First Stop in Loas

( This is the second of 3 new posts so make sure that you continue reading.)
our first view of the village

After the 5 hr boat ride down the stunning Nam Ou, we arrived at the sleepy village of Mung Ngoi Neua. We had been trying to decide if we were going to visit there or not, while we were planning our route through Loas, since it's a little out of the way. When we arrived, we new instantly that we were so glad we went. this was the view from the porch of our hut

The village of no more than about 500 people, is tucked up against the Nam Ou (Nam is river), and lies in the basin of several jagged karsts. It's an amazing spot. It's only accessable by foot, or by boat, so it's really peaceful since there's no motorbikes or cars. We rented a simple little hut overlooking the river. We actually ended up spending three nights there.

There wasn't too much happening in this quiet village. That's if you don't count soaking in all the things that make this place such a jem. Kids were playing everywhere the way the only kids can. Whether it was kicking around a beat-up "soccerball", or stripping down to nothing to play and jump into the icy river, they were having a blast. Villagers were true villagers here as well. What I mean is they were working hard. On our travels that's one thing that usually rings true. Women were seen carrying huge loads on there backs, feeding the animals, tending the children, slaving over a coal fire, and working in the fields. Men were repairing their homes, hunting for birds, herding the buffalos, or fishing by night. Other than soaking in these sights, we also enjoyed reading in our hammocks by day, and listening the cicadas and crickets, or watching the bobbing torches of small fishing boats by night. With most of the noise in town coming from yelling children and eratic roosters, it was very peaceful.

We did however manage to venture out of the village into the fields and forest to seek out a cave we'd heard about. After walking on a footpath for several kms we came across a small stream with some men spear fishing. The stream they were fishing in actually flowed out of the cave we were going to check out. It was really huge....once again taking the place of the biggest cave we've ever been in. We snaked our way deeper and deeper into it, trying to follow the sound of the babbling stream somewhere below. After going in somewhere between 300 and 400 m, we turned out our single headlamp to see how dark it would be. Complete darkness! We quickly realized that since we had only one light, if it were to quit, we would have serious trouble navigating our way out of the cave. Also, since no one knew we were in there, we thought we'd better get out. Even in spite of the "danger" at hand, it was great!

not a great shot...but you can see how big this thing was

We continued walking the foot path for another 3 sweaty kms. We arrived at another little village, which was only accessable by foot. There wasn't much to do there, accept for wave at the currious kids and watch ladies sifting rice. We turned back and stopped on the way to eat the bread and bananas we'd brought with us. While eating, a dozen men with guns that looked like Sir Brock may have used once, came wadeing through the stream we were sitting by. They were out hunting birds we presumed.

It's great to be in a new country, and try to learn the ways of it. I think were really going to love it here...we already do! (you were right Rach.) With out any smoggy big cities, and a population of only about 7 million (small for asia), Loas has a pace that makes the other 3 countries we've been in look like they're in fastforward. We'll explain more later.

The food here has been really great also. It closely resembles Thai cuisene, but is distinct as well. In the two small towns on the river, we've seen a really interesting dish. Riverweed. Basically people collect weeds from the floor of the river and then beat them into a flat sheet, and then dry them in the sum. The often add thin slices of tomotes and garlic too. We've yet to try it...but we plan to.

We had a great time there before taking another boat farther down the Nam Ou.

Travelling from Vietnam to Laos

Beautiful scenery along the way.

A couple of cute Laos kids at a village along the way.

We started our journey into Laos at 5:30 am in Dien Bien Phu. The trip into the first decent sized town in Laos was only 110 km from our starting point. Doing the math in our heads we figured the latest we'd roll into town would be about 10 am. Boy, were we wrong!

As I mentioned, the bus we were taking was scheduled to leave at 5:30 am. We were quite pleased when we pulled out of the bus station at 5:40. However, only 15 minutes down the road we pulled into the driveway of a house and everyone other than the foreigners on the bus all got off and sat at the end of the driveway. We still aren't sure what the delay was, but 1 1/2 hours later everyone piled back on to the bus and we were on our way.

I should probably point out that our bus was a 24 seater. At one point Brian decided to count how many people were aboard....the final count was 56.

We finally arrived at the border where it took another 2 hours for everyone on the bus to be checked through. By the time we left the border it was 10:00 ( our estimated time of arrival in Laos...and we still had 75 km to go). The bus driver informed us that we probably wouldn't get there until 2:00 pm.

