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\n\n\nWe have a lot to\ncatch up on! We have regrettably finished our journey through the intriguingly\nbeautiful Vietnam and have arrived in Laos to continue northward on our voyage\nto the red giant, China.\n\n\n
\n\nTo listen to the\npodcast click Here!\n\n
\n\n\nDue to the sheer\nnumber of days since the previous blog, I have combined days spent in the same\nlocation. Enjoy. \n\n\n
\n\nMar 8th \n\n\nWe had previously\norganised to reunite with two girls we had met whilst on Koh Samet, Sofie and\nMari, and join them slowly staggering north to the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.\nHaving jointly decided with the girls to leave Ho Chi Minh City the following\nday, this left us all with a full day to see as much as we possibly could of\nthis Vietnamese metropolis. We used the morning to visit the war remnants museum,\nwhich had been cringingly described to us as an emotionally evoking experience similar\nto that faced at the S-21 museum in Phnom Penh. After walking in the heat and\nhumidity that accompanies all large Asian cities, we arrived at a museum\nsurrounded by varying types of grounded aircraft and decommissioned armored\nvehicles, all marked with the badge of US possession. As we entered the museum,\nwe yet again were reminded of the atrocities of war and the continued struggle\nconsecutive generations face due the effects of Agent Orange. Unbeknown to use\nboth, the museum closed at 12 and would not reopen for an hour and a half, we\nfelt we had satisfied the required visit and left the museum slightly relieved.\nHowever, the lack of complete objectivity in this museum did play on my mind,\nas there was clear bias towards the North Vietnamese. This contrasted heavily\nwith my favourite museum, the Berlin history museum, which chronologically\nexplores the checkered history of Germany in a purely objective manor.\nRegardless, the war remnants museum was a good introduction to the brutal war a\nmere 40 to 50 years earlier.\n\n\n
\n\n\nWe had organised to\ntravel with the girls to Nha Trang, primarily a beach town that was about 10\nhours away by bus. It is at this point that I\u2019ll mention that Sofie wasn\u2019t\nfeeling quite well at this point of our journey, which was a reoccurring theme\nover the next few days. \n
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\n\nMar 9th,\n10th, 11th, 12 & 13th\n\n\nWe said goodbye to Ho\nChi Minh City as we boarded the coast-bound bus, happy to be leisurely heading\nnorth along what we later found to be the tourist trail. The bus to Nha Trang\ntook us passed some amazing scenic coastline and picturesque landscapes created\nby mountains that, without warning, disturbed the uniformly level terrain. As\nwe stopped for lunch in another beach town called Mui Ne, we were introduced to\nour first taste of Russian tourist domination as English was superseded by Russian\nin all restaurants and shops. As we arrived in Nah Trang, we luckily arrived\ndirectly in front of a hotel that suited us perfectly for the duration of our\nstay. My only criticism is the fact that Casey and I were asked to change rooms\ntwice starting with an amazing room that was for six people and finishing with\na closet built for potentially one and a half. This was because a single girl\nwanted a balcony\u2026 The mind boggles.\n
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\n\n\nAs we arose the next\nmorning, Mari told us that Sofie yet again was feverish and was an odd green\ncolour, which strongly suggested a trip to the doctor. Waiting for both Sofie\nand Mari to return left Casey and I to endeavor to the beach where we were\nshocked to see rather large speedo wearing Russian men precariously scattered\nalong the beach. As the girls returned we were again shocked to learn that\nSofie had a mild case of Dengue fever and required three consecutive days of\ntreatment each with a four-five hour session of intravenous fluid\nadministration. Fortunately, this did not tarnish our time as Sofie started to\nfeel fine after the first treatment, and could choose the time of sequential\ntreatments over the following days. We then spent a few uneventful yet relaxing\ndays visiting the beach and trying a plethora of restaurants in the area. We\nall also went to a massage parlor and enjoyed hour-long massages, something\nthat was quite foreign to both Casey and myself. One night that stands out amongst\nthe rest was the night we decided to visit a mall that had both a bowling alley\nand karaoke. After about an hour of karaoke in a private room that Casey\ninformed us was not soundproof, I feel the staff were probably happy to\nfarewell the Backstreet Boy singing Westerners. \n\n\n
\n\n\nWe had decided to\ncatch a night bus to the historic town of Hoi An. The night bus was an adventure\nin it\u2019s self as we were given the seats at the back that, unlike all the other individualized\nseats, were five adjoining seats. This did not cause problems for our group of\nfour, yet the lone Austrian girl that had been instructed to join us may have\nhad a somewhat different experience. \n
