Tết take Tu…..

Somewhat later than planned, we finally managed to negotiate our exit from Ho Chi Minh and make our way to Rạch Giá in Kien Giang province near the Mekong Delta, southern Vietnam. Here we would be meeting up with Tu, someone we had met in a backpackers hostel in Vientiane, and who had invited us to stay with his family for Vietnamese New Year.
Tu is one of the friendliest people you are ever likely to meet, and his invitation to his family home, and indeed his brother’s wedding, came within a few hours of knowing us. At first my Britishness set alarm bells ringing…. ‘Why would he invite us to his home?’, ‘what’s in it for him?’, ‘should I really trust this person who I hardly know?!’
I have to admit, these questions rattled round in the back of my mind quite frequently, we’re so used to being ‘on guard’ at home that it’s difficult to let go of your trust issues and just go with it-but that’s exactly what we did, and it turned out to be an incredible and fulfilling experience.

The bus from Ho Chi Minh was hot, cramped and longer than expected-but that’s par for the course and we suffered in good spirits, excited about what was in store for us.
We eventually arrived at around 8PM and set about trying to locate Tu, as it turns out he had been waiting with his friend at the bus station for the whole day, and was on hand to take us into Rach Gia for a catch up, some food, and to stay the evening in a guesthouse they had already found for us. We soon found out that Rạch Giá is the capital of Kien Giang province, and is something of a Vietnamese tourist destination, Tu’s family lived about an hour’s drive away from the centre.
Fed and watered, we were ushered back to the guesthouse and told to rest before setting off to see his family the next day.
Bright and early Tu and his friend arrived to pick us up and set out for breakfast followed by a coffee to get the day’s activities underway. It became apparent that our arrival had been talked up by Tu, and some of his friends, his sister, nephew and brother in law came to meet us. Mostly people weren’t able to speak English, and our Vietnamese is non-existent, so Tu acted as translator as they all were keen to talk and ask questions, and like Tu everyone made a huge effort with us.

Rach Gia morning glory!

Tu!

Saying our goodbyes, off we went into the Vietnamese province that Tu called home-we had no idea of what was in store for the day ahead.
Driving out of the city of Rach Gia it became apparent that we were heading to a very different Vietnam to the one that we had experienced so far. Soon we were traveling along single track pathways alongside a myriad of waterways connecting various farms and their rice fields. Even though it was still early, it was already intensely hot and it wouldn’t be long before I started to feel the discomfort of sunburn on my legs! Jo didn’t seem to be suffering from the heat so much, in fact-she actually fell asleep on the back of her motorbike, head-butting the driver in the act! An extreme demonstration in her ability to sleep on pretty much any transportation method-something that would be repeated a number of times over the next couple of days!

Eventually we arrived at Tu’s family home set amongst fish lakes and rice fields-it was absolutely stunning. Our arrival was met with quite the fanfare, and as it turned out Tu’s uncles, neighbours and family friends had all come to meet us as well. It wasn’t long before we were all sat round eating lunch, drinking Vietnamese vodka and getting to know each other-it was absolutely amazing….Worth noting that when you drink vodka with the family, it is one shot glass that is passed around. The person who drinks then nominates a ‘drinking partner’ for that shot, and you drink and pass on. Needless to say, Jo and I were the subject of many drinking partner nominations, and soon were feeling the effects!
For the first time on our trip we felt Michael Palin’esque, managing to communicate with each other despite not being able to speak a common language. You couldn’t wish for better hosts, the food was fantastic, and the volume of laughter steadily increased as the vodka continued to be consumed-my hairy arms and white skin being a topic of some quite considerable hilarity! Before long Tu’s father was insisting that we return to stay with the family overnight, an offer that we simply could not refuse. We were delighted at the prospect of spending some more time at his home.

First ‘family’ lunch

With our plans for a return visit confirmed, it was time to move onto Tu’s brother’s house, who had married the previous week and had invited us to his wedding despite never meeting us! Unfortunately we missed the ceremony, but it would seem that celebrations were ongoing as we were greeted with another gathering of people, food and drink. This time it was beer rather than vodka, and this time we got pulled into the Vietnamese tradition of downing drinks on demand….I think they were trying to get us drunk!

Lunch with Tu’s brother and friends

It was at this point that we saw the first of what would be many ‘real life living’ methods.
The ability to catch, prepare and cook your food is something that we have lost in the UK. Having been molly coddled by supermarkets, buying our meat nicely prepared and wrapped, both Jo and I are somewhat lacking in these real life living methods. At Tu’s brothers house we enjoyed a lesson in fresh fish preparation. As we arrived one of the guys promptly went out to the waterway in front of the house and harvested the fishing net that was suspended there, returning with a bucket full of freshwater fish. From there the fish were taken to the back of the house, where they were cooked simply by impaling on a stick and covering with burning hay for an impromptu barbeque-I kid you not it, it was both ingenious and delicious! Second lunch of the day dealt with, and a fair few more beverages under the belt, and it was time to test the balance once more on the back of the motorbikes, and head back to Rạch Giá. It had been a great first day meeting all of Tu’s friends and family, they were all so friendly and eager for us to share in all that they had.

We got back to our guesthouse around six o clock and parted company with Tu for the evening, giving us some time to have a mooch around Rạch Giá. This in itself lead to quite a funny episode, given that Rạch Giá is a Vietnamese holiday destination, none of the menus in the restaurants have any English translation, and very few locals spoke any English whatsoever. This makes ordering dinner somewhat difficult, and so with the gung ho attitude of just picking something random on the menu, we ended up with an eel hot pot for dinner that eve! Just to explain a little further, a hot pot is a dish in Vietnam where you get served a large pan with stock in it, on a burner of some description, you are then provided with a number of ingredients which you then add to the stock to cook, and then you serve with noodles. On the whole it is a great way to eat-but cooking with eel for the first time wasn’t exactly the highlight of our culinary discovery….Still, we gave it a go and can safely say that we will not be ordering that again in a hurry! Little did we know that this was just going to be the tip of the iceberg when it came to new eating experiences…

Somewhat earlier than the expected 10AM start, Tu arrived at our hotel door at a sporting 8AM prompting us to spring into action, pack, wash, have breakfast and high tail it out of our guesthouse. We headed back out of town and into the province to spend the day with Tu’s family and friends, before spending the evening at his house. The journey was something of a shocker-the previous days’ hour and a half on the back of a scooter was about the limit in terms of comfort-this time we were in for an epic three hour adventure along the various watercourses of Kien Giang Province. Again seemingly not so much of a problem for Jo, who took the opportunity to snooze once again….Although seeing the shock on her face following one of her ‘micro snoozes’ and you realise that perhaps this wasn’t the most relaxing of experiences…More terrifying! Turns out that our first destination was a family friends house, Tu had only been there once before, and finding it was proving to be challenging. In the midst of all of this, we were hurtling over bridges, Jo got whisked off while Tu and I waited on the road so that her ‘driver’ could change clothes, and we acquired a gift hamper for the family-vodka included obviously-as is tradition at New Year in Vietnam.

