Laos

Luang Prabang

We caught a boat back to Nong Khiaw and then had to wait for a few hours before our minivan left for Luang Prabang. I found a guesthouse/restaurant that had all the latest issues of Time, Newsweek, and The Economist and was in heaven for two hours. It is rare to find magazines like this in Asia especially in Laos and when you do find them they are really expensive, so it was nice to be able to relax for a while and catch up on some news. The bus to Luang Prabang was a pleasant ride and I slept most of the way. It was the smoothest bus ride thus far in Laos, which is not saying much but still. We arrived in Luang Prabang around 6:00 and after searching for a little while found rooms. I shared a room with Fanny, the French-Canadian girl. The conversations continued in French with the five of us together as I was the only one who didn’t speak French but someone would translate in English the gist of what was being said and they tried to speak in English when we were all talking together. Luang Prabang is a beautiful city. All the action like any other Laos city is based around the river, this case the Mekong. There are bakeries and French baguettes everywhere and most of the tourists were French as well. Luang Prabang has a very European feel to it. The city itself is beautiful, there are many temples and the streets are small and charming. It is not a very big city, in fact you can walk the whole thing in half a day but very quaint and charming. There are nice cafes you can just sit with a coffee and book and relax. There are a lot of tourists though. The first night we didn’t do much just checked internet after being without it for a few days and had a beer. We also had some delicious sandwiches from the street filled with chicken, egg, tomatoes, cucumbers, tofu, chilli sauce, and some other things that I can’t really say what they were. All of this for a little over a buck. It is very easy to eat cheap in Luang Prabang as there is street food everywhere but there are also a lot of really nice restaurants that make it hard to always eat street food. On my first full day in Luang Prabang I basically walked around the whole city stopping at all the sites. There were some famous temples, but the most interesting site was probably the National Museum also known as the Royal Palace, which was the place of residence to the King of Laos during France’s occupation. It had some really nice mosaic glass and other things inside. For lunch I stopped at a restaurant called Tamarind, which was mentioned in Lonely Planet and has been in different magazines and such as well, and for good reason it was delicious. I had a dish that was basically chicken with some spices cooked inside sticks of lemongrass. You open up the lemongrass to find the chicken inside and then dip that into a sauce they give you, it was delicious. They have fresh fruit refreshers as well that are quite tasty. The meal set me back about $5 or $6, which is a lot for Lao standards but it was well worth it. The rest of the day I just wandered around the streets, which is the best thing to do in Luang Prabang. At sunset I walked up to Du Phi, which is a temple at the top of the mountain and provides spectacular views of the city below. It was very pretty to see at sunset but there were hundreds of tourists there so it kind of took away from the atmosphere. After sunset I met back up with the group for some dinner and I had some delicious grilled chicken from a street vendor. That night Laos was playing against Malaysia in the semifinals of the SEA games in soccer so Julien, Florian, Dominic and I went to a bar to watch the second half. There is a street in Luang Prabang that all of the bars are on and there are some really nice bars with firepits and a DJ and everything. However, it was a Monday night and not many people were out. Laos ended up tying the game at 1 but then Malaysia scored two more goals to win 3-1. We ended up staying at the bar until midnight when everything shuts down in Luang Prabang and all over Laos for that matter. Officially 11:30 is curfew and no bars or street vendors are allowed to stay open past then. It’s one of the few occasions you see police in Laos as they come out to enforce the closing time. Dominic ended up getting extremely drunk so we had to help him back to the hotel.
The next day my plan was just to relax and read. I found a bookstore the night before and bought On the Road a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while. First I stopped by the Lao immigration office and extended by Lao visa for 8 more days. The process was surprisingly painless and took all of ten minutes. I just had to pay $2 per day. Then I went to the bookstore, which also doubled as a restaurant/teahouse. There was one book there that was available only to rent. It was about an American who had just graduated from Princeton who went to work in Laos for a tourism development organization that was run by the government. This was back in the late 90’s when tourism was first starting in Laos. The book is called Another Quiet American and was a very interesting read as the author recounts his experience in Laos. It was also very practical as it delved a lot into the history of Laos and I could understand a lot of the things he was saying just by being in and traveling in Laos and I think it has and will make my experience in Laos better. I sat and read the book for four or five hours and finished it in one sitting. Afterwards I met up with Julien, Florian, and Dominic who had just finished their dinner and we went back to the hotel a short time later. That morning Fanny had left so I had the room to myself. We didn’t really do anything exciting on our last night in Luang Prabang as we had to get up early the next day. I will say that Luang Prabang is one of the nicest cities/towns I have been to in SE Asia. The people are friendly, the food is great, it’s nice to see monks walking around, and it is a very picturesque city as well. The atmosphere is inviting and charming and this is a place I could see myself living for a year or two if an opportunity ever arose. It is small though and would probably get boring after a while. Another really nice thing about the city is that there are so many good things going on for the locals. There are numerous nonprofits in the city and a lot of different restaurants and business work to help the local community. It was very nice to see. The next morning we woke up early and took a tuk-tuk to the bus station to buy a ticket to Vang Vieng. We had inquired about tickets at numerous travel agencies but the cheapest ticket we found was 105,000kip, which is about $12. We figured if we went to the bus station and bought a local bus ticket it would be a lot cheaper. Our plan backfired however as the price of the local bus was 95,000kip and we already paid 8,000kip each to get there. Furthermore the next bus (9:00) was full so we had to wait until the 11:00 bus. This turned out to be not so bad though because we just sat and played cards for a few hours while we waited for our bus. I learned a new French card game that is pretty cool and involves a lot of strategy.

