Round the World Adventure

The bus journey from Nha Trang to Dalat was surprisingly fine, the roads were better and the trip only took about 4 hours. Once settled in a room in Dalat we headed out to get some food and walk around the lake.
We were expecting Dalat to be very similar to Sapa, in the North as they are both high up and have a lake, but unfortunately Dalat does not have the same charm as Sapa.
The rice soup we had was delicious and then we started walking around the lake, after about 15 mins we walked towards 8 Vietnamese teens sitting by the lake drinking beer, as soon as they saw us they were on their feet giving us beers and asking us to sit with them. We sat with them for a while, but no one spoke English so the conversation went a bit quiet after we all introduced ourselves. One of the guys was making Paul repeat what he was saying which was funny, we think we was saying naughty stuff, he he.

The next day in Dalat we had arranged to do a half day hike up to the top of Lang Bian mountain. It was just Paul, our guide and me. I rode on the back of a motorcycle of the first time in my life to get to the start point, I have been avoiding getting on one of the back of them from the start of our Asia trip, but it was either get on the bike, or don’t got trekking.

The trek was good, the views were nice but it was quite steep at times, especially getting to the summit, there were loads of tall steps. But we managed it, took a load of photos of the stunning hilly forests below and made our way down. We managed to get back to our hotel before the afternoon downpour, and for the rest of the afternoon we just watched the storms from inside.

The next morning we took the bus to Mui Ne, a very popular beach town resort for the Vietnamese. The journey was a bit longer, and the roads were not great but we were looking forward to spending a few days on the beach again.
We arrived in the mid-day sun and tried to find a cheap room. Most were very expensive but we found a guesthouse over the road from a hotel that was on the beachfront and we could use all their facilities.
Once checked in we headed for the beach from the hotel….beach??? What beach??? The Lonely Planet book says Mui Ne is ‘Arguably the best all round beach in Vietnam’, we did not have a beach, neither did the hotels either side of us…for miles. The hotels are built so close to the water that there are steps leading down to the sea, and at low tide you may have about a meter of beach, but no more. So, this was a bit disappointing but we were very glad we could use the hotel pool, and it was empty! The whole resort was empty, we weren’t complaining though, sometimes it’s nice to get peace and quiet.

We decided to cut our stay in Mui Ne to just two days and headed to Saigon in the afternoon.

At 6pm we arrived at the booking office to embark on the first sleeper bus we would encounter in Vietnam, I have to say they do not do luxury sleeper busses as in South America, which is a bit of a disappointment. Most of the beds are very slim and short and there was no loo on board, but they are fully reclining unlike the ones in SA. We got 2 beds at the back on the floor, the engine was noisy and you could feel every bump but we managed to get a half decent nights sleep. We arrived in Hue at 9am, found a hotel and explored the city. It was hot, very hot! There is not much to do in Hue but we walked around the old Citadel, which was originally built around 100 years ago but is currently being restored, as it was badly bombed during the American war. It was nice to look around but the heat and hunger got the best of us so we left to get some food. We found this lovely flower shaped restaurant on the river where we shared a pizza and a nice bottle of red wine.

The next day we caught a bus to Hoi An, a romantic town on a river and with a lush beach just a short bike ride away. We arrived in Hoi An in the late afternoon, as it was the full moon we experienced the monthly mini festival called the Hoi An Legendary Night. There were lots of old women selling floating candles that you could lower into the river to float downstream. They all looked amazing, especially with the lantern lit streets and the romantic lights from the restaurants and bars.

The next morning we were up early to make the most of our first beach day since South America. We hired bikes and rode the 5km to the white sandy beach. Thankfully it was dead, we hired some sunbeds and basked in the sun all day only getting up to cool ourselves in the pleasant clear sea.

In the evening we thought we would treat ourselves and have some Western food, there is only so much rice and noodles we can take! I had bangers & mash and Paul had fish & chips, not 100% the same as home but it was good enough.

Our next destination was Nha Trang, 12 hours further south that meant another sleeper bus. We opted for a seat farther forward and on the top bunk this time, hoping to get away from the noise of the engine and bumps in the road. Unfortunately this was a bad mistake, I was in the middle so every corner we took it felt as if I would fall out and we had a very aggressive bus driver, needless to say I didn’t sleep much that night. We arrived in Nha Trang at 6am, went to the first hotel was saw and slept for a few hours. After getting some breakfast we headed to the beach. Nha Trang is much busier, very set up for tourism compared to Hoi An but it was nice. It is a fairly big place but not too big or crowded, we still had plenty of room on the beach. The sea was much warmer here.

