Knight Bus!

We took a sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue. It made us giggle with the similarities to the Knight Bus in Harry Potter books. It had three rows of 'bunks' about a foot and a half wide, and sized longways for a Vietnamese person. Here are some pictures:



Don had a bottom bunk but had the privlege of having an old man's elbow on his lap (the locals tend to cram into the bus in the aisles, presumably for a lower price):



Kate had an upper middle bunk:



It was an interesting ride, definitely not as comfy as a sleeper train, but much better than an overnight regular bus. After a half day checking out the Citadel in Hue, we continued on to Hoi An. Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage site, has beautiful beaches, and more tailors! Stay tuned...

Beautiful Halong Bay

We spent 2 nights and 3 days in Halong Bay in northern Vietnam. Halong bay is an UNESCO world heritage site and is incredibly beutiful. After driving from Hanoi we boarded a 'junk' for our cruise through the bay.



This is a popular tourist spot so the bay was full of the old styled junks. After enjoying a 4 hour cruise through the gorgeous scenery we got off on Cat Ba island, the largest inhabited island in the bay. We spent one night here hanging out with some other travelers, drinking Bia Hoi (20 cents in this case per draught), and enjoying the interesting sights along the street, such as the live scorpions for sale, which the locals cook up to eat:



The next morning we went for a hot and strenuous trek into the interior of the island, but were rewarded with beautiful views of the bay and mountainous interior of the island. (we forgot the camera though!)

In the afternoon we went kayaking in the bay and enjoyed the small islands and deserted beaches. That evening we boarded the junk for an overnight stay on the boat moored in the bay. We enjoyed more beautiful views:







and took a sunset swim. Some people, including Kate, were brave enough to jump off the top of the boat for their swims:



This trip was definitely worth the small amount of money we paid for it. Halong Bay has proved to be one of the most beautiful places either of us have ever had the privledge of seeing.

Hanoi in dirty detail

Promises made
Assurances given
Deception

Taxi scam
Hotel scam
Tour scam

Liars
Cheats
Crooks

Filthy
Dreadful
Den of thieves


We arrived in Hanoi from Luang Prabang by air last Saturday. We took the 'official' Vietnam Airlines shuttle into the city. We told the driver our hotel and he took us there, however before we even got out of the van a well dressed man came up to the van and said "I'm very sorry, this hotel is all booked up, did you have a reservation?"

When we informed him that we did, he offered to have the van take us to another hotel owned by his company. We made the mistake of not going into the hotel ourselves, and the van took us to the other hotel, where they tried to convince us they were owned by the same company and the facilities were the same. They did not look the same as the picture we had seen on the website! So we told them that we had to go to the ATM before registering and we left to seek out our original hotel. No surprise but when we found the correct hotel, it was not affiliated with the other hotel, and did indeed have our reservation. We promptly marched back to the other hotel, grabbed our things, and left without paying. What a rip off! It's a common enough scam, but it was a little more involved than we'd ever heard of before. Our original hotel though was lovely and we derived an inordinate amount of satisfaction from having caught the scam before we had handed over any money.

The next day, we traveled by motorcycle taxis through the Old Quarter to visit Hoa Lo Prison, better known in the West as the Hanoi Hilton, where American POWs were held during the Vietnam war.






Senator John McCain's flight suit is on display, along with displays explaining how well the American POWs were treated despite their crimes against the People.

Shortly thereafter, we learned another popular Vietnamese scam - the rigged taxi meter. While metered taxis are supposed to take the headache out of arguing over every fare, at least some of the drivers in Hanoi have tampered with them so that they run much more quickly than they are supposed to. We caught on when we noticed a fare meter notching up kilometers about twice as fast as the car's odometer.

The scams continued from there, as did the pushy vendors, touts, and taxi drivers, to the point that it was all but impossible to trust anyone in the entire city.

Hanoi is not without its charms, however:



Hoan Kiem Lake is located next to the Old Quarter. It is home to an ancient and important temple, erected in memory of the man who drove the Chinese out of Vietnam.

We finally determined that the best way to tolerate the noise and ignore the con artists was to drink a dollar's worth of beer:



So we spent an evening sitting at a busy intersection in the Old Quarter, drinking 12-cent beers and watching the mayhem.



The next day, we visited Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum. His preserved corpse is stored here nine months of the year, despite his explicit request for cremation. (He makes an annual pilgrimmage to Russia for "maintenance" during the other three months).

Here is the Mausoleum, in all its Communist architectural glory:



That evening we went to the water puppet theatre. Water puppetry is a Vietnamese art form originally performed in rice paddies during the wet season. It is hard to explain, so here is a picture, and a video.

Hanoi

We have much to write about the armpit of Southeast Asia, but we are rushed so stayed tuned.

