Hi everyone, we've got a few days for you to catch up on. We've been out in the stix for a while and so not been able to do it sooner, but it's not too long, so bear with us!
SATURDAY 12th May
Not a lot happened today. We popped out to grab some brunch- style food, as we had our first lay-in since the Intrepid Tour started! We wandered around the streets near to the hotel and when we got back we ate our food before starting the mammoth task of trying to get our washing back! Oh my gosh, we just kept going around in circles, as we paid for the washing, but then we couldn't get them to understand we needed it back right then, as we were meeting up with the rest of the group so that we could leave and go to Chengyang! We finally managed to understand one another and we got our washing back! We then piled into taxis to take us to the bus station, ready for another long afternoon of travelling. We were soon at Chengyang and being picked up by the hostel's minibus service and going to stay with the Wu family for a couple of days. We got our things into our rooms and then sat down to a terrific meal - Mrs. Wu was an amazing cook! Afterwards we sat around chatting together, as Chengyang is a small village and so there wasn't a lot else to do. Our hostel had a beautiful view of one of the most famous and most visited Wind-and-Rain bridges in the area. They're built as a social place for people to meet and trade, as well as offering protection from the wind and rain. They're also built entirely of wood and without a single nail!
SUNDAY 13th May
First thing in the morning Tim (one of the sons of Mr. and Mrs. Wu) took us for a countryside/village walk for about 4 hours. It was really interesting to get to watch people doing their daily things, for example working in the rice paddies, working in their shops, killing and plucking chickens etc. It was quite sad though, as we saw a group of people in their white mourning dress and so we knew somebody had died. It was soon time to head back to the hostel though for lunch. We had some free time afterwards and sat and chatted some more, or read books. Later on we went to the Village Cultural Show, we saw men and women of all ages performing traditional Dong songs and dances, we had rice wine and even had to join in with the dancing at the end! We were all pretty useless at it, but it was good fun too! After the show, some people decided to walk to the top of a nearby hill to take some photographs, while the rest of us went back to the hostel. It was another quite evening of sitting around and chatting after we'd had dinner.
MONDAY 14th May
We had another mammoth day of travelling today. We were up bright and early so that we could make our way to Longji. We had to catch 3 buses, not all of which seemed to be of the most sturdy construction and it also turned out to be the bumpiest bus ride in the world, as the road was under construction! Unfortunately I was desperate for the loo on one bus and the driver kindly pulled over so that I could jump out, I managed to hide myself from the view of the people on the bus by jumping down a verge, but I completely forgot that people coming the other way would be able to look down onto where I was! I also found out afterwards, that the 2 men sitting behind Steve and I on the bus were very interested in what I was doing! So 3 bus journeys and my highly embarrassing debacle later we were in Pingan (Longji)! We had to walk up a fairly steep hill for about 20/30 minutes to get to the hotel we were staying at. It was a really nice place and as soon as we arrived we had lunch, as we had to wait for the rooms to be made ready for us. We had a couple of hours free, and we ended up watching people from the viallge carry a very heavy electricity transformer up the steep hill, as there was a power cut - it was avid viewing and also really nice to see most of the village all going out to help. After this, we went for a short walk up to a viewing point on the hill to have a look at the view, unfortunately it was a bit hazy and so we couldn't see too far. After sitting for a while at the top we headed back down for dinner.
TUESDAY 15th May
We were up very early today so that we could do our 4 to 5 hours trek through the Longji Rice Terraces. We managed to set off by 07.00 so that we would miss the midday heat of the Sun. It was an amazing trek, it was hard work at times though (with six steep hills to climb up), but definitely worth the views! Construction was started on the terraces 700 years ago and they were only finished in the early 1900s. It's just amazing to think and see that people do climb the hills every day to get to the terraces and other villages. It's such hard work, as most of the terraces aren't large enough to get an ox in, so they have to be farmed by hand - back breaking working we can assure you! The views were just spectacular looking over the vast areas that have been cultivated and seeing the Sun reflecting off of the flooded paddies. We finally made it to Dazai around 12.00! We had a banquet lunch and then spent the afternoon and evening watching DVDs and playing cards! Some people, including Steve, were not being lazy bones and decided to go to a couple of the view points near to the hotel we stayed at and so went for another hour of trekking!
WEDNESDAY 16th May
We spent the morning and part of the early afternoon on buses again today and most of us slept the whole time, as we are all so exhausted! I know that I spent the majority of every bus ride asleep! We had a rather 'exciting' moment on our first journey, as we came across a rather large landslide which had completely covered the only road available in a heap of mud and rubble! We had to disembark the bus and scramble across the fresh landslide - one of the most unnerving things I've ever done, especially as there were 2 diggers on the top of the landslide at the time! We made it across in one piece and were able to hop on a bus which had to stop as it was coming up the road towards Dazai! So after another 3 bus journeys (with no stops for the road-side loos this time) we arrived in Yangshou and had a 10 minute walk to get to our hotel. We had a little bit of time to get freshened up before we went out for lunch together and we now have the whole afternoon and evening to please ourselves!
We think that's about all there is to update you on this time around. For once there's not too much for you to plough through! We're still having a great time on the tour, it's been so great seeing more rural China than we were able to see in Beijing and Xi'an. We only have another 4 days on the tour though, it will certainly be strange being on our own again after all this time! It will be odd having to sort out our own transport and accommodation again - but I'm sure we'll get there in the end!
Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for all the comments, it's nice to know that you're enjoying the blog! Missing you all as usual, but not suffering from homesickness for once! Looking forward to your comments.
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
Friday, 11 May 2007
Karaoke and Beach Parties!
Hello again everyone! It's been ages since we last posted - sorry about that, but we're out in the stix a lot of the time on this part of the tour and so we haven't had much opportunity or time to be honest! We'll fill you in now though and we're sorry if it takes a while!
SUNDAY 6th May
We started off this morning by meeting a few of our group and Nok to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum together. We set off at about 07.00 and by 07.30 we'd arrived. The rules were pretty strict there, we had to leave our rucksacks at a luggage hold, although we could take in a handbag with money etc in it. But we weren't allowed cameras or phones and after leaving our bags we had to go through metal detectors and put our handbags through an x-ray machine. We then had to queue for a little while and as we got closer to the Mausoleum, we had to stand in pairs in the queue, with our arms by our sides, not speaking, no sunglasses on, no chewing gum and I got pulled aside and had my handbag checked again to make sure I didn't have a camera or anything in it. We then filed into the Mausoleum and walked around Ho Chi Minh's body and left again. You weren't allowed to stop at all and one woman who was bowing to Ho Chi Minh was forcibly moved on! Once outside we had a look around the grounds of where Ho Chi Minh worked and lived. It was quite nice and the wooden house he lived in was beautiful. After walking the grounds we headed off for some breakfast and decided we wanted to go to Hanoi Prison (built by the French to subdue any Vietnamese uprisings - Ho Chi Minh was actually imprisoned here). It was quite a subdued visit, as like most prisons, the conditions people were forced to live in were pretty dank and awful.
Steve and I decided to do our own thing after this and went in search for a book-swap-shop for Steve so that he could get something new to read, but unfortunately we couldn't find one that actually sold English books and he is being picky and wants to read Lord of the Rings! So we went and had a nice cold drink and a sit down instead. Poor Steve had been a bit ill during the night and still wasn't feeling quite right, so we made our way back to the hotel and he had a bit of a sleep, which seemed to make him feel better.
At 18.00 we had our first group meeting with our new tour leader. We had to fill out our passport and insurance details etc and also introduced ourselves to one another, as we had 5 new people on the tour (including our new guide). Once we were introduced we went out to dinner and had a 'buffet' style meal - loads of dishes got ordered and we just helped ourselves to what we wanted!
MONDAY 7th May
Today we mainly travelled. We first of all had breakfast at Koto though and also ordered ourselves takeaway lunches. Our travelling started with a bus ride to the harbour, we then caught a public boat which took us to Cat Ba Island. We then got to the hotel and Steve and I found ourselves on the 5th floor at the top of the hotel - it was hard work getting up all of the stairs with hugely heavy backpacks on! We had the afternoon to ourselves, so we took a little wander around and got a couple of milkshakes to cool off. For dinner Sharon took us to the beach and it was pretty cool, as it was just us and a few locals there. We had another 'buffet' style meal and so got to try lots of new and very yummy new dishes! After eating we were invited to join the locals bonfire beach party - it got pretty raucous with lots of dancing and shouting! After getting completely puffed out by dancing around on the beach we headed back towards the hotel and stopped for a drink on the way.
TUESDAY 8th May
Today was really great! We started off by having a motorbike tour of the Island, it was a great way to see the less touristy areas. It was slightly odd for me not being behind Steve on his bike, and Steve felt odd being a passenger, but it was still so much fun! We stopped halfway round to have a tour of 'Hospital Cave'. A Vietnamese War Veteran showed us around the cave, as he had actually lived there during the war. It was amazing to think that soldiers had used it as their home, it felt so claustrophobic and was so dank and dark, it must have been pretty miserable at times. Although he showed us how they used to entertain themselves - he sang us a couple of songs and showed us the swimming pool and cinema they were allowed to use! After the tour of the cave, we were back on the bikes and whizzing back to the hotel again. We had a short while to get our swimming things together, as our next stop was a boat ride in Halong Bay. When we'd reached the Bay we were allowed to go for a swim whilst lunch was being prepared for us. The boys were all throwing themselves in the water from the top of the boat and we got some pretty cool photos of them! After lunching on the boat we went for a kayak ride around the Bay, stopping on a deserted beach for a bit of R and R on the way around! We were then being taken back to the harbour through some very rough waters! We then had the evening to ourselves and so Steve and I decided to have our first dinner on our own since starting the tour! So all in all it was a fantastic day and hopefully we'll have lots more like it!
WEDNESDAY 8th May
Today we headed for the border town of Lang Son in preparation for crossing the border on Thursday. We had some stops on the way though. We caught a private boat from the Island back to the mainland and on the way we stopped off t Sung Sot Cave. It was pretty cool, it's so different from the limestone caves you get in the UK. The stalactites and stalagmites are much larger and the majority of them have joined up to form giant columns of pitted white calcium. The scale of everything was really vast and it was also quite fun, as they'd put loads of coloured neon lights everywhere, so it felt like a nightclub! Once we'd wandered through the cave, we finished our journey to the mainland and then got a private bus to Lang Son. We had one more stop, this time at Hong Ngoc Humanity Centre. This centre teaches the victims of chemical warfare (mainly children from the Vietnam War) and teaches them a traditional trade e.g. lacquer ware, embroidery etc etc. I ended up buying an outfit from there, a traditional Vietnamese dress - it's a dark blue jacket/dress with white embroidery and a pair of white trousers, all of it is in silk and I bought it for less than 25 pounds! I think I look OK in it, Steve certainly liked it, so hopefully his taste has been impeccable! We then finished our journey to the border town. We had a little free time, during which Steve and I had a wander around the market, which was ridiculously busy and we then went to a hotel a couple of buildings down to have a group dinner.