Eventually we made it, pretty numb from the journey, but just in time to see the lunch being prepared. I’m not sure what type of bird it was, I think that it may have been similar to a stalk, but I can be certain of the fact that we had never eaten it before. Anyway, we had arrived just as two of these birds had been slaughtered, and I was promptly invited to assist with the plucking of the feathers-time to get a bit hands on. My contribution to the plucking over, and leaving the gutting of the bird to the experts, we were invited into the house to have a look at their ‘store room’, where to our amazement were another three of these ‘stalk-like’ birds, alive, just stood there…Not to mention the many chickens and chicks running around-this was fresh food at its most extreme! Back outside and the men had started digging around at a root in the garden, a large bright purple potato like root-which would be added to the stew that was starting to boil on the fire-literally getting all the ingredients from their surroundings, a brilliant lesson in how people live so efficiently here.

Preparation for lunch begins

Before long the stew was ready, and an area was cleared for us all to sit down and eat together. A notable difference in attitude towards consumption of meat is that in Vietnam nothing is wasted-the whole bird is used and enjoyed immensely. Tu has quite the appetite for the things that we discard at home-as we found ourselves tucking into the neck of the bird! The meal was delicious, even if we had no idea what it was that we had eaten, and to top things off nicely we got invited to join them in a glass of a very special vodka.
Out came the following bottle, containing said special vodka. It would seem what was special about it, is that the bottle has a snake and a millipede fermenting in it, resulting in a pungent, thick, treacle like beverage…Which apparently is very good for you, so they say.

Special vodka

Feeling obligated to join in with the festivities, Jo and I had ourselves a glass and it was……Strong. Not the most pleasant drinks I’ve ever had, more of an elderflower and blackcurrant Pimms man myself, but it definitely got the heart pumping-much to the amusement of those around us.
It was time again to mount our trusty steeds and head off for Tu’s home once again-where further culinary exploration was sure to await us. Sure enough, upon arrival the wheels were in motion to start preparing the next meal-it’s a perpetual task it would seem. It wasn’t long before Tu was out on a boat herding the ducks so that we could catch the main provider for our evening meal-certainly these ducks would be classed as ‘Free Range’ in the UK.

I don’t think that it is ever an easy task to catch a duck that is running for its life, but with little hilarity our fare was caught and in no time he was put to the sword for preparation. This time we were both given the unenviable task of plucking the feathers, and boy what a task that was-it took ages! I’m pretty sure it was something to do with our technique, but these things get better with practice and soon the duck was ready to be butchered.

Again, no wastage here-everything was cleaned and separated and added to the pot. We continued to help with the prep of the vegetables harvested from the surrounding area, Tu’s mother and grandmother really encouraging us to learn more, and taking some delight in the gusto in which we were approaching our tasks. Before long a feast had been constructed from the single pot and open fire-something of an accomplishment in our eyes, but really just par for the course here.
While all of this was going on, various uncles and neighbours and other friends had arrived in readiness for the evening gathering.

As if we hadn’t had challenges enough on the food and drink stakes-as we settled down to dinner one of the first things that was put in our bowl was a balut…If, like me, you have no idea what balut is-quite simply it is a developing duck embryo. Yeah, that’s right…A partially formed duck chick boiled in the shell. The taste wasn’t bad at all, quite the opposite-the difficulty is the concept, it’s something very far removed from what we are used to back in good old Blighty! New culinary experiences coming thick and fast now-and Jo was presented with the ducks head to chow down on. It came as a bit of a surprise because at first Jo thought that she was getting passed a nice piece of thigh, but no, it was the head! As Jo proceeded to devour, I was passed the chicken feet to eat-a rather clumsy affair, and pretty tame in the scheme of things, but a new food trial all the same.
I must stress here that this is just a couple of the highlights from the more obscure items on the menu-the meal in its entirety was absolutely delicious, Tu and his family being absolutely faultless hosts.

The head of the household, Tu’s grandmother

Jo with Tu’s mother

The shot glass gets passed around the table

A wonderful dinner is served

Once again the vodka was brought out to round things off nicely, and before we knew it we were readying ourselves for slumber. As is the common theme, Tu’s family could not do enough for us and we found ourselves set up on his parents sleeping platform-it wasn’t long before we had passed out for the evening.

Morning came, and so did the realisation of how attractive mosquitos find Westerners…We had both been ravaged during the night, and my back resembled a bad case of chicken pox! It’s nigh on impossible to avoid getting bitten, but never before had I been bitten so often in one evening. Still, it was nothing to take the sheen off what was a truly fantastic experience, and the morning vista that greeted us helped to stow any feelings of discomfort well and truly to the back of our minds.

Sunrise in the province-magical

As dawn breaks

Once again the food preparation was underway, and we set about going to visit some of the neighbours with Tu’s grandmother. Again the experience made somewhat comical with the lack of English spoken, but the warmth with which we were greeted was quite wonderful. We took some time to do some more exploring of the surrounding area, and to marvel at the simplicity and practicality of the Vietnamese locals-demonstrated quite brilliantly with this bridge over one of the waterways.

Panoramic view of the setting

Another wonderful meal was presented to us for lunch, and far too quickly our time of departure had come upon us. The experience of staying with Tu’s family was absolutely magical, the warmth, friendliness, and inclusive nature of all that we met was quite something else. We have the chance for a return visit too….As soon as our friend Tu decides to become an honest man and get married! I know for sure that both Jo and I look forward to that day immensely, and hope that circumstance suits for us to return.

Tu’s brother, brother-in-law and nephew

Fond farewells to Tu’s father and uncle

The magnificent setting of our Vietnamese adventure

Back on the road for our return to Rach Gia

Stranded in Saigon

Vietnam’s largest city, the mighty Ho Chi Minh City…Although many still refer to it as Saigon. We’re still not really sure what to call it-Saigon was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and then the independent republic of South Vietnam 1955–75. On 2 July 1976, Saigon merged with Gia Định Province and was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after Hồ Chí Minh. Today it is Vietnam’s most populated area, with in excess of 9,000,000 inhabitants (with roughly 4,000,000 motorbikes!)

On departure from the train station you are immediately hurled into this heaving, bustling, thriving metropolis. Motorbikes everywhere, beeping and jostling for position, surrounded by the bright lights of a progressive and modern city. Certainly it had been a while since we were in the thick of it like this, it would definitely take some time to get up to speed with things and adjust to being back in a major city.

Our plan was to stay a few days in the city, and then travel south to Rach Gia to spend Vietnamese New Year (Tết ) with the family of our friend, Tu, whom we had met back in Vientiane.

Tết is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture-it is treated as Christmas, New Year and everyone’s birthday-all rolled into one. It is generally celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year, taking place from the first day of the first month of the Vietnamese calendar until at least the third day.
In preparation for the celebrations Vietnamese families cook special holiday foods such as bánh chưng, bánh dày, dried young bamboo soup, giò and sticky rice; and everyone embarks on a ritualistic deep clean of their houses and businesses. Traditionally it is the time of year when everyone worships, celebrates and honours their ancestors, everyone wishes New Year’s greetings, and lucky money in red envelopes is given to children and elderly people.