Vang Vieng

The ride to Vang Vieng was an experience. First of all let me begin by saying that Lonely Planet says if you get motion sickness at all be sure to have the proper medication before taking the bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. The whole ride is on curvy roads and these big buses don’t handle curves very well. On each curve your body and everything in the bus to would lean to one side then would fall to the other side when the bus changed direction. I have never really had a problem with motion sickness and I felt fine but there was an older Lao lady that sat in front of us who was puking the whole trip. She would puke into bags and then tie them up and put them on the floor. Another woman, perhaps the daughter of the older woman also puked several times during the trip and put her puke bags underneath hear seat as well. After a while the smell started to seep out through the bags and to make matters worse after ever sharp turn the bags would roll around the floor inching towards our feet at which point we would kick it away. After a few hours of this Julien finally asked them to put the bags somewhere else. Although the ride was rocky it was pretty scenic passing by huge limestone formations. We finally arrived in Vang Vieng at about 6:00.
I was interested to see how Vang Vieng really was. It has become a favorite destination for backpackers and “tubing” has become the most popular activity drawing in thousands of tourists. Everywhere I’ve traveled so far I’ve seen people with the exact same tank-top from Vang Vieng. The town is filled with restaurants and guesthouses that are all the same and all play Friends or Family Guy all day. Vang Vieng is also known for having a lot of drugs available and some tourists just come to get high and watch Family Guy all day. I was looking forward to having fun but had reservations about Vang Vieng as well.
We quickly found a guesthouse and after relaxing for a while went out and had some dinner at the most “local” restaurant according to Lonely Planet. It was pretty much just like all of the others as well. We walked around the town a bit and it is nothing but guesthouse next to restaurant next to travel agency. We also checked out a bar that had a bunch of people laying in hammocks and sitting around fires. It was pretty cool but we weren’t really in the partying mood. We walked around a little more and went back to the guesthouse and went to bed. The next morning I awoke feeling weak and cold and my stomach really hurt. Julien felt the same and we had the dreaded travelers diarrhea. We were planning on going tubing but scratched that idea because we both weren’t feeling that great. We mustered up enough energy and along with Florian went to check out a cave that was about 2km away. The cave was ok, just another cave for me but I couldn’t really appreciate it that much because I was afraid I would defecate in it at any moment. After the cave we walked back to town and had a late lunch. I just took it easy the rest of the day and had some bread and rice for dinner while watching a few hours of Family Guy. We were hoping that this bout of diarrhea would be short-lived because Florian and Julien had time for a couple days and it would suck to miss out on tubing. The next morning I felt really bad and there was no way I was going tubing. Julien also wasn’t feeling great so we decided to wait one more day and hopefully go tubing the next day. After a little while I felt a little better and again along with Julien and Florian went to check out another cave, this one about 7km away. We rented motorbikes but had to go to three different gas stations before we found one that was actually working. We rode on a dirt road and I was just hoping that a tire wouldn’t puncture. We made it to the cave in one piece. There was a large grassy area in front of the cave where many tourists were sunbathing and there was also a lagoon in front of the cave that you could swim in. The real attraction was tree you could climb and jump in from that also had a rope swing. I went to explore the cave while Julien and Florian just relaxed. The cave was huge and good thing I had my headlamp because it was also dark. I walked about 20 minutes into the cave and there was no sign of an end. I didn’t feel comfortable walking much further because if my light died I was screwed, so I decided to head back. I got lost finding my way back a few times but eventually was able to find my way. After that I just relaxed while Julien and Florian went to explore the cave. When they got back it was around 4:30 or 5:00 and the sun was setting soon but we decided to play in the water and jump from the rope swing for a little while. By the time we left the sun was pretty much gone and we were wet and freezing. We drove back to town as fast as we could and made it back to the motorcycle rental place. Then we met Dominic and some Swiss people he had met for dinner. The Swiss told us that they just saw a local guy beating the shit out of some tourist and they had to step in and break it up. The tourist was bleeding everywhere and had to go to the hospital. That is the problem in a place like Vang Vieng, tourists have overrun the place and with the mix of alcohol and drugs tourists don’t realize that the locals have the power. We have no resort if something happens. But I’m sure the local had every right to beat up the tourist. He was probably acting like an idiot and disrespecting the local. We went to the most popular bar after dinner and it was like being at a college party. Everybody was wasted and dancing and singing and it might have been fun if I was equally as drunk but I couldn’t help thinking about the situation. These tourists were going crazy and getting drunk like they were at home but we are in Laos, one of the UN’s least developed countries. They have a different culture and are not used to seeing stuff like this. The tourists get drunk and end up arguing over things with the locals. One tourist was yelling at a street sandwich seller for giving him the wrong change. The whole thing was ridiculous. Many tourists just come to party without thinking about where they are, they want to learn nothing about the country they are in, and just want to have a good time. Now, I am definitely not speaking about the majority of tourists but many of the tourists in Vang Vieng are different than you meet elsewhere. They are the tourists that just travel around to the party spots like the Full Moon Party in Thailand and Bali. They come to party cheap and it’s those tourists that I can’t stand. They have big muscles and walk around with no shirt on in a place where none of the locals do. It’s a mix of emotions and feelings that comes to mind about Vang Vieng. On one hand the locals don’t seem to be losing their culture, I mean why would they when they see a bunch of drunk tourists, it doesn’t really encourage them to be like that. They are also making a lot of money on the tourists selling sandwiches or opening a guesthouse, it seems like every local resident has done one of the two or found some other business catering to tourists. On the other hand the locals should not have to put up with the disrespect and drunkenness of tourists. At midnight when the bar was trying to close, nobody wanted to leave but then the police came up yielding machine guns and everybody quickly cleared away. However, there were still the one or two drunk tourists that tried to reason with the police. Perhaps, if I were drunk and having a good time I would forget about all these things I speak of but as a sober observer it’s a little disgusting.
Magically the next day I felt fine. My diarrhea was gone and Julien felt all right too so we were finally going to go tubing. We got up and had some breakfast before going to rent our tubes. We had to pay 55,000 kip for the tube (about $7) and pay another 60,000 deposit. If we brought the tube pack before 6:00 we got the full deposit back, after 6:00 we only get 40,000 back. So we got in the tuk-tuk who drove us to the start. There is a bar at the beginning that everybody starts at. You don’t actually use your tube until you leave this first bar. All the tubes are basically stacked up outside the bar and you just take one when you’re ready to leave. At the bar there is also a zip-line that you can swing from and at the end you just let go and fall in the water or if you are more adventurous, which many people were, you can try doing a back-flip or other acrobatics. We ended up getting pretty drunk at this first bar and probably spent a few hours there. We jumped into the water from the zip-line a few times and were feeling pretty good. There are also markers throughout the bar so people start getting drunk and writing things on their friends. Finally we left the first bar got a tube and headed for the second bar that was maybe 20 meters down river. So we tubed the 20 meters to the second bar and that’s as far as we would go. We drank a little bit more there and to be honest the rest is pretty fuzzy. It got to be the time to leave and we went to get our tubes but they were nowhere to be found. There were no tubes left. So after Julien, as he usually takes the lead in the negotiations, argued with the locals and tuk-tuk driver to no avail we gave up defeated and took a tuk-tuk back to town. We went back to the tube rental place but they had not been returned there so we got no money back. The whole thing was bullshit, pretty much the last twenty people to leave are not going to have a tube as somehow they mysteriously disappear. I’m not sure exactly what happens, either tourists who didn’t pay for a tube take one or locals take the tubes and have some understanding with the rental place. When you are at the bar though which for the majority of time people are you have no control over your tube. The worst part is that we didn’t even need the tube, we used it for all of 20 meters that we could have swam and we didn’t even go down any of the river. Looking back it was all stupid, we were being the dumb drunk tourists. We lost about $14 on the tubes for nothing but you win some and you lose some and the ones you lose you just got lay your head down and get over it. After we got back, we met Dominic who had left and actually made it down the river, and the Swiss people for dinner. I ate way too much food but we played with some local kids for about an hour, combining our little Lao with their little English, which turned out to be the highlight of the day. After that I wobbled back to the hotel and tried to go to bed. There was a lot of loud music though that was rambling in through our windows, which happened to be coming from a wedding that was going on in an open area behind our hotel. Earlier we had seen chairs and tables being set up for the event and had wondered what it was for. Finally at I have no idea what time, I fell asleep.
Julien, Florian, and Dominic left the next day but I decided to stay in Vang Vieng for a few more days, although I didn’t drink or party again. The first day I didn’t really do much of anything but the next day I went on a caving/tubing/kayaking trip that turned out to be really great. There was a group of about 15 of us, mostly older tourists. First we went tubing through a cave that had water running through it. We were given headlights that simply consisted of a bulb with nothing covering it strapped to a battery pack that we wore around our necks. We went in groups of five our so each connected to each other. Even after all the caves I’ve seen it was still pretty cool because we were in tubes and there was water. The cave didn’t have that many cool formations but it was dark and it was more the tubing experience that was interesting. After all groups had gone it was time for lunch, which was a delicious meal of sheesh-kababs with chicken and vegetables and rice. There was a group about six Russians on the trip with us. I always feel awkward speaking to Russians in Russian, both because I’m ashamed of my lack of Russian but also because I don’t really know what to talk to them about. So as they were talking the whole morning in Russian I never said anything to them. The leader of the group was a large and loud Russian man that looked like he could have been a former wrestler or bodybuilder. His legs were thick as tree trunks and although he had a big belly I wouldn’t call him fat, he was just a large individual. He spoke very little English and there were times when one of the guides would speak to him and he would answer back in Russian to a completely different question. It was quite hilarious. Also both in the cave and outside of it as we were waiting for the others he would get someone from his group to take pictures of him posing in different positions and places. He was quite a character. During lunch he was looking for something to drink and speaking to his friends in Russian. At the beginning of the day we had all been given a bottle of water with a number on it. We were supposed to remember our number as that was our bottle. However, with his lack of English he missed all of this so he had no clue what number his bottle was. So as he was having a conversation in Russian with his friends he said he would just take any bottle, what difference does it make. Well the bottle he happened to choose was mine and just as he was about to take a sip I said in Russian, “That is my bottle.” It caught him and his group completely by surprise and everyone except for him started laughing. He was clearly the leader of the group and it was pretty funny for the rest of the group to be laughing at his expense. After they knew I spoke some Russian, the rest of the day I spoke some with the group going over the usual questions, where are you from, how long are you traveling, etc…
After lunch was the kayaking portion of the trip. I have kayaked before but certainly don’t consider myself an expert kayaker. The water was pretty calm as it is the dry season so I didn’t think it would be that difficult. I was paired with a man from Singapore who had never kayaked before so I took the back, which is the more important position because they steer. The kayaking went pretty smoothly but my partner was pretty bad and we could never get in a good rhythm. It was easy enough though, so it wasn’t too much of a problem. The kayaking was done on the same river as “tubing” so as we went by, we passed the bars that I had been unable to escape a few days prior. We did stop at a further bar down the river though to rest for a little while. After jumping from the swing into the water a few times, we got back into our kayaks and paddled the rest of the way back to town. All in all it was a very good day. We kayaked about 15km and it really is a great workout. Although my shoulder started to ache by the end of it, I told myself this is one of many things that I am going to try to do more often when I get home. We got back to town around 5:00 and after that I washed up, had some dinner and didn’t do much the rest of the evening.