THURSDAY 10th May
Today we were up early. We started off with a short bus ride to the border. It didn't take too long to get everyone through and we were soon back in China - it almost felt like going home! So with a couple of new stamps in our passports we were bundling into another bus and heading to Huashan. We arrived early in the afternoon and so after popping our belongings into our individual stilt houses we had lunch at the hotel. We were then taken by rather rickety tuk tuks to the river so that we could have a trip down river to see the Huashan Mural Paintings. These paintings are 2400 years old, but no-one knows anything about them, not even how they painted them on the shear cliff face or how they managed to scale up/down it to paint them, when some of them are over 100 meters high! Baffling stuff, but also impressive - something very important must have happened to have justified them going to so much effort! The afternoon was left for us to do our own thing. We did some washing and then Steve went out to take some photos and before we knew it it was time for dinner, which we had at the hotel. Afterwards we had a very noisy karaoke party - it was great fun, even if I am now deaf in one ear!
FRIDAY 11th May
Today we've mostly been travelling, we left Huashan at 08.00 and 3 buses later were arriving in Liuzhou at around 14.00. I had lots of fun trying to explain to reception that I wanted some laundry doing and asking whether it would be possible to get it back before 12.00 tomorrow and asking how much it would cost, but we finally got there and it's all been sorted out! Steve and I haven't done much, we unsuccessfully tried to buy Steve some more deodorant and have since been blogging away! We're off to dinner soon so we'd better get going!
We hope you're all well, still missing you all, but I think my bout of homesickness has subsided a little now!
SUNDAY 6th May
We started off this morning by meeting a few of our group and Nok to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum together. We set off at about 07.00 and by 07.30 we'd arrived. The rules were pretty strict there, we had to leave our rucksacks at a luggage hold, although we could take in a handbag with money etc in it. But we weren't allowed cameras or phones and after leaving our bags we had to go through metal detectors and put our handbags through an x-ray machine. We then had to queue for a little while and as we got closer to the Mausoleum, we had to stand in pairs in the queue, with our arms by our sides, not speaking, no sunglasses on, no chewing gum and I got pulled aside and had my handbag checked again to make sure I didn't have a camera or anything in it. We then filed into the Mausoleum and walked around Ho Chi Minh's body and left again. You weren't allowed to stop at all and one woman who was bowing to Ho Chi Minh was forcibly moved on! Once outside we had a look around the grounds of where Ho Chi Minh worked and lived. It was quite nice and the wooden house he lived in was beautiful. After walking the grounds we headed off for some breakfast and decided we wanted to go to Hanoi Prison (built by the French to subdue any Vietnamese uprisings - Ho Chi Minh was actually imprisoned here). It was quite a subdued visit, as like most prisons, the conditions people were forced to live in were pretty dank and awful.
Steve and I decided to do our own thing after this and went in search for a book-swap-shop for Steve so that he could get something new to read, but unfortunately we couldn't find one that actually sold English books and he is being picky and wants to read Lord of the Rings! So we went and had a nice cold drink and a sit down instead. Poor Steve had been a bit ill during the night and still wasn't feeling quite right, so we made our way back to the hotel and he had a bit of a sleep, which seemed to make him feel better.
At 18.00 we had our first group meeting with our new tour leader. We had to fill out our passport and insurance details etc and also introduced ourselves to one another, as we had 5 new people on the tour (including our new guide). Once we were introduced we went out to dinner and had a 'buffet' style meal - loads of dishes got ordered and we just helped ourselves to what we wanted!
MONDAY 7th May
Today we mainly travelled. We first of all had breakfast at Koto though and also ordered ourselves takeaway lunches. Our travelling started with a bus ride to the harbour, we then caught a public boat which took us to Cat Ba Island. We then got to the hotel and Steve and I found ourselves on the 5th floor at the top of the hotel - it was hard work getting up all of the stairs with hugely heavy backpacks on! We had the afternoon to ourselves, so we took a little wander around and got a couple of milkshakes to cool off. For dinner Sharon took us to the beach and it was pretty cool, as it was just us and a few locals there. We had another 'buffet' style meal and so got to try lots of new and very yummy new dishes! After eating we were invited to join the locals bonfire beach party - it got pretty raucous with lots of dancing and shouting! After getting completely puffed out by dancing around on the beach we headed back towards the hotel and stopped for a drink on the way.
TUESDAY 8th May
Today was really great! We started off by having a motorbike tour of the Island, it was a great way to see the less touristy areas. It was slightly odd for me not being behind Steve on his bike, and Steve felt odd being a passenger, but it was still so much fun! We stopped halfway round to have a tour of 'Hospital Cave'. A Vietnamese War Veteran showed us around the cave, as he had actually lived there during the war. It was amazing to think that soldiers had used it as their home, it felt so claustrophobic and was so dank and dark, it must have been pretty miserable at times. Although he showed us how they used to entertain themselves - he sang us a couple of songs and showed us the swimming pool and cinema they were allowed to use! After the tour of the cave, we were back on the bikes and whizzing back to the hotel again. We had a short while to get our swimming things together, as our next stop was a boat ride in Halong Bay. When we'd reached the Bay we were allowed to go for a swim whilst lunch was being prepared for us. The boys were all throwing themselves in the water from the top of the boat and we got some pretty cool photos of them! After lunching on the boat we went for a kayak ride around the Bay, stopping on a deserted beach for a bit of R and R on the way around! We were then being taken back to the harbour through some very rough waters! We then had the evening to ourselves and so Steve and I decided to have our first dinner on our own since starting the tour! So all in all it was a fantastic day and hopefully we'll have lots more like it!