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\n\nMar 14th,\n15th, 16th & 17th\n\n\nWe arrived in Hoi An\nat an outrageously early eight o\u2019clock before we, as was extremely common at\nthe end of every bus journey, were hounded by people to stay at there hotel or\nemploy their transport. We walked from the bus past rows of buildings and shops\nall coloured a rustic mustard, a reminder of the earlier French influence. We\nreached a hotel, which we later determined to be run by quite a shady group of\npeople, who insisted we sign a handwritten agreement that if anything went\nmissing from our room it was our responsibility. Unfortunately, Mari was stung\nby this policy as 500,000 dong (A$25) went \u2018missing\u2019 from her bag. After\nmentioning this missing money, our possessions luckily are still all accounted\nfor. Hoi An was a beautiful town that had a spectacular old town that boasts a\ntantalizing mixture of Japanese, Chinese, French and Vietnamese influences. The\nsheer number of tailors made Hoi An the ideal place to go for specifically\ntailored items, a service we did not employ even though we were tempted by\nmatching felt suits\u2026 \n
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\n\n\nWe spent a day with\nhired motorcycles and traveled to the UNESCO world cultural heritage site, the\nancient Cham city of My Son. Unfortunately, the heritage site did not quite\nlive up to the expectations of a UNESCO heritage site, but the highlight of the\nday was enjoying the formidable Vietnamese roads once more, with a passenger no\nless. Getting use to a slightly slower pace whilst traveling in a group suited\nus all and gave us a good opportunity to relax and reflect on our adventure\nthus far. It was very different traveling with another pair, but an extremely\nwelcome and refreshing change. The next destination was chosen to be Hu\xe9 and\nafter being told by a hotel staff member that there were three types of seats\non the bus and that the cheapest seat type was unavailable, we bought the\ntickets that were not near the bus toilet at a dearer price. When boarding the\nbus for the 4 hour journey we evidently had been conned by the hotel again as\nthis approximately 20 seat bus did not have a toilet or seating allocation.\nThis finalized our time in Hoi An, a place where the buildings are incredibly\nbeautiful, yet tourism had obviously impacted this town, at least partially,\nfor the worst. \n
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\n\n\nThe next town of Hu\xe9\nwas equally as beautiful and our opinion of the people was in a much more\npositive light. Once again, when we got of the bus, we were dropped at a hotel,\nthe Google Hotel, which was the nicest we have stayed in thus far. We had free Wi-Fi,\nfree coffee all day, free beer after five o\u2019clock, breakfast for US$1 and large\nrooms with proper showers that had been lacking from each and every room we had\npreviously stayed.\n\n
\n\n\nMar 18th,\n19th & 20th\n\n\nMari had innovatively\nsuggested we all compete in a self-created scavenger hunt, which saw each\nmember of the group contribute specific tasks to complete with the intention of\nbeing issued a corresponding number of points, the team successfully gaining\nthe most points would be named victorious. Some of the more exciting tasks\nincluded: swimming in the river, fitting three choco-pies in your mouth, dancing\nin the street, wearing team uniforms, wearing a rice hat in all photos and\nfinding a German. Every task was required to be completed with corresponding\nphotographic evidence so each team could successfully claim the points\nassociated with the task. Though it was an extremely close battle, I am happy\nto say that Sofie and I took out the title of Scavenger hunt 2013 victors,\nearning ourselves a dinner purchased by the opposing team. The scavenger hunt\nproved to be a great way to see the city, but traveling\u2019s not all fun and\ngames, our hotel staff made us drink a few beers while playing pool and were\nupset when we decided to stop drinking free beer\u2026 Stressful life.\n\n\n
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\n\n\nWith our Vietnamese\nvisas ending on the 27th, we were keen to head to Hanoi and travel\non to the fabled Ha Long Bay. We boarded another night bus where, like all\ntransport in Asia, we battled with seats obviously made for people of a smaller\nstature. We arrived in to Hanoi, again at an outrageously early time, at a bus\nstop on the outskirts of town. After finding a taxi to take us to the Old\nQuarter to find accommodation, we spent the day discussing potential ways to go\nto Ha Long Bay, enjoying the sites around Hoan Keim Lake, which Casey and Mari\ndecided to run around. It is here that we also enjoyed crab spring rolls,\npotentially the best spring rolls I have ever tasted. We settled on a planned\ncruise of Ha Long Bay, which was three days and two nights aboard a junk\n(boat). This inevitably turned out to be a fantastic option. \n\n\n
