Almost everybody on the bus signed on, at least for the shuttle. When we exited the bus, there were two shuttles waiting, and one more en route for us. We quickly climbed into the first shuttle, and headed out. Within three minutes, we witnessed our first scooter on scooter collision. Right in front of our van, a scooter drove straight into the side of another scooter. Our driver narrowly drove around the accident, while we all stared open jawed at the mess of bodies and bikes on the road. About two minutes later the van pulled over to talk on his radio and then told us that the other van with our friends in it had been in an accident, but everybody was alright. We found out later that the second van had stopped for the same accident and had been promptly rear ended. The traffic in Hanoi was worth just sitting in a cafe two or three floors up just to watch. We actually found a nice spot the next day above a traffic circle where we could watch the chaos at a safe distance. It is truly mind blowing to watch traffic going both ways around a traffic circle, seemingly without any sense of rules. It's kind of like watching 10,000 children, high on sugar, stuffed into a gymnasium, just running around (on motorcycles and pedal carts). Traffic in Vietnam is not only absurdly hectic, but immensely entertaining in that the motorcycle/scooter (the primary form of transportation in Vietnam) is used more like a pickup truck than a bike; everything you can imagine transporting in a truck, you will see on the back of a motorcycle; cows, sets of pigs (I counted 8 on 1 motorcycle) chicken coupes, furniture, such as dressors and beds, appliances, and often entire families. It truly has to be seem to be believed. We stayed in the old quarter of Vietnam for a couple of days, just wandering around, getting information and marveling at the sights.

Traffic in Hanoi

After the CHAOS of Hanoi, a three day, two night package to Halong bay provided a much needed breath of tranquility. Halong bay is possibly the most famous natural attraction in Vietnam. It's a series of seemingly thousands of limestone spires, jutting out of a beautiful bay in the South China Sea. (Note it was actually cheaper to book a tour in Hanoi than to first go to Halong city and do it there. Also there are three levels of tour offered and it is very worth paying for the second tier tour; people we talked to who took the budgetest tour told us of rats and cockroaches in their rooms on the boat.) On the first day we were shuttled to Halong city, where we boarded a "Junk"boat, and set sail. We were treated to a brief Kayaking experience, which while quite beautiful was also quite cold (it was winter for the region). After that we were treated to a delicious local dinner and an evening of Karaoke with our guide on the boat. While we did not take the budget option, we didn't take the luxury option either. Our room was a small room with cold water showers, which was otherwise unmemorable. In asian style, the dining area was quite nice and bore no resemblance to the rooms. The next morning we stopped at a cave to explore. It was a once beautiful cave that had been highlighted with colored lights much like a seventies disco. The tour of the cave was short and sweet and probably just about right for what it was. From there we sailed to Cat Ba Island and began the day with a hike up a mountain. Unfortunately it was quite cloudy and had been raining, so the rewarding view at the top of the muddy mountain was simply the view of fog. The rain had left the trail a slippery mess, and so Crystal wisely waited at the bottom while an adventurously determined group of us trudged to the viewing tower at the top. Upon arrival at the bottom, we found that the slippery terrain had claimed several victims from other groups, including one gentleman, who dislocated his shoulder pretty badly. Luckily we had no serious injuries in our group and we boarded a bus to the hotel for the second night of our trip.

Junk Boat on Halong Bay

Cat Ba island was the end of the journey for day two. We arrived before lunch, handed in our passports (as is the standard procedure at hotels in Vietnam) and dropped our bags in our room. After another local lunch, we headed out to explore the island. Sadly, the weather played a role again, and most of us just walked around the shorefront of the small town and then returned to the hotel to play Yahtzee. You can rent scooters and ride around the island, which would probably have been nice, except for the weather. Some of our group went off on an optional trip to monkey island, where they were disappointed not to see monkeys. After another local dinner, we spent the night in a local bar, playing pool with our guide and drinking strangely concocted Bailey's and ice (yes, they added a really bitter red alcohol to the Baileys).