WEDNESDAY 8th May
Today we headed for the border town of Lang Son in preparation for crossing the border on Thursday. We had some stops on the way though. We caught a private boat from the Island back to the mainland and on the way we stopped off t Sung Sot Cave. It was pretty cool, it's so different from the limestone caves you get in the UK. The stalactites and stalagmites are much larger and the majority of them have joined up to form giant columns of pitted white calcium. The scale of everything was really vast and it was also quite fun, as they'd put loads of coloured neon lights everywhere, so it felt like a nightclub! Once we'd wandered through the cave, we finished our journey to the mainland and then got a private bus to Lang Son. We had one more stop, this time at Hong Ngoc Humanity Centre. This centre teaches the victims of chemical warfare (mainly children from the Vietnam War) and teaches them a traditional trade e.g. lacquer ware, embroidery etc etc. I ended up buying an outfit from there, a traditional Vietnamese dress - it's a dark blue jacket/dress with white embroidery and a pair of white trousers, all of it is in silk and I bought it for less than 25 pounds! I think I look OK in it, Steve certainly liked it, so hopefully his taste has been impeccable! We then finished our journey to the border town. We had a little free time, during which Steve and I had a wander around the market, which was ridiculously busy and we then went to a hotel a couple of buildings down to have a group dinner.
THURSDAY 10th May
Today we were up early. We started off with a short bus ride to the border. It didn't take too long to get everyone through and we were soon back in China - it almost felt like going home! So with a couple of new stamps in our passports we were bundling into another bus and heading to Huashan. We arrived early in the afternoon and so after popping our belongings into our individual stilt houses we had lunch at the hotel. We were then taken by rather rickety tuk tuks to the river so that we could have a trip down river to see the Huashan Mural Paintings. These paintings are 2400 years old, but no-one knows anything about them, not even how they painted them on the shear cliff face or how they managed to scale up/down it to paint them, when some of them are over 100 meters high! Baffling stuff, but also impressive - something very important must have happened to have justified them going to so much effort! The afternoon was left for us to do our own thing. We did some washing and then Steve went out to take some photos and before we knew it it was time for dinner, which we had at the hotel. Afterwards we had a very noisy karaoke party - it was great fun, even if I am now deaf in one ear!
FRIDAY 11th May
Today we've mostly been travelling, we left Huashan at 08.00 and 3 buses later were arriving in Liuzhou at around 14.00. I had lots of fun trying to explain to reception that I wanted some laundry doing and asking whether it would be possible to get it back before 12.00 tomorrow and asking how much it would cost, but we finally got there and it's all been sorted out! Steve and I haven't done much, we unsuccessfully tried to buy Steve some more deodorant and have since been blogging away! We're off to dinner soon so we'd better get going!
We hope you're all well, still missing you all, but I think my bout of homesickness has subsided a little now!
Saturday, 5 May 2007
The Wheels on the bus go Round and Round and Round and Round ...
We think this blog is actually shorter than any others, as we haven't really done anything for 2 days, apart from sit on a bus! So you shouldn't need too many cups of tea or coffee to get you through this one!
WEDNESDAY 2nd May
After blogging you, we went back to the hotel and had a wonderfully refreshing shower - it's amazing how human it makes you feel again! Then we met up with Chris, Kim, Claudia and Nok for dinner and we went to a bar/cafe. When we got back to the hotel we bumped into Luke, Harry and Eric who were about to go bowling, so we tagged along too. Only 6 of us ended bowling and Steve and I lost terribly! But Steve's bowling technique was something to marvel at (it had me in stitches at times)! After our thrashing we decided to head back to the hotel again, as we had an early start the next day.
THURSDAY 3rd May
Steve got a bit frustrated this morning. Before breakfast he decided to pop out to go to the book-swap-shop and to the bakery. However, just like last night, the bookshop was still closed, but he did get a banana loaf from the bakery for us to snack on on the long bus ride ahead of us. So we sat and had breakfast together and whilst I finished getting our things ready, Steve decided to try the bookshop one last time - but he came back defeated, as it was still closed! He was a bit disappointed, so we've now got to keep our eyes open for a book-swap-shop! After all this running around, it was time to meet in the foyer with our mountains of bags and get the minibus loaded up. We were soon on our 7 hour bus journey to Lak Sao. It was a pretty uneventful journey, ambling along the roads with beautiful mountain views. We stopped for a couple of 'happy breaks' (loo stops to you and me) and also stopped for lunch at a noodle bar. We finally made it to Lak Sao in the middle of a torrential rainstorm - yay, the start of the rainy season is upon us! After dumping our bags we traipsed down the road to the only restaurant in Lak Sao. It wasn't fantastic and it was a tad overpriced, but it was edible none-the-less! Then it was back to the hotel for an early night, as we had to be up at 06.00 the next morning.