In the evening we had a lovely seafood meal and hit the town!

There is a reason we don’t go out much anymore…we didn’t get up until mid-day the next day and headed straight to the beach again. Tomorrow we will head in land to Dalat where the climate is much cooler, it will be nice not to sweat so much for a few days.

Thankfully we had fully recovered for our trip to Halong Bay, we knew this was going to be a highlight of Vietnam so were thankful the food poisoning didn’t last long.

We were picked up in the morning by mini bus and driven 3 hours to the coast where Halong Bay is located. We were very excited about this trip, the Chinese style Junk Boats in the brochures looked really cool, we made sure we booked the mid-range tour to get nicer meals than the budget tour, but all the boats go to the same place so there was no point getting the luxury tour. Once our group of aprox 16 people had congregated in the port we were shown to our boat…not exactly how the photos in the brochures showed so we were all a little disappointed, but we soon became aware that none of the boats around us were traditional Junk Boats, oh well!

Not long after we set off we had a very nice lunch of fresh fish, greens and rice and then were dropped off at a cave on one of the 3000 islands that make Halong Bay. It was nice to be cool in the cave and the specially positioned lighting made the cave look spectacular. We learned about the different shaped rocks that had special meanings for the Vietnamese, unfortunately it was absolutely packed due to the national holiday.

Once back on the boat we headed to a floating village where we got to kayak through some of the smaller islands and through small caves. The views were amazing! And it was fun kayaking for the first time for me, I was always very weary Paul would rock the boat so much that I would fall out, but he was a good boy ☺

After kayaking we sailed to our sleeping area where we could have a swim and dinner on the boat. The journey to this area was about an hour and we really got to see the full extent of the bay and how beautiful it was, especially with no other boats around. As I have said in previous blogs, it really is difficult to capture this in a few photos.

After a short swim we sat down for dinner, another delicious local cuisine of fresh fish and greens.

Our group was great, there were a few birthdays on the boat that night so after our food had gone down a spread of cake, popcorn, nuts and fruit was set out, and as this is Asia karaoke… A few people were up for it but most of us were so tired (and not drunk enough probably), so when the mic went dead the locals stepped up. We went to bead about 10pm but the songs went on well past midnight, unfortunately we were right under the speaker on the lower deck so didn’t get much sleep before we got up at 5.30am to watch the sun rise.

After breakfast we got dropped off at Cat Ba Island, one of the largest islands in Halong Bay which is inhabited. We got on a stuffy bus and were dropped off 30 mins down the road to Cat Ba National Park. I must mention the weather, the sun was out and by mid-day the temperature was about 40 C, we were in Cat Ba National Park to make a trek up a large rocky hill to view the island from the top. I was unsure if it was a good idea as it was so hot but was persuaded and started the hike. I think after 10 mins everyone regretted it, but we kept on moving and after 45 mins we were at the top, too hot and exhausted to take in the beautiful views below us, so we went down again where there was some shade from the trees. It was a great mini hike, but it really was very difficulty, I don’t think we have very sweated so much!

After we had recovered it was back on the bus and we headed to our hotel. The room was nice, with half a view of the sea. After some tasty seafood lunch we headed to the beach and spent the whole day there. It was really nice to slow down and just relax in the sun.

In the evening we had dinner, a few drinks on the sea front and headed to bed as it was an early start the next morning.

Unfortunately the next morning we started the long journey back to Hanoi. An hour on the bus, 2 and a half hours on the boat and then another 3 hours on another bus.

Thankfully we only had a couple of hours in Hanoi before we caught the night bus to Hue, 13 hours on the road south.

At the last entry we were looking into treks we could do in Sapa and hopefully go up the highest mountain in Vietnam. Unfortunately due to the Vietnamese public holiday that we didn’t plan for all the trains to Hanoi were fully booked for the next few days so we couldn’t do a trek without staying for an extra week. In Vietnam where we only have a 30 day visa this just wasn’t an option as time is of the essence and there are too many places to see!
So we decided to just stay a couple of days in Sapa. It’s a great place high in the mountains, really nice cool temperatures compared to the tropics of Laos we had recently visited.
Really nice people, although if you engage with the local women selling crafts they’ll follow you until you leave!