At the border.

Brian and I were lucky to have seats at the front of the bus, with lots of leg room....or so we thought. It didn't take long for our leg room to be filled up with people, their bags, their shoes and their food. There was one lady in particular who seemed to think that Brian's legs were her own personal backrest. At one point she didn't feel comfortable enough so she reached back and readjusted them.

These are the people sitting (and sleeping) in front of us. The people lying down just shoved everyone out of the way so they could have their naps!

It didn't take us long to realize why it was going to take 4 hours to cover our last 75 km inside Laos. The bus wound through the mountains along dirt roads, forging through streams and mud pits that broke up the clay. It was a beautiful drive.

The bus, crossing one of the many streams on the way. I'm not sure what they do during the wet season!



Getting on a "ferry" to cross the river.

We arrived at our destination in Muang Khua shortly after 2:00. We thought it was probably to late to catch a boat down the river to where we hoped to stay the night, but, to our surprise we were still able to hire a boat. We got on and travelled down the river with 5 other travellers. It was a beautiful trip, and we had some other adventures on the boat. We met a couple of stupid guys who had shipwrecked their boat and were stranded on the shore of the river. For the sake of time, I'll leave the rest of that story until we come home.

One more from Nam.

there haven't been too many new photo the past couple of days...so here's one from the internet cafe. It must be PD day or something, because they're all full of kids gaming.

We did say that our next blog post would come from Loas...but it's not. We're currently in Dien Bien Phu. Were a mere 35km from the most northern Vietnam/Laos border crossing. This is one of those towns that is really refreshing to be in. It's not touristy at all. This border just opened in 2007 so it's not a main route by any means. It's really great to see one last slice of real Vietnam before we head into Laos.

The people here have limited experiece with travelers, so there's no effort on their part to rip us off...which is nice. When buying food the real price is quoted up from and there no need to counter offer at the usual 50% of the quoted price or less. The food here has also been great. Perhaps the best (nem) spring rolls we've had thus far.

Aside from eating and wandering around there's not much to do. We got here this morning at about 6:30am, narrowly missing the bus to the first town across the border. The bus leaves at 5;30am, so we'll be on that tomorrow; we have to be, since our visa expires then. The bus here was good and bad. It was good since it was a full size coach bus...a brand new one from Korea. Judging by it's condition it may have only been on the road for a week or so. So that was a welcome surprise from the mini-bus we thought we'd be on. The trip also took a lot less time than we thought. We got here in about 12hrs, and we were counting on 16. It's not too often that that happens. However, it was still a classic Vietnamese bus trip. We got to the bus station at 1:20pm, and it took us quite a while to sort out where to go in the mist of so many buses. Since most people in Vietnam go north-south or vise-virsa, all the buses for forigners are just that; buses for forigners, and they leave from the main backpacker areas in Hanoi. So there were no other westerners at this bus station, even though it's the biggest one in the country. Theres was no one to help us either. Even though there were thousands of people and hundreds of buses, we couldn't find anyone who could speak any english. It probobly took us 45min to find a bus bound for our destination. When we did find one, we learned that it didn't leave until 4pm. After we killed that time waiting around, 4pm turned into 6:30 and we were on the way.

ice in my bia at the bus station...mmm.

The rest of the journey was classic has I said. The ailse had 8 people laying on the floor since the seats were all full. The air conditioner was pumping even though it was less than 15c outside. Everyone on the bus was clearly cold, but no one bothered to ask the bus driver to turn it down. They were all two busy watching the Vietnamese music videos on the tv. When those finished the music phones came out. You know you're in a different culture when it's ok to play loud music on your phone and sing along at 2am when the person next to you and the rest of the bus is trying to sleep...except for the other 3 guys playing their own tunes as well. Of course, no one seemed to mind. So we didn't get much sleep beside the music phones and the techo ring tones that went off at all hours off the night. How come no one sent us a text at 3:15am?

When we got here we got a room in a guest house next to the bus station, and crashed until almost 1pm. We'll be ready to be up again by 5am.

Farewell Vietnam!

On the Road Again

Well, we're very close to the end of our time in Vietnam. We can't believe that we've only got a month of travelling left.

Craig leaves for home again today. He's got a long 2 days of travel ahead of him, and from what we hear -12 temps. await him at home.

Brian and I are getting on a bus for the Vietnam/Laos border. I can't say I'm looking forward to 16 hours on a local bus (overnight!), but it's been a while since we've had to do a major trip like this. I guess it's time!