\n\nMar 21st,\n22nd & 23rd \n\n\nWe were picked up\nfrom our hotel by a bus that took four hours to reach Ha Long City where we\nboarded a small boat that took us to our awaiting junk. It was a slightly\nweathered three-story boat that consisted of cabins on the lower level, a\ndining room, kitchen and wheelhouse on the middle level and a deck with shelter\non the upper level. The cabins were extremely nice, and included a very nice\nbathroom with a proper shower. A short while after settling in our rooms, a\nvery indulgent lunch was served before we were to board the smaller boat to\ntravel to the \u2018surprising\u2019 caves, which contained three caverns of increasing\nsize which had been formed through the weathering of the stone over countless millennia.\nWe then had the opportunity to jump in two-person kayaks and go around a few of\nthe smaller islands that make up the much larger complex of infamous Ha Long\nBay islands. We were ferried back to the junk, enjoyed another sumptuous meal\nbefore being left to our own devices. This included sitting on the deck and\nadmiring the incredible number of other ships that were anchored in the same\narea as their lights dance on the surrounding, almost undisturbed, water.\n\n\n
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\n\n\nThe following day, a\nsmaller two-story boat picked us up and took us for a very scenic journey to a\ncove where we had the opportunity to swim, kayak or relax. Casey and I took the\nopportunity to unobtrusively float around the cove wearing provided life\njackets. They cooked lunch for us as they had done the previous day, to the\nextremely high standard, and then returned us to the junk where we had gained\nanother group of passengers as some people chose to only spend one night on board. The most recent additions decided they\u2019d take up the offer to do\nkaraoke until just after 11, which was amusing at best. We then woke and\nenjoyed breakfast and lunch aboard the junk while it leisurely sailed back to\nthe original port at Ha Long City. It was amazing, and equality upsetting, how\nfast the two nights had gone. We again boarded the bus in the opposing\ndirection towards Hanoi, returning to our hotel as if our expedition to Ha Long\nBay was just a distant memory or a reminiscent dream.\n
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\n\nMar 24th\n& 25th\n\n\nDeciding we would\nleave Vietnam and the girls on the night of the 25th, pushing our\nvisa departure date to the utmost limit, we had a full day to farewell two\npeople that we had become exceptionally close to over the passing weeks whilst still\nbeing able to enjoy what we were yet to see in Hanoi. In pairs, we ventured out\ninto the city with the intention of seeing all we could. We were lucky enough\nto see the presidential palace, the outside of Ho Chi Minh\u2019s mausoleum (we\ncouldn\u2019t go in because it was only open from 8.30-10.30 every day except Monday\nand Friday) and enjoyed breakfast, lunch and dinner at one of the many highly\nrecommended Gecko restaurants around Hanoi\u2019s tourist area. Our final day in\nVietnam was spent making sure we had everything we needed to leave and spending\nthe fleeting time with our friends before they too left Hanoi that night. As we\nwaited for our bus to collected us from the hotel we said a very somber goodbye\nknowing our paths would cross in the not too distant future. \n\n\n
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\n\n\nOur hotel pick up was\na man on a motorbike that drove in front of us as we followed him through the\nstreets of Hanoi gradually gathering people. We boarded a small minibus that\nbrought us to a hectic bus terminal. We then boarded the bus that was intended\nfor our journey. I am fearful that Casey and I were accomplices to some kind of\nunderground Oreo trade from Vietnam into Laos as a multitude of boxes filled\nthe seats on the lower levels and under the bus. After being asked to sit in\nthe two seats at the far back of the bus, the remainder of people\u2019s luggage was\nsandwiched next to us. The bus was truly at capacity. \n\n\n
\n\nMar 26th\n& 27th\n\n\nNo one knew how long\nthe bus was suppose to take to get to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We were\ntold 20 hours, yet judging by the copious number of unnecessary stops along the\nway, it could have taken us days. We woke on the morning of the 26th\nparked at the front of the growing queue by the border awaiting the time it\nwould open. We had a relatively smooth walk across the border where we walked\nabout a kilometre on international soil before painlessly being issued our visa\nfor entry into Laos. The bus ended up taking 25 hours to reach our destination;\nthis was primarily due to the fact we stopped for a two-hour stop for an\nunknown reason and secondly, due a required tire change. We stepped off the bus\nrelieved to have finally arrived and followed the people on the bus, all whom\nhad bonded over the possibility of spending another night on the road, to a\nhostel. The hostel was quite nice, but lacked the privacy we were hoping to\nwrite the blog and podcast. The following day, we found a guesthouse to settle\ndown in for the day providing an opportunity to write the more then overdue blog\npost. And that brings us to now!\n\n\n
\n\n\nI loved Vietnam; it\nwas a beautiful country with an amazing culture and people. It has definitely\nbeen the highlight of the trip for me thus far. Our visa for China is valid for\nentry until the 8th of April, leaving us just over a week before we\nwant to cross the border. We really aren\u2019t paying Laos the respect it deserves\ntime wise, but we wont rush through the places we do chose to stay. We are hoping\neveryone is well back home. We are still loving traveling and going strong.\n\n\n
\n\nKeep posted.\n