So after a couple of really nice chilled out days we got the night train to Hanoi. We had to get a bus close to the Chinese border in Lao Cai to start with. After some delicious food we boarded at 9:30pm. We had a four-birth tourist cabin, which we shared with a couple locals, one being an eye doctor who was interesting and told me my laser surgery would have been a eighth of the price I paid back home. Ah well, we all soon fell asleep and woke up fresh as a daisy in Hanoi (except Leah as usual).

So from the train station we got to our Hotel in the Old quarter and Leah proceeded to catch up on some lost sleep!
Around lunchtime we headed out into the unknown of Hanoi and soon realised this is the most crazy city we’ve ever been to, forget Bangkok this was tens times worse. Motorbikes seemingly without a care in the world, going any side of the road and any direction that pleases them.
Thankfully we’d read the LP bible and knew if you just walk out in the road slowly they’ll go around you. If not you just end up waiting by the side of the road all day! This does take some getting used to, back home the little green man is king, over here just shut your eyes and walk.

So once basic crossing skills were mastered we checked out the city. It has not been our favourite city so far and we soon realised we could check out all the attractions in a day or two before heading on a Junk Boat cruise to Halong Bay. Unfortunately, Leah decided to choose “Golden Spring” as our first evening meal restaurant and after me eating my delicious meal and then finishing off her fried rice and chicken meal we were soon both chucking our guts up until the early hours of the morning! Due to this we missed being able to book our Halong trip for the Monday and Tuesday and thus having to stay and extra few nights in Hanoi!

After being picked up from our guesthouse we headed north along mainly bumpy unsealed roads up to Nong Khiaw. As soon as we got there we could see why people come here. The views are fantastic. Huge green-blue karsts over look the river to give a picture perfect outlook. We sat on our balcony just taking it in over a Beer Lao and I went for a nice refreshing dip in the river to cool off in the heat. We were hoping to stay for a few nights but due to the infrequent boats up the river we had to leave the next day to get to Muang Khua.

Our next destination was 7 hours away by boat and we were hoping for a similar experience to our trip along the Mekong River into Laos from Thailand with padded seats and toilets. We soon realised that that luxury was a one off and we jumped in the cramped boat with 18 others and a motorbike, that should be allowing a max of 12 people, all sat on wooden planks for a nice comfortable ride!! We were all surprised that it didn’t sink when we set off.

Luckily after an hour most of the passengers got off and there was just 7 of us so we could at least stretch our legs out a little.

The fun didn’t stop there; halfway up the river we were struck with a sudden thunderstorm. Our driver quickly pulled over at the side of the river at the nearest village shouting at us to exit the boat, and we were taken into the dry by a lovely family who let us stay in their home (shack) until the storm passed.
So after the storm passed, back in the boat we ventured with the seats now not only rock hard but also wet, not the nicest experience but we got through it and made it to Muang Khua just before sunset.
It was a great experience of real local transport in Laos, but next time maybe we’ll bring a cushion…\

Muang Khua is a very small village with not much going on except kids playing (and pooing) in the river, but we had to come through here to get to the boarder with Vietnam. Our room was very basic, a 'hole is the ground' loo and a shower you had to hold, but we were fine with it. Until the second night anyway. We had some food in the guesthouse and i went to the loo, only to find about 2 million ants and about 20 flying cockroaches! The owners fumigated our room several times but it was a good few hours before we could go back in. So, it was a good excuse to drink a few more Beer Laos and chat to fellow travellers who gave us some great info on Vietnam.

The next day we arrived at the river to get to the bus stop at 5.30am as instructed in order to get the 6am bus to Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam. After waiting in a rain storm we were told by someone the bus would not arrive until 11am. This was annoying but at least we could go back to our room and get another few hours kip.

After some breakfast we crossed the river at 10.30am and bought our bus tickets. The bus was a bit late, we were expecting a mini bus but a packed local bus turned up and we climbed over all sorts to get a seat at the back. This was an experience. There are no real roads to Dien Bien Phu, mostly dirt tracks and small rivers to cross. We got talking to a very friendly Vietnamees guy who could only say a few words of English but was very entertaining. We stopped several times to let more people on, god knows how but we all fitted in.