The next morning we had a small issue before we set sail again. After another local breakfast, we went to check out and get our passports. My passport was returned to me with the cover rolled up so that the cover was more or less bent in half. When I complained, the receptionist told me "it's okay, it happens lots, look..." She produced several other passports with the same problem. Apparently the moisture in the air does it, and the hotel doesn't bother to cover them up in any way. It turned out ok, we put it in a big book and flattened it out, but yikes was I steamed about that. Carry a copy of your passport, so you don't have to hand over your actual passport. We returned to Halong city via a leisurely cruise through the endless limestone islands. Even with the clouds threatening, the islands are truly beautiful. We sat on the roof deck of the boat and watched the scenery slowly drift by, as we chugged back towards the now familiar madness of Hanoi.

Back in Hanoi, we booked back into our hotel, receiving one of the most entertaining rooms of our trip. Vietnam is a fast developing country, where old world ways are seemingly smashed up against the aspirations of a young, development oriented population. When paying $10 US a night, one shouldn't have too high of expectations, but it's easy to forget that when your hotel looks like a slightly run down modern guest house. We stayed in the same hotel for convenience reasons, but in a different room. The first room had cable TV, wifi (though sketchy), and a cleanish, functioning private bathroom. When we walked into the next room, it looked to be about the same, though 4 flights of stairs higher. We laughed at the desk when I discovered that the desktop was held in place by a coffee cup, and managed to maintain our sense of humour when the bathroom doorknob fell off in Crystal's hand. The real laughs however came when we turned on the TV and discovered that we had almost no channels, specifically any of the English channels that we enjoyed in our previous room. I went to inquire at the front desk and they promised to send up a guy to have a look. I found the problem while we were waiting, the cable from the wall was cut. I was able to show the maintenance man when he arrived. Silly westerner that I am, I assumed he would run around, find a new cable and replace the broken one. Vietnamese ingenuity at it's best, he instead stripped the ends of both halves, bent them into hooks and hooked them together. With a little twisting, he was able to get a snowy picture on a couple of channels, and seemed quite proud of his solution. He left us believing that he had successfully solved the problem. Two problems with this solution; first it only worked when I stood holding the wires just right, and secondly, we still got only one foreign channel, in German. Giving up on TV, we dropped off our laundry and headed out to figure out a plan to tackle the rest of the country.

There are several options for overland transport in Vietnam, but we eventually settled on the old fashioned, but still new to us, overnight bus, leaving the next evening. We left the hotel with a mission, find western food. We found a great restaurant run by an Australian, called ""Al Fresco's", which satisfied our need for something not noodles and rice and vegetables. Then, we managed to score tickets to the "sold out"water puppet show, which should be seen once if you have the time, and only once. The next morning we got our laundry back, packed our bags, and headed out to enjoy one last day of wandering around the Old Quarter.

Our bus wasn't until early evening, but we checked out of the hotel quite early, set on dropping our bags with the ticket vendor before getting one last western meal before the trip. As we left the hotel, Crystal asked if she could have my jacket as it was chilly. I dug it out of the bag where I had placed it, all neatly folded as it had been returned to me with the rest of the laundry (it had been muddy from the hiking). As she put it on, she let out a big "Ugh oh." The lower half of the jacket arm was half missing, and the remaining hole was beautifully framed by a black fringe. We went straight back to the hotel to complain.

