Don Det in the 4 Thousand Islands

Just a 3 hour ride from Pakse is the opening to the 4 Thousand islands. It is where the Mekong spreads out creating thousands of little islands - islands meaning even just a chunk of grass sticking out of the river. There are about 3 islands where you can stay but we chose Don Det which is a bit smaller but had more of a backpacker scene. You can stay in a bungalow for less than 3 bucks (we chose one that was more like 5 because it actually had a bathroom attached and 2 hammocks in front). Everything runs off generators and is fairly basic; no bank or post office, just guesthouses with attached restaurants and the occasional "store"/hut that sells chips or cookies and drinks. It is probably one of the most relaxing places we have been. We did nothing but read in our hammocks the first day and eat & drink. Then we decided to rent bikes for the day and take a tour of the island. After riding for about an hour and a half we made a complete circle so decided to do it again and find a place where we could do a little fishing - we never caught anything. They have tubes for rent here too which is a little scary to think of how quickly this little island may turn into Vang Vieng. All the bungalows are right on the river but right now it is just relaxing with nothing but hammocks - no rope swings, etc. But it is probably just a matter of time before they start going up. We tubed to a small island to fish a little that has a great big tree on it, then floated down the river. The current is not fast at all so we really just floated off the island shore for a few hours. There is a waterfall, Li Phi, on another island to the south of Don Det - on Don Khone - so we rented bikes again to check it out. They said you can not go swimming and the locals never do because they believe it captures dead spirits. You can see why there is no swimming; you would be sucked under pretty quick by the current. Since Don Det has no bank or ATM's when you run out of money the nearest town to get more is Pakse. We were sad to run out of money and leave - could have stayed for a few more days easily!

Overall, we loved Laos. It gives "laid back" a whole new meaning; the scenery is unreal; and the people are always friendly and smiling.

Hiking thru Waterfalls

Well, we don't have much to inform you on Pakse as it is mainly a gateway to Southern Lao. The town is small but has many things around it you can do. We went on a 2 day trek through the Bolaven Plateau which extends across tea and coffee plantations. Our first day of the hike was really nice- easy walking through the plantations. When we climbed up a hill made from lava rock we saw many different small fires burning the brush and trees around. Our guide said that it was from someone not putting out a cigarette, but it was pretty obvious that someone was intentionally burning the area for some reason. With how dry it is around, it's amazing the whole hill was not on fire - luckily it wasn't very windy. Then we went to have lunch at a waterfall that was simply amazing. We all went swimming in the lagoon and the water was freezing but felt actually nice after walking in 90 degree heat. That night we stayed at a "home stay" with a local family. It was actually a guesthouse but we stayed in the lodge with the family instead of the actual guest rooms. Our group was one Swiss and two Isreali's, all women, that were nice. Ben was the only guy aside from our guide. It is just one open room with mattreses and mosquito nets. All the males were in the guesthouse for the night except Ben, he stayed in the lodge with us. One of the family members came up to the room in just a towel and was mortified to see Ben sitting on the ground - once she saw him she ran to the furthest end of the room and ducked behind a chest. Our next day was a little more like hiking instead of walking. We went through the jungle to see another waterfall that was much bigger than the first one. It rained on us almost the whole way there and we paused at a coffee plantation to wait out the heavy stuff. The workers there found us very amusing and kept asking us questions and laughing. They continually commented on our "beautiful white skin" so we tried to explain that where we are from we try to have look tan like them - a concept they don't understand because everywhere around here it is better to have whiter skin and all you see are whitening lotions in all the stores. When we got to the waterfall it had stopped raining so we relaxed in the sun and took in the sight. None of us went swimming here because we were not as hot as yesterday. We had lunch and moved onto our last waterfall, Tad Fane. You can not see this waterfall as up close or go swimming because it is almost 200m high and is actually 2 spilling into a big gorge. Pretty impressive. That concluded our trek and home stay before we headed back to Pakse and onto the 4 thousand islands.