The road was very bumpy but some of the scenery was breath taking, windy roads over cliff faces but we were never going more than 30mph . The border crossings weren't too bad, we had to wait and hour at the Laos border for the border police to even show up, they stamped our passports and then we were off to the Vietnam border crossing where things were a bit more efficient.

A few hours later we arrived in the hole which is Dien Bien Phu. It is crazy going from Laos where the population is about 6 million, to Vietnam where the population is about 86 million, there were so many people on the roads. After checking into a guesthouse costing about £4 we tried to find a restaurant with 2 French girls that had been travelling the same route since Luang Prabang. We eventually found one that served minuscule portions but it was enough as we were so tired.

The next morning we arrived at Dien Bien Phu bus station at 5.45am to get the 6.30 bus to Sapa. This time we were on a mini bus but it was very uncomfortable, but at least not a packed as our previous bus. 9 hours it took us to get to Sapa, the roads felt worse than in Loas but I think this was just due to the crap mini bus. Our spines need realigning. We drove over high mountains and in old villages, again the scenery was stunning, a lot greener than Laos.

We arrived in Sapa at a bout 3.30pm, found the White Lotus Hotel that had been recommended to us and bartered for the price of the room. We felt we needed some luxury after all the travelling we had been doing but the room was still only £9 a night including breakfast! We had a wonder around town and looked into which trek we should do a few days later.

After our first night in Luang Prabang we had to move guesthouses, so we opted for one a little closer to the main part of town. Once settled in we headed out and grabbed some lunch. New Year in Laos as in Thailand and a lot of East Asian countries is a celebration of the rainy season that is on its way. In more recent years this has been done with large-scale water fights. We weren’t sure what to expect, but we soon found out…
Just walking down the street naively thinking not much was going to happen, we were set upon house after house by kids with water guns, hosepipes and buckets full of water. It was great, so hot at the time and instantly cooled down and appreciated what was going on.

The next day we needed arming to get involved with the four day celebration so got ourselves down to our closet dealer and got some super soakers. Walking around with these instantly made us an even bigger target and not just for water, locals were running up to us covering us with grease and paint to make sure we got into the festivities.
You can’t walk more than a few paces without pacing a group of kids around a barrel of water waiting to soak you or cover you in paint. It like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Every time you filled up you were covered and sometimes you were made to down a beer while they filled your gun up with water. A much welcomed refreshment in the heat of the day.
The atmosphere around was amazing, everyone in such a good mood. Even the old guys were racing around on motorbikes, water gun in hand, getting involved. It was great, such fun. Our pictures say it all. I can’t believe it went on for four days, but if you went out attempting to see some local sights, you would just end up getting wet. We meet some cool people, all up to the same antics.

In Luang Prabang as in a lot of places in Laos there is a curfew at night. So at 11:30 everything shuts in town, normally we were fine with that as all the excitement of the day exhausted us, but on the Sunday we took the water fights easy and ended up meeting this Auzi and British girls who were travelling together, and they told us about the all night bowling alley. We were there…with bells on. We met them after food, jumped on a tuk-tuk and bowled until about 3am. We are not the best bowlers when drunk but the best out of the group, yippee!

Unfortunately the next day Leah had picked up a tummy bug (but kept on eating so it went on for 4 days until she had a 30 hour starve), so we had to stay an extra few days, as our next journey was a 4-hour bus up to Nong Khiaw.

So we were heading further north in Thailand to get to the Thailand/Laos border, we got picked up from our guesthouse in the morning in a mini van and drove the 6 or so hours up to Chiang Khong stopping in Chiang Rai and many other ‘lunch’ stops.

While in Chiang Mai we arranged the whole trip to Luang Prapang in Laos. Thailand is well set up for tourism, and it literally only costs a couple of pounds more than if we did it ourselves, but much much less hassle.

When we arrived in Chiang Khong we were shown to our guesthouse, our room had a wicked view of the Mekong River but wasn’t so nice inside. We had dinner and an early night after watching the most spectacular 3-4 thunder and lightning storms around us.