At the hotel, our funny little hotel finally pushed us to anger. We probably wouldn't have been angry if the mistake had been reported to us, instead of being hidden in a lovely folding job. After some discussion, it turns out that the culprit is the newly hired laundry girl, who hid upstairs crying and refused to come down when called for. After a while, the manager was fetched and explained that the poor young girl came from a rural village and had only been in the city a short while. She hadn't yet figured out modern technologies such as space age materials. This made the hole in the jacket arm quite easy to understand, as she was simply trying to do a good job when she ironed it. After a lot of apologizing, and tears as the manager explained that the girl could not afford to replace the jacket (they understood that it came from Canada and would be presumably quite expensive; We never told them that I got it for $20 on sale). The poor young lady only made $100 a month and had to send her money home to help support her pregnant Aunt, or her Uncle would beat her. Sadly this was not the poor young ladies first technology incident. Apparently a couple weeks earlier, somebody had lent her a cell phone and as a sign of appreciation she had washed it for them with soap and water before returning it. Having only the one jacket with us, we were quite concerned with solving the problem, and were not going to let the hotel off the hook despite our sympathy for the young lady. Eventually, Crystal had a brilliant idea. Vietnam is famous for tailors, so the hotel paid for the jacket to be sent to a tailor who repaired the arm and returned it before our bus left in the evening. Although he didn't quite match the material or color (he was close with the color), the tailor was an acceptable solution for both us and the hotel. Curiously he did not do the undamaged arm to match, so I now have a mismatched jacket.
With my newly restyled jacket on, we headed for the bus and the promising adventures ahead of us.

By this point in our trip, we had been on quite a few less than ideal buses and had sort of resigned ourselves to the necessary evils that come with bus travel in South East Asia. So when we got to the bus with seemingly great bunk beds, we were actually quite pleased. Basing our selection on our previous experience on a sleeper bus, we took beds at the back of the bus. That way I was able to hang my feet in the aisle at the foot of the bed, since I'm just a little longer than the bunks. The locals tend to avoid the back of the bus (which is true all over S. E. Asia) and we were about to find out why. At first we were quite pleased, as we got the five bunks that across the back of the bus to ourselves, while another couple took the row of bunks on the bottom, we took the row on the top, using the space to play cards and spread our stuff out a bit. The reason that locals avoid the back of the bus is that most buses are kept in a state of functionality, without doing anything more than necessary to keep the bus on the road. This rule of S. E. Asian maintenance is especially true of the shocks on buses. The shocks at the back of the bus were very well worn out. Every bump in the road (and there are a lot of bumps in Vietnam) seemed to launch us into the air, usually resulting in a collision with the ceiling, followed by a crash landing on the small ridges dividing the bunks, and bruising our ribs. I have to say that if that had been our only issue, we might have been ok with our second sleeper bus.

When we finally decided to go to sleep, we plomped ourselves down on the two beds on the left side of the bus, with Crystal against the wall and me in the second bed, with my feet stuck out in the aisle, our stuff by my feet, and three of the beds empty. A few hours later I awoke and noticed that we had a new passenger, a local, who had taken bed number four leaving one bed between us, and one space between him and the wall. It's normal for buses to pick up passengers as they go, so I thought nothing much of it and went back to sleep. The next time I woke up, I was not quite so relaxed about it. We had picked up another local, who had taken the bed between the first local guy and myself and was now fast asleep, spooning me. I woke him up with my jump, and boy did he look embarrassed. With a bit of shuffling, we managed to find a less intimate arrangement, and made it through the rest of the night, uneventfully. That was our last sleeper bus in Vietnam.