FRIDAY 4th May
We were up at 06.00 this morning and by 07.30 we were on the bus and starting our 10 hour journey to Hanoi, Vietnam! After an hour or so we hit the border and piled into customs/immigration control to have our passports checked. It took a while to do, as there were already people waiting and one of our group had managed to get their passport wet at some point and so immigration were reluctant to let them through! But some smooth talking from Nok meant we were finally on our way and joining up with a new driver who would take us the rest of the way to Hanoi. Now, we thought that the Chinese roads were bad, but the Vietnamese are just plain scary! They undertake the most nail-biting manoeuvres and only just manage to finish them with about a hairs-width to spare! Trust me, don't go on the roads in Vietnam if you have a nervous disposition! After a few 'happy breaks', a stop for lunch and a few almost squished cyclists, we were pulling up outside our hotel for the next few nights (ironically called the Victory hotel) - it only took us almost 12 hours to get there! We had dinner at a noodle bar near by and then collapsed into bed!
SATURDAY 5th May
Today was a fairly easy day. We started off having breakfast at Koto - where they take underprivileged young people and train them to be chefs (kind of like what Jamie Oliver did in the UK) and it was really nice. So after stuffing ourselves on the buffet Nok took us to the old quarter and then left us to our own devices. Steve and I started off at the huge market. It was a bit disappointing really, as we were hoping that there would be lots of traditional craft things there, but there were just tons of mass-produced souvenirs and a massive haberdashery. So we went to have a walk around a lake in the centre of the old quarter and also visited the temple in the centre of the lake as well. We then went to the Temple of Literature, which was really nice to wander around, but unfortunately the exhibitions were only in Vietnamese, so we didn't always know what was going on! But there were some plaques with information on elsewhere and so we got the general gist of what was going on! After having a wander around, on the way back to the hotel, we popped into CraftLink, run as a non-profit organisation which sells traditional Vietnamese crafts etc at fair prices. Unfortunately there weren't a huge amount of things there that we could have bought, but we did treat ourselves to an incredibly beautiful photo album. Once back at the hotel we popped in the shower and then came and blogged! We're off to the water puppet show in about 20 minutes and then off out to dinner and tomorrow the first half of the tour finishes - we lose 5 people (including our guide) and gain 5 new people (including a new guide) who will join us for the last 2 weeks through China and Hong Kong!
Hope everyone is well and as usual missing you all - suffering from homesickness again, so feeling a little bit flat, but I'll get over it again soon!
Sammy - we've tried rambustan and we do like it very much - along with the mangostein! Hi to everyone in Bangor too!
WEDNESDAY 2nd May
After blogging you, we went back to the hotel and had a wonderfully refreshing shower - it's amazing how human it makes you feel again! Then we met up with Chris, Kim, Claudia and Nok for dinner and we went to a bar/cafe. When we got back to the hotel we bumped into Luke, Harry and Eric who were about to go bowling, so we tagged along too. Only 6 of us ended bowling and Steve and I lost terribly! But Steve's bowling technique was something to marvel at (it had me in stitches at times)! After our thrashing we decided to head back to the hotel again, as we had an early start the next day.
THURSDAY 3rd May
Steve got a bit frustrated this morning. Before breakfast he decided to pop out to go to the book-swap-shop and to the bakery. However, just like last night, the bookshop was still closed, but he did get a banana loaf from the bakery for us to snack on on the long bus ride ahead of us. So we sat and had breakfast together and whilst I finished getting our things ready, Steve decided to try the bookshop one last time - but he came back defeated, as it was still closed! He was a bit disappointed, so we've now got to keep our eyes open for a book-swap-shop! After all this running around, it was time to meet in the foyer with our mountains of bags and get the minibus loaded up. We were soon on our 7 hour bus journey to Lak Sao. It was a pretty uneventful journey, ambling along the roads with beautiful mountain views. We stopped for a couple of 'happy breaks' (loo stops to you and me) and also stopped for lunch at a noodle bar. We finally made it to Lak Sao in the middle of a torrential rainstorm - yay, the start of the rainy season is upon us! After dumping our bags we traipsed down the road to the only restaurant in Lak Sao. It wasn't fantastic and it was a tad overpriced, but it was edible none-the-less! Then it was back to the hotel for an early night, as we had to be up at 06.00 the next morning.
FRIDAY 4th May
We were up at 06.00 this morning and by 07.30 we were on the bus and starting our 10 hour journey to Hanoi, Vietnam! After an hour or so we hit the border and piled into customs/immigration control to have our passports checked. It took a while to do, as there were already people waiting and one of our group had managed to get their passport wet at some point and so immigration were reluctant to let them through! But some smooth talking from Nok meant we were finally on our way and joining up with a new driver who would take us the rest of the way to Hanoi. Now, we thought that the Chinese roads were bad, but the Vietnamese are just plain scary! They undertake the most nail-biting manoeuvres and only just manage to finish them with about a hairs-width to spare! Trust me, don't go on the roads in Vietnam if you have a nervous disposition! After a few 'happy breaks', a stop for lunch and a few almost squished cyclists, we were pulling up outside our hotel for the next few nights (ironically called the Victory hotel) - it only took us almost 12 hours to get there! We had dinner at a noodle bar near by and then collapsed into bed!
