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Bangkok, Thailand to Hanoi, Vietnam.
We spent a few days in the crazy city of Bangkok, travelling around by tuk tuk. Made our plan for the next two months so we know where we are going now! Christmas will be in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and New year will be in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Bangkok - Visited Chatachuk market where they sell everything from shoes, clothes, souvenirs - to dogs, fish and various other animals. Not to mention the food stalls where you can buy all sorts of insects, squid etc! Spent the most of our time around Kho San road, eating pad thai from the street sellers (for less than 50p), nutella and banana crepes and lots of pineapple, of course washed down with a few Chang beers.
Flew to Chiang Mai, a northern city of Thailand. Bigger than we thought but an ideal place to spend a few days exploring the night markets, Tiger Kingdom (see photos) and famous temples. Travelled mainly by Song Thaew with our own driver called Matthew. Its great when you can hire your own transport with a driver for five quid a day!
Our next country to visit was Laos. Laos only opened its doors up to tourists in the 1990s however it is still really hard to travel around, unless you are willing to take boats that take 2/3 days or buses that take 20 hours. So we booked a flight with the only airline (Government owened) Lao airlines. They only have two planes in operation at the moment! Laos is a landlocked country but survives due to the Mekong river that flows through it. The locals fish, swim, wash and all sorts in the river which is great to watch. The local kids seem to have a game of getting in the river upstream and just letting it wash them down, great fun! Our one and only stop in Laos was Luang Prabang. Reading about how basic the country is we were a bit concerned but actually Laos now is joint top as our favourite country with Bolivia. Unfortunately we couldnt have longer here! Due to its history there are a lot of French in Laos and even if you are not French the Lao people presume you are! The country has not been spoilt by tourism yet and all the local people seem so content with what they have. There is also a law that means that everything shuts at 11.30 pm so that legally everyone has to be in their registered residence by midnight. They seem to stick to this well apart from the odd drunkern westerner wandering around.
We checked into our Merry-Lao Swiss Hotel and spent the next four days getting to know the area. Drinks on the Mekong river watching sunset, sunset river cruise, elephant riding, swimming in the Tad Sae waterfall, shopping in the night market to name a few. We also enjoyed helping teach English to the hotel staff, who are trying to learn English but their teacher is Lao so it is pretty difficult for them.
We flew out of Luang Prabang,Laos (where the airport was the size of a doctors waiting room) to Hanoi in Vietnam. On arriving we got in a crazy taxi and held on tight for the 45 minute ride to our hotel in the old quarter. The drivers here do not follow any rules, going the wrong way around roundabouts, beeping constantly, swerving in and out of lanes and flashing each other. And it is not just cars: bikes, people, cyclists all share the road!
Our first day in Hanoi today ready to go to Ha Long bay tomorrow. So far we love and hate it here. Due to the traffic and the fact that you cannot walk on any pavements because they are blocked by people selling all sorts and motorbikes parked up, it is not particularly relaxing! We did have a nice stroll around Hoen Kiem Lake earlier though which was a little less crazy and sat at a coffee shop just watching the craziness around us. Amazingly we havent seen a huge crash yet but we did see a motorbike go into a cyclist (two people on each) and the cyclist had to attempt to just cycle off with a wobbly, bent wheel, as if it was the most normal, daily occurence.
I am sure it will be another vegetarian meal tonight for both of us. As the book says, you can try dog here, the pale haired dogs are the tastiest and a delicacy....
Hope the weather has warmed up for you all a bit at least.
Keep in touch
Julia and Mark xx
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