Vinh Moc Tunnels

We woke up in Dong Ha, and were eagerly ushered off the bus by a man offering us a private tour of the Vinh Moc tunnels, including a bus trip to Hue. Hue is the next stop on the tourist trail through Vietnam, and almost everybody on the bus had paid to go there, except us. We were actually there to see the tunnels, so we were more than happy to hop off the bus. Two other passengers joined us, both from England, and after breakfast we were on our way, the four of us, plus the guide who fished us off the bus and the driver. With the four of us packed comfortably in the back of their SUV, we set off. The history of Vietnam is basically a long series of being dominated by one bigger power after another, with Vietnam eventually ousting each invader. The illegal war that the US waged against Northern Vietnam was just one more such invasion, except that the chemicals used by the US left much more serious aftereffects. During the American war, while the American forces were raining Agent Orange and other things from above, many Vietnamese hid in tunnels underground. Today there are two sets of these tunnels that can be visited by the public; the Vinh Moc tunnels, which are original tunnels with some re-enforcements added for safety and preservation, and a set of tunnels in Ho Chi Min city, which are actually reconstructions built to preserve the memory of the war. The tour that we took was made more interesting by our guide, who fought on the side of the South. His boss, the driver, was a card carrying communist. It was interesting to see the difference in how the story was told when the boss was there compared to when he went to park the car. As we shuffled through the tunnels, which should be avoided if you have any sense of claustrophobia at all, the stories seemed to shift to the legacy of the war again and again, and the inequality between the communist party members, and those who were on the side of the South. The members of the Southern army are still banned from joining the communist party, which in a one party country means they are banned from participating in the countries politic life, as well as being systematically blocked from most government appointments and contracts. Our guide went on for quite some time about the inequalities in modern Vietnam, though only when the boss was absent. As we passed through the tunnels, we saw "room" after room. Most of the "rooms" were little more than a wide spot in the narrow tunnels. For emphasis, many of the rooms had been occupied by representations of people that had lived in these tunnels, some for up to seven years. After emerging from one of the tunnels, we met one of the people who was born in the tunnels. He now works as a caretaker in the tunnels. He clearly had a psychological disabilities, and would likely have ended up living on the streets had it not been for the job at the tunnels. The guide told us that most of the children born in the tunnels didn't make it or had problems at the least. The tour of the tunnels was really interesting, and the free ride to Hue was a nice bonus.

Entrance to one of the tunnels

Hue & Hoi An

Hue has some really nice stuff to see, I think. We didn't see any of it. We found a nice $12 hotel with amazing wifi and so we stayed inside and watched TV for two days then left. Our main accomplishment here was to download 5 seasons of "Grey's Anatomy," which we'd never seen. From Hue, we headed for one of Vietnam's biggest attractions, Hoi An.

This beautiful little town, an hour from Danong is known for two things: it's beautiful beach and shopping for tailored clothes. We stayed about a week, as we had to keep waiting for more stuff to be made. Crystal managed to find room in her backpack for three shirts, two shorts, a skirt, a dress, and a bathing suit. I got one shirt. At first we went to a private shop. There are hundreds of them. We actually chose a shop with testimonials and pictures from one of the girls we met in Vang Vieng. After that, we tried the market, which is an arena of fabric, with lower prices, but lousier service. In the shop, they insisted on alterations to make it perfect, whereas in the market, it was like pulling teeth to get things changed to fit properly. We had a little problem convincing them that we didn't want formal ware, but what do longterm backpackers need with suits? We managed to find a nice enough hotel, with a beautiful pool and decent rooms, well within our budget, and thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Hoi An.

Hotel in Hoi An

Leaving Hoi An we took the train from Danong, which was much better than any bus. It was a little late, but managed to leave the station around midnight and dropped us off in Nha Trang around 9 am, well rested, and wihtout any incident worse than one of Crystal's Vietnamese bunkmates having rather smelly shrimp for breakfast at 6 am. Nha Trang turned out to be another fake hotel, like the one in Hanoi. This one was worse, despite receiving recommendations from other travellers, it was a disaster. The water stopped working in our room shortly after check in, and combined with power outages and a hotel door lock that was rigged to seem locked when it was not, we quickly left. Conveniently down the street we found a much better hotel, and were able to get a good night's sleep and enjoy a day at the mud spa/hotsprings.