As we made our way through the city, the excitement about the upcoming festivities was palpable. Huge flower displays had taken over parks and streets throughout the city, and the mass cleaning had begun-with some shops even emptying out their wares onto the street, to allow them to scrub and clean their premises.

Having gotten settled and rested, our first day proper into the city and we headed out to meet up with one of my friends cousins who lives in Saigon. Again it was great to meet up with someone who you had some level of familiarity with, and really interesting to get an insiders perspective, gaining a modicum of understanding what it is like to adjust to living in a city such as this. Oh, and obviously the advantage of getting taken to a great lunch spot, local knowledge and all that!
Left to our own devices, we hit the tourist trail and set off to find the museums, palaces and galleries that have become the standard procedure on city exploration. Given Vietnam’s recent history, it’s no surprise that the War Remnants Museum is particularly of note, painting a vivid an horrifying account of the atrocities of war, as well as the painful legacies that still impact the Vietnamese peoples today.
From the War Remnants Museum we made our way to the iconic Independence Palace, otherwise know as the Reunification Palace, the site of the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, when a North Vietnamese Army tank crashed through its gates.

Having been away from the intensity of a major city for a couple of months, you forget how draining it is to spend time walking around sightseeing. The heat is unforgiving, the franticness just doesn’t subside, unfamiliar sounds and smells bombard you from all directions. You soon become aware of the fact that you aren’t really taking everything in, as I found myself coasting through the modern art gallery-somewhat in a daze and just being thankful that I had found some respite from the traffic outside. It’s at times like this that travelling is difficult, and you start to become self aware of your desire to have some purpose, an objective, something other than consuming tourism.

Saigon coffee

The modern art museum

Jo started rebelling

Ben Thanh street food

Notre Dame Cathederal

The contrasts of the old vs new Saigon

View from the Reunification Palace

Our saving grace was our planned exit strategy, to go and spend time with Tu and his family in the province of Rach Gia, away from the bright lights and sounds of the city. Unbeknown to us, travel becomes somewhat difficult around Tết as it’s an occasion for pilgrims and family reunions. All Vietnamese visit their relatives and temples, erasing the troubles of the past year and looking forward to a better year ahead. Given this mass movement of people, public transportation become incredibly busy, as we were about to find out.
We arrived at the bus company office, and things weren’t looking good. Jam packed with people trying to get home, we eventually got to the counter to be told that the next available ticket wasn’t for another four days….nightmare! Feeling pretty dejected, the staff told us to wait for a while and they would check out some other options, and as luck would have it they managed to find us two tickets for that day-things were looking up once again! Feeling pretty happy with our fortune, we made our way to the bus station ready for our journey down south, alas things weren’t going to be as simple as we had thought.
On arrival at the station we found ourselves dropped into the middle of, what I would term, unintelligible chaos. There were hundreds of people waiting at the station for various buses, and it was hot….Really hot!
Still, we only had an hour to wait and then we would be on our way in air conditioned comfort-oh how wrong we were. 5 hours later and we are still in the bus station, melting, and surrounded by fellow disgruntled travellers. The bus that was scheduled for 11AM had just left, it was 5PM. Our bus was already 4 hours late and it was looking like at least another 2-3 hours before it would arrive, if at all. With heavy hearts we decided to retreat, return to the city and inform our friend that we would not be able to make it-we were gutted.

The scene at the bus station as crowds of people waited for their buses home

Settling back in the guesthouse and trying to work out what to do, our grey cloud presented it’s very own silver lining with the news of the impending arrival of some people that we had met in Cambodia at the start of our trip. Ricky and Bryan were part of the SCUBA diving crew on Koh Rong Samloem, and they were an absolute hoot! They were going to be spending Tết in Saigon as well, and so once again we had some familiar faces to look forward to seeing, and to celebrate the New Year with.

Still, a few days to kill before their arrival, and so our quest to relax in the city began. First up, we managed to find the public swimming pool-an old school art deco outdoor pool at that! You can imagine that it used to be absolutely glorious in its heyday, although now it’s somewhat fallen into disrepair. Still-it was a welcome break from the heat, and some much needed physical exertion. The pool brought with it the discovery of a local gym, and as mentioned previously our craving of exercise was something that needed stemming-with time to kill and access to a fully equipped gym, we were positive about making the most of our time stuck in the city.
All of this in the midst of the build up to Tết, which was now at fever pitch, the city had been transformed with huge flower displays taking over the streets and New Years markets populating some of the parks. Time to browse the wonder of Bonsai, flower arrangement, and the various ‘ode to goat’, for the New year coming!

People jostle for position to view the incredible street displays

A flower among flowers!

Yellow and red being the prominent colours, both bringing good luck in Vietnamese culture

Impressive displays of topiary

Amazing examples of ‘giant bonsai’!

Year of the goat, bring it on…

You have your individual goat statues..

Groups of goats…

And mighty golden goats!

As per the alignment with Chinese New Year, there are many Chinese traditions and celebrations to be seen as well!

In Great British fashion, we all went out, got rather merry, and enjoyed the most spectacular fireworks to ring in the New Year. It’s difficult to describe what it was like to be on the streets of Saigon counting down to their New Year-the atmosphere was electric, and the streets were absolutely jam packed with bikes, cars and pedestrians all beeping their horns, people cheering and clapping….And us-wishing anyone who would listen ‘Chuc Mong Nam Moy’ (Happy New Year!)

Heading out for Tet!

Spectacular cityscape & firework extravaganza!

Admittedly we had a few shandies!

Electric atmosphere as the crowd enjoyed the fireworks

Enjoying the party at Vespa Bar

Bryan and Ricky doing what they do best….Pose!!!

Nursing hangovers, the next day we set about our mission to get our of the city; not to be perturbed by our earlier failed efforts-we were once again attempting to get to Rach Gia.

Nha Trang

Travelling South from Hoi An, our next stop on our Vietnamese voyage was Nha Trang-a popular SCUBA diving destination, as well as being a big hit with Russian tourists. Certainly it’s quite odd to be in a place where Russian is the second language you find on signage and menus!
If you’re looking to find deserted beaches and a sleepy seaside town, then Nha Trang isn’t where you’re going to find it! More like Vietnam’s own version of Miami, it’s dominated by huge hotel resorts and busy beaches-as well as having the worlds longest cable car over sea leading out to the island resort of Vinpearl-the Vietnamese equivalent to Alton Towers.
It wasn’t exactly what we were expecting, but we were there to find out a bit more about the SCUBA diving opportunities, and so made a beeline for the highly recommended Rainbow Divers. Promptly enough we were booked onto a try dive, and had our first taste of diving in Vietnam. It was absolutely superb-but further details will be covered in a later blog post, as we return for our PADI Open Water Course later on our trip.

