Northern Laos and into the Jungle

We ended up staying three nights in Luang NamTha. Laos because we liked it so much (and because we'd found a very cosy little guesthouse called Zuela that we liked). Its a quiet sleepy little town set deep within a mountain range next to a river. Nobody really cares that you're a tourist, nobody is trying to thrust objects into your hands and you can just go about your tourist business the way you want to. Somebody really needs to do something about neutering the local dogs though. At one time i counted almost 15 trotting down the middle of the road towards us like they'd had enough of the humans and had come to liberate Luang NamTha armed with fleas, sharp teeth and large doses of rabies.

On the second day we hired a scooter and explored the surrounding areas. A couple of very large gold temples had been built at the top of long staircases framed by stone dragons and reptiles. We headed further afield out of the town and started riding through miles and miles of flat rice paddy fields with small little shacks dotted throughout. We stopped for a beer at one of the restaurants on the way back which was right in the middle of the rice fields. It didnt last long though as the heavens opened and we headed for home on the bike and without a poncho. Arrived very wet at our hotel room 30 minutes later.

The rainfall made for an interesting scooter ride down the mudtrack to the waterfall in the afternoon. I pretty much almost squashed both of us a few times with the bike as the back wheel slid out and we got covered from the waist down in a nice reddish mud. Got to the waterfall in one piece though and hiked the rest of the way in t-shirt, shorts and flip flops. The locals had a good laugh at the stupid white tourists. Was worth it though and the sun even came out when we got to the top.

The photo below is of the car wash that i had to take the scooter to in fear of losing my deposit because of all the mud that was caked to it:

Took a kayaking trip down the NamTha river through the rainforest with a guide the next day. Great experience and definitely saw things that we wouldnt have seen without being on the river for a few hours. 22 rapid sections as well which made the journey even more fun. The ever reliable CJ and NB team managing to avoid capsizing this time (which was good because we had all the food on our boat). The guide was good and told us lots of useful information about the villages and Laos in general. At one point, we saw a big white bird soaring across the river in front of us. Tash asked the guide 'what was that?'. He replied 'a bird' and continued to paddle down the river with an air of 'where do they find these tourists?'. He cooked us a great lunch of barbecued fresh fish we picked up from the market in the morning though with lots of sticky rice, omelette and beans. We didnt ask what the fish was and just ate it quietly (its a fish you idiot).

And so onto Huay Xai and what many tourists come Laos to do...The Gibbon Experience.

Dreadful organisation from the tour company (missed emails, no receipts, office closed during opening times etc) but they dont really need to be any good, they know they have a product which you cant find anywhere else. After kitting ourselves out with all the stuff they recommended (hiking boots, torches, bug spray, lot of socks etc...about $10 all in) we set off out to Bokeo where the trail started. From there we picked up our guide and set off hiking through the jungle with six other tourists (German and American) that we'd spend the next two days with. After two hours we got to the first zip line: almost 800 metres across a deep valley with running water at the bottom, as you took off across the valley you looked down on the clouds and the miles and miles of rainforest. An amazing experience and one that British Health and Safety would have an absolute field day with...a 30 minute video on how to attach yourself to the zip line and a guide who looked at me blankly when i asked him if he wanted to check my harness. As we continued the climb to the treehouse where we'd spend the first night, we probably had another 10 or 11 zip lines at various lengths and different speeds, all though with incredible views cutting through the jungle.

The last zip line took us to the doorstep of the treehouse where we would spend the night. Soft beds, fresh duvets, clean sheets, toilets and mosquito nets....and the best bit: a shower with running water which looked out across the valley (definitely someone out there with a pair of binoculars having a lot of fun). Stayed up till at least 9pm getting drunk (yep they even had red wine) and talking with the other gibbons. The incredible noise of a jungle at night wasnt even enough to keep us awake after all that walking, fresh air and red wine. Our treehouse below:

Up at 7am the next day to do some more zip lining around the area before breakfast. We then made our way back down the mountain stopping for tea, coffee and lunch by one of the many running streams. Didnt get to see any gibbons in the end and the guide just laughed at me when i asked him when theyd come swinging through the trees (how about renaming your tour then mate).

