laos

so laos started well- as soon as we crossed the border the scenery became beautiful- granted it could've been nice before that but it was dark- anyway! the road was very very very scary indeed but stunning winding down through the mountains. the driving techniques in asia have to be seen to be believed. terrifying is the only word!

arrived safely in the capital, Vientiane though and managd to find a hotel on the river front. back to the mekong again, though quite a bit further upstream!

Vientiane was really nice- so calm after vietnam. had a nice 2 days relaxing there. the last while had been so non-stop we needed a break. we didnt really do too much- spent a few days cycling, visited the beer lao factory (the national drink!), and enjoyed the city.

oh dear, sorry this is very short uninteresting post. late for diiner!!! anyway you know whats next if you read marcs. i m always so far behind!!!!

speaking of which..

thanks marc that was very useful! as far as i can make out, you actually have to log out of one blog then log in again to post on the other. and also i have a little box in the top right corner of the "blog this" screen where you can select which one to post on... these things aint simple!!!

goodbye vietnam...

so after hoi an we travelled on up north via hue, another old pretty city, got bikes again and did lots of cycling round the area. then onto another overight bus journey (they are really wearing thin now...!) to hanoi again.

from there we took a 2 day trip to halong bay. it was amazing, cruising along on the lovely wooden boats amongst the limestone karsts. visited a cave and other sights but really the highlight was just relaxing on the boat. we stayed overnight in little cabins, the food was fantastic and there were some really nice people onboard too. was jsut what we needed after all the manicness of the last few weeks, and a lovely way to end our vietnam trip.

vietnam was great- really different, interesting and mostly full on! definitely a great place to visit and pretty special as well since it has really only opened up in recent times. it was n't exactly easy, and we did end up stuck on too many tourist buses, but still we saw and did loads and had a fantastic time.

so far laos is gorgeous. amazing scenery, smiley people and a few adventures already! till next time xxxx

hoi an...

was beautiful. an old vietnamese town, with narrow little streets, and old fashioned houses over-hanging the street. it was right beside the river, with cute little cafes the whole way along, delicious food- a few nice local specialities, like prawn wanton, chao ley, and other yummy stuff. a nice change from noodles with pork, beef, fish or rice with pork, beef, fish....gettin just a wee bit sick of those dishes...! we got an amazing meal of 5 courses- all random stuff from the chef. it was fantastic- and all for about 3 quid...

also there were tailors everywhere, and they actually had lovely clothes. if only i had more room in my bag/money...! might actually have come back well dressed for a change. but as i say, didnt actually get anything for myself! they measure you up there and then and within 4 hrs you have a lovely new coat/trousers or whatever. they even make shoes there - chris has managed to lose 7 pairs of flip-flops in the last 3 months (dont ask! ok well one involved a big hole on new years eve ; ) , so he got a pair made perfectly fitted to his feet. definitely the way to shop- no more horrible changing room moments where nothing fits in the right places!!!!

hired bikes for the few days we were there which was really fun. a nice way to see the town and the area around it...

really loved hoi an- interesting a and not as manic as other places (relatively speaking!) had to move on too fast, as time was short but my favorite place in vietnam!

didnt mention that we went to dalat, up in the mountains before that. very pretty as well- and cold! did a lot of cycling there too- saw some nice waterfalls and random bits and pieces there. but also quite fdifferent, didnt feel like vietnam up in the mountains. maybe more like a little town in austri aor something?! kind of...

well, even tho this was ages ago, gotta go now. will try and catch up to more recent stuff (we are now in laos!) next time

speak soon

xxxx

happy belated birthday...!

to
clare, alan, johnny!!!!!

sorry. least i got there in the right month tho....slightly better than normal

hope you all had a great time!

happy new year!

its been a busy few weeks...we've only got a visa for a month in vietnam and its going way too quickly.

had a lovely tine atchristmas in mui ne. was quite relaxed but lots of fun - looked like right idiots wearing our santa hats all day, had bellilins for brekfast by the beach, bloody marys, then pressies. we all got a lovely selection of useless tat including a pair of poi, thai boxer shorts, a back scratcher, a wig (scary photos!!!!), and a very crap kite. mui ne is massive for kite surfing, so it was a classic sight to see chris running along the beach on xmas day, wearing his santa hat pulling along a kite whose string was about 2 foot long, with all the cool people ripping along the waves in the background. got a few looks but we thought it was most entertaining!

had a yummy dinner, with prawn cocktail for starters and everything. even got roasties and mash!!! joy! all in all a great xmas day.

after that we headed to saigon, spent a couple of nights there. went to the war remnants msuseum, which was pretty horrific. one room was really interesting though sad, dedicated to war correspondants who'd lost thir lives and the photograohs they'd taken of the war. but the main room was basically full of photos of the effects of agent orange, dead bodies, pieces of bodies and the like. won't go into the details. it was awful, but i guess you have a responsibility to go and see it.

managed to catch up with graham which was great, though quite bizarre! cos time was short we managed to squeeze in a 3 day tour to the mekong delta. it was really good, but virtually impossible to get away from being loaded onto boats with 50 others and taken to such random places as a coconut candy factory, rice paper making factory, a crocodile farm, and an incense making place (twice). not quite sure why...the efficiency of communism? to be fair, the second day was lovely- we actually did a boat trip down the river went through the floating markets and through some lovely little side canals with cute kids waving the whole way. in the end we had a really good time, it was beautiful and entertaining to say the least!

we got back to saigon on new years eve, which was lovely, with a big street party, dragon dancing and funny bands on stage. it was really fun to just sit and enjoy the sight of a totally different city at new year! for midnight we headed to a big square and got very confused about the actual countdown (must try harder to learn numbers at least!), but got there in the end. it was really cool, tho i think we were the most excited people there, and the square was literally empty and they were clearing away chairs by 12.05! after that we wandered around-there was lots going on in all the bars still and managed to pass the night away till morning!

spent the last few days enjoying the city- went to a water park which was hilarious and very scary, the reunification palace, where the south was finally surrendered when the communists ploughed down the gates with their tanks in 1975, and to the cu chi tunnels, an underground netwaork of 250km of tunnels where a lot of the war was won for the vietcong. pretty crazy to se the size of them, even tho they've been widen to let westerns in! bit of a strange place-the first thing you do is watch a propagnada video fo the heroic american killing children etc, and the place was full of the traps and mangling devices they used to catch and kill people. didnt like it mcuh there!

anyway, we are about to go on an overnight bus journey to hoi an, which i m not looking forward to, so i'd better go. will write again soon. hope you all had a great new year!