Other than the beach, diving and the shops and restaurants, there isn’t a huge amount to explore in Nha Trang. It’s very much about the beach and a lot of sun worshipping-obviously that’s not at the top of my list when it comes to things to do! One top recommendation that we did find in Lonely Planet came in the form of Long Thanh photography studio.
His black and white photos of Vietnamese life are absolutely incredible, and have won many international awards. The reason why it needs noting is that it has had a very obvious effect on my own photography efforts, and from this point onwards you shall see more black and white photos included in my posts.
You can check out his work on his website; Long Thanh Gallery
Like a kid with a new toy, as soon as we stepped outside of the gallery I was trying my hand at some B&W photography!

First photo upon leaving the gallery…Streetlife

Allez!!!

B&W Coffee time

On wandering the beach front we did stumble upon quite a grand building that prompted further investigation, and it turned out to be the recently opened Nha Trang Water Puppet Theatre. Not actually being aware of what water puppetry is, a little research uncovered the fact that it’s actually a tradition that dates back to the 11th century in Northern Vietnam. It originated when the rice fields would flood and villagers would entertain each other using puppet play. Nowadays the performances take place on a stage which is a 4m square waist deep pool, the puppets are made of wood and then lacquered, supported on large rods under the water, and controlled by a team of puppeteers in waders hidden behind a large screen. During the performance the puppets appear to float on the surface of the water.
Obviously we had to go along and see what it was all about, and it was a right giggle. To be honest the content of the show was probably beyond us a little, it was a series of Vietnamese folk stories depicting local Vietnamese life. With no narrative to follow or accompanying explanations we were hard pressed to figure out the gist of the stories-but certainly that didn’t prevent us from taking immense pleasure in the performance!

Up against a deadline to get to Ho Chi Minh to meet a friend from our time in Vientiane, our time in Nha Trang was brief, but we would return…..More of that later.

Hoi An….ya like it!

If you asked a group of travellers what they miss most when they’re on the road, I would guess that the majority would say, unsurprisingly, friends and family. Certainly that is true for us, as is evident as we clamour for bandwidth to Skype home whenever we get a good internet connection! So it came as quite the welcome surprise when I logged on to Facebook to get a message from a couple of our friends from Leicester asking for tips on things to do in Laos-as they were currently in Vietnam and heading over there in a few weeks. I had no idea that they were in Asia at all, and as supreme luck would have it, we were on a collision course. With some excitement we left Hue and made our way to Hoi An for a catch up with some familiar faces!
As is the common theme with my posts, I have to allude to the journey once again. What makes this reference different is that there is no hint of a mention of discomfort, terror or confusion! For the first time in over a month, we were going to be basking in the wonder of train travel once again, and boy what a luxury it was. The Reunification express stretches all the way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh, right down the coast of Vietnam. The views are spectacular, and the trains are clean, spacious and generally lovely. We were like excited children, overjoyed at the prospect of leaving white knuckle bus journeys in the dim and distant past…..Well, until we return to Cambodia at least!
From Hue to Da Nang took just 5 hours, and then a 30 minute taxi to Hoi An-simple. We were fortunate enough to bump into a South African couple who were heading in the same direction, and so managed to get a good deal on the fare, and as it turns out-make some friends that we would bump into at various points throughout our time in Vietnam.

Ahhh, the luxury of Vietnamese trains!!

Appropriately Hoi An actually translates as ‘peaceful meeting place’, and the ancient town is yet another UNESCO World heritage site to add to the ever growing list on our travels. Checked in and freshened up, we headed into the centre to explore what was promised to be a well-preserved example of a South-East Asian trading port dating from the 15th century. It used to be the largest harbour in south East Asia, and as such retains architectural influences from many of the Japanese, Dutch and Chinese spice and ceramic merchants that once resided there. As you can imagine, this used to be an area of incredible wealth and upon discovering the old town, it still holds the grandeur and charm of an extremely affluent area…Although now you’re more likely to find tailors and restaurants than spice and ceramic merchants. The town and harbour have remained pretty much unchanged for the last 200 years, and they certainly don’t disappoint. It is absolutely picture perfect, along with a number of temples, communal houses, merchant houses and other historical points of interest to explore. Even more spectacular is the way that the town comes alive in the evenings, with lanterns lighting the streets and people sending candles to sail on boats in the harbour…It’s a very enchanting place!

The harbour in all its glory!

The ‘typical’ style architecture found throughout the town

The old Chinese Bridge which actually contains a temple half way across

Vietnamese street vendors here love to have a photo…But then you have to buy something!!

Vietnamese woman in traditional dress walking down one of the main streets

And once the darkness hits, the lanterns light the way!

Suitably dazzled by the surroundings, we then had the fortune to just bump into Josh and Aimee on our first evenings’ exploration, before we got the chance to actually plan meeting up-and so headed out for drinks and dinner and a good old chinwag. One of the things that is great about meeting up with people you already know is that you don’t engage in the standard ‘opening patter’ that is inevitable when meeting fellow travellers for the first time. Not that it isn’t great to share stories with those that you meet, just that sometimes it’s nice not to have to give people your back story! By the end of the evening, and a fair few ‘Fresh Beers’ (local beer that is brewed that day)-we decided to book ourselves onto a cooking class, and also a lantern making class….Hoi An was most certainly rubbing off on us quick time!

The following day was an absolute blast, it started in the right manner when we bumped into a guy in some form of ceremonial dress in the street-Josh and Aimee being experts in fancy dress barely struggled to contain themselves! Pictures snapped and it was onto the lantern making which turned out to much more fun than I expected, however now we find ourselves carrying round a couple of these lanterns on our travels-real useful I tell thee!
Moving on to something a little more practical, at the cookery course we learned to cook spring rolls, a crispy noodle dish, banana leaf curry and a hotpot-all of which were fantastic, sure to be attempted once we grace our homelands again. Rather more useful than lanterns to impress friends and family back home…”Oh this dish, I learned this when I was travelling in South East Asia don’t you know” (read with appropriate smug voice)

It was fantastic to get to explore the town with Josh and Aimee, a real giggle. Props to Josh for introducing us to the most incredible Vietnamese sandwich (Banh Mi) shop. It may sound like an odd thing to rave about, when you think about Vietnamese food, baguettes aren’t necessarily the first thing that pop into your head, however Banh Mi are very much a Vietnamese speciality (albeit initially influenced by the French). At it’s most basic they are baguettes filled with pate, pork, pickles, chilli, salad and other unknown entities to the uneducated Westerner (by that I refer to myself)…Delicious!

To our delight, just before the lantern making class. this guy popped out of the door opposite…yeah-really! Very ‘Big Trouble in Little China’

With dexterity, poise and enviable attention to detail, josh led the way

It all became quite serious, and a remarkable amount of pride was being poured into our work!

Four very satisfied lantern makers

Watch your fingers son!

First happy customers!

Vietnamese cooking is quite brilliant for its use of just one pot and stove!!

Dish 1 of the cooking class, our new found staple of spring rolls

Curry in a banana leaf-oh yeah!

The daily fresh beer…And yes, that is a rather flimsy plastic bottle!