The hotsprings were great for helping Crystal recover from an encounter with Vietnamese wildlife that left quite an impression on her. One of the big problems plaquing Vietnam is rats. Throughout Nha Trang there are construction sites, as developments spring up everywhere. These sites are always wrapped in large fences, that seem to provide habitats for the little guys, who come out of the shadows in the evening, under the cloak of darkness, to run through the streets. We saw a few rats throughout our travels, many in Vietnam, but in Nha Trang, the rats were particularly large and brazen. While walking in a market area one evening, a rat the size of an American football ran out of an alley, past a food cart and right in front of us. Crystal jumped back so hard that I think she left bruises on my arm. The rat then continued across the road. In the middle of the road, he was hit by a motorcycle going full speed down the road. He bounced off of the bikes wheel, and then continued on it's way, barely even phased. This is about when the insanity of Vietnam finally started to wear on us a bit. In Thailand the vendors and sales people are energetic and a little pushy, but they're managable with a friendly smile. In Laos, they're much more laid back; you might have to wake up a tuk tuk driver to get a ride. In Vietnam, you may feel like you are in a war with them. They attack at every turn, and they are not just persistant, but sneaky and fearless. It is easy to say that the thing holding the economies of S. E. Asia back is over population, and theefore mass competition; just ask any of the 15 guys climbing on each other to get at you when you get to any bus stop. This is most evident in Vietnam, where overpopulation is rampant. To compete with each other, the locals have pushed each other to be more aggressive than anywhere else. Most restaurants have open walls in the front, a way of natural cooling and a trick to get you in as well. It's charming, until you have to stand up with fists clenched to chase away the tenth cigarette vendor to interrupt your dinner. Your hotel becomes a haven, where you can lock the little terrorist salespeople out. Throughout Vietnam, you will see thousands of vendors wandering around carrying trays (boxes/baskets/bags) of souveniers and cigarettes and sunglasses and books and all kinds of things. It is so bad that you don't need to go to the shops, just sit in a cafe and the shops will come to you. It would be okay if they were just walking around, passively existing to be convenient, but they are anything but passive. When you see one, don't make eye contact, and that basket will end up on your table anyway. Make eye contact by accident, and the basket will be emptied out on your table, before you can even look away to correct your mistake . The constant attention combined with the relentlessness of each vendor, made the day at the mud baths (wandering vendor free, so much so that we had to hunt for waiters) a much needed recharge before re-entering the madness. This is the cheapest place we have found to learn to scuba dive, but I wasn't interested, so after a day cruise we moved on.

Dalat & Mui Ne

Sometimes when you are travelling, you fall in love with a place and stay quite a long time. Sometimes you hate a place and move on quickly. Sometimes you move on quickly because you like it so much, leaving with a magnificent image of that place and your experience there. Dalat was one such place for us. In and out in a flash, and still consider it one of the nicest places we stopped. The experience started with the bus ride through the mountains to town. The terraced farms set on the ridiculously steep mountainsides made for a stunning four hour bus ride. (4 hours is just about the most I can handle on one ride before I remember that I'm on a bus). We arrived late in the afternoon, and took a cab to our lonely planet hotel pick, which turned out to be fantastic. Not only did they have peanut butter and veggiemite with breakfast, they also had a jetted bathtub in our room, built for two. As we wandered around town, a local guide attacked us, and we were quite quickly all set up for the next day. Dalat is a modern city, set way out in the middle of a farming region (aka beautiful terraced mountains). We spent a day riding around on the back of the guide's motorcycles, as we visited farms and factories and local attractions. It made for a beautiful day despite getting a little sunburnt. Then after a fantastic fancy dinner in a lovely restaurant, we were able to book bus tickets out of town for the next day.

Dalat

In Laos, if the bus is two hours late picking you up, it's right on time; no worries. In Vietnam, if it's more than a few minutes late, call to confirm that they didn't forget you. That is what the hotel clerk did for us after the pickup shuttle was half an hour late. He was told that it was running late, and not to worry, so we didn't worry. Then after an hour a man walked in and talked to the clerk and sat down. We still didn't worry. Then the hotel manager (she manages multiple hotels from a base up the street) came storming into the lobby, yelled "you don't pay any money," at me and then proceeded to chew out the guy sitting in the lobby in Vietnamese. We still didn't worry, in fact I was half laughing when I asked if the bus company had forgotten us. Sure enough, the bus had gone without us. That didn't concern us either, as one more night in Dalat would mean another chance to enjoy the hot tub like bathtub in our room. We started to worry a little when they told us that there were no rooms left for the night. We learned in Korea that a little angry asian woman can be more dangerous than a rabid pitbull, and that was about to be reinforced in my mind. The hotel manager ripped the poor bus representative apart, as she berated the poor guy for their error. she then got on the phone (presumably with his boss) and attacked him so aggressively (in Vietnamese) that I felt sympathy for the phone. Then another round at the representative, before settling down to a boil to explain that the bus company was run by irresponsible buffoons and that it was only fair that they get us there today, regardless of what it cost them. She did promise to take care of it, even if it meant withholding future payments to them for tickets she sells to pay for a private taxi. Eventually after she removed a few more pieces of the poor bus rep's flesh, they agreed to get us a private taxi without any additional charge. In the end, the private taxi turned out to be somebodies uncle, who had a car and would do it for a small fee. Four hours later, down a dusty dirty broken road in an old Lotta (this road was in such disrepair that it should only be attempted in a 4 wheel drive vehicle, not a passenger car, which sadly bottomed out many times), we arrived in lovely Mui Ne.