Family Guy and the Capital

From Luang Prabang we traveled to Vang Vieng. It is a huge party spot on the river that has a feeling of Spring Break but without as many rules. All the restaurants play either Friends or Family Guy endlessly and we're not sure how that whole thing got started. Anyway we decided to go tubing down the river our first day there. There are bars all along side the river and they throw out lines to pull you into their place. Each bar is fully equipped with loud music, people dancing, rope swings, high jumps, and plenty of Beer Lao and lao lao to keep you there for a long time (lao lao is the rice whisky here and sometimes they store it in bottles with snakes or other critters they find around - fairly good if you can forget about what is in the bottle with it). We got to the river around 12:30 and by 5 we had only made it to the third bar - we had a great time! They do have a little racket going regarding the tubes. You pay a deposit for the tube which you get back when you return it, but if you spend too long at a bar (as we found out) when you go to get your tube there aren't any left. Either the locals come and take them back for you or there are a lot of people just coming and taking tubes. Anyway, needless to say we needed a full day of recovery afterwards and were more than happy to veg out in front of some Family Guy. The town itself is fairly small but they offer plenty of trips around to go caving, trekking, etc. We decided to take it easy while we were there; relax; and actually make it fully down the river one day trying to bypass all the bars that throw out lines (or at least the first three). People watching is amazing as you can imagine with all the people coming off the river from "tubing" for the day, but it can get really loud at night when all the bars close down and people are singing or yelling on their way back to their hotels. Must say that winter here is sweet - nothing better than floating down a river in 90 degree heat mid January!

From Vang Vieng we travelled to the capital of Laos, Vientiane. It is actually a quiet town, also along the river, and has tons of Wats to see. The tourism scene has definitely made a difference and there are plenty of restaurants that serve mainly Western food. Since it has such a French influence we decided to splurge one night and go to a nice French restaurant for a big meal. Ben got prime rib and I got a lamb shank. It was good but a little disappointing - not much of a surprise when you order that type of food in SE Asia I guess. Since we have seen so many wats by this point in our trip we stayed at the capital for only 2 nights before heading further south to Pakse. From there we will continue our way south to the 4 thousand islands before heading back through Thailand.

Luang Prabang

Well, after our awful travelling we finally made it! The first day in the city, as you can imagine we took it easy and slept, and ate some good food. The second day we walked around the city and went to visit all the different Wats(Buddhist temples). There are about a dozen Wats, and hundreds of golden Buddha statues through the city. The whole city is right on the Mekong river, and has very beautiful scenery.

We were amazed at how laid back Laos is, especially compared to Vietnam. The people at the markets and on the street don't harass you or even say anything when you walk near their stores. It is a huge relief, and almost makes you uneasy after being used to being yelled at every step; "Buy something here" or "You buy from me Lady", have become normality for us. They have a really nice night market in Luang Prabang, which sells clothes, souvenirs, and food. We walked through the market and found a food stall in the back that had a "buffet" of vegetarian dishes, which you could get one plate of for 10 Kip ($1 = 8.5 Kip). So we had that as our dinner, with a Lao Beer each! The Lao beer is very good for those who have never had one, it is also very cheap, about 10 kip for a large bottle, 1 litre. The third day we did about the same thing since I had a cold that I was trying to kick. Who would've thought you would get sick from being in a bus with 35 people coughing all over you!

We saw some more Wats, booked our bus for the next day(hopefully this one is better), and of course updated our blog.....which you should all know, is not easy or quick. High speed Internet is a very relative term here, and these things take forever. Some of you have probably noticed we have been posting several at once, and this is the reason. You have to set aside a morning or afternoon to do these, or else you can never get them uploaded. Anyway after a couple of relaxing days in the city we are heading out to Vang Vieng, where there is supposed to be a kind of party town where you can rent tubes to float down the river.

Travel days suck!