The next morning Josh and Aimee set off to continue their travels, we were left with a day to do a little more exploring of the old town, and try to avoid spending too much money in the shops here. If it weren’t for the fact that we have a long time travelling ahead of us, for sure we would have bought an extra backpack and had a whole load of clothes and shoes made-as well as kitting ourselves out in some ‘North Face’ gear! As it is, that just isn’t practical and so our bank account survived without any significant damage. We did buy a ‘North Face’ bag (after much research on the internet), not for extra space-but to replace our other battered backpack. Top tip here is to note that you are not buying genuine ‘North Face’ products, but you are buying a cheap, high quality imitation. The standard does vary, so just try to forget about the brand, shop around, and find something that will work for you.

These are what the streets look like OUTSIDE of the Ancient Town!

One of the many international ‘Assembly halls’

Into the depths of Hoi An market

Courtyard of one of the old communal homes that are dotted around the town

Ornate decoration in Tan Ky House, an old Chinese merchant’s house

The architecture of the house is a fusion of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese influences

Where the streets have no name!

Don’t come here expecting to have the place to yourself though, it is a fairy tale picture perfect town and as such it is extremely popular with tourists. It definitely isn’t a hidden gem, but it’s absolutely worth the effort.

Leaving Laos, Viva Vietnam!

Travelling is about the journey, not just about the destination; as is so often the case, our adventure begins with a journey of note!
Having returned to Pakse from 4000 Islands, it was now time to traverse southern Laos and cross the border into Vietnam. Our bus was due for departure at 5.30AM, and we were going to be crossing the less ‘touristy’ Dansavanh/Lao Bao border (a border that we have since found it out much more popular with smugglers!).

Bleary eyed, we arrived at the departure point and, amongst much chaos and confusion, we were herded onto the bus. This was to be our first experience of the bus that resembles a cattle transporter, with two level seat/bed hybrid accommodations suitable only for people who are 5’8″ or shorter! Having jammed ourselves in, observed that we were the only foreign tourists on board and the only English speakers, the real work on the bus began as they promptly set off about their business collecting the other cargo for the trip; a few hundred weight of rice and sugar that would be piled in amongst us for the entirety of the journey-you couldn’t help but laugh as the walkways in the bus slowly loaded up with various goods to be shipped across the border.

As all of the journeys begin, with pure and unadulterated optimism!

Slowly but surely, apprehension and confusion start to manifest…

Ahhhh, here we go, the aisles start to fill up!

Keep it coming lads, plenty of room to fill the bus up!!

Bus fully loaded, we watched as the last of Laos passed us by and Vietnam loomed ever nearer. Eventually we arrived at the border with the bags of rice and sugar, and were promptly ushered off the bus to negotiate the Visa and passport formalities. It became apparent that all those on the bus with a Laos or Vietnamese passport were being looked after for this part of the process, and so we headed in to face the most difficult of border crossings to date.

With no real idea of what we were supposed to be doing, we entered the border offices and found ourselves in what can best be described as a frenzied maul! It was at this point that it transpired that the Vietnamese do not engage in the art of queuing, and that the general rule of thumb is that it’s every man for themselves. As a pair of very typical Brits, we found this extremely disorienting and could not fathom what was going on. There were no English speakers, people elbowing us out of the way, pushing, shoving and throwing passports with money in at the officials-it was chaos. In no time at all we realised that we were going to have to put up a united front, and so we staked our claim to a spot at the front of the queue and guarded each others backs with ‘necessary force’. The situation was exasperated somewhat by seemingly inert border control staff, they were literally just sat there looking at the hoards of people gathered in front of them. From what we could muster the computer systems were down, and so ensued an uncomfortable stand off until the systems refreshed-and the border control staff lurched into action. Finally our passports were taken to be stamped and Visas checked, and after a little bit of an uncomfortable delay with my passport-we were granted leave of Laos, and formally entered Vietnam….We had made it!
The confusion at the border was not to cease there, during the time in which we were inside, the entire contents of our bus were being unloaded and passed through an x-ray machine outside. With the afore mentioned stock pile of sugar and rice this was not a speedy process, and so we were left mulling around in what we discovered to be no-mans-land. Now we were completely clueless as to our course of action, each time we made movements towards the bus we were barked at in Vietnamese and waved away…To where we did not know. It turns out that we actually needed to walk across the entry point into Vietnam proper, have our passports checked by yet more officials, and wait for the bus to pass through so we could re-embark. After a lot of head scratching and hanging around, we eventually made it back onto the bus and began our journey on Vietnamese soil-to Huế!

We actually arrived around two hours ahead of schedule, quite how that transpired I don’t know-but for sure it was a pleasant surprise.
It is an odd place to start your adventure in Vietnam, usually people head to the either Hanoi in the north, or Ho Chi Minh in the south, but as our start point was southern Laos, we headed to the middle of Vietnam and the city of Huế.

Hurrah!

It was the capital of Vietnam until 1945, until Emperor Bảo Đại abdicated and the following communist government was established in the northern city of Hanoi. During the fateful Tết Offensive in the Vietnam War, the city suffered considerable damage to many of the grand buildings situated in the central citadel, a monument to the cities illustrious past; not only due to American military bombing, but also during the massacre at Huế committed by the communist forces. Mass killings were carried out by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army during their capture, occupation and subsequent exit from the city.

The killings were perceived as part of a large-scale purge of the social class systems, including anyone ‘pro American forces’. Press reports also exposed South Vietnamese “revenge squads” had been at work in the aftermath of the battle, searching out and executing citizens that had supported the communist occupation.

Today the citadel is undergoing extensive renovations, but still serves as a great sight to spend a day exploring. A walled city 10km squared and with a surrounding moat, the grandeur and opulence of what once lay there is obvious, and is fantastic fodder for an inquisitive imagination. Tales of the various Vietnamese kings and how they conducted their court are told throughout the grounds, they even had teams of eunuchs who were responsible for the administration of communities of concubines… It really was quite the eye opener.

The highest flag mast of them all…Well, in Vietnam anyway

One of the Citadel gateways, and the obligatory Vietnamese fisherman on the moat!

One of the many ‘contemplation spots’ in the palace

One of the many grand walkways in the Forbidden Palace

Within a walled city, you have a walled palace! One of the many ornate ‘inner gates’ within the palace area

Aside from the Citadel, Hue proved to be a lovely place to expose ourselves to the ways of Vietnam-things to note that will prove to be ever-present:
1. Fantastic food at rock bottom prices.
2. Food markets where you can get any ingredient, dead or alive, fresh or dried
3. ‘North Face’ jackets/bags for sale at ridiculously low prices (just to be clear, they aren’t genuine North Face, but they are extremely high quality copies)
4. Tailors-if you want to get yourself kitted out in some custom made gear, then surely Vietnam is the place to come.
5. Traffic…More specifically-motorbikes! The place is heaving with motorbike traffic, and crossing the road is hilarious! You just have to put your trust in chaos, and all will be well.

Our first Vietnamese market, ‘hustle and bustle’ doesn’t really do it justice!

Obviously if you wanna get your teeth fixed, just pop down here and take your pick from the many roadside dental clinics…

Traffic….Tremendous!

Motorbike madness!