The next day I was excited because I had booked a one day rock-climbing trip. Vang Vieng is supposed to be one of the best places in SE Asia for rock-climbing, along with Krabi in Thailand. Our guide was a 22 year old local who had been climbing for 4 years and along with me there was also an Australian guy and British girl. I have only ever been rock climbing at a gym indoors and never outdoors so I was excited to give it a try. I learned how to properly tie the rope and to belay when others were climbing the wall, two of the first skills you learn. In the morning we each climbed about four or five different routes. It was just like climbing a rock wall indoors except there are so many options to choose from to put your hands and feet that you don’t know what the best spots are. On one route I was unable to make it to the top and I felt such a fierce sense of disappointment. There are few other things in the world that success is so easy to measure, you either succeed or you fail, you either make it to the top (the way you do doesn’t matter) or you don’t, and when you don’t it really sucks. I vowed that this was going to be another thing I would take up when I get home, my list was growing by the day. After lunch it was just Apple (guide) and I as the two others only booked a half-day trip. Because it was just the two of us we were able to move a lot faster and do more climbs. After four or five more climbs I was utterly exhausted and could not make it up the last one. Again the feeling of bitter disappointment resounded over me. Apple gave me some pointers on things I could do if I really wanted to take climbing seriously like using the hand squeezer things. Rock climbing requires incredible upper body strength, flexibility, and finger strength and it really is a fun and rewarding activity. However, it is something you always need a partner to do, which can be hard to find sometimes. As we were climbing we met a couple from Vancouver that has been climbing for fifteen years and have been all over the world to climb. I realize then that it would be great to take up rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, surfing, and whatever else but I should find one hobby/passion and really devote myself to it. What that might be, I’m not sure yet. Apple and I also had discussions about tourism in Vang Vieng and what he thinks about what has happened there. He said on one hand he was grateful for all of the tourists because it had given him a job but on the other hand his heart drops a little every time he sees a girl in a bikini or guy with his shirt off walk by the temple with the monks watching. He also enlightened me a little bit more about relationships and romance in Laos. It was basically forbidden or unheard of to have a girlfriend or boyfriend and you couldn’t really sleep with a woman until you married them. Unlike its close neighbor Thailand, Laos is a very conservative country when it comes to romance. I was pretty exhausted after the day of climbing so once again I had some dinner but did little else that night. At dinner though I did overhear some tourists talking about getting arrested for smoking pot. Apparently some bar had enticed tourists in with the promise of free joints, which they gave but then the police quickly came and arrested many of the tourists. The bar must have had some relationship with the police to get the tourists in trouble. Everyone who was caught had to pay a $500 fine or go to jail, just another one of the problems with Vang Vieng. The next day I had quite the journey ahead of me. I wanted to make it to the 4,000 islands for my birthday because it is a nice place to relax but also because Fanny, the French Canadian girl I had met earlier was going to be there with some friends. In total the trip was supposed to take 18 hours and consist of 3 bus rides and a boat ride. The first bus was to Vientiane, which took about 4 hours and arrived without any problems. From there I was shuttled into a tuk-tuk to a travel agency in Vientiane where the bus to Pakse, the next stop would pick me up. I had about an hour to kill and it was around 6:00pm so I went to have some dinner at an Indian restaurant. There was some kind of celebration or concert or something going on across the street from the travel agency as there were a lot of people gathered and live music. I tried to go see what was going on but the entrance was blocked off by two armed guards. The bus was supposed to leave at 7:00 but at 7:30 it was still not there. I didn’t really know what was going on and the two employees at the travel agency had left to go somewhere else and just told me to wait there. I was alone in the office and could have stolen anything I wanted but they knew that I wouldn’t. Finally at about 8:00 one of them came back with about 7 more tourists and then took us all to the bus station where the bus was waiting. The bus was a sleeping bus, which meant that instead of seats there were small beds. I had experience the sleeping bus in Vietnam and wasn’t looking forward to another one. This one was even worse though. Each sleeping area was meant for two people with nothing separating them. They were small and cramped and not meant for your average size Westerner. I was paired with a middle aged Basque man from Spain who had what appeared to be burns on his legs. I knew it was going to be a long and unpleasant night. I had the space closer to the aisle and was trying to be as close to it as I could. Well the man I was with was a little larger than me and kept moving his legs over to my “side” of the area. I had to basically hug the side railing to avoid touching him. Even worse was that he was snoring half the night and I was also directly over the bathroom, which emanated a foul stench of urine. After twelve agonizing hours of which I managed maybe two hours of sleep we finally arrived in Pakse. From there I was shooed into a minivan and was driven to another travel agency from which I would catch a van to the 4,000 Islands. After about half an hour of waiting I was finally on the final leg of my long, exhausting journey. The ride to 4,000 islands was a nice 2 ½ hour ride of which I was able to catch a few winks of shuteye. We finally arrived to the pier and took a short boat ride to Don Det, the backpackers island and I was finally able to relax. After arriving at the pier, I instantly heard a voice shouting my name and saw Fanny up above sitting at a restaurant. Well that was easy, I thought. I knew she was there but didn’t know where she was staying but figured it would be easy enough to find her as the island wasn’t that big, but I didn’t even have to worry about that. I found a place to stay with a Korean guy I met on the boat and was ready for pure relaxation. The first day I walked around with Chan, the Korean, and explored the island for a little while. There wasn’t really much to do on the island, which was the point. There a basically a row of bungalows overlooking the Mekong River all with hammocks overlooking the river. The first day I also ran into Omer, the Israeli who I had been traveling with in Vietnam. I also forgot to mention that that first day on the island was my birthday. For dinner I met up with Omer and a group of about 7 other people that he had met there or before and a special “happy” cake for my birthday. Since my birthday is also Christmas Eve and apparently is celebrated as Christmas Day in some parts of Europe, everyone went out to the beach that night. There were about 40 people spread out in groups gathered around bonfires and drinking Beer Lao. It was a good way to spend my birthday but once again was overshadowed by the fact it was Christmas. Even in Asia I can’t escape that my birthday falls on one of the most inopportune days of the year, but I have learned to deal with it even if I still have a little bitterness inside me.
The next day I rented a bike and went exploring with Chan. We biked the length of Don Det and crossed a bridge onto the next island Don Khon. On Don Khon we biked to a famous waterfall that is supposed to be the biggest in SE Asia. Although the waterfall was quite a sight with rapids rushing furiously over large rocks I’m not sure if it is indeed the biggest in SE Asia. Apparently there is a place you can swim by the waterfall but we were unable to find it, instead we biked over a very rocky road to the end of Don Khon to a beach where we went swimming instead. Here also sometimes you can see dolphins in the river but we didn’t spot any and after a while biked back to our guesthouse on Don Det. The rest of my two and a half days on Don Det I did absolutely nothing and it was great. My days consisted of laying in my hammock and reading and eating and that’s pretty much it. There really was little else to do, which is the appeal. The 4,000 islands may truly be one of the most relaxing places on earth. On my first day in Don Det I was introduced to The Bakery. The Bakery was well exactly what it sounds like, a bakery run by an Australian guy who had been living on the island for 4 years. He made delicious doughnuts, bread, cinnamon buns, etc… Unfortunately that first day was the only I was able to experience the deliciousness of The Baker as the Australian was affectionately known. He did not bake anything for Christmas, as he deserved a break, or for the few days following. Each day I would get up in the morning and make the ten minute walk to the Bakery hoping that it would be the day that The Baker was back at work but alas every time I was disappointed. On the day I was planning on leaving, however, I heard rumor that The Baker was going to be back at work. I considered long and hard staying for an extra day just so I could feast on baked goods but decided against it and left without them. It was probably for the best, I was eating a lot on the island as it was, if there were delicious baked pastries available I may have never stopped eating. Omer and company had left the day before me so on my last day I was pretty much by myself just reading and relaxing. Omer and the others had decided to go the Koh Phagnon for Full Moon New Years Eve Party. I was very tempted to go with them as well as it was going to be massive. Not only New Years but a fool moon as well it was going to be complete chaos but there was still more to see in Laos and I had Thai visa issues to worry about as well so I decided against it.
I left Don Det reluctantly on the morning of December 29th and took a boat back to the main land and from there a bus to Champasak. Champasak was the site of the famous Wat Phu which is one of the most famous sites in Laos. It is another Khmer era temple like Angkor Wat. The guidebook said it was a must see so I decided to go to Champasak for a day before Pakse for New Years. The bus dropped us off at a junction in the road. Along with me there were three other guys traveling alone, one Japanese, one French, and the fourth sounded American but I never found out. From the place the bus dropped us off we had to take a boat across the Mekong River as the bus was on the other side. There was also a “ferry” that took cars and motorbikes over the river. The “ferry” was simply some wooden boards with an engine, it was like a giant shipping crate and looked like it may fall apart at any moment. We made it to the other side from where we had to get a Tuk-Tuk to the center. The tuk-tuk driver was a brother of a guesthouse owner and the owner was there as well saying the tuk-tuk ride would be free if we stayed at his guesthouse. He was fat (an uncommon site in Lao) and happy man with a giant grin that showed many missing teeth. It also seemed like he ran the whole small town as all his brothers were either tuk-tuk drivers or worked with him at his guesthouse. The guesthouse wasn’t great but it was fine enough and the French guy and I shared a room. We both wanted to make it to Pakse the next day so we inquired if we still had enough time to go see the temple. It was 3:00 at this point and the temple closed at 5:30 so we figured it was ample time. We, along with the Japanese guy took another tuk-tuk driven by the same brother as earlier and drove the 8km or so to the temple. The whole temple was on three different levels, the first level had two temples across from each other that were closed for entry and were under construction. On the next level there were some statues of some Hindu goddesses and after climbing a steep set of stairs we reached the third and most impressive level. On the third level was s small temple that reminded me of Angkor Wat and some other scattered rocks and stones with inscriptions of gods and goddesses. The most interesting being a large rock with a picture of an elephant inscribed. At the top of the temple was a beautiful view looking east of the town of Champasak along with the lowest part of the temple and two lakes that were there as well. It was really a beautiful sight and I sat there overlooking it for half an hour or so. Overall though I wasn’t that impressed with the temple. It was cool but the historical significance just didn’t get to me and after seeing Angkor Wat it was hard for anything else to compare. There was little to do in town so after we got back to the guesthouse we had some dinner and just talked for a while before going to sleep early.
The next day the French guy and I caught a “bus” to Pakse, which was only about 25km away. The bus was really a sawngthaew or one of the converted small pickup trucks with benches along either side that I mentioned previously. This sawngthaew actually had three rows of benches and before we even got on was so crowded that there were guys standing on the back of it where there was a platform of railings about two feet wide to stand on. All of the luggage was on top along with numerous bamboo chicken cages filled with chicken. The locals all crammed in some lying on top of each other and I was able to get a standing space on the back. Obviously something like this would never have been allowed to pass back home or in any Western country but I don’t think Lao has the highest of safety standards. An accident, even of the not serious variety, was almost certain death for me. All in all there were about 30-40 locals and tourists alike crammed into the back of the sawngthaew. I will admit standing and riding at the back was kind of fun, I felt so free with the wind hitting my face and getting a great view of the open road. Eventually after a couple of passengers had been let out there was room for everyone to sit. I wanted to keep in standing but the locals said that I should sit because of the police, I guess maybe it wasn’t kosher to have four guys standing on the back of a sawngthaew, unless a necessity. We arrived at a bus station and all the tuk-tuk drivers tried to convince the Frenchman and me that we had to get off here and take a tuk-tuk the rest of the way but the locals in the sawngthaew told us we didn’t need to get off so we stayed on. A few minutes later we arrived at a large market and at this point we did need to take a motor taxi which was a motorbike attached to a cart with two seats and some room for luggage. He took us the 2km to a guesthouse and I was able to check in and set my bags down. Pakse is a town of 66,000 people or so and one of the biggest cities in the south of Laos. I figured I wasn’t going to be able to get to or it wasn’t worth getting to a bigger city or party spot to spend New Years so Pakse was the alternative. The first day I was there I basically walked around the whole city in a few hours. There were a few hotels and restaurants but not really any strictly bars that I saw. I was trying to scope out the city for a place to go for New Years but I found nothing. I asked a couple of local people if there was a good place to go but nobody knew anything. I was beginning to wonder if anyone here even celebrated New Years and if there would be any sort of celebration. At night I walked down to the Mekong where there are a row of restaurants frequented by the locals at night all enjoying local food and Beer Lao. I kept walking along the river for quite a while and ran into a Cinema/Bowling Alley. None of the movies that were playing looked any good so I decided to go bowling. Each game was about $1.50 but when you are playing by yourself the games go really fast. I bowled one game and did terribly not even breaking 100. I did so bad that I had to bowl another game. The next game did not go much better and I kept experimenting with different grips and releases but none seemed to work. Finally I told myself the third game would be my last. I broke 100 for the first time on the third game but still left pretty disappointed. I told myself as I left that bowling was not going to be the hobby that I picked up. I returned back to the guesthouse and went to sleep.
I woke up on New Years Eve determined to find somewhere to spend that night. First I had some breakfast and caught up on the web, which was much faster and cheaper than it was in the 4,000 islands. Then I went back to my room and forced myself to update my blog or at least type it, which I hadn’t done for over a week. Actually updating it online would have to wait because I didn’t find anywhere that had wireless.

