Vietnam - Halong Bay

That bought our short trip to Sapa to an end..and we took the overnight train back to get on a tour to Halong Bay.  Again the weather wasn’t great which you can see from our picts – however we still managed to enjoy a night on a junk (boat) and one night on Cat Ba Island. We visited the ‘Amazing Cave’ and went Kayaking for a few hours.  We also visited monkey island which would have been great for swimming if the weather had been slightly warmer but unfortunately we weren’t in luck.

The boat had good food and after a few days of bad weather we decided to take the evening on the boat as time to relax – and enjoy a bottle of red wine between us and get an early night.

Our Junk

Other accommodation for local people 

A view of the islands of Halong Bay

Stalactite - holding tight from the ceiling

Stalagmites - They might reach the ceiling...

Kavs new friend!

Vietnam - Sapa

First trip for us was to Sapa - this is meant to be a beautiful countryside town with great view of the mountains and lots of lush greenery and paddy fields. However, November is not the best month to visit as we had been told before we got there as the weather is not great and it is after the harvest so you don't get to see it in the best light. However we thought we go anyway and just check it out. Taking an overnight train was an experience even though we had done these in China - this was again slightly different doing it here..

As we arrived on Sunday morning first stop for us was Bac Ha Market - really interesting but craziest market we'd seen where locals go to trade. This was nice to see as seemed tourists were there only to watch and it was locals that were buying and selling from each other. They had cattle, dogs, horses and most other types of animals being sold - as well as general things such as hair cuts and general fruit and veg plus the local tribal dresses and bags. It was quite horrible to see the treatment of the animals and kav didn't last long - but yet interesting to see...

We also did a 12k trek through a few villages in Sapa but the views were not great. It was mostly covered with fog and only really lifted for a few hours.. Due to the weather the trek was really slippery and luckily a lady leant Kav her walking stick to help her ,though we all still managed to take a few falls..

Local market selling the local clothes

Vibrant colours for the tribes people

Children's toys with bright colours

Local women 

Chillies and Chilli sauce packaged in water bottles!!!

Our guides - local women waiting for us to get ready!

Kavs walking through slodgey mud

Sapa paddy fields looking brown as harvest was done few weeks back

The fog cleared for few moment to show us the beauty of Sapa.

Mountain tops over the clouds

Vietnam - Hanoi

On arrival in Hanoi - first thing you notice is the amount of mopeds on the road. It was just crazy, seemed like a sea of mopeds on every road and every green light a traffic lights would send another wave of them. Anyone who has travelled to India can imagine how crazy the roads are there - this felt soo much worse, literally people driving in which ever direction they wanted and people crossing the roads all over the place. What we learnt was to 'just go' traffic will literally drive around you till you reach the other side.

Rule to cross the road in Hanoi

1. Look at the other side of the road and walk towards it.
2. Never stop mid road.
3. Never turn direction mid road.
4. Never look at the drivers!

Hanoi was used as our base to go on trips to Halong Bay and Sapa and while there you can enjoy all the street markets and all the different local foods on the streets.

Problem we found in Hanoi after Laos - people just didn't seem as warm as they did in Laos. Probably as Vietnam is so used to bundles of tourists coming.. but this led to starting with a totally different feeling in Vietnam then we did in Laos.

Laos – Vang Vieng

Next stop for us in Laos was Vang Vieng! The most touristy town in Laos - also the party town so looked more like we were in one of the Greek Islands like Magaloof than beautiful asian Laos - Lots of bars on the road with relaxing sofas were you can order any drink fast food whilst just showing reruns of friends and family guy all day.

Whilst waiting for Kav to get her nails done or something, I decided to wait in these chill out zones to watch family guy... My attention  got transfer to a laughing baby held by the owner woman... she saw me make the baby laugh more so she passed it over and left... 10 mins later Kav found me chilling with this kid! about 10 mins after that the woman cam back and took the kid back! 

The main reason people stop here is for a chance to go 'tubing' down a small strech of the the Mekong river - basically you plonk you bum in a tractor inner tube and float down the river for a couple of hours. However 90% of people don't make it anywhere near the end, or even on a tube - This is because there are copious bars along the river bank blaring out music and giving out free drinks to lure you in and entice you to spend your day there. They literally throw drinks tied on to rope at you while your going down the river for you to grab onto so they can reel you into their bar..

I was initially thinking I don't want to be stuck with a load of rowdy British people in the middle of Laos - which seemed to be most of the crazy people around. However it was quite a nice day having a few drinks and enjoying the all day partying... Although I have to say we did try to float down and not get stuck in bar one..

Many people we met seemed they got stuck in the place and had spent 5-10 days literally doing the same thing everyday and still loving it just as much as they did on the first day - was pretty funny!

However after a couple of days there we decided to move on to our Last stop in Laos- Vientienne. We only spent one night here not really much to do (Nehal had amazing BBQ food on the street that night...) - before we took our flight to Hanoi to start our adventure in Vietnam.

Lao - Luang Prabang

We took a boat ride across the Mekong to get to the town of Xian Mien – this was a local town with no tourists in it. Noone really spoke any English and we were just watching locals carry on with their everyday business. 

School children were soo excited to see us and wanted to practice their English with us – they were all really intrigued what we doing there and where we had come from.

We also walked up to the top of a mountain to now a unused Buddhist temple called Wat Long Koon  and got a great view of Luang Prabang from across the river – just as the sun was setting on the river. With  no one else around it was very pretty and well worth the walk up the mountain..

On the way  back down we could hear music blaring just slightly off the road and thought wed go and check out what was going on – turns out it was a Wedding Reception – the locals were soo excited to see us. They wouldn’t let us go till we enjoyed a few glasses of Beer Lao with them and got involved in some traditional Laos dancing. Was really cool to see and just awesome how they whole town just gets involved and enjoys the party. Men,Woman and even children  all enjoying Beer Lao 

Kavs dancing with a wedding guest!

Some lady boy dancing, another guest at the wedding...

Lao - Luang Prabang

Next Stop for us ..Laos…Luang Prabang..

A beautiful , very slow and sleepy little town set along the mekong river which has a great warm atmosphere in it..…I cant sell this place enough with there not being lots to do within it- however it just has a great feel about it..and we both loved it!

It also has the usual night market however people are much less pushy and market more organised then anything we had seen over Asia so far.. so you generally enjoy the experience a lot more here..

A picture Nehal took of cute tiny pillows that were sold in the night market.

We took an afternoon out to visit the Kaung Si Water Fall… Beautiful waterfall with clear waters…a host of swimming options in the pools.. We took the opportunity to climb to the top of falls and cross over to the side- where we saw great views of the falls from the top..

Smaller water falls at the foot of the waterfalls

Top of the waterfalls - the main fall with a 50 m cascade 

Kav and I walked across the top of the water fall at the lip where it starts just behind the fence Kav is holding!!

Amazing views from the top!

Trying to get a snap of the sheer drop.

Pleased with our successful climb and crossing.

Some kid that was playing at the foot of the falls with his friends!

That evening we checked a bar/restaurant that was recommended to us by alot of travellers called Utpoia.. Cool place, slightly hidden away… chilled out vibe…where we spent the evening having a few drinks and some shisha…

Utopia - with the Flag of the communist LPRP -Lao People's Revolutionary Party 

Bike hanging of the wall!

A volleyball court

Pay attention to number 10...

Fixing pipes in every country!