I can't say much about Mui Ne, as we spent four days and nights in a lovely sea side resort, walking on the beach and swimming in the pool, while enjoying the magnificently groomed garden of the hotel. This was an unnecessary rest, but it was fantastic all the same; a great way to build up our energy before tackling Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).

Beach

If you travel through Vietnam, you will likely take one of two routes, either North to South, or South to North. Which way you go makes little difference, but it will determine which super city, Hanoi or Ho Chi Min City you believe is crazier. If you start in the South, you will encounter HCMC first and (fairly) believe it to be one of the (if not the) most chaotic places on earth. If you start in the North and work your way South, you will meet hundreds of other tourists, who will tell you about the madness of this legendary city. You will most likely think the same of Hanoi. The two cities are infact quite different, and yet they share much of the same frantic feeling. If one night in Bangkok will change your life, one night in HCMC might end it. Traffic in Vietnam can be categorized into two regions: in Hanoi or HCMC and everywhere else. The three weeks between Hanoi and HCMC had made us once again confident in crossing the road. Ten minutes in HCMC almost completely oblitterated that feeling. If you are planning your first trip through S. E. Asia, this would be a great start, because once you are accustomed to this city, you will be ready for anything else any city throws at you. It took a few days, but Crystal finally got up the nerve to cross busy streets without holding my hand, something she started doing in Hanoi. If we were tired of Vietnamese food (rice, noodles and pho), HCMC got us back to enjoying food again. Like most big cities in Asia, the variety and abundance of great food is captivating here. We signed on for a tour of the city, and got a second look at the gruesomeness of the American war. The war museum was so upsetting that Crystal had to leave the building while I finished wandering around it. It is truly mind blowing what human beings can do to each other, a message that would get hammered home even more later in our trip. After a few days in HCMC we escaped to a beautiful island off the South coast called Phu Quoc before exiting the country just in time to avoid any trouble from our expiring visas. We managed to use 34 of our 35 days and probably would have stayed longer in this frantic country, but our visas expired and their was a big holiday coming up in Cambodia.

If Thailand had been like another world to us, Laos was like four completely distinct worlds, each seperated by long windy bus rides

The Gibbon Experience

Treehouse

The Gibbon Experience had been described to us by friends who had done it a few years ealier as one of the best things they had ever done. They had failed to describe the long stretches of hiking in sweltering heat. That said, it became quite clear why it had received such great reviews. After two or three of the hundred meter long zip lines through the jungle, we were thoroughly glad for somebody else's misfortune. Flying through the jungle was an amazing experience, and just when we thought that we had experienced the highlight, we reached the tree house where we would spend the first night. Lodged in the branches of an unusually tall tree, looking down at the tops of nearby trees, sat a very large backyard style tree house. After selecting our beds (double mattresses nuzzled up against a small railing and covered with a hanging blanket to keep out the bugs), we were given time to play around on a short circuit of ziplines. If we were anxious about the first zip line, which had a nice long runway from which to launch from, we were terrified to launch from the tree house, where one simply latches on and falls forward out of the treehouse, hundreds of feet up in the air.