All in all a great place to begin our Vietnamese venture, and the perfect springboard for our onwards travels-next stop the picture perfect Hoi An, and a reunion with some friends from the UK.

4000 Islands & Don Det for birthday business

Foolishly we thought that the terrifying bus journeys were behind us, after all, the roads in Southern Laos are pretty much flat and straight. Unfortunately for us this means that minibus drivers are more akin to kamikaze pilots-although with less concern for their personal safety! We thought that we had toughened up to the terrors of road travel, but this journey was something a bit special-it certainly wasn’t helped by the fact that the driver had his phone tucked into his sun visor, and was checking Facebook as we hurtled down the wrong side of the road!
But, as per, things worked out! We got to our destination in one piece and on time-albeit a little shaken and stirred. What better way to begin your birthday week than a six hour minibus ride where you get to see your life flash in front of your eyes on a number of occasions?!

Our travels had taken us South of Pakse to the Mekong Delta, and the area of Laos known as Si Phan Don, or 4000 Islands-a beautiful riverine archipelago set in a lazy winding section of the Mekong river.
There are three main islands that travellers visit, Don Khong, Don Khon and our destination of Don Det.
On arrival in Don Det we were both a little disappointed at first impressions-thinking that this was going to be an island paradise similar to the joys of Koh Jum, our boat arrived in a little harbour and we found ourselves in quite a busy backpacker village. Feeling a little disillusioned, we set about finding somewhere to stay, and the first thing that we started to note as we walked through the village was everyone was smiling at us….People were saying hello, locals and fellow travellers, nods and smiles all round. This is something of an oddity, sometimes you find yourself bumping into other travellers and they will do everything that they can to avoid making eye contact, possibly wanting to avoid the standard introductory chat that you end up sharing with so many (are you travelling or on holiday, how long have you been travelling, where have you been, where are you going, etc.) Don Det was the first place where it seemed that everyone was looking for the eye contact, happy to make a connection. Still being a little shell shocked from the journey, laden with our rucksacks, and in need to finding accommodation, we kept the social engagements mostly cursory and continued our search for a room for the night.
As soon as we had walked about ten minutes from the drop off point, things started to change. There are no roads on Don Det, only a dusty path that circles the island, and a couple of off branches where you can cross sides-and as you walk along this path you find quaint little guesthouses and restaurants dotted around the banks of the Mekong.
Within about twenty minutes, with the heat beating down on us, we had found a hut overlooking the river for us to spend the night. What we would realise in retrospect is that we were a little hasty, but for sure there are times when you’re travelling that you just need to settle quickly-and this was one of those times!
Still, it wasn’t a bad spot for our first night, we had the standard essential hammock on the balcony, and a pretty sweet view!

A look to the left….

And a look to the right!

Having spent some time ‘chillaxing’, we headed out to explore the rest of Don Det, and discovered a little piece of heaven in the Mekong Delta. The island is only 3km long, has a sum total of three ‘roads’ and at the one end you have a bridge that joins to the adjacent Don Khong. On our exploration we discovered a hut on a more isolated part of the island that was just £2.50 per night, and had the equivalent of rocking horse manure-a double hammock veranda overlooking the river! Not to mention en suite-what followed was a number of funny negotiations with a very little old Laotian lady who spoke absolutely no English (but hey, how much Laos can we speak!!)-but would speak at length to us in Laos. She didn’t know what we were saying, we had no idea what she was saying, but as is typical of the helpfulness of the Laos people eventually someone turned up with a phone with an English speaker on the other end to mediate our transaction, we eventually managed to confirm this as our home for the next week!
It would have been given 10/10…If it weren’t for me having a bit of an ‘incident’ with the toilet! Yes, that’s right, I blocked the toilet…and it was a nightmare! I guess that it’s probably too much information for this blog, but these things happen and I’m not going to cover it up like our very own ‘Poogate’! What made it worse was that there was a French couple staying in the adjoining bungalow, and they did not leave the hammocks for the whole time that we were there, thus making it difficult to smuggle in various unblocking tools…OK I’ve said enough, but just so you know it’s not all roses and it took a couple of days to eventually sort it out-with much hilarity and nonsense in between!

What followed was a extremely sedate and relaxed few days where we took something of a holiday from our travels. The value of just stopping for a while is something that we have realised over the last few weeks of travelling, and so we took the opportunity just to settle for a while. We did some sightseeing of another fabulous waterfall, and I celebrated my birthday in this little haven of tranquillity. Jo decided to commandeer the camera for my birthday and document it for all of you that would have liked to celebrate with me…Everyone needs a good montage eh?!

Needless to say I had a great birthday! So the remaining time in Don Det was a continuation of finding our preferred restaurants, bars and photo spots-and you certainly find some gems for all tastes! Amongst our favourites were a place set up by some hippies called Shangri La where you could get involved with some form of art project; a restaurant called King Kong, run by a rock and roll Liverpudlian with great conversation and some classic music; the Reggae Bar, which delivered on all the name would suggest; and the Beach Bar near the waterfalls on Don Khong-where you happen upon one of the many hidden beaches around the islands on the Mekong. It was a wonderful week of rest and relaxation, be warned that if you visit-you may not want to leave!

Don Khong ‘waterfalls’…or boody great big rapids?!

Water buffalos-serious bits of kit!!

Not averse to land travel either!

Think that the rubber ducky t-shirt sets off the falls nicely 🙂

Amazing sounds and sights

Just watching village life pass you by

Even the derelict buildings are beautiful!

Little Piiiiiiiiig!!

Getting ‘artistic’ from the balcony!

A trip into town…No Tesco’s here!!

One Love Reggae Bar

Show me the way too Shangri La…Just follow the signs you say?!

Every day is a lazy Sunday on Don Det!

Positively soaked in good vibes, our time in Laos had come to and end-Vietnam beckons!

Bolaven Loop blows our minds!

With our Vietnamese Visa mission complete, our next stop was the Southern town of Pakse-recommended to us by a Belgian couple we met at the beginning of our trip in Koh Rong Samloem, Cambodia. Specifically they had told us to go to Pakse, hire a motorbike from Ms Noy, and do the Bolaven Plateau motorcycle tour. Not something that had crossed our minds prior to the trip, but given the manner in which they enthused about the experience, we thought that we should give it a go!
All that stood between us and our destination was a mere twelve hour bus journey….Whoop! Fortunately as soon as you hit Southern Laos, the roads both straighten and flatten out-so it was time to get on our first night bus, lie back and relax….As you can see, once settled I was pretty excited about the prospect of 12 hours on the ‘disco bus’…

As you can see…I was pretty excited about the prospect of this journey

Oh yeah…Unless you’re 5’8″ or less, you’re getting no leg room!