SATURDAY 5th May
Today was a fairly easy day. We started off having breakfast at Koto - where they take underprivileged young people and train them to be chefs (kind of like what Jamie Oliver did in the UK) and it was really nice. So after stuffing ourselves on the buffet Nok took us to the old quarter and then left us to our own devices. Steve and I started off at the huge market. It was a bit disappointing really, as we were hoping that there would be lots of traditional craft things there, but there were just tons of mass-produced souvenirs and a massive haberdashery. So we went to have a walk around a lake in the centre of the old quarter and also visited the temple in the centre of the lake as well. We then went to the Temple of Literature, which was really nice to wander around, but unfortunately the exhibitions were only in Vietnamese, so we didn't always know what was going on! But there were some plaques with information on elsewhere and so we got the general gist of what was going on! After having a wander around, on the way back to the hotel, we popped into CraftLink, run as a non-profit organisation which sells traditional Vietnamese crafts etc at fair prices. Unfortunately there weren't a huge amount of things there that we could have bought, but we did treat ourselves to an incredibly beautiful photo album. Once back at the hotel we popped in the shower and then came and blogged! We're off to the water puppet show in about 20 minutes and then off out to dinner and tomorrow the first half of the tour finishes - we lose 5 people (including our guide) and gain 5 new people (including a new guide) who will join us for the last 2 weeks through China and Hong Kong!
Hope everyone is well and as usual missing you all - suffering from homesickness again, so feeling a little bit flat, but I'll get over it again soon!
Sammy - we've tried rambustan and we do like it very much - along with the mangostein! Hi to everyone in Bangor too!
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
Arduous Journeying?!
Right, incredibly annoyed at the moment, as we've just spent over an hour writing a post and the stupid computer decided to delete it for no flaming reason at all, so we've now got to try and remember what we wrote before and write it all again! So this version may be a bit briefer than normal as we're working against the clock and actually want to do other things than sit in an internet cafe for hours today!
SUNDAY 29th April
After blogging to you all on Sunday it was absolutely hammering it down with rain and within seconds of having got back on our bikes we were soaked through! Steve spotted a nice little cafe, so we pulled over sharpish and dashed inside. The food was really lovely, but it was also a tad expensive. We sat in the cafe for ages waiting for the rain to ease off and we were eventually able to leave. We had a little explore of Luang Prabang on our bikes and decided to stop off for a massage. We were trying to find a place called Mekong Massage, but ended up somewhere else. To me, the massage place seemed a bit run-down and unprofessional, but Steve was happy to give it a go, so we asked for 2 all over body massages. We went upstairs and at this point I chickened out of the massage, as I didn't fancy laying around in only my knickers, so I opted for a foot massage instead - which I'm very glad about as my masseuse was more of a torturer! It was one of the most agonising processes I've ever had to endure and it took all the strength I had to not scream in pain! So I'm quite glad the pain was restricted to my feet and lower legs. But at the end she did a 'mini massage' on my head, shoulders and upper back and it felt as though she was going to break my collar bone and make me pass out when she started thumping my back with all her might! Steve was having a lovely time next to me and even almost fell asleep - I think he got a bit of a shock when the woman started massaging his buttocks though! So after an hour we left the massage place - Steve feeling refreshed and relaxed, whilst I felt bruised and battered! We went back to the hotel, as we didn't want to be late for the cooking class. It was a bit disappointing in the end, we'd expected there to be separate stations for each of us and to be able to prepare and cook each dish ourselves. However, it was more of a group cooking experience and our part consisted mainly of watching the 'teacher' and his assistants rather than doing much ourselves. The food we cooked was Lap (minced meat with lime and chili's etc), curry, spring rolls and a peanut sauce for the spring rolls. The 'teacher' also demonstrated how to make a papaya salad. The food was nice though, although the Lap and papaya salad were far too spicy for me!
MONDAY 30th April
I can't believe that I actually managed it (and I'm even shocked Steve managed it first), but we were up by 05.30 this morning, so that we could go and watch the monks collecting alms. Nok took us to get some sticky rice, which a few of us bought to give to the monks as they came past. I wasn't very good at dividing it up, as we were only half way through the line of monks by the time I ran out of rice! It was quite odd seeing people living in this way still, especially as we've seen so many monks wandering around listening to I-pods and taking photos with digital cameras etc! After this we walked around the fresh produce market - we saw some mighty weird things - huge slabs of meat out in the sun covered in flies, live frogs pinned together to keep them from jumping away so they then had broken and bloody legs, ox tails and ducklings in tiny cages not big enough for 1 let alone the 4 of them squashed inside etc! There was also tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and rice etc. After wandering around we made our way back to the hotel and saw ridiculously overladen motorbikes, speaking of which, Steve and I saw one the other day with a family of 5 on, plus a bag of shopping! Once back at the hotel, we had a shower, breakfast and packed up before getting all of our gear on the bus to get to Vang Vieng. The journey was pretty long, and unfortunately one of our number came down with a sickness bug on the way, but other than that nothing eventful occurred, except for the beautiful scenery - which got more and more amazing as we approached Vang Vieng and entered limestone karst country! The guesthouse was pretty basic and the town itself is nothing amazing, so Steve and I were glad to be staying only one night. Once we arrived and were assigned rooms, we were able to head out and grab some lunch. We ate with some of the group, but then broke off on our own and had a wander around Vang Vieng. I got some nice baggy 3/4 length trousers to keep cool in. We decided to head towards the Namsong and cross over the river (which we had to pay to do - and realised half way across we could have waded through the river for free) to get to some caves. We finally got to the pay-point for the caves and thought we were at the entrance, but after another 10 minutes of walking, we realised we had to walk part-way up the mountain to get access to the cave! We needed to be back for dinner though and torrential rain was heading our way, so we decided to go back to the hostel instead. We made it back in time for dinner and without getting drenched!