So, so-long Vietnam, and we'll write again from Laos!

Halong Bay

The past couple of days were spent adoring the beauty of creation once again. We did an overnight boat trip in Halong Bay, and had great weather for it as well. Today is overcast, as were several days leading up to our trip, but while on the boat for two days we had nothing but cloudless skies. It was perfect!

I won't bore you too much with trying to describe what we saw...I'll let the the pictures do that (the describing that is). But I will tell you of two situations that split our sides a little before we embarked on the journey.

The night before the trip, we were relaxing in a restaurant and enjoying a glass of wine. Near us was a table of some very roudy Chinese tourists. At one point we could tell they were talking about us, and I happened to make eye contact with them. They really must of liked us, because right after that three of the girls came over and had there picture taken with us...well with Craig actually. That's right, the young buck was up to his same tricks as in Hoi An. The lady lingured a little, and the conversation between Craig and her was as follows...

-where you come from?

-Canada

-what's your name?

-Craig

-are you man or boy?

(looks of confusion and blank stares was all she got back from us...and a lot of laughing)

-finally Craig responds, with a fair amount of intelligence, "what do you mean?"

-how old are you?

-oh, oh...22.

-me 30.

-oh

-you are my sister.

-(more laughing from our crew)...what?

-I am your daughter!

...and with that she left and went back to her table. We were killing ourselves laughing. It was perhaps the funniest moment of the trip.

The following morning at the breakfast table, the three of us ordered banana pancakes. (good Vietnamese food eh?) It was a small family run restaurant in which the husband takes the orders and the wife does the cooking...sounds fair enough. After we asked for 3 banana pancakes, he gave us a look that clearly communicated that he wasn't sure whether or not that was available. He shouted something towards the kitchen and after the response gave us a goofy smile and made a motion with his hands as if he were praying. We assumed that perhaps the wife was praying and maybe we had to wait to eat. But he said "ok no problem", and gave us another goofy grin. He then went behind us and removed that bananas from the families ancestor shrine. He smiled again, put his finger over his lips, and tiptoed into the kitchen to hand his wife the bananas which had been stolen straight out of the mouths of their desceased loved one. Now our consciences would have been clear had this only been a little meat sacrificed to idols or something...but bananas. We weren't to sure what Paul would have to say about that...let along their starving dead family. Anyway, we ate 'em, and they were the best banana pancakes on the trip thus far. Kudos to the guys who took them from the shrine!

The boat trip as I said was great. We dined on fresh seafood, and had some amazing views of the stars at night. We also had a chance to get off the boat and kayak through a cave that was almost 200m long. The gave had an exit out the other side, which formed the only entrance into a beautiful lake. From this lake there were two more caves that each led into another 2 small, clear lakes. We had it to ourselves as well. It was amazing! We also got off the boat to explore a massive cave on shore. It was really cool, but a little precarious, since the guide was the only one with a light, and it was really weak. It was as dark as dark could be in the bowels of the cave, so we couldn't see too much, but it was easily the biggest cave any of us have ever been in.

that's our junk...it's what this type of boat is called.

mmm squid. It's actually not one of our favs. but it's ok.

We're now back in Hanoi, and getting ready for Craig's departure in two days...had it been 3 week already. Wow! We ourselves have almost already used up our one month visa in Vietnam. We have to be in Laos by the 5th.

Rockin' the "Cat Ba"

Today we woke up to less than favorable weather. It was drizzling, and cold and completely misty. It appeared as though it was going to put a damper on our plans once again. After an extended breakfast of apple/pineapple fritters we decided we were going to tough it out anyway and make the most of our day. (those fritters were not as good as they sound; especially since they were supposed to be pancakes...oh well.)

We rented a couple of motorbikes and headed into the interior of Cat Ba island to the national park. It's named, quite cleverly, Cat Ba National Park. The park has a 9km hiking trail through it, which heads to the ocean. Fortunately the weather fined up and we were able to enjoy a dry trail! It was a great way to see some of the rain forest here and the really interesting rock outcroppings and moutains. All in all, it was a great day. I think the pictures explain a bit of the fun we had en route.

...nice climbing shoes Craig!

Tomorrow we're headed out to sleep on a junk...a boat. We've hired a boat to take us around Halong Bay, and we're planning to spend the night on it. Should be good!

Vietnamese water puppet show

This was the same show that we saw!