Elephant Training

Kate spent 2 days and 1 night at "mahout" training. A "mahout" is an elephant trainer. The program was put on by Elephant XL a group that rescues elephants that were formerly used for logging. Because of the influx of Chinese machinery into southeast Asia, elephants are no longer needed in the logging industry. There are many out of work elephants. We've seen many in the cities being paraded around by their owners - it is very sad. Elephant XL takes in elephants that have been abused and overworked and gives them a much better life. There are 4 adult female elephants (the males are more unpredictable and dangerous) and 1 baby male elephant. They run the mahout training everyday, but only have 4 people at a time so you can get to know your elephant 1 on 1. The morning began with riding one of the adult elephants in a traditional 2 person platform saddle. Another girl and I took turns riding on the bare neck of the elephant. After lunch we returned and were assigned 'our' elephant. My elephant was Mai San. She was used in logging but was abused. She was forced to haul loads way too heavy for her and did not get adequate rest. Also, at some point in her life she was blinded in her right eye - probably from being forced forward into a bamboo stick. In addition when they rescued her they had suspicions that she had been given 'ecstasy' to make her work harder. Even after her terrible history she was very gentle.



First we learned how to climb onto the bare back of the elephant. The mahout tells the elephant to bend her leg and then hanging onto their very strong ears you step on their leg and haul yourself up. It was tricky! With my short legs, it wasn't very graceful:



After than we rode them to their jungle home to put them to bed for the night.



On the way we learned how to sit on their bare necks and how to instruct them where to go. After putting the elephants to bed, we went back to the lodge and bathed the baby elephant. He is so cute!





It was fun to get into the water and scrub him:



After a relaxing evening & night in the lodge, we woke up early to go get our elephants for their morning bath. Elephants toss dirt onto their bodies to help with the heat and bugs, so they are very dirty after being left alone! I rode Mai San to the river and with the help of the mahout scrubbed her clean:





After breakfast we kayaked back to Luang Prabang, along the Nam Khan river.



The 2 day adventure was very interesting, exciting, and rewarding. It was wonderful to get to know an elephant and know that my money was going toward rescuing other abused elephants.

Luang Prabang

After the beautiful river trip, we arrived in Luang Prabang on June 19. Called the 'crown jewel' of Laos, LP is surrounded by mountains and is at the confluence of the Nam Khan and the Mekong rivers. The city is full of crumbling French provincial architechure and pointed temples. We found a lovely air conditioned guesthouse:



and set about exploring the city. The handicraft markets are amazing here in LP, we've enjoyed shopping - so much so that we fear we might have to send another box home! We enjoyed some traditional dance and music at the former Royal Theatre. The women are so graceful, and the men's costumes so fierce!





Last night we sought out a highly recommended restaurant in our Lonely Planet guidebook: Maly Lao Food for some traditional Laos cuisine. It blew us away. Basically there was a hole in the table where they placed a pot of hot coals. On top of that they placed a combination soup pot and barbeque. Our helpful waitress showed us the ropes (thank goodness, as we didn't know what to do!):



Into the surrounding soup pot we put water, egg, morning glory greens, green onions, noodles, mushrooms, and tomatoes. As that stewed, we put pork fat on the top of the grill as lube and then placed thinly sliced chicken and beef to grill. The end result was absolutely delicious! We, of course, partook of the Laos traditional drink, Beer Lao, but this time they served it with ice cubes as the bottle was not chilled. We hope they were made of bottled water!

Yesterday morning (June 21) we headed out to do some sightseeing. We visited an old Wat (temple) with some figures in front that looked just like the dancers from last night! After one stop, we decided to find some shade and ordered breakfast. The temperature here is in the mid-90s on a daily basis. Kate's mango lassi arrived in lovely presentation, complete with a bamboo straw:



Post breakfast we were ready for the climb up the water serpent steps to another of LP's temples, this one on top of the mountain in the center of town.



The views were lovely from the top of the mountain:



And Don got to play with an old Russian anti-aircraft cannon. Watch him return to his youth!

Today Kate went to elephant wrangling school and Don went kayaking. Kate took the camera so no photos yet!

Tomorrow we fly to Hanoi.

Best,
Don & Kate

River Trip!

We left Luang Nam Tha on a morning bus, connecting with another bus and then a sawngthaew (a pickup with a covered bed containing two benches along the sides) to reach the town of Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou (Ou River). It was a full day's travel but the scenery was beautiful and the trip was broken up by several stops.

Nong Khiaw's setting is dramatic, and it is very remote - it only received 24 hour electricity in the last couple of years.



We had dinner on a deck overlooking the river, shadowed by the nearby moutains with their sheer limestone walls.