This is a Long ONe

Hue

The bus ride from Hoi Ann to Hue was a scenic four hour journey along curving roads and rolling hills. We arrived in Hue around 6:00pm and it was rainy and cold. We quickly found one of the first hotels we saw and just chilled for the rest of the night. The next day I took a one day tour of the city while Omer stayed back. I ended up being on the same tour as Luc, the Australian I met in Mui Ne with Omer. It was another rainy and cold day but the tour was well worth it. We went to the Citadel, which was built by Emperor Gia Long in the 1800’s. It was used as shelter during the Vietnam War when the French and American’s bombed it destroying much of it. We also went to visit some tombs and pagodas as well. The tombs are in the middle of nature and are quite peaceful. It certainly makes a great place for a final resting spot. The best part of the tour was our guide, however. He had a wealth of knowledge and information on all the attractions and Vietnamese history that it really added a lot. At one point he even corrected another tour guide who had given a piece of misinformation. If I had visited these sites on my own, I wouldn’t have gotten close to the same amount out of it. Sometimes a guide can make a lot of difference, unfortunately many times you don’t get a great one or can’t understand them but this was one of the better ones I’ve had.
On our second and final day in Hue, Omer and I just walked around exploring the city for a few hours. We were on our way back to our hotel when we ran into a couple motorbike drivers that started talking to us. They asked us if we wanted to go with them to have some beers and talk politics. It sounded a little sketchy but I was intrigued and convinced Omer to go as well. This was either going to turn out really bad or good. We each went with a different driver on the motorbike and they took us to a local beer place. We had a beer and they started telling us about Vietnam and the war and such. One of them had relatives in America and one was imprisoned at the re-education camps during/after the war. It was actually an interesting conversation and we learned a lot. After a while they asked us if we wanted to go see Ho Chi Minh’s house. He lived in Hue for a few years when he was a kid. Again we were skeptical but decided to go ahead. We only had a few hours because we were catching a bus that evening to Hanoi. They took us to his house, which was a simple and basic Vietnamese house, and to a neighboring museum next door (if you can call it that). A local man had to open the lock on it and inside were just a bunch of pictures of Ho Chi Minh with his family and others. After visiting the museum the motorbike drivers asked us if we wanted to drive through the real Vietnamese countryside. We didn’t have much time but agreed anyway. I’m glad we did because this ended up being my highlight of Hue. We rode through local villages and wet rice patties. We really got to see typical Vietnamese life up close and personal and it was surreal. We passed water buffalo laying around, kids playing, and women working in the fields. It was really amazing. The drivers drove us back to our hotel and then asked us for money for showing us around. Now I knew they were going to ask for money because they weren’t just taking us to all these places out of the goodness of their heart but it still felt like we were getting taken. We gave them half of what they asked for and walked away. For only a couple dollars each it was definitely worth the experience but we learned a valuable lesson that nothing is for free and cost should always be discussed first. We got back just in time to catch the 12 hour bus to Hanoi.

Hanoi
We decided to take regular sitting bus this time and not a sleeper bus because the last sleeper bus was not the greatest experience. This bus ride wasn’t that much better. Terrible and loud Vietnamese music was playing during the whole trip making it impossible to sleep. After more than 12 grueling hours we made it to Hanoi. We walked around for over an hour looking for a decently priced room and finally ended up settling on something for $8 together. The room was a shithole but it was the cheapest we could find, accommodation in Hanoi is expensive. I immediately proceeded to clog the toilet and some poor Vietnamese man had to come up and fix it. We passed out for a few hours and for the rest of the day just wandered around the city. The old quarter of Hanoi is centered around a lake and it makes for a very beautiful and romantic spot. At night you see nothing but couples hanging out together around the lake. There is also a temple on the lake that looks really cool lit up at night. Another highlight of Hanoi is all of the Bia Hoy’s around. Bia means beer and Hoy is like draft. It’s basically the cheapest place to drink as you can get a glass of beer for something like 25 cents each. The bad thing about Hanoi is that everywhere shuts down at midnight. It is hard to find a bi ahoy or bar that is open past then. The second day in Hanoi I wanted to see the Ho Chi Minh Masoleum and Museum. We got up around 10:00 though and the Masoleum closes at 11:00 so we were frantically trying to find a motorbike taxi to take us there. All throughout Vietnam you are constantly harassed by these motorbike drivers that just come up to you and say “moto-bike, moto-bike, where yo go? You want moto-bike” yet the one time I actually need one there is not one to be found. So we settle on a cyclo who pedals frantically trying to get us there by 11:00. We make to the grounds at about ten to 11:00 and we run to try to get to the Masoleum but we go the wrong way and by the time we find it, it is closed. If we had just gone the right way we would have made it. I guess it didn’t really matter much though because Ho Chi Minh’s body wasn’t even there. For three months of every year his body gets sent to Russia for cleaning and upkeep. So we didn’t make it to the Masoleum but we did go inside the Museum, which was pretty interesting. Ho Chi Minh or Uncle Ho as he is still affectionately called certainly was and still is a hero to many in Vietnam. He was a very smart man and even used the same words from the American Declaration of Independence to try to get America to recognize Vietnam as a sovereign nation. One thing that did go right though was that after about a week of wet and cold weather the rain stopped and the sun came out. It would not rain again for the remainder of my stay in Vietnam which was perfect timing because I was going to Halong Bay the next day. After the museum we finally found a motorbike driver and hired him for $8 for the rest of the day. He took us to all the main attractions in Hanoi including the Ethonology Museum, Temple of Literature, B-52 Museum in which we were the only two people there and also the Hoa Lo Prison Museum (this was the prison where John McCain was a POW in Vietnam). The prison was especially interesting as there were very propagandist videos playing showing how well American POW’s were treated. That night we found a pizza place that had an all you can eat buffet which included pizza, pasta, rice, ribs, and some other local dishes. Me and buffet’s don’t go well together and I ate so much that I literally had trouble moving afterwards. It was nice to have some decent pizza and pasta but I completely overdid it. After that I went straight to bed.

Halong Bay
The next day we started a 3 day tour of Halong Bay. We took an extremely overcrowded bus for four hours to Haiphong and then boarded a junk boat. Omer and I paid $43 for the 3 day trip which was about the cheapest anyone paid. Somehow we got upgraded to the luxury boat where everyone else was paying $100 or more. Our guide pulled us aside and told us not to tell anybody how much we paid and we happily obliged. The boat was nice and relaxing and Halong Bay was beautiful. There are over 3,000 islands and they are everywhere. We first went to a cave, which is one of the top attractions of Halong Bay. The cave was pretty cool but after seeing the caves in Borneo, it didn’t excite me that much. After the cave we had a chance to do some kayaking in the bay, which was really cool. I can’t imagine a more beautiful place to kayak in, and the weather was perfect. It was sunny the whole time. Halong Bay is actually one of 28 finalists for the new 7 natural wonders of the world. After kayaking we set up anchor for the night and just relaxed on the boat. It was really nice being and sleeping on a boat/ship again and really made me miss Semester at Sea. It’s just so nice and soothing sleeping on the ocean. The rest of the group was made up of mostly older people so Omer and I just watched a movie and went to bed. The next day Omer, I, a Finnish guy, and 2 New Zelander girls left the rest of the group as they were only on a 1 day trip and met up with another one. We took a boat to Cat Ba, which is an island in the bay and went trekking at Cat Ba National Park. At the top of the mountain the Vietnamese somehow built an overlook platform, which contained great views of the valley below. After the trek we took a bus back to the hotel we were staying at for the evening. After eating some lunch we took a boat to “monkey island” which is supposed to be a secluded beautiful island that has monkeys on it. Sure enough we were welcomed by a group of monkeys eager to steal anything they could get their hands on. At one point a monkey had grabbed on to one guy’s pants without him noticing and he had to struggle to break free of the monkey’s grasp. They are cute creatures but don’t be fooled they will come after you and can be dangerous. Monkey island was quite small and we found a path so we decided to follow it to the other side of the island. After about 25 minutes going over steep and sharp rocks we reached what can only be described as paradise. There were bungalows on the other side with a nice beach and no monkeys. We jumped into the water and were having a great time when the owner of the bungalows came running out and told us it was a private beach and we had to leave. So we had to get out of the water and hike back to the other side of the beach after only spending about five minutes there. Those five minutes were worth it though as it was an amazing place. We went back to the other side of the island and hung out for a little while longer before our boat took us back to Cat Ba and our hotel. The rest of the day we just walked around Cat Ba and relaxed.
The next morning we got back on the boat and headed back to Haiphong where we had lunch. We had to wait for a while for our bus to arrive so our group of five, Omer, the Fin, Kiwis, and myself found a bia hoy place and started drinking. Before we knew it we were kind of drunk just in time for our bus to arrive. The rest of the bus must have hated us because we had to stop three times on the way back to go to the bathroom.