Even though there was a lack of leg room and the sleep was intermittent at best, it was better than I expected. We arrived in Pakse on schedule, albeit pretty tired, and set about finding Ms Noy to organise our motorbike trip.
It’s at this point that we have to give a huge amount of kudos to the guys at Ms Noy, and here’s a fantastic example of brilliant ‘non-customer’ service! They have 30 motorcycles for hire, and when you hire a bike from them they don’t give you any time restraints as there are a couple of different options on the route that may add a day or two to the journey. As such, they never actually know how many bikes are going to be returned on any given evening, so they get all people interested in hiring bikes to meet at the shop for a ‘route briefing’ the evening before they want to go. They then spend at least an hour going through a map of the Bolaven Plateau, giving their insights and recommendations for things to see and do, which you note on your own copy of the map that they provide. This is done irrespective of whether they will be able to hire you a bike, then the following morning you go there at 8AM to see how many had returned the previous evening. Should there not be anything available, they recommend another hire shop for you and let you keep the map and all of their tips. It may sound trivial, but the information that they shared was invaluable, we were one of the unlucky few that had to hire a bike elsewhere the following day-so they got no business out of us, but hopefully through reading this someone else will go there and we will have repaid them in some way!

Our route round the Bolaven Loop

The Bolavan Plateau ranges from 1000-1300m above sea level, is crossed by several rivers and has a number of picturesque waterfalls on the main route which circles the area. Armed with Ms Noy’s map, we set off to see what we could find…And boy were we glad that this was something that we followed up on-it was absolutely incredible! The first day would be a 82km ride from Pakse to Tad Lo, a stunning little village where we would be spending the night and, hopefully, seeing some bathing elephants; before making the 103km return journey to Pakse the following day. The entire route punctuated with various picture perfect waterfalls, and opportunities to sample the wonderful local coffee.
Katu Homestay deserves a special mention as we’re talking about coffee, the first stop on our outward trip and what a great find! You’re met by the owner, Mr Vieng, and for a nominal fee he will give you a tour round his farm giving you a fantastic insight into coffee production and other crops that are traditionally farmed here, and of course you get to sample his delicious self-grown and freshly-roasted Arabica coffee. It is possible to stay at Katu as well, but it’s a little early on the route to be practical for the tour that we had chosen-so back to the bike and onwards we went.
What ensued is best described in pictures, for I have no words that can do it justice…

Our trusty steed!

The peripheral landscape that would accompany us for the next two days!

First waterfall..Already very happy with ourselves!

Our first waterfalls-Tad Pasuam

Tad Pasuam

Getting my hair wet at Tad Hang!

Invigorating to say the least!

Elephant bath time at Tad Lo

After a hard days work, you just wanna kick back and take a bath with loads of people watching…

The larger falls at Tad Lo…just a taster of what was to come!

Pretty special!

After a nervy beginning just standing on the side taking photos-it was deemed acceptable to get wet!

Take a walk behind the water at Tad Champi

And Tad Champi from t’other side!

Finishing with views of the spectacular Tad Fann!

As I’m sure you can appreciate from the pictures, our two days on the bike were absolutely incredible. Even though we were following a well established route, it really felt like we were exploring a little off the beaten track-and Tad Lo was a wonderful place to spend an evening, it has a really laid back and very local feel to it; not to mention how cheap it was to stay there-our room only cost 30,000kip (around £3), and we were fed and watered that evening for less than 50,000kip!

Feeling invigorated on our return to Pakse, we set about our most important mission yet-choosing the next location where we would be spending my birthday!

Visa pit stop-Vientiane in pictures

As our travels were soon to be taking us to Vietnam, we needed to get our Visa’s sorted before heading to Southern Laos-and so we made our way to the capital where we could get things sorted at the Vietnamese embassy.
Strangely enough, Vientiane doesn’t figure on many peoples ‘to-do’ lists when it comes to Laos. You often hear people talking up Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and 4000 Islands, but the capital just doesn’t seem to feature as a tourist draw.
Personally I think that this is a bit of a shame, it’s a bustling city with some fantastic street food options and plenty to see, and wholeheartedly recommend that you add it to your itinerary should you be planning on a visit to Laos.
In the most part we were just sightseeing a city while our Visa was processed, so rather than bore you with the details-I’ll do it with pictures instead!

Wat Si Saket

The many Buddha images found surrounding Wat Si Saket

Sunset over the Mekong in Vientiane

Watching over the Mekong is a statue of King Settathirath, the king who established Vientiane as the capital city in the 16th century

Patuxai Arch or the Arc de Triomphe of Vientiane

View from the top of the Patuxai Arch

Notice anything odd…?

Some great food to be had in Vientiane-with many Vietnamese influences

King Setthathirat guarding Pha That Luang

Pha That Luang (Great Sacred Stupa)

Gone fishing

Great use of available land between the city and the river

One thing that does need a special mention from our time in Vientiane is COPE, a local not-for-profit organisation that works in partnership with the Centre of Medical Rehabilitation (CMR) and provincial rehabilitation centres to provide access to both orthotic/prosthetic devices and rehabilitation services, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy and paediatric services to people with disabilities.

Home

Each year many people are injured and left with debilitating injuries as a result of the millions of UXO still lost in the countryside of Laos, COPE is just one of the many charities looking to address the ongoing problems that are faced here. The COPE visitor centre gives you an excellent insight into harsh realities of the these ongoing issues, and despite the grave subject matter-you leave the centre with a feeling of optimism…Definitely add this to your itinerary if you are visiting Vientiane.

Phonsavan, Plain of Jars

After the quaint, comfortable and easy Luang Prabang, our next destination was the town of Phonsavan-the capital of Xiangkhoang Province and the home of the historical Plain of Jars sites, which have been nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status.
This was to be our first real exposure to the horrific recent history of Laos; the town of Phonsavan was only built in the late 1970s to replace the old Xiangkhouang which was destroyed during the Second Indochina War. As you enter the town, you start to notice old bombs, munitions cases and other military relics dotted around, now being used as café decorations & even as fence posts-a visible reminder recent atrocities the country had to endure. A far cry from the nice cafes and restaurants of Luang Prabang.

Bombs-just a part of everyday life, obviously!.

On our first exploration we discovered that the main town is pretty much one main street, and very little else in way of development-but absolutely stunning scenery surrounding the main drag.

The surrounding area of Phonsavan

The main reason for our visit here was to visit the afore mentioned Plain of Jars site-and so we hired some pushbikes to set about exploring one of the sites. If you haven’t heard of the Plain of Jars before, (as I hadn’t) they are a number of areas surrounding Phonsavan where thousands of megalithic stone jars are found. The sites range from single isolated jars on hillsides, to sites where up to 400 hundred jars can be found.
Local stories and legends believe that the jars were created to brew and store huge amounts of lau hai (rice beer or rice wine) by giants who populated the area in the Bronze age, although it is now widely accepted that the jars were built as burial chambers and are dated to 500 BC – 200 AD. They remain something of a mystery as no-one has a definitive answer as to who actually built them, and why they would create such burial chambers…