TUESDAY 1st May
We had a free morning to do what we wanted. So Steve and I decided to head back to the banks of the Namsong to relax for a couple of hours after breakfast. We ended up bumping into some people from the tour and made ourselves comfortable in some riverside 'huts' with a nice cool drink. We ended up chatting, skimming stones, paddling and watching the local children playing in the river for a couple of hours. It was so relaxing and the scenery so beautiful! The river was crystal clear and we had an unobstructed view of the beautiful lushly green mountains it was awesome! Although the sun was beating down, we managed to stay cool in the shade of the huts. After a couple of hours we headed off to have some lunch, we stopped at a cafe the others were raving about from yesterday - but Steve and I didn't understand what all the fuss was about! Afterwards we had to get our stuff together, so that we could load the minibus back up and get to Vientiane. It wasn't too long a journey, but it was along another windy mountain road (although not as bad as that death trap of a 'road' we drove along in America). We were soon in Vientiane and getting settled into our rather nice hotel and Nok took us to a really nice restaurant for dinner.
WEDNESDAY 2nd May
After breakfast Nok showed us where we could get US dollars from and Vietnamese Dong and pointed out the morning market (which incidentally is open until 16.30?!). She left us to our own devices and Steve and I struck out on our own. We wandered around the market and managed to get a couple of cotton tops to wear, as we're having to change our tops at least every day as it's just so hot and t-shirts are far too clingy to wear in this humid weather! After our wandering and spending we went and got some more US dollars on our way to see the Laos version of the Arch de Triumphe. It's not particularly spectacular, as it's really just a lump of concrete - which was donated by the US so an airport strip could be built, so the ex patriot's refer to it as the vertical runway. The arch isn't finished, which is a shame, as the inside of it is stunningly decorated with glazed tiles etc, so we imagine if it was finished that it would be fairly beautiful. After seeing the arch we went to find some lunch and ended up bumping into people from the tour again and so we went and had lunch at a pizzeria together. Then we came and blogged and now there's not much of the afternoon left (as I've blogged twice in a row now), we're not sure we'll do much else, although we do need to find more suntan lotion and we desperately need showers too - I don't think we've ever been so clean, as we're showering at least twice a day!
Andie - glad you're keeping up with the blog and enjoying it. It must be pretty good if we've almost convinced you to live from a backpack for 4 months, although I'm not surprised we've totally convinced you! Good news with the PhD stuff, loads of luck, let us know how it goes.
Mum (= Pauline) - Glad the gardening is coming along well, looking forward to seeing it all finished - you could throw us a garden party when we get back! Still enjoying the posts, they make us smile every time! Visting the locals was really good, but we didn't get to speak to them at all, our guide just showed us around. But it is cool having someone there who has a detailed knowledge of the things and places etc we visit. Got a postcard to send from Roger today and also got a photo of him!
Dad (= Charlie) - glad you're having fun with your pick-axe, although it sounds like no-one else is! Thanks for the clarification on the origins of the comments, I'm not sure I would have worked it out otherwise! It certainly made us giggle! Steve's glad you're depriving mum of pear pie - keep up the good work! By the way, the Duncombe family dictionary online (patent pending) is fantastic! Also good news about the surprise at work - bet it was unexpected but a surprise!
Well, that's it for now folks. We've got a couple of days of hectic travelling ahead of us, so we probably won't be able to post again until we're in Hanoi, which we reach on Friday 4th. Hope you're all well and not getting too bored by our insanely long posts! Still missing you all and looking forward to seeing you in another 3.5 months!
SUNDAY 29th April
After blogging to you all on Sunday it was absolutely hammering it down with rain and within seconds of having got back on our bikes we were soaked through! Steve spotted a nice little cafe, so we pulled over sharpish and dashed inside. The food was really lovely, but it was also a tad expensive. We sat in the cafe for ages waiting for the rain to ease off and we were eventually able to leave. We had a little explore of Luang Prabang on our bikes and decided to stop off for a massage. We were trying to find a place called Mekong Massage, but ended up somewhere else. To me, the massage place seemed a bit run-down and unprofessional, but Steve was happy to give it a go, so we asked for 2 all over body massages. We went upstairs and at this point I chickened out of the massage, as I didn't fancy laying around in only my knickers, so I opted for a foot massage instead - which I'm very glad about as my masseuse was more of a torturer! It was one of the most agonising processes I've ever had to endure and it took all the strength I had to not scream in pain! So I'm quite glad the pain was restricted to my feet and lower legs. But at the end she did a 'mini massage' on my head, shoulders and upper back and it felt as though she was going to break my collar bone and make me pass out when she started thumping my back with all her might! Steve was having a lovely time next to me and even almost fell asleep - I think he got a bit of a shock when the woman started massaging his buttocks though! So after an hour we left the massage place - Steve feeling refreshed and relaxed, whilst I felt bruised and battered! We went back to the hotel, as we didn't want to be late for the cooking class. It was a bit disappointing in the end, we'd expected there to be separate stations for each of us and to be able to prepare and cook each dish ourselves. However, it was more of a group cooking experience and our part consisted mainly of watching the 'teacher' and his assistants rather than doing much ourselves. The food we cooked was Lap (minced meat with lime and chili's etc), curry, spring rolls and a peanut sauce for the spring rolls. The 'teacher' also demonstrated how to make a papaya salad. The food was nice though, although the Lap and papaya salad were far too spicy for me!