Took the slow boat (2 days) down to Luang Prabang yesterday and planning to stay here for a few days before heading south to Vang Vieng and then the Laos capital of Vientiane.

Books: Just finished The Sorrow of War, a story set during the Vietnam war. Pretty heavy reading but extremely well written and gives a much different perspective on the war than the one you usually get from the yanks.

Most annoying tourists: Spanish (i thought the British were renowned for their moaning)

Food proving most dangerous to the health of Chris and Tash (Get me to a toilet....NOW):

Sapa and the road into Laos

Took the 12 hour day train up to Sapa from Hanoi venturing out and booking our bus tickets ourselves at the bus station (in very loud simple english and the few vietnamese words we've learned) rather than through one of the million travel agents in the backpacker district. Turned out to be about 25% of the price if we do it ourselves....which put a smile on my face (I am PJ's son after all). We went for the soft seat option rather than the cheaper 'hard seat' which was basically a wooden bench....for 12 hours.

We werent 100% sure about visiting Sapa as we hadnt heard too much about it but we had a few days spare and felt we'd done everything we wanted to in North Vietnam. It turned out to be a good decision, a beautiful mountain town with rice growing on stepped plateaus built into the side of the mountains, waterfalls everywhere and a wide river cutting its way through the valley. We hired mountain bikes one day and biked up to the Silver Waterfall about 20km north of Sapa. Unfortunately it was also 20km uphill which hurt after pretty much no exercise in 4 weeks. The waterfall was pretty cool but to be honest i was more eager to get back on the bike to do the downhill section...which was awesome. very little traffic and lots of bendy mountain roads to whizz down. Great fun.2 hours uphill and about 20 minutes back down it.

The next day we hired a scooter and decided to travel a bit further afield to some of the surrounding villages. We werent exactly banking on having to navigate rivers running across the road, the road turning into a boggy mess and dogs,chickens and geese that wanted to taste my ankles at each corner. At almost every village we passed people waved and shouted hello at us too, i also lost count of how many times i had to tell people that i wasnt Daniel Craig. They seemed quite disappointed that i wasnt in the new James Bond movie.

After 2 days in Sapa we had to make the decision about how we would get over the border into Laos. It is possible to do it directly from Sapa but the crossing in the very north has only been open 18 months so they are still feeling their way with the procedures and diplomacy. We'd also read a number of horror stories online about this crossing requiring 3 days in a minibus along some of the worst roads (and most ill equipped buses) in Vietnam...so in the end we decided to do it anyway. You only live once right and a story about being stranded in the jungle between Vietnam and Laos would be a pretty good one to tell.

In the end, the trip probably wasnt as bad as we were expecting but the conditions were fairly gruesome. I counted 27 people on a minibus that had 18 seats at one point. Every time the driver pulled over to let someone else on the travellers all groaned with disappointment at the prospect of losing yet another inch of seat space. Perhaps not quite as loud as the suspension was groaning though as the bus heaved its way from one pothole to the next. Unfortunately the best parts of the road were nearest to the edges which brought us ever closer to the sheer drop into the valley...i did actually wonder on a number of occasions whether the tragic deaths of 2 British travelers, a Korean family of nine (now thats brave) and 16 Vietnamese would make the front page of any newspaper. Probably page 3 of The Mirror i decided (Papa would no doubt skip straight to the Sudoku and only get to the article about the death of his grandson around mid-morning.)

Border crossing was fine, not sure what all the fuss was about...my visa and all passport details carefully transcribed by pen into a small exercise book by a Laos border officer. My only advice would be dont use the toilet at the border crossing, Tash is still having nightmares.

Another three buses and 3 days on the Laos side of the border brought us to where we actually wanted to spend some time. We now have a fantastic air conditioned room in a place called Luang NamTha in North Laos quite close to the Chinese border. Plan to do some biking/trekking/kayaking here for the next few days.