After a lovely dinner of vegetables and rice, we spent the evening getting to know our fellow trekkers and listening to the jungle. The next morning about half of the group elected to head off early to try to spot wildlife. The rest of the group was up by the time they returned, unsuccessful. The rest of the day was much more exciting, as the length of the ziplines progressively got longer until we were zipping across river valleys, hundreds of meters above the water. We had lunch at a nice little waterfall and continued on to the longest line, 500 meters. After that we arrived at the second treehouse, where we met the lone resident. It turns out that the staff had made the treehouse home to a small kitten in the hopes that it would solve a small rat problem. The cute little guy wasn't really big enough to kill the rat that showed up in the middle of the night (or the monster iguana), but it did keep it confined to the rafters for the night so that it didn't bother anybody. Day three saw us zipping back along some of the lines we had come along on the previous day and then hiking out of the jungle. Unfortunately our hotel was booked solid but we were able to find another hotel quickly, and after a quick shower, sat down to have a beer with some of our new friends while others raced to catch the bus further into Laos.

I don't know how to get the video to upload so here is a link to one of our zipline videos. This zipline was about 200 meters long http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bXxfGEC-6Q&feature=player_embedded

A Dreadful Bus Ride

The next day was spent lazily waiting for the one daily bus to Luang Prabang. The bus was supposed to take 10 to 12 hours over night. We already knew better than to expect it to be on schedule, but we were in no way prepared for what was to come. The first problem occurred even before the bus departed. Due to low water on the Mekong, the daily boat to Luang Prabang had been cancelled last minute and everybody who had booked a tour had been put on the bus. Consequently there were five more passengers than seats. No problem in South East Asia. They simply put five plastic deck chairs in the aisle, completely blocking anybody from moving up and down the bus without swinging themself over somebody else.

The second issue was the road itself, after a few minutes on the bus, the pavement disappeared and then shortly after that the road disappearred. The road had been described as a new road. This means that they haven't quite finished the road and that in some places, the path would only be marked by the tire tracks of yesterdays bus (which presumably made it to its destination). The first bus break down seemed to go smoothly. We all piled out of the bus, and stood around while the handlers and the driver inspected the underside of the bus. After a while Crystal told me that I should go get a head lamp to lend them. They had tools on the bus, but were using a cell phone for light. After a while we got on our way. It went so smoothly that at around 3 am when we got a flat tire, and had to stop again, that almost nobody bothered to leave their seat. Almost nobody except one rather demanding French lady. She would spend most of the rest of the journey climbing over the poor peope in the middle of the bus to make the bus driver pull over to allow her children to go to the bathroom or vomit, or in at least two instances, both. Normally this would garner sympathy from other travellers, but for some reason this seemed to rub everybody the wrong way. It might have been that she seemed not to be concerned at all when she kicked somebody in the head climbing over the poor occupants of the middle seats ( I know it didn't sit well with me when I was awakened by a sandle in the head)It might have been that she had 4 children with her (all under 10 years of age) a nanny and her husband, niether of which seemed to tend to the children.

While we did feel bad for the children at the start, after several travellers attempted to discipline the children for fighting when the lady failed to, we all stopped feeling sorry for her and simply started to wonder what had possessed her to take on such a ridiculous voyage. By the seventh stop, everybody on the bus was wishing that the lady had rented a private van for her troupe. In all fairness she probably was wishing the same. Several months ago I read a poll taken of hospitality workers in Asia that said the French are the least appreciated tourists in Asia. We've travelled with quite a few French people and have found them to be fantastic travel partners and very gracious guests in all cases. I have concluded that this lady must do a lot of travelling to have single handedly created this reputation for the entire population of France.