Hanoi
We made it back to Hanoi that evening found a hotel and passed out for a couple hours. We had previously bought tickets to a water puppet performance that night so we woke up from our slumber and made it to the show. It was actually very cool, the puppet masters are behind a curtain and have these puppets on poles that you can’t see and are unbelievably coordinated. The puppets dance and prance around in the water while traditional Vietnamese music is played with it. After the water puppet show we met up with 2 girls who Omer had met previously in Cambodia and hung out with them for a little while.
The next day we didn’t have really much to do and just needed to kill time before our night bus left for Sapa at around 6:00. So we just wandered around the city some more. The nigh bus to Sapa was quite the experience though. First we got in a minivan who then picked up 6 more tourists and then drove us to a travel agency. From the travel agency we got our stuff and got in another minivan that took us to another van that we transferred into and just when we thought we could get comfortable the minivan took us to a bus that said Sapa on it. Finally we got on the bus that was actually taking us to Sapa and didn’t make it out of Hanoi till about 9:00pm. Once again we took a sitting bus but after watching a couple of movies I was actually able to get some sleep. We got to Sapa around 7:00am. Sapa is unlike the rest of Vietnam. It is up in the mountains and the majority of locals there are hill tribe people mainly consisting of the Hmong tribe. Another thing about Sapa is that it was cold. You could actually see your breath it was so cold. It is a beautiful town though. It is small and quaint. The whole town basically consists of a market selling fake north faces and the local Hmong’s selling local clothes and a row of guesthouses/hotels and restaurants. There are numerous villages surrounding the town and the best thing to do is go on a trek. The first day there we didn’t really do much just walked around the town and I bought some jackets to send home. Even though they are fake the quality is still pretty good and I paid about $40 for two northface jackets and a fleece that would have cost me about $500 for the real thing back home. The next day we rented a motorbike and just drove around the whole area. We drove through local villages and took winding roads overlooking cliffs. It was absolutely amazing scenery but a little scary at the same time. The only bad thing was that the whole area was covered in fog so you couldn’t see that much but what you did see was still beautiful. Then we drove to a waterfall that was pretty nice and hung out there for a little while. There were some locals selling tea and bbq meat, potato and like a bamboo cylinder with rice inside that they heat over the fire and out comes blocks of sticky rice. We got some food and heated up by the fire. After the waterfall Omer couldn’t handle the cold anymore so I dropped him off at the hotel and kept on riding to a local village. It is amazing how simple their lives are. The women go into Sapa town to try and sell their hand woven clothing and other things to the tourists many times taking the children with them while the men go into the mountains to hunt animals or grow crops. Their homes are as basic as they get, just wooden huts centered around a fire. The road to the village was pretty rough and there were a few times where I pretty much had to drive through a few inches of water. The whole time I was just praying that I wouldn’t get a flat tire or do something terribly wrong. One wrong move on the motorbike and you’re going over a cliff. The roads were extremely curvy in addition to rough so it was quite the adventure. I made it back in one piece though and Omer and I went out and had dinner at what had become our local go to restaurant. We were planning on leaving the next day or the day after but then we met two Israeli girls that night at the hotel who were going on a two day trek the next day through local villages and included a homestay at one of them. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go but decided that I would at the last minute. The first day we trekked about 18km just walking from town down a mountain passing different villages along the way. The most interesting part was stopping at a local school and seeing the children in class and singing songs. All of the tribal kids get to go to school for free where there is usually a local teacher from the tribe as well as a Vietnamese teacher. Healthcare and education for these minority tribes are provided by the government. The schools were the nicest buildings in the village probably because they are constructed by the government. At school the kids learn Vietnamese and all the tribes have their own indigenous language. We also got to see some girls put on a dance show in the village which was also a cool site. At about 5:00pm we got to the village where we would be staying that night. They had a makeshift pool table there so the rest of the night we just sat around drinking local rice wine and playing cards and pool. It was someone’s birthday in the group so the locals brought out a special apple rice wine that is only used for special occasions. It was much tastier than the normal rice wine. We had a group of 8 and as always when you are traveling people ask you where you are from. Somehow America came up and a Dutch guy an Australian immediately had bad things to say about America and Americans. When they found out I was American the Dutch guy even said no offense but I don’t like Americans. It’s really amazing how bad a reputation Americans have around the world. Some of it is warranted I guess but it’s easy to be neutral and peaceful when you come from countries like Australia and Holland but we have a huge role in the world and yeah we have made some bad moves but I like to think we have done some great things as well. It made me realize how American I really am. I love football and thanksgiving and even though I travel and am more knowledgeable about the world about most Americans I still have pride in my country. It’s crazy that people can generalize people from a country so much. But Americans certainly do have a different view of the world than the majority of others. Of a country of 300 million people I have met very few Americans on this trip. I do certainly think it would be good if more Americans traveled and saw other places in the world but I also feel the need to defend the so many good American people. Anyways I’ll stop ranting about that. The next morning after breakfast we trekked back to another village for lunch where we had lunch and then took a van back to Sapa. Omer and I met two Australians on the trip one mentioned above who really was a good guy who were on their way to Laos as we were. We figured out we were on the same bus to Dien Ben Phu which is the closest city in Vietnam to the border of Laos the next morning. The four of us got along pretty well and it was cool to have some new people because I was starting to get sick of traveling with Omer. We bickered and fought with each other like brothers and I guess in a way we were. On the rest of our last day in Sapa we met the Australians for dinner, we had some great local bbq on the street, and ended up going to one of the few local pubs for a drink. One drink turned into three and before we knew it, it was midnight. The Australians and Omer went searching for food while I went back to the hotel to get some sleep having no idea what was in store for us during the next three days.

Road to Laos
We woke up in a hazy state to catch a bus to Dien Bien Phu at 9:00. Dien Bien Phu is a town about 28 km from the border with Laos. Getting to Laos would be a two-day trip. The first day was an 8-10 hour bus ride to Dien Bien Phu and then the next morning we could take a bus into Laos. 9:00 came and the bus wasn’t there, then 9:30, 10:00, 10:30 and still no sign of the bus. We asked the people who worked at the guesthouse to please call and find out what was going on. They said the bus was “broken” but not to worry it would be here in half an hour. Well it wasn’t there in half an hour and the same thing continued for the next two hours, we would ask when the bus was going to arrive and they said it would just be another half hour. Finally at 1:00 the bus arrived with the Australians already sitting in it. I should say it was actually more of a minivan and not a bus and I will start calling it as such. The van was already pretty full when it picked us up and I was really hoping that we were going to be the last passengers but the Vietnamese have a great ability to fit as many people, bags, vegetables, chickens, etc… into a small space. Sure enough we picked up a few more locals on the way and just like a Tetris game they made everything fit. We probably had 20 people and just as many bags in a 15 passenger van. It was a little cramped to say the least but I was able to wiggle in some room for my feet and wasn’t in the worst position. The ride was a picturesque yet bumpy ride. Much of the road was unpaved and we were going about 20-30 km per hour for most of it. There were times that we would get stuck trying to go up a hill or over particularly rocky areas and the driver just backed up and tried again gunning the pedal until we made it through. Early in the ride when we stopped for a break, the van would not start and we had to all get out and push it a few meters to get it going and started. We passed through villages and mines and a few times we had to stop for 20 or 30 minutes while bulldozers worked on the road. Lonely Planet said in its 2008 version that this journey should take about 2 or 3 days so the roads must have improved a lot since then because we were able to make it in one. At one two or three hour stretch of the ride we were driving on the edge of a cliff and it was dark at this point as well. I was sure that any second we would go spiraling down to our death. Remarkably at about 10:30 we arrived in Dien Bien Phu. Dien Bien Phu is not much of a town at all with a few guesthouses and restaurants, we quickly found the cheapest guesthouse, which wasn’t really a room but more of a storage closet with 2 beds and passed out.
We had to get up at 4:30 the next morning to catch the 5:00 bus to Mung Khoa, which is the first major city in Laos. Sure enough the 5:00 bus didn’t leave until 6:00 but it was a real bus. I think there were more bags of vegetables than people on it though. A bag of garlic was under my feet as once again the Vietnamese will put things anywhere to make them fit. The whole bus was filled with onions, garlic, chillies, and other local fruits and vegetables that apparently were being transported to Laos. We got to the border without any issues in a few hours. Omer and I already had our visas for Laos, we had gotten them in Hanoi but still had to pay a 7,000 kip administrative fee. Luckily I had exchanged some dong (Vietnamese currency) for kip (Laos currency) with another traveler. I was the only one out of the four of us (Omer and the two Australians) who had any kip so I paid for all them as well. After crossing the border and another three or four hour ride through Lao villages we arrived in Mung Khoa.