After Sapa, we had to cross the border over into Laos. We had heard the northern border crossings were bad, little did we know. From Sapa we took a minibus to a town called Dien Bien Phu, which was very near the border. We were told it was 5 hours, it took 9. There was no room for our legs because all the luggage had to be placed by our feet. It wasn't bad at first, until the bus kept picking people up, and our 3 seater quickly became a 5 seater with no leg room. The roads were unpaved, but hey at least the scenery was nice. Once we got to Dien Bien Phu we walked about a 1 1/2 miles to our hotel and checked in. We asked the guy if he could book us the bus to Laos, and he couldn't. This might seem normal to most people, but not in South East Asia, where hotels and hostels are normally fighting for the chance to book your travel through them and make a few quick bucks on the side. This guy told us we would have to walk the mile and a half back to the station to get it there. So we walked back and got a ticket leaving at 5 a.m.! Oh well, we figured this bad day was over, and the next day we should be there around lunch, since the bus takes 6 hours. Like I said, little did we know. At 5 the next morning we show up at the bus station, and the guy tells us to get on. As we look in, we notice that there is bags of rice, potatoes, etc, in the back 4 seats, and two others. We ask him if he is going to put it on top with the rest of the luggage, he says no, we ask why not? He "doesn't understand" or simply doesn't care. Either way we are stuck with it. So Kristin is in a pull up side seat, and I am in a pull up middle seat, we can deal with it. Upon leaving, there are some upset people, especially the 3 guys that got to the bus after us, and are made to sit on a bag of rice, with their head at the ceiling (one of their buddy's that actually got a seat is throwing a peace sign in the pic below). We get on our way, and after about 3 minutes we pick up three more locals, who cram in, including one in my lap. This was just the beginning!

After every mile or so we pick up more and more people, and luggage. It never stops the whole time, we just keep adding. After about 3 hours we arrive to the border with 38 people in a 22 seat bus. Don't forget 6 of those seats are filled with bags. The last hour to the border, I counted 8 people I was touching at any one time, and none of them were Kristin. Needless to say the foreigners are in an uproar, but nobody cares. The border takes about 2 hours to get through, including getting ripped off by the Vietnamese guards who are exchanging Dong for Kip, the two currencies at about 3 times less than its worth, but say you must pay for your Visa in kip. After the first half of the journey the foreigners just wait by the bus, in which you have to fight your way onto to get a "seat", which means about 1/3 of a seat. No chivalry here! We were slamming old ladies out of the way to get on the bus...hey, they would have done it to us! Anyway, after rearranging for the 2nd half, we have a little better positions, meaning I actually have Kristin on my lap, instead of a stranger. We go about 1 hour, and get to the lunch break. Neither of us ate, because we were plotting our mission for a seat, which we got, at least as good as you can get. We are feeling lucky and thought we couldn't have too much longer to go. After about 45 minutes we get to a sign that says the road is closed from 12-4. Its about 1:30 at this point, so needless to say we get to stop for 2 1/2 hours, in which me and Kristin never leave our "prime" seats.

If we had to describe ourselves that day, Kristin would be the "pillow" and I would be the "lap". She had about 3 different ladies sleeping on her, including the woman that would only put her head on Kristin in between vomiting episodes.

So the 6 hour, 22 seat bus, took us on a 13 hour, 38 person ride from hell! We made it to Muang Khua... Unfortunately we have no money other than a $5 U.S.. Luckily we made friends with a couple from San Fransisco, who bought us a couple of very needed beers and lao lao (rice whiskey).

The next day we took a 5 hour boat up the river to a small town called Muang Ngoi Neua, and decided that was enough for the day. It was much better than the bus and was like something out of Apocalypse Now. The town is very small but with great scenery right on the river. We walked around that town and went and saw some of the caves nearby. It was a good way to relax and kick back.

The day after we took another 1 hour boat up to a transfer town, and got on a sawngthaew (covered truck bed w/seats), and travelled for another 4 hours to Luang Prabang. We finally made it to an actual Lao city, and it only took 3 days!!!!