MONDAY 30th April
I can't believe that I actually managed it (and I'm even shocked Steve managed it first), but we were up by 05.30 this morning, so that we could go and watch the monks collecting alms. Nok took us to get some sticky rice, which a few of us bought to give to the monks as they came past. I wasn't very good at dividing it up, as we were only half way through the line of monks by the time I ran out of rice! It was quite odd seeing people living in this way still, especially as we've seen so many monks wandering around listening to I-pods and taking photos with digital cameras etc! After this we walked around the fresh produce market - we saw some mighty weird things - huge slabs of meat out in the sun covered in flies, live frogs pinned together to keep them from jumping away so they then had broken and bloody legs, ox tails and ducklings in tiny cages not big enough for 1 let alone the 4 of them squashed inside etc! There was also tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and rice etc. After wandering around we made our way back to the hotel and saw ridiculously overladen motorbikes, speaking of which, Steve and I saw one the other day with a family of 5 on, plus a bag of shopping! Once back at the hotel, we had a shower, breakfast and packed up before getting all of our gear on the bus to get to Vang Vieng. The journey was pretty long, and unfortunately one of our number came down with a sickness bug on the way, but other than that nothing eventful occurred, except for the beautiful scenery - which got more and more amazing as we approached Vang Vieng and entered limestone karst country! The guesthouse was pretty basic and the town itself is nothing amazing, so Steve and I were glad to be staying only one night. Once we arrived and were assigned rooms, we were able to head out and grab some lunch. We ate with some of the group, but then broke off on our own and had a wander around Vang Vieng. I got some nice baggy 3/4 length trousers to keep cool in. We decided to head towards the Namsong and cross over the river (which we had to pay to do - and realised half way across we could have waded through the river for free) to get to some caves. We finally got to the pay-point for the caves and thought we were at the entrance, but after another 10 minutes of walking, we realised we had to walk part-way up the mountain to get access to the cave! We needed to be back for dinner though and torrential rain was heading our way, so we decided to go back to the hostel instead. We made it back in time for dinner and without getting drenched!
TUESDAY 1st May
We had a free morning to do what we wanted. So Steve and I decided to head back to the banks of the Namsong to relax for a couple of hours after breakfast. We ended up bumping into some people from the tour and made ourselves comfortable in some riverside 'huts' with a nice cool drink. We ended up chatting, skimming stones, paddling and watching the local children playing in the river for a couple of hours. It was so relaxing and the scenery so beautiful! The river was crystal clear and we had an unobstructed view of the beautiful lushly green mountains it was awesome! Although the sun was beating down, we managed to stay cool in the shade of the huts. After a couple of hours we headed off to have some lunch, we stopped at a cafe the others were raving about from yesterday - but Steve and I didn't understand what all the fuss was about! Afterwards we had to get our stuff together, so that we could load the minibus back up and get to Vientiane. It wasn't too long a journey, but it was along another windy mountain road (although not as bad as that death trap of a 'road' we drove along in America). We were soon in Vientiane and getting settled into our rather nice hotel and Nok took us to a really nice restaurant for dinner.
WEDNESDAY 2nd May
After breakfast Nok showed us where we could get US dollars from and Vietnamese Dong and pointed out the morning market (which incidentally is open until 16.30?!). She left us to our own devices and Steve and I struck out on our own. We wandered around the market and managed to get a couple of cotton tops to wear, as we're having to change our tops at least every day as it's just so hot and t-shirts are far too clingy to wear in this humid weather! After our wandering and spending we went and got some more US dollars on our way to see the Laos version of the Arch de Triumphe. It's not particularly spectacular, as it's really just a lump of concrete - which was donated by the US so an airport strip could be built, so the ex patriot's refer to it as the vertical runway. The arch isn't finished, which is a shame, as the inside of it is stunningly decorated with glazed tiles etc, so we imagine if it was finished that it would be fairly beautiful. After seeing the arch we went to find some lunch and ended up bumping into people from the tour again and so we went and had lunch at a pizzeria together. Then we came and blogged and now there's not much of the afternoon left (as I've blogged twice in a row now), we're not sure we'll do much else, although we do need to find more suntan lotion and we desperately need showers too - I don't think we've ever been so clean, as we're showering at least twice a day!
Andie - glad you're keeping up with the blog and enjoying it. It must be pretty good if we've almost convinced you to live from a backpack for 4 months, although I'm not surprised we've totally convinced you! Good news with the PhD stuff, loads of luck, let us know how it goes.
Mum (= Pauline) - Glad the gardening is coming along well, looking forward to seeing it all finished - you could throw us a garden party when we get back! Still enjoying the posts, they make us smile every time! Visting the locals was really good, but we didn't get to speak to them at all, our guide just showed us around. But it is cool having someone there who has a detailed knowledge of the things and places etc we visit. Got a postcard to send from Roger today and also got a photo of him!
Dad (= Charlie) - glad you're having fun with your pick-axe, although it sounds like no-one else is! Thanks for the clarification on the origins of the comments, I'm not sure I would have worked it out otherwise! It certainly made us giggle! Steve's glad you're depriving mum of pear pie - keep up the good work! By the way, the Duncombe family dictionary online (patent pending) is fantastic! Also good news about the surprise at work - bet it was unexpected but a surprise!
Well, that's it for now folks. We've got a couple of days of hectic travelling ahead of us, so we probably won't be able to post again until we're in Hanoi, which we reach on Friday 4th. Hope you're all well and not getting too bored by our insanely long posts! Still missing you all and looking forward to seeing you in another 3.5 months!
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