Currently there are only three sites that are deemed safe to visit because the area is still ‘polluted’ with unexploded ordinance (UXO), as the region was carpet-bombed throughout the Indochina wars-it’s amazing that so many jars survived at all.
Even at the most open of the plains (sites 1, 2 & 3) you are advised that you should stay within the designated safe areas as there is still a chance that you could have the misfortune to stumble on UXOs. As mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts, per capita Laos is the most bombed country in the world; between 1965 and 1973 the US dropped over 2m tonnes of bombs on Laos, that’s more than were dropped by all sides in the whole of WW2. Just to drive home the point once again, if you averaged out the total bombing on Laos by America it would equate to a bombing mission every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 9 years-262 million cluster bombs were dropped, 80 million have not exploded yet and remain a threat. It’s impossible to really imagine or appreciate the scale of the clean up operation that the country has been left with, just have a look at the map detailing the extent of the bombing:

The extent of the US bombing on Laos

According to the UXO clearance NGO, at the current rate of clean-up, it will take more than 2,000 years before the countryside of Laos is rid of UXO. Read that again…Two thousand years…

We arrived at the site and took some time to absorb some of this information presented in the visitor centre, and then made our way onto the plain-obviously while heeding the many warnings to stay within the marked zones. Evidence of the bombing still exists, with many of the jars displaced or damaged, and bomb craters punctuating the landscape, it was a sombre yet beautiful place to visit:

Toppled jars on the side of a bomb crater

You can really see how close the jars were to being destroyed

One of the jars with the lid still intact

Back in the town we decided to pay a visit to the local market where we were once again reminded of the ‘comfort bubbles’ in which we live our lives! Quite unlike our normal shopping trips in the UK where everything is nicely packaged, and the ‘dirty work’ is done for us-the markets of South East Asia let you see your food in all its original glory. Not only that, but also the variety of animal that is considered fair game here-already on one of our bus journeys in Laos we happened across a jar of monkey hands in one shop, in Phonsavan market we were treated to a plethora of live seafood, pigs, various birds and squirrels-no nicely butchered cuts of meats entombed in plastic wrappings here-very much ‘DIY’! It makes you realise how molly coddled we are-we’re a long way from ‘village life’ that’s for sure.

And so our time in Phonsavan drew to a close with plenty of food for thought, once again the time came for us to prepare ourselves for the next bus..Next stop the somewhat infamous tubing town of Vang Vieng.

Jo’s excitement about impending bus journeys was clear for all to see…

The rolling mountains of Laos, and Buddha’s MASSIVE feet…

We said our farewells to Luang Namtha and ‘enthusiastically’ boarded the minibus for our next 8 hour bus journey to Luang Prabang, former capital of Laos. You would think that after seeing the decrepit state of the local buses, the first feeling you would get when you see a shining new silver minibus would be joy; quite the opposite, the newer the vehicle, the faster the driver, the more terrifying the journey.
What we now needed to figure into the equation was the state of the Laos roads. If it wasn’t bad enough that the road between Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang has more twists and turns than Jive Bunny, the issues were compounded somewhat with the fact that at least 30% of the roads had been dug up for resurfacing…What transpired was the bus journey to end all bus journeys. Terrifying, exciting, painful, wondrous and exhausting-it had it all (oh, and late, mustn’t forget late, 10.5 hours in total, and we travelled just 350km)
Truly the journey rattled us to our cores, and put something of a sombre mood on the end of the day….Given our plans to only travel overland, and the lack of any working railway in Laos, we really were just going to have to try and get used to long, terrifying, bus journeys! Realisation that this was going to be how ALL of our travel would be conducted in Laos was starting to sink in! At this point Jo hit delirium…

Still, we had arrived in Luang Prabang UNESCO World Heritage Site and former capital of Laos. The ‘French connection’ here is still hugely influential, the first place we went for breakfast even had the menu written in French! The town is very picturesque, with many quaint restaurants and coffee shops, as well as a plethora of temples. Luang Prabang is the most popular destination in Laos for holidaymakers, and many fly in for a few days before setting off for their next destination in Asia. This kind of throws you off kilter a little, and you feel slightly removed from authentic Laos culture-or at least I did anyway.
That’s not saying that the town is anything but likeable-the familiar feel and friendly local manner immediately puts you at ease and you find yourself relaxing into the local pace of life. The architecture is beautiful, and the thirty plus temples in the town are amazing, but as an example of a Laos town it lacks some authenticity in my eyes. Essentially it’s a Laos town that is easy for Western travellers visit…and love!

The ‘Old City’ of Luang Prabang is situated where the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers meet, it’s almost a small island in itself, and so the geographical surroundings are absolutely gorgeous. The sheer number of temples ensures that your days are filled to the brim with sightseeing opportunities, and come the evening there is a large craft night market that takes over the main street-with opportunities to chow down on some great street food.

Football on the banks of the Mekong-literally!

Breakfast with views!

First of many picturesque temples!!

Buddha’s footprint, up until this point no one had mentioned that he was a giant….?

Jo ‘owning’ the bamboo bridge across the Mekong

Monk Builders Ltd, your one stop shop for construction!

Wat Xieng Thong complex

Buddha!

One of the shrines at Wat Xieng Thong

View from Wat Phra Buddabhat

One of the biggest ‘attractions’ in Luang Prabang, the Buddhist Alms Giving Ceremony. In a nutshell, at 5.30 every morning all of the monks leave the temples and walk in single file, with the most senior monk at the front to the most junior monk at the back. As they walk through to town they collect offerings of food from people of the village who are lining the streets waiting for the passing of the monks. The purpose of the alms giving is to make merit and for the monks to collect food for their daily meals. (Merit is a concept in Buddhism/Hinduism. It is that which accumulates as a result of good deeds, acts, or thoughts and which carries over throughout the life or the subsequent incarnations. Such merit contributes to a person’s growth towards spiritual liberation. src Wikipedia)
In Luang Prabang this ceremony is one of the most famous in Asia because of the sheer number of temples in the area, and as such hundreds of monks participate each morning.
This ceremony is a highly revered ritual for the locals, and so it is important to have some respect for the rules of conduct to follow during the procession.

Our top tip if visiting the ceremony is to check with your hotel about the route for the monks, and to try and venture a bit further from the ‘main drag’ of the high street. As is the popularity of the ceremony many tourists do visit to observe the spectacle, and all of the mini buses and tours drop people at the same place….By moving a bit further down the route you avoid the ‘crowds’ of other tourists.
In addition to this, sometimes the monks engage in drumming practice in the afternoons and it’s absolutely amazing-loads of energy and not exactly what you would expect. I don’t know whether this is a scheduled occurrence, I’ve tried to find out since but haven’t found anything-but we were lucky enough to be nearby when the drumming started and hightailed it over to watch: http://youtu.be/VosQNXOXcKc

Another local tradition that we got to ‘experience’ while we were in Luang Prabang was that of a local funeral-not as macabre as it may sound, we didn’t gate-crash or anything! We know about this as there was a funeral being held opposite our guesthouse. In Laos culture a funeral is very much about a day of mourning, and then two days of constant partying celebrating the lives of those who have ‘passed’. I kid you not the karaoke, music, drinking and dancing didn’t stop for three days! It was absolutely incredible, and for sure I will never again underestimate the power of karaoke.

As the bus journey from hell had finally started to fade in our memories, it was time to leave Luang Prabang and put ourselves through it all over again. Next stop Phonsavan and the mysterious Plain Of Jars.