Yesterday, we took a slow boat from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang. Once the main form of human and cargo transport in Laos, and indeed much of Southeast Asia, they have lost much of their market share to buses and trucks as the roads have improved. However they are still a great way for tourists to get around while seeing the countryside from a whole new perspective.




The scenery along the way was mind-boggling and we took far too many pictures to post here, but here is a small taste:









The ride was exciting enough, as even the slow boats move pretty well, especially going downstream. Here is our perspective riding through one of the many rapids on the trip.

It was about 5 hours in total. Some people ride the slow boat two full days from Huay Xai to here, but we think that would be a bit much.

More on Luang Prabang later...

Trekking

The morning of June 16, we met up with our guide, Tho, at the trekking company (Green Discovery) office. It was just the 3 of us for the next 2 days on the trek. We piled into the back of a pickup truck (a standard mode of transport in Laos) and were dropped off 40 minutes up the road.



We hiked to a small village in which two tribes live together, the Lantan and the Khmu. While there we saw our first opium smoker.



Opium is apparently a huge problem in Laos and many of the elderly are severely addicted. After leaving the first village we truly began the trek. The scenery was breathtaking:



We hiked for about 3 hours in the blazing heat and humidity of the jungle before we came to our lunch spot, a small clearing in the jungle. Our guide had picked some huge banana leaves to be our table cloth and laid out our lunch: bananas, peanuts, stir fry noodles, sticky rice, and pork. A feast!

As we were sitting and eating, Don felt something creeping up his leg...turned out to be a leech, a common problem during the rainy season. He was lucky enough to have caught it before it latched on, but was disconcerted nonetheless. A few minutes later, Tho noticed a bloody patch on Kate's upper thigh...she was not as lucky and a leech had latched on. After eschewing modesty and stripping her pants, it was determined that only one leech had made it. This was an omen of things to come...

After lunch we came to another tribal village of Khmu people. Here we saw a woman pounding rice to remove the shell, pigs scratching themselves, and children picking mangos. Watch the video!

We had 2 more hours to hike before we got to the village where we were going to spend the night. The rest of the hike was through the forest and rice fields:



Unfornately, both of these areas are infested with leeches. Tho had us roll our pants up to our knees because it is easier to see if you've been had by a leech than if your pants are rolled down. As we discovered earlier, the leeches can get up the pant legs without you knowing. They can also suck through clothing. Don finally discovered what made Kate hike fast! After narrowing avoiding leeches for 2 hours, we arrived in the Lanten village of Ban Nam Goi, where we spent the night in this lodge:



There was also a patio overlooking the river:



The children loved seeing their pictures on the digital camera screen, so we have plenty of photos:





We bathed in the river, like the locals, and ate village food that a family prepared for us. That evening we slept in the lodge in mosquito nets. The next morning we ate another local breakfast before heading off for the second day of trekking. This day we had 3 uphills to contend with and 2 river crossings. Unfortunately the first 2 hours were in leech infested areas. So back to the legs of our pants rolled up and constant vigilance to avoid being sucked. Kate got bitten again though, this time through her socks. It was a stressful, sweaty, disgusting experience to fight off leeches. Here is a video of the terrible creatures.

We came to a river, which we crossed by bamboo raft. After crossing the river the leeches were supposedly better, but there were still some to be fought off. The jungle on the other side of the river was much thicker. The humidity was amazing. We both had sweat dripping off us constantly. Here are some more photos of the trek:





We finished the trek in another Khmu village, but this one was connected to civilization by a dirt road, so the children knew some english phrases such as "What is your name?" and "I love you". The latter of which they scrawled on the beach for our arrival from across the river. This river crossing was done in a small canoe. The 2 fat americans made the canoe sit very low in the water -- we both thought we were going for a swim!

In this village we saw the village boys playing a typical Lao sport, Kataw. It is similar to volleyball, but the rattan (or plastic) ball is only touched with the feet and the head. See for yourself!

In all the villages were were struck by the close proximity the people lived with their variety of animals and by the fertility of all! In every village we saw pregnant women as well as young babies of all varieties: human, water buffalo, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, turkeys, dogs, cats, and goats. We have tons of photos of children running around but because most of them were naked or semi-naked we don't want to post them for fear of being labeled child pornographers!

The final leg of our trek was a 1.5 hour pick up truck ride on a muddy dirt road. Some of the mud holes were enormous and quite nerve racking to get through, especially since the road was 4 feet from the edge of a 300 foot cliff!



We made it back to Luang Nam Tha and finished the evening off with some rice whiskey, homemade by our guide.





After 5 shots we had to excuse ourselves! We bought some rice wine, which was handed to us in a plastic baggie. Apparently it is BYO container...we decanted the baggie of whiskey into an empty water bottle. Now we have fortification for the next 7 hour bus ride.