Books: 'First they killed my father' by Luong Ung. A true story about a little girl growing up in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot) during the 1970s. Amazing story, pretty harrowing in parts and incredible to think about the things that happened to a 6 year old girl and her family.

Most drastic action in the name of food: The Korean family we met on the Laos border crossing had shipped boxes of food from Korea to Vietnam so they didnt have to eat any of the foreign muck (most of which were piled high on top of the minibus in the pouring rain). The way the 3 teenage korean boys kicked and pulled the boxes up the hill after the final boat ride into Laos showed how pleased they were with the idea

Most flagrant breach of health and safety regulations:

Hanoi and Halong Bay

Arrived in Hanoi after a 12 hour sleeper bus from Hue. Not a bad journey really, even managed 40 winks despite the roads lifting my entire body out of the seat ten or twelve times. Hanoi is an incredible city, definitely one of my favourites so far. With Vietnam being colonised by the French some time during the 1800s, Hanoi seems to have picked up the french influence much more than any of the other cities we've visited so far. We've eaten croissants for breakfast and drunk tasty coffee (which makes a welcome change to the thick, syrupy sweet Vietnamese stuff). A city that i can see myself tootling to and from the office on my vespa scooter on someday.

A bit of light sight seeing on the first day punctuated with regular coffee breaks...probably the most memorable was the famous Hanoi Hilton prison where firstly Vietnamese dissidents (during the Vietnamese defence against the french) and then America soldiers during the American war in the late 1960s were holed up. Funny to see the Vietnamese propoganda on the walls, lots of photos of american prisoners cooking christmas dinners, playing volleyball in the yard and laughing  with the prison guards. The photos of torture, cockroaches and 200 prisoners in a room built for 30 no doubt still hidden under the bed of a vietnamese general somewhere.

From Hanoi we booked onto a three day tour of Halong Bay (not generally keen on preplanned tours but there's no other way to get a decent boat tour around what is claimed to be the 8th wonder of the world apparently). We took a bit of a chance on the Elizabeth Sails tour because i couldnt find any reviews online but it worked out well with a deluxe room on the bottom floor with three large windows so we could wake up to those amazing halong bay views. Great trip, incredible scenery and surprisingly good company ranging from an eccentric Italian who still lives with his mum, a bunch of swedish students who had eaten snake the day before the tour (including the beating heart)  and a Dubai(n) businessman who insisted that we go to visit his 'wonderful land' someday (probably will mate thanks for the offer). Mountain biked through the CatBa national park, wandered around some massive caves and visited monkey island where the monkeys come down to the beach at 4pm every day and steal anything that isnt screwed to the floor (some irish blood in them maybe).

Couple of days chilling in Hanoi and then off to Sapa on the first train outta here tomorrow (6.10am)

Books: Just about to finish The Help by Katherine Stockett. Great story set in the early 1960s about a group of black maids who set out to tell the story of their everyday lives with nasty white women who do anything they can to maintain segregation (definitely worth a read PJ for some ideas to try in Bradford).


New pet hate: Money belts. Just be a man and stick it in your pocket mate yeah (although did hear a funny story from a guy the other day about him forcing his girlfriend to wear the money belt out one night and left the hotel before they realised she had a dress on. Paying for the meal was apparently an experience which the other diners particularly enjoyed)

Best meal: Day one on the halong bay boat tour, clams, squid salad, crab soup, fried grouper. Free

Best tourist tat: We visited the vietnamese university where Confucius studied for part of his life. For anyone who isnt familiar with Confucius, he is one of the founding fathers of modern life; writing books on education, the component of the ideal man, how he should live his life, interact with other people and how governments should govern. Alot of people believe that much of the Western culture is derived from the teachings of Cunfucius. So it seems appropriate that this is what was available to buy in the souvenir shop:

Essay/Book/Screenplay Writing Progress: Nil