Luang Prabang

Monk with Umbrella

After spending the first 5 days holed up in the hotel, watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver while recovering from violent internal cleansing, we finally set out to explore Luang Prabang. It turns out that somewhere along what could only be termed the worst bus ride of our lives, we had left the jungle behind and entered into a beautiful old European style city. There were bakeries and restaurants selling baquettes and pastries and tonnes of other western delights. Book stores and handicraft shops gave us places to wander throughout the day and a nightly market and riverfront restaunts both seemed to magically appear around dusk to add to the charm of the city. We even enjoyed the serenity of waking up at 5:00am to give alms to the monks. On our second day of healthy exploration, we ventured out to a waterfall that was touted as being the best entertainment in the area. The waterfall turned out to be a series of emerald colored pools, connecte by a beautiful stream and headed by a magnificent waterfall. The highlight of the area was the beautiful pools of water in which one could swim. One of the largest water holes had a rope swing, and i got to enjoy the cool water. This waterfall remains one of our alltime favorites. Sometimes when one travels, they are met with an experience that turns out to be completely different than expected; our next stop, Vang Vieng turned out to be one of those experiences.

Kuang Si Waterfalls

Vang Vieng

Mud Volleyball in Vang Vieng

The first night went quickly, and relatively as one would expect. The real ridiculous fun started on the second morning. It goes without saying that nobody moved too early in the hostel. At breakfast a small group of about seven or eight travellers assembled, our two new friends, two guys from Sweden and a very energetic girl. Since the thing to do in the daytime is supposed to be tubing on the river, our groups set out to go tubing. It is important to note that while the rental cost of a tube is not much, there is a substantial deposit, of which you only get some back if you return after 6pm. Upon arrival at the river we were greated with the most mind blowing sight imaginable. The launch point consists of three or four bars clustered along the shore. Each bar has some kind of giant rope swing from which to launch yourself into the river. As we looked down the river we realized that both sides of the river were lined with simular bars. We were immediately greated by foreign hostesses, who tied string bracelets around our wrists, telling us they were from the bars in town and that we would get free buckets(of alcohol) if we wore them tonight. I had seen alot of these bracelets the night before, and wondered. We were then treated to the first of many free shots of local whiskey. Eventually we all bought a drink.

After an initial beer, we hopped in our tubes and paddled all the way to the next bar (about ten meters down river). We were greated with more free whiskey, and then we paddled our way across the river (30 meters, maybe) and after another shot and some free french fries, I got up enough courage and climbed up to the swing platorm and launched myself out into the middle of the river, where I landed face first with minimal injury. After we had all taken a turn, even the Swedish guy who couldn't swim (we found him a life jacket first), we continued on our pilgrimage. It took most of the day to get to most of the bars, drinking free whiskey whenever we arrived at a new bar and consuming whatever free food was put out for us. We even bought a drink or two to mask the whiskey. (Laotian whiskey costs about $2 a bottle and if you're lucky it serves the double purpose of peeling paint).Along the way many more swings were swung and we even tried a waterslide known to have been responsible for more than one fatality. We also played mud volleyball in a pit of mud with a surprisingly uneven bottom.

The entire scene looked like a grown up "Neverland"with too much alcohol. There were lots of drugs available to those interested, but that's one thing we don't see the appeal of. Despite being at extreme low water, the river moved quite quickly and barely any paddling was necessary. After a while we lost our group, and headed for the pick up point. Unfortunately we missed the 6 oclock deadline, and subsequently lost some of our deposit. The rest of our group arrived at the pick up just in time for the last shuttle to the rental shop. Unfortunately, the truck waited for so many people that on the first corner, it tipped over. Nobody was hurt though and the truck was tipped back onto its wheels and everybody piled back on for the short trip back to the shop. We weren'far behind them.

Tubing

Vientiane

Patuaxai (Victory Monument

Buddha

We then headed to the floating market about two hours away and were surprised by how tiny the town was especially after Bangkok. The only restaurant we could find in the entire town was a street vendor who didn't speak a single word of English. However, the food (although no idea what it was) was quite delicious. We woke up early the next morning and went to the floating market, we didn't buy any souvernirs, although there were a lot to choose from, but did indulge in a lot of vendor foods. Our favourite was from a little old lady who rowed up to our boat, and from her boat she made fresh coconut pancakes, they were the perfect morning snack.

Floating Market

Wat Phra Mahathat

Ayuthaya

Nam Lod Cave