The next morning was a fairly early start, we had our breakfast and got the tuk-tuk over to the Thailand immigration shed where we were stamped out of the country. We then had to catch a very unstable small boat over the Mekong River to the Laos immigration office where we would obtain our 30 day visas and get stamped into the country. Border crossings have become the most annoying thing about our trip, thankfully we haven’t had any problems at all but the time it takes, with the queuing and the waiting, especially in the heat.
But thankfully we got through Laos immigration fine, had and introduction into the country with the speaker lying on various topics to make more money out of us and saying that we would get the best seats on the boat.

Finally at about 12.45 we received our tickets for the boat, only 15 mins before it departed, needless to say we did not get the best seats on the boat, Paul and I couldn’t even sit next to each other because we received our tickets so late. After we settled down we just looked at the stunning scenery around us and instantly started to relax, even though we were sat on old car seats that weren’t even secured to the floor.
6 hours later we arrived in Pakbeng, a sleepy river town with only a few generators powering some of the guesthouses. Thankfully we chose one of the guesthouses with a generator so had a fan. We got some food, had a few beers and at about 10.30pm all the generators are switched off and a curfew was set in. We had small geckos crawling in our room and there were some very strange noises coming from outside, Paul assured me they were only birds but I had difficulty sleeping.

The boat left the next morning at 9.30am, we made sure we got there early enough to get a seat together. The journey was amazing, the views of the forest, the hills and river were breath-taking. It was great to see some of the small villages on the riverside, how cut off they are. We saw loads of fisherman and kids playing in the water, it was a great way to see some of Laos.

We arrived in Luang Prabang at about 5.30 after being on the boat for 8 hours. We got a tuk-tuk to our guesthouse, grabbed some food and set in for the night…not aware of what was going to happen the next day.

The night bus to Chiang Mai actually was much better than expected. We got a couple hours of sleep and arrived in Chiang Mai around 6.30am, got picked up from the bus stop and brought to our hotel. We slept for most of the day and got up in the evening to grab some food and walk around the Night Bazar, which again sold everything and anything you would want or need, 99% of it fake though.

The next morning we got up early ready for our 3 day 2 night jungle trek. We were picked up and shoved into the back of a pick-up truck where there was barely room for one of us. We got chatting to these two British girls Sam and Keira and the time flew.

The first day of the trek was pretty easy, compared to the Inca Trail anyway but the heat was quite intense. We walk in total about 3-4 hours in total stopping along the way for lunch and at a few waterfalls. It was great, the air was fresh the people we were with were amazingly funny and we all just had a great laugh. We arrived at ‘camp’ about 4pm, we were staying in a local hill-tribe village and staying the night in a wooden hut. Paul helped our guides Jo Jo and King Kong cook the evening meal, what a Pro!

paul working his magic in the kitchen

The next day our group split into two and most people were only doing the 2 day 1 night trek. Luckily the two girls we really got along with, Sam and Keira were doing the same tour as us so we just walked and chatted the whole day, obviously taking in the stunning scenery and local knowledge from our crazy guide King Kong.

In the evening we joined up with another group that were doing the same tour and stayed in small huts just off a river, it was so nice. In the middle of the night there was a massive thunder and lighting storm. I don’t know what it is but the thunder here sounds ten times louder than back at home. We just shoved our ear plugs in and snuggled up inside our warm sleeping bags and hoped the rain wouldn’t wash our small wooden hut into the river.

The final day of the trek would be the best day. We had to walk about an hour to our pick-up trucks so they could take us to do Bamboo rafting and elephant riding.
The 4 of us got in the back of the open topped truck and we drove onwards. We were commenting on how lovely the houses were in this on particular village and SPLASH a load of kids through big buckets of water over us while we were driving along. It all took us by surprise and we burst out laughing. I must mention that the Thai New Year is around the 13th April, and during this time they also have a water festival, as it is also to celebrate the start of the wet season. So basically, it is just a massive water fight and they decided to start early on us. It was so funny.
Next was the bamboo rafting, the 4 of us got on a raft and were ‘driven’ along the river, splashing at any locals we saw swimming in the river. The rafting was great, we were only going slowly but any small rapids felt like a big one.

After we dried off and had lunch it was onto elephant riding...eeek! We got on our elephant and took a rather bumpy and uncomfortable 1 hour trek through an area of the jungle. The ride was wicked, trekking along on an elephant. I was just hoping the elephant wouldn’t fall over and squash us all.