Mung Khoa
None of us knew anything about Mung Khoa before we got there, it is not even mentioned in the Lonely Planet SE Asia edition which is all I had at the time. The bus dropped us off at one side of the Nam Ou river and again we had to pay a few kip to cross it, we finally settled on some Thai Baht and got to the other side. There was also a ferry for cars and motorbikes that was literally pushed by a boat to get the 10 meters or so to the other side. We got to the town and tried to figure our next step. It was about 1:00pm at this point. We quickly learned there were no ATM’s in Mung Khoa so the four of us were relying on my about $50 US Dollars worth of Kip until the next town. We sat down for some lunch and met a few other travelers that said there was a bus at 3:00 to Udomaxi, which is a bigger town with an ATM. From there you can catch a bus anywhere. During lunch we also met two Israeli guys who had just arrived from a 9 day canoe trip. They had bought a canoe at some other town up the Nam Ou River and canoed down to Mung Khoa after two days of practicing and learning from the locals. They would just camp or stay in local villages every night and canoe by day. It sounded like a really amazing experience something out of Into the Wild. We decided that we were going to try to catch the 3:00 bus to Udomaxi so we got into a pick up truck with benches in the back that are used as taxis and went to the bus station which was about 3km away. We got to the station at 2:00 but the bus was already full to Udomaxi and it was the last one of the day. We would have to wait until 8:00 the next morning for the next bus. After we missed the bus we decided we were going to be adventurous that night. We didn’t want to walk the 3km back to town with all our bags so we decided to camp on the banks of the river. There was a pretty steep drop off from the road to the river but we found a place to walk down near the bus station and reached the riverbank. Some kids had followed us and came down to see what these strange falongs (foreigner) were doing. We put on our bathing suits and went in the water for a little while and played with the kids. After that we started to plan things for the night. Tony (one of the Australians) and I were to go to town to find food and Omer and Red (other Australian, so called because of his red hair) were to make a fire. So Tony and I wondered into town where we saw the Israelis again. We offered them to join us and they said they had to sell their canoe first and then they might. We went around looking for food and a pot to cook it in and were debating if we should just buy take away from a restaurant. We got to the boat pier just as the Israelis had sold their canoe to a local. They were happy that it only took them a few hours to sell it. They also said they had plenty of food left and a pan and wok that would be enough for six. So we helped them carry their stuff back to our campsite and were greeted with a fire. While dinner was being prepared Tony and I again went on a mission for some beer, but with our limited funds ended up with Lao Lao or local rice whisky, which was much cheaper. We were wandering around the pretty deserted main street and ran into a sort of bar. That was my first introduction to “boon” which in America we call bocchiball. Apparently it was taken from the French and “boon” is now played on the streets everywhere in Lao usually for a few Beer Lao at stake. Also we were lucky because the SEA (Southeast Asia) Games were happening in Laos from December 9-18. The SEA games are basically the Olympics of SE Asia with much national pride at stake. Anytime Laos was playing soccer the whole country would be cradled around their TV sets. We brought back the Lao Lao and had a great meal of noodles and vegetables. We discussed life and traveling for the rest of the night and passed out. We got up early the next morning, packed our stuff, and huffed our way to the bus station intent on getting on the 8:00am bus, which we did. We arrived in Udomaxi after another very bumpy road and luckily they had an ATM there. Everyone got money and paid me what the owed. I had a decision to make, Omer and the Australians were going to Luang Prabang but I wanted to go to Luam Nam Tha, which is more North and supposedly really good for trekking. I decided I had enough of Omer and went to Luam Nam Tha. Raffy, one of the Israelis was also going there for a night to pick up his bike that had ridden from China.

Luam Nam Tha
When we arrived in Luam Nam Tha we had to take a pickup into town. We found a guesthouse and I was finally able to relax after a long last few days. It was cold in Luam Nam Tha but luckily I had some warm clothes including a jacket I bought in Sapa. It was a nice quiet small town with very friendly people. Everybody said Sabadee (hello) to you on the street as you passed by. The first night Raffy and I shared a roasted chicken with chilli sauce, which was delicious and I was able to shower and check the internet after a few days without it. I wanted to sign up for a trek but there were not many tourists in town and the treks were much cheaper with more people. Anywhere between 1 and 8 people can go but the price is substantially cheaper the more people you have. Basically there are four or five travel agencies around town that list all of their treks on a big white board and the number of people who have signed up for the next day and there was pretty much nobody signed up for anything when I checked the first night I was in town. The next day I decided to rent a bike for the day and hope to find people to go on a trek the next day. I biked to a waterfall that was nearby and also through some villages. It is amazing how simple life is in Laos. Much of the population live in villages. It is probably the most relaxing country I’ve been in which was a big difference from Vietnam. Nobody comes up to you to get you to buy something, they are content with just ‘chilling’. Life in the villages has very distinct roles for the men and women. The men go out and catch fish or hunt other food and take care of upkeep on the houses while the women wash the clothes, cook the food, and tend to the children. It is common to wander around a village and see men just sleeping in a hammock or on the floor. Laos definitely don’t take things too seriously. After my bike ride I returned to town to try to find some people to sign up for a trek. I met a French couple who had signed up for one the next day and at the last minute was able to find three other people who wanted to sign up as well so with me that made 6. So the next morning we were to depart at 9:00. It turned out everyone else spoke French in the group. Two French guys were traveling together, there was one guy from Montreal, and the French couple (the guy was actually from Belgium). Most of the time they would all talk in French together and I would just go and talk with our guide who was your typical 25 year old guy. The trek was for 2 days and the first day was not too bad. There were a few long uphill sections but most of it was pretty flat walking through the forest and valley. We stopped at a little bamboo hut for lunch, which consisted of sticky rice and some local vegetables. In Laos pretty much all meals are eaten with sticky rice. Also in Laos chopsticks are not used as they eat with their hands using sticky rice to help scoop up the other food. We got to the Akha (a hill tribe group) village where we were staying the night around 4:00 and Julien, Florian (the two French guys) and Dominic (the Canadian) went on a little adventure in the river. We walked/swam in the river against the current, which was hard work. We stumbled upon a rickety old bridge that was crooked and half falling apart and decided it would be a good idea to cross it. We made it to the other side and went exploring following a path. We crossed some local village boys with a harpoon and mask to catch fish, they learn from a young age how to hunt. Finally we ended up at a dead end and went back to the river to let the current carry us back to the village. The water level was very low though and the river was very rocky so we had to move carefully over the rocks and every few meters you would get a large rock hitting your ass or hips depending on what side you were on. Finally after about half an hour of this we arrived back at the village. We had another traditional Lao meal with chicken and vegetables, pumpkin and sticky rice. It was delicious. The rest of the night we sat around a fire discussing movies and music and watching the stars, which were truly remarkable. I haven’t seen that many starts in a long time. There was no light pollution, the village was pitch black except for everyone gathered around little fires throughout the village. There was separate house/hut made for tourists that we slept in for the night. It would have been cool to actually sleep in an villagers home but that wasn’t the case. The next morning after breakfast we started our hike back to the main road. First we passed through three more villages, one of the Lantern people who come from China and another Akha village who come from Cambodia. Each village has its own culture and customs and our guide told us that they had tried to combine to smaller Akha an Lantern villages but shortly after two members of the Akha village died and they returned to their former home. They believe a lot in spirits and things of that nature. After passing through the villages we had a very difficult walk through the jungle going over rocks and mud at times and the last bit of it was mostly uphill. It was a pretty tough trek but finally we made it to the road where a van was waiting to take us back to Luang Nam Tha. When we got back I found a guesthouse and got some food at the local night market. I had some laap, which is a traditional Lao salad with some sort of ground meat and garlic, shallots, coriander, mint, and chillies, and in this particular one buffalo skin. It was pretty good. I saw our guide sitting having some beers with one of his friends (another guide) and a few tourists and I joined them for the rest of the evening. Before I knew it I was a little bit drunk as they would just pour a little glass of beer and pass it to you and you had to drink it in one sip, they would go around the table and do this to everyone. I was planning on leaving for Luang Prabang the next day but changed my mind and decided to go to Nong Khiaw after hearing about it from the couple on the trek who said it was really nice. Julien, Florian, and Dominic were also planning on going there as well.

Nong Khiaw
The next morning I arrived at the bus station and because there were no direct buses to Nong Khiaw, it not on the main highway, I had to buy a ticket to Pak Mong which is a town about 33 km from Nong Khiaw. The bus was actually going to Luang Prabang but stopped in Pak Song. I met two women who were going to Nong Khiaw as well so we stuck together. Julien, Florian, and Domnic had chartered a minivan from their guesthouse along with some other people so they would be going directly to Nong Khiaw. After another long and bumpy ride we arrived in Pak Mong at around 4:00. The pickup driver wanted 30,000kip each to take us the rest of the way to Nong Khiaw but we would pay no more than 20,000. After waiting for an hour and a half we finally found a driver that agreed to 20,000. Reflecting back on it the difference between 20,000 and 30,000 kip is little more than a dollar so it really wasn’t worth the wait but I guess it’s the principal of the matter. Anyways we finally arrived in Nong Khiaw at about 6:00 and it was easy to see why it is a favorite destination for travelers. The town was centered on the Nam Ou river with guesthouses that had bungalows that overlooked the river. I found the cheapest guesthouse I could find and ate some delicious Indian food. I got up the next morning and saw the true beauty of the place. There was a morning fog over the town but it didn’t take away the beauty of the river and amazing limestone formations around it. You could see fisherman in the water and kids washing themselves in the river. There was a long bridge over the river that went from one side of town to the other and standing on the bridge you could truly get a great view. After much internal debate I decided to make it to Muang Ngoi Neua that morning. Muang Ngoi Neua was another town up an hour north on the river, which was supposed to be smaller and even more spectacular than Nong Khoi. It has developed a sort of cult reputation among backpackers as a great place to relax. There is one boat a day at 11:00 so I went to the pier where I saw Julien, Florian, and Dominic. They were heading to Muang Ngoi Neua as well.

