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Hi Guys,
I'm now in Vietnam after crossing the border from Laos a week ago. In my last post I was about to go to the north west of Laos to do a 2 day trek but after eating some questionable street food, that tasted great at the time, I ended up throwing up loads during the night and the morning of the trek, so I couldn't go which was gutting...... It had taken 9 hours to get there and then i had to endure a 20 hour bus journey that took me back from where I came from and then further on.
The bus journey consisted of just me and loads of Laos natives, and every half an hour there was a stop so people could have a toilet break by the side of the road. The people in laos must have weak bladders as some of the guys were urinating at every stop.
Anyway, I had the pleasure of being dropped off outside of Vang Vieng at 4.30am. The agent I bought the ticket off told me not to worry as this place was full of young people so stuff would be open, but it looked pretty dead to me when I got there. I had to cross this massive puddle to get to the town, and was hesitant to do it, but then a monk crossed from the other side so I decided to go for it and made it in one piece, but was not very surprised to see nothing was open. I had to wait around until the sun came up before finding somewhere to stay, and I was absolutely shattered!
In Vang Vieng everyone goes tubing, where you sit on a rubber tyre and float down the river, stopping off at bars on the way and just generally drinking and that's about it. I did that twice, but it's tiring sitting on a tyre and floating around. The scenery was really nice though! I also watched about 3 seasons of Friends during my stay in Vang Vieng as all the restaurants show Friends, Simpsons or Family Guy.
After Vang Vieng I spent one night in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, there wasn't much to see here so I just walked around a bit and that was about it. Then I began my adventure of a 24 hour bus journey to Hanoi. We left at 7pm, apparently on a sleeper bus. Me and the 2 other non locals were shoved in the back corner, where you had to climb over other "beds" to get to your own, not nice, and then the beds were like half the size of a single bed, you couldn't turn over or stretch, and to make matters worse they decided to blast out Vietnamese karaoke songs, like really loud. After about 5 hours the bus suddenly stopped and all the lights went off, I assumed it was a toilet break but when we didn't move for ages I realised it wasn't.
I woke up the next morning to find that we were at the border to Vietnam, why we couldn't have just left later and continued through to Vietnam, I don't know, but a lot fo stuff doesn't make sense over here..... Crossing the border wasn't too bad, although walking to the Vietnamese embassy after stamping out of Laos was quite a trek. At least the officials weren't having a nap like the guys in Laos!!
I arrived in Hanoi and stayed for 3 nights before going to Halong Bay last Tuesday. During my time in Hanoi I bought a new camera and saw some of the sights, there isn't that much to see but it's quite a nice place. The trip to Halong Bay was good, it involved sitting on a boat a lot, but I met some great people especially a load of Argentinians.
One of them, decided to jump in the water from the top deck as we weren't allowed to swim after he was told that a load of other people would join him, in reality only one other guy jumped and the rest just sat back down again. The tour guide didn't look the most happiest I had ever seen him, and it took a while for the boat to stop. Instead of reversing to pick them up they made the two guys swim back to the boat which was at least 400m away!
After a telling off we carried on our journey, did some kayaking and then after dinner and lots of drinks we did karaoke on the boat, which was a new experience!! The next day we went to Cat Ba island and were relived to find a beach and that we could go swimming. My swimming isn't the best but I demonstrated my lack of swimming skills and was told I'm actually not that bad which is encouraging.....
We had bought loads of alcohol for the trip but weren't allowed to drink it on the boat so we did a good job of trying to drink it that night before going to a bar. Me and one of the guys I'm travelling with, Mike, were on a winning streak on the pool table but we upset an Aussie guy after losing to him for not shaking his hand, although we were trying.... he was a strange guy....
The next day we awoke to some controversy. Some Americans on our tour had broken their sink in their room, by accident but the hotel was trying to charge them 2 million dong, which like 66 pounds. It was an accident and the sinks weren't the most sturdiest. After lots of arguing and the police getting involved they agreed to pay half a million dong. We all got back on the bus to go to the boat when the hotel owner went to shake the American guys hand through the window, but then hit him. A load of people saw and told our tour guide who went off for 5 minutes before returning to the bus. He then said "Who wants to come with me to beat that guy up?". I had to double take, as did the rest of the bus I suspect, before a huge cheer went up and the whole bus literally emptied and made its way back to the hotel. The owner was nowhere to be seen, but we took their playing cards and Mike found their scooter keys and threw them in a bush, they shouldn't mess with the international vigilantes!!
The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful after that, adn we arrived back in Hanoi very tired, although we still managed to go out last night. I improved my SPanish thanks to the Argentinian guys, Javier and Juan, and I have plenty of people to show me around Buenos Aires which I'm really looking forward to!
Me, Mike and Ross, who is travelling with Mike, are off to Sapa tonight on the sleeper train. It's in the north west, and after that we'll come back to Hanoi before travelling south.
My new camera is great and when I get time I'll put some more photos up.
I hope everyone is well, and as usual I'll try and post again in a week or so.
Take care
P.s. Just want to say well done to Derby for the last few games, they are playing amazing... I should go travelling more often!!
- comments
Suki I like the bit where you all got off the bus to beat the owner, sounds funny!
Bas lol dong! and i like that the sink was 66 quid! glad the swimmings going good! keep it up and youll be ready to be a surfer dude in no time!!xxx
El Pato I do rate u being a bad man in a foreign country Sounds like ur having an amazing time wish i was there and keep up the blogs
Sophia Johaaal! See I finally got to read this.. just moved flats in London so its been a bit hectic. Ahhh, interesting times for you hey?! Make sure you load up some for photos. Be safe-xxx
Mark Hooliganising your way through Asia? Very nice. I think I'm going to stop reading this blog and follow you on the news instead.
Sat Your stories are making me laugh...makes life at work more fun...anyway glad your having a great time...look forward to the next post. Sat xxxx
Sat Your stories are making me laugh...makes life at work more fun...anyway glad your having a great time...look forward to the next post. Sat xxxx p.s post some pictures next time!!!
Kevin Derby's new galatico hero - BUENO is making the difference. Derby need more Real Madrid players in their squad. On this note I hate Barcelona and they are rubbish this season. The Trident are very quiet and gone their own ways because they fear the mighty madrid.
Raich LOL at the incident with the sink!
Sanjay I love anything which has VILLA in it.