Overall the trek was amazing, I would recommend it to anyone.

A few days later we did a half-day Thai cooking course. We learnt about the Thai herbs and spices and how to combine them to make the tasty Thai cuisines. We could also make a few dished, one stir-fry. I made Chicken and Cashew nuts and Paul made basil and chilli Chicken. Then we made spring rolls (yum), and then a curry from scratch, making the curry paste also. The day was amazing, we went with the two girls we met on the trek and it was such a laugh.

Next we are off to Laos, taking a slow boat from the North, hopefully I won’t get eaten alive by mosquitos.

We arrived in Bangkok on Tuesday 27th early in the morning. The traffic was a nightmare at rush hour, it took us over an hour to get to the hotel.
As soon as we got to the hotel we wacked the air con on and crashed out.
We had decided to stay on Khao San Road, the most touristy district in Bangkok selling anything and everything you may need. Luckily we had a room at the back of the hotel so we weren’t kept up by the bad karaoke and drunken screams. We managed to get ourselves out of bed for some food, we found a great place around the corner and tucked into some local Thai stir fry, yum!

The next day we were feeling nice and refreshed so we decided to try and find the train station to book our onward tickets for the week later, unsurprisingly we got lost so had the large Bangkok map out looking like idiot tourists. A local Thai then approached us asking if we were lost and if he could help, automatically, being cynical Brits we said “No thank you” thinking that he obviously wanted to sell us something or want something in return. Then we thought what else can we do so we explained where we were trying to get to. He was so friendly and nice! He didn’t want anything in return and told us that today was Buddha day where all tuk-tuks were 40 Baht and they would take us around all the Buddha temples in Bangkok where the entrance would be free. So that’s what we did all day, jumped on a tuk-tuk and visited many temples and golden Buddhas.

It was great just walking around Bangkok, there is so much to see all the time. They have loads and loads of stalls on the side of the road, so many that you can’t see the actual shops. Always there is someone cooking street food or selling sliced up fruit, the smells and sights are amazing.
The heat was a problem though, we think on average the temperature was around 40 degrees C every day. We had had enough one day so went to the main shopping district where there are 4 very very large shopping malls and just wondered around those all day as it was air conditioned!

On the second to last day in Bangkok we organised a trip to Kanchanaburi, a town 3 hours outside Bangkok where during the 2nd World War POW and locals were forced to build a railway track to Burma for the Japanese. Thousands of Brits died during this time from Malaria, animal attacks and exhaustion. The film ‘The Bridge Over The River Kwai’ tells the elaborated story. It was really moving to walk through one of the graveyards. We were shown around the slightly tacky and old museum that was also a Buddha temple??? And we took a train ride on the tracks that the POW built and went over the River Kwai.

Next we caught a night bus to Chiang Mai, on a very rickety bus.

After landing in London we were soon on another flight to France. Landing in the tiny shed that is Grenoble airport, we slowly made our way through to get are bags and then we were off in the bus up to Les Menuires in the 3 Valleys.
We were greeted by the chalet hosts with tea and cakes and then made our way to get suited n booted for the first day of skiing.
It hadn’t snowed for over 2 weeks when we arrived but as the first night drew in the clouds started to thicken and we were graced with 8 feet of snow, actually it was only about 5 inches but with a few vino’s in us and excitement of the next day pending we all got a little carried away!

On the first morning we were all up together for breakfast and, although a little bleary eyed, were looking forward to a good days skiing. The meals in the chalet were amazing, just what you need before and after a full on day on the slopes.
The snow was still coming down and visibility wasn’t great for most of the day but all of us, except Leah managed to do a full days skiing.
Unfortunately this was to be the last fresh snow for the week, but the slopes managed to stay good for the remainder of the holiday.
Dan had his 30th birthday on the second day of the trip so we hit the local club in celebration. Leeberty was not the best club in the world but we made it into a good night with all of us putting in our best moves and of course lots of dad dancing!

The week followed on with more great skiing, other Dan’s birthday and Sarah and Leon getting engaged on the slopes.
All in all a great holiday, very different to what we had been used and also what is to come.

Now on to Bangkok, bring on the lady boys…