Muang Ngoi Neau
The boat ride was a little over an hour and was a pretty cool although uncomfortable experience. There were no towns on the way. We met another French Canadian girl on the boat who knew of a cheap guesthouse in Muang Ngoi Neau so the five of us went there and got two rooms, 3 in one 2 in the other. The whole town was filled with guesthouses and at times there are probably more tourists than locals. It is a sleepy quiet town that only has power from 6-10 pm every night. The first day we just chilled and relaxed and got to know “Mama” who was the owner of the guesthouse of which the name was Mama banana. ‘Mama’ truly did become our mom for the next few days, cooking all of our meals and talking to us. Fanny the French Canadian girl quickly became a big fan of mama’s as she helped her cook when a big group of tourists came to eat. All five of us helped bring food out to their table and we felt like party of a family all helping out. ‘Papa’, ‘Mama’s husband’ was not feeling well so Fanny give him some medicine that made him feel better. The first night we didn’t eat until 9:00 because we had to wait until the big group had gotten their food but Mama made us some delicious Buffalo Laap and cooked vegetables. Mama was a one woman show. She did all the cooking herself and had only one assistant that helped with chopping vegetables and things like that. It was great getting to watch her cook in her small little kitchen with a wood burning stove. We just sat around the rest of the night listening to music. The next day started with some delicious if not extremely disgustingly fattening banana-chocolate pancakes cooked up by mama. I then played some volleyball with some local kids including mama’s 15 year old son. We were going trekking to some local caves and villages so mama made us some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the only problem is she also put regular butter and a lot of it, which turned the sandwiches pretty gross. So we set off and passed some kids hunting rats (no joke) and many cows as well. The scenery was pretty insane. The path started out flat walking past farms and cows with mountains in the backdrop then we had to pass over a few streams and soon arrived at the first cave. The cave was nothing spectacular, I have seen enough caves on this trip that they are all starting to look the same. Then we walked a little further and arrived at a village. Apparently this village was known amongst druggies because we encountered a French guy who was stoned out of his mind and met a few others on the way who were nothing but skin and bones. There was a local with a crazy beard and sideburns that sold pot and opium to supply all of the tourists. We kept walking and ended up going through the forest. There were numerous forks in the road and we didn’t really know where we were going, we were just trying to stay close to and follow the river. At one point we crossed the river over some locally made contraption that felt like it was about to collapse at any instant but we made it. Finally Fanny and I got tired of wandering without knowing where we were going and turned around to go back while Julien and Florian pressed on. On the way back we quickly made it out of the forest and back to the main path so we were clearly not going the right way because we were weaving through the forest for an hour or two without finding anything. Relieved that we had found our way back to the main path, we stopped to talk with some village children and take pictures when we saw Julien and Florian coming back soon after. They said they went a little bit further but the forest was full of leeches so they turned around. We walked back to town and met up with Dominic who had turned back early in the trek and the four guys went to play some “boon”. The only time I had played this game was at a bar in Brooklyn and it was really fun. The locals take it very seriously and are very good. One of the locals asked if he could have some of my beer and he took a sip and spit it out onto his ball to polish it. There were two courts, the locals were playing on one and us farangs on the other. After a few games we went back to the guesthouse where mama made us some duck laap with cooked vegetables. It was very delicious and we quickly chomped it all down. At this point mama knew we were leaving the next day and was very upset. She gave us each a bracelet that she made for us. We relaxed the rest of the nigh. The next morning we got up early to catch a boat back to Nong Khiaw which form there we would catch a bus to Luang Prabang. We said our final goodbyes to mama, it was quite sad leaving her. It was the first time that I really felt part of a community. The previous night mama had showed us pictures of tourists who had sent her pictures and she also told us how a group of three tourists who had stayed at her place went to Luang Prabang to get menus made and lamenated for her restaurant and brought it back to her.

Mui Ne, Nha Trang, and Hoi Ann

After Saigon and the Mekong Delta trip, I took a bus to Mui Ne which is a small beach town. Basically Mui Ne just consists of one long road along the beach with a bunch of resorts/guest houses and restaurants on it. A lot of the restaurants and resorts had signs in Russian because there are a large number of Russian tourists and also workers in oil. Mui Ne is also a world famous kite boarding destination, the best place in all of Asia. I met some of them and they are like a small cult, they live to kite. I considered taking a five hour class but the cost was a steep $200 and even after 5 hours you can't really do much, couple that with the fact that I don't know when I'll be in a place that I can kite-surf again so I decided it wasn't worth it. The first day I rented a bike for $1 a day and rode up the coast to some sand dunes that Mui Ne is also known for. I arrived at the sand dunes and there was an entourage of kids offering their services to me. The kids let you use a plastic sheet they give you and help you pack the sand on it. I picked a boy that had shown me how to get to the dunes and with him another girl about 13 came along with a younger girl and boy both about 10. I had my own personal crew of 4 kids that would get the sheet ready for me after each slide down the dunes. I went feet first, head first, and I tried to stand on it like a snowboard but every time I got down to a particular point the sheet would stop moving and I would fall over. I also got sand everywhere, in my shoes, all over my clothes, in my hair, in my underwear. Sand was absolutely everywhere. The dunes were fun for a little while but they weren't that big and it was scorching hot out and I had sand all over my body so I left after about half an hour. I paid the kids the agreed upon price but they kept haggling me to give them more, they asked for a tip. They did really help me a lot but we agreed on a price so thats what I gave them. On the way back the thing that holds the chain on the bike broke and I had to walk the bike back to my guest house which was about 7km away. It wasn't fun but I got to walk through the town and the local fishing village which was really cool. At the fishing village you can see hundreds of boats out in the ocean and local fisherman with nets bringing in the days catch. It was a beautiful spot to watch the sunset. I met an Israeli and Australian guy at the guest house and have been traveling with them ever since. There was a poker tournament at a local bar that night so we went to that and had a pretty good time. I should have made the last table but got beat on the river when I was all in. The next day I rented a motorbike to drive to another set of sand dunes which were farther away and were supposed to be bigger and better than the first. It was a spectacular ride along the coast about 25km long. When I got near the dunes I wasn't sure exactly where I was supposed to go but luckily there was a jeep tour heading there so I just followed the jeep over a dirt road for about 500m and reached the dunes. Again I "rented" a plastic sheet from a local kid and went out to try it. Unfortunately these dunes weren't that much better than the first so I didn't stay very long. The scenery there was very beautiful though. There was a kind of lake next to the dunes and you could also see the ocean in the distance. On the way back I picked up an old local woman who needed a ride and dropped her off a few km down the road. It was pretty cool being able to help someone after all when you are traveling you are constantly relying on the help of other people. I made it back to town in one piece and met up with Omer the Israeli and Luc the Australian for some drinks. My last night in Mui Ne was quite interesting but inappropriate material for this blog so you will have to ask me about that personally. Omer and I caught a night bus at 1:00am to Nha Trang, our next destination. I was able to sleep most of the way and we arrived in Nha Trang at about 7:00am.