Mountains in Sapa

Our train did not leave for Sapa until 9 pm so we had a full day in Hanoi. We walked around a little bit to check out the flower festival they have to celebrate the new year. They are very excited about the count down until Hanoi's 100 birthday and they had thousands of flowers scattered around the Old Village. We decided to go see Avatar in the theater to kill time before our train ride. Not too bad of a flick - and we got to see it in English! Anyway, our train wasn't bad at all but it dropped us off at Lao Cai around 5 am. It is about an hour bus ride outside of Sapa so we jumped into a van with some other foreigners going that way. Neither of us slept that well on the bus so we took a nap before exploring the town. Sapa is set up in the mountains of North Vietnam and is mainly a destination for trekking. Well, my knee wasn't up for trekking yet so we basically just bummed around the town for a couple days. It is not the most exciting place. The prices for food are fairly expensive compared to the rest of Vietnam, and since we were not doing any trekking we were hounded by the local people trying to sell their goodies. I did find a new pair of sunglasses to replace mine that broke and the scenery is nice, but that's about it. We only stayed 2 nights before booking a ticket to Laos. 8 countries down!!!

Holidays in Halong Bay

We signed up to take a boat trip through Halong Bay from Hanoi. We set out at around 8 am from Hanoi and took a 3 hour bus ride to the dock. Our boat was called the Aloha and was pretty nice! Unfortunately we did not get the exact boat we wanted because we booked it the night before, but it turned out alright. Our room had two twin beds and a bathroom - it was right over the engine but we really didn't hear it that much (since we weren't inside our room except to sleep). We headed out from the dock towards the floating village through huge limestone islands. The weather was a bit overcast which gave the scenery a real mystic feel. It was really amazing to see how the ocean just left these towering chunks throughout the water and many had caves going right through the bottom of them. They served us a great seafood lunch on the boat with squid, shrimp and crab. Ben and I immediately made a few friends on our boat since we brought a bottle of liquor to celebrate Ben's birthday and were happy to share with others (they were charging real high prices for drinks on the boat).

When we reached the floating village we took a row boat to see how the people lived out in the middle of nowhere. They had actual houses on buoys with a school house. You could tell it is a standard tourist stop since they also had a shop filled with pearl jewelry. Besides the school house there were underwater cages filled with huge fish and they also had smaller pen with an octopus, tiger fish, and some other pretty ones we didn't know. After seeing the village, those people that were just staying one night got a chance to kayak around while we relaxed on the boat deck and took in the scenery. Then the "junk" took us to our sleeping spot where we had another great seafood dinner. Ben tried fishing off the boat while we were stopped but we didn't catch anything.

The next day we kayaked through the islands and actually got to go into a lagoon that can only be accessed by a cut out cave. It was gorgeous with 360 views of just cliffs around us - it reminded me a bit of the book "The Beach". After kayaking throughout the afternoon we headed back to go to Cat Ba island. It is fairly developed with a market, National Park, stores, restaurants, and hotels. We got to stay in a really nice resort called the Sunrise Resort and they prepared a huge buffet for us along with live music to celebrate New Year's Eve. I am not sure they understand the idea of just having music in the background because it was so loud, but at least it wasn't more karaoke. The food was really good and after 3 straight meals of seafood it was nice to have a little change. An Aussie on our boat got really sick and had to leave our table after only a couple minutes. He thought it was from the seafood we had but I don't think anyone else got sick, luckily. Ben and I didn't make it to 12 for the New Year; probably a little too much partying on his birthday, but had a good time. From those of our group that stayed it didn't sound like we missed much. Apparently they were pulling people out of the crowd to chug liquor out of baby bottles. In the morning we decided to check out the "town" before we had to leave. There really wasn't much to see - I think it is more of a resort type place. We took a bus back to Hanoi where we have to stay the night before we head to Sapa.