After walking around for a while we bargained our way into a really nice room for $7. Overall accommodation has been a little bit more expensive in Vietnam than Thailand or Malaysia but when you are traveling with two people it makes it a lot cheaper. We really didn't do much our first day in Nha Trang, we just kind of walked around and explored the city a bit and walked down to the beach which was nice but nothing compared to the beaches in Thailand or even Malaysia. The next day we rented a motorbike and explored some of the sites of the city. We went to the Cham Towers. The Cham were the local indigenous people in parts of Vietnam many years ago. We also checked up the local market which was enormous. Just about anything you can imagine can be found at this market. Then we went to a Pagoda overlooking the whole town which was really nice. The most interesting part though was driving the motorbike, somehow I got nominated to drive and it was my first experience driving a motorbike in pretty heavy traffic. It is as crazy as it looks, now Nha Trang was nothing compared to Saigon but there were roundabouts and traffic going in all different direction and I was in the middle of it all. I pretty much only made right turns because I was afraid of turning left. As we were leaving the Pagoda it was getting dark out and it was rush hour but I got us home in one piece. Our nights in Nha Trang consisted of walking around for an hour or so deciding on where we were going to eat. Most of the restaurants catered to tourists and had Italian or Western menus along with Vietnamese food. One night I had a craving for pizza and pasta but was sorely disappointed with what I got. Western food, especially Italian food was just not the same so I vowed to stick with the local food. On our final full day in Nha Trang we went on a boat trip to some of the islands around Nha Trang which pretty much turned into a booze cruise. The crew drank more than any of the passengers and we ran out of beer pretty fast. I tried snorkeling for about five minutes but the masks and snorkels they provided sucked and there wasn't much to see anyway so the rest of the trip we just relaxed and talked with other travelers on the boat. They set up a little "floating bar" at one of the stops which basically consisted of a tire in the ocean with a board over it and one of the crew pouring out cups of wine. At the end of the trip the crew member who had clearly been the drunkest just hopped on his motorbike and drove him. At first I was appalled but then I realize that it is just a normal part of life here so I guess I had to be ok with it. On our final day in Nha Trang the weather turned sour. It was windy and rainy all day, the annoying kind of rain that just drizzles all day and doesn't go away. We walked around some more and stopped at a roadside barber for a shave and trim. There are barbers that just set up a chair on the street with all of their tools. They use manual clippers and no water during the shave and after about a weeks worth of facial hair it felt like I had each small hair being ripped from my face but I toughed it out and had a nice clean shave when it was all done. We took a night bus to Hoi Ann which was about 12 hours of trying to sleep but waking up every few minutes after hitting another pothole or crack in the road. Not only that but the bus was absolutely freezing so I only managed a couple of hours of sleep at best. Tired and disheveled Omer and I walked around for an hour before we finally found a hotel that was reasonably priced $8. Hoi Ann is a charming little town with a lot of history and character. It was like a breath of fresh air, gone were the sounds of motorbikes zooming everywhere. The whole town can be walked in 30 minutes but I liked it so much I stayed 3 days. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and there are many old buildings and temples all over the town. The Japanese and Chinese both had a heavy influence in Hoi Ann. Now it is best known as a tailors town. There are over 200 different tailors there and it is a great place to get shirts, suits, and jackets made but I skipped on that this time. I already had 3 suits made in Saigon 3 years ago. The part I liked about Hoi Ann the best though was the food. It was absolutely amazing. In fact I would say most of my time there revolved around food. Where was I going to eat, what was I going to eat? These were the most important questions of my day. I ate and ate and ate and ate until I couldn't eat any more and then I still ate more. There was fried wontons and wonton soup and co lau which is a noodle dish served with croutons, lettuce, and pork or shrimp. The noodles can only be made in Hoi Ann and are delicious. The bad weather followed us to Hoi Ann so it was rainy every day. Because of the weather I also ate a lot of Pho which was delicious. Also because of the rain it was like an excuse not to go out and do much so I could just eat more. Another specialty of Hoi Ann is white rose which is kind of like a shrimp dumpling but smaller. It was delicious. Hoi Ann itself is dissected by a river with the charming old town and all the restaurants all within a few blocks of the river. At night when it rained the river would flood and the street overlooking the river was impassable. Another highlight of Hoi Ann was the local market which again has to do with food. On one of the few occasions I wasn't eating I bought ten knock off polo shirts for about $3 each and went to the post office to mail home. The shipping charge was about $20, not too bad. The other best part about Hoi Ann was the nightlife. For an old quite town I wasn't expecting much of a nightlife and I guess with the exception of a few places there wasn't really but Omer and I had a bit of a unique experience. The first night we were in Hoi Ann we were just walking around when we ran into a Swedish guy who was going to a bar that he said had free rum and cokes from 9-12. We thought that sounds pretty sweet so we went along. This bar is the perfect definition of dive bar. There was markers for people to write all over the walls and a pool table in the middle and sure enough there was free rum and cokes from 9-12, the whole night I paid for one drink and it was less than a dollar. The next night Omer and I went back obviously and saw a sign on the wall that said: "Wanted 2 Westerners to help with the bar," or something like that so naturally we inquired about it. After talking with the owner he said if we passed out flyers and helped play music and dj we could have free drinks all night and free something else as well. So we said great we started right then and there. The owner drove us to his house gave us some flyers to pass out showed us where we could get free food the next day if we wanted and then drove us back to the bar. From there he gave us his motorbike to use and we went driving off passing out a flyer to any Westerner we saw. I made the mistake of walking into a competitor bar and passing out flyers there before quickly getting a talking to by the manager or something. We managed to convince a group of middle aged men and women to come and it turned out to be a really fun night. We got a ride back to our hotel by one of the employees at the bar and got up at noon the next day nursing hangovers. That day we went out to pass out some more flyers, we had a mission to fill up King Kong Local Bar as it was called. The problem was it was out of the backpacker area and kind of hard to find. You had to pass a bridge to get to the other side of the river which few tourists ventured to. But passing out flyers gave us a great reason to talk with other tourists and we developed a bit of a reputation amongst the locals as well who all knew who we were by the end of the day. That night we got a decent turnout although not as great as we would have hoped and actually went back to the hotel pretty early around 1:00AM. We said goodbye to the owner and other people at the bar as we were leaving the next day and once again one of the employees/motorbike drivers drove us back to the hotel. It was pretty damn cold out and raining and although it was only a 20 minute walk or so it would have sucked to make it. We were hungry though and our driver took us to probably the only place that was open at 1:00AM, which happened to be a pho place. Our driver waited as we gulped down our food were overcharged because we were tourists but it was so good we didn't care and drove us home. It was a great 3 days in Hoi Ann. I will miss the food but if I stayed there any longer I might have left obese.

Singapore and Vietnam

When you think of Singapore, you imagine a clean and efficient city that sticks out in Southeast Asia like a sore thumb and for the most part it is true. Singapore is the business and financial heart of Southeast Asia. It is made of of majority Chinese although there is a large population of Indians, Malays, and Westerners as well. The official language is English and its clear to see English is quickly becoming the worlds language. It was nice to be in an actual city again. The subway system was extremely efficient and overall the city was very clean. Every time you bought a subway ticket you had to pay a $1 deposit and you could redeem it after your trip by putting the ticket back in the machine, a great way to minimize waste and recycle. I was lucky to find a Japanese guy living in Singapore on couchsurfing for my whole 4 day stay. Kuni, my host is really an incredible guy. He is softspoken and quiet but has traveled to over 100 countries including many in Africa. He lives in a luxurious but small studio/ 1 bedroom apartment and hosted 4 people every night. In fact he says in the last few years, rarely a night has gone by where he hasn't hosted at least one person. He truly lives for couchsurfing and I think for many middle aged men especially couchsurfing gives them a community to feel part of. You can never feel lonely with new people staying at your place every night but I don't know if I could do what Kuni does. He just moved to Singapore a week or so before I arrived and was already hosting people. I owe him a great deal of thanks. Not having to pay for a room made me able to enjoy Singapore a little more and not be so concerned with my spending. I booked a hop on hop off bus/boat tour and was able to use it for 2 days. So I hopped on and went around the city. I learned many interesting things, for one it is extremely expensive to buy/own a car in Singapore. You first have to pay for a permit just to be allowed to buy a car and then taxes are insane as well. It's something like $10,000 just for the permit. They do this to minimize traffic and pollution in the city and it definitely works. Singapore reminds me a little bit of San Antonio as all the action is on the riverfront. However the buildings in Singapore are a lot bigger and I would say the river is a little nicer.

I visited Chinatown which was just another Chinatown, nothing special, every big city has one and also the Asian Civilizations Museum which was very interesting. There are exhibits on the history of Southeast Asia as a whole and Singapore in particular as well as specific exhibits on Chinese and Indian history and the influenced they have had on SE Asia. It was a very interesting place but after a few hours your brain is on overload and you can't retain any more information. I also visited Sentosa Island, which is kind of a mini island with a bunch of attractions and amusements on it like an aquarium, different 3-d shows and other things. They only thing I wanted to do was the luge which is basically just this go cart type thing and you go rolling down a road. It was pretty fun but was over quickly. They also have beaches on Sentosa but it is not much. They ship in the sand from elsewhere, and it is not really paradise as there are many oil tankers in the ocean. I did, however, visit the southern most point in mainland SE Asia, which was on Sentosa. This too, however, was not very interesting, just basically a platform to overlook the ocean.

The next day I wandered through Little India which was right by Kuni's place. It was actually pretty interesting and authentic. I had some delicious chicken briyani and definitely want to learn how to cook Indian food when I get home. There was also a pretty neat Hindu Temple in the middle of Little India which reminded me a lot of India itself. Everyone inside was making offerings to the deities or something and there was a lot of music and gathering. I'm not really sure exactly what was going on, Hinduism is the one religion that confuses me most. For the rest of the day I just relaxed at Kuni's and that night I went out with Sven who was a Hungarian guy also traveling at Kuni's and about 20 other couchsurfers that we met. We went out clubbing in Singapore and I would say at least half of the people at the club were white. I lost Sven halfway through the night which sucked because I was relying on him to get us back to Kuni's. I like going to clubs now and then but overall it's not my thing. I have to be either really drunk or with good friends to enjoy myself and I was neither so I was ready to go home by about 2:00 AM. Unfortunately cabs are very expensive at that time so I ending up staying out with everyone till around 6:00 when the metro started running. Although Singapore is known as a clean city, when I left there was trash and beer bottles all over the place. The area we went out was called Clarke Quay and it is basically an area on the river with a large concentration of bars and clubs. It's actually a really cool area and a cool spot to go out because everything is close to each other, I just would have preferred a cool bar with maybe some live music. I made it back to Kuni's dead tired and luckily was able to get inside the gate as someone was leaving. I got inside and passed out on the couch and got about 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up for my flight to Saigon.

Saigon was the first place on my trip that I had been to before and I was curious what that would be like. Would I remember the streets at all? I first came to Saigon on Semester at Sea but when I got there this time it was completely different. I went right to the "backpacking district" and there was many hotels and restaurants catered to backpackers all over the place. I definitely didn't see this the first time I was here. It is very interesting because on SAS we mostly stayed on the ship so we avoided the main backpacker areas which was cool because it made things feel less touristy in a way. I didn't quite expect the amount of backpackers that I would encounter in Saigon. In addition to backpackers, there were many older tourists in Saigon as well, a much older crowd than Thailand or Malaysia for instance. I walked through the city trying to recognize streets I had probably been to before. I finally found a familiar spot when I saw a statue of a man on a horse and a kind of grassy park area near by. I had remembered being in that area the first time I was in Saigon. The first night I just wandered around and walked to Apocalypse Now, a bar/club that I had fond memories of. I found the club after walking around for about half an hour but everything seemed so different. I certainly don't remember seeing so many nice stores and buildings. Saigon has all the latest stores and even has a Louis Vitton. There was an opera going on in the opera house and a row of motorbikes lined up outside watching on a screen which was pretty cool. One thing I do remember about Saigon is the crazy traffic. There are really no street signals and there are hundreds of motorbikes going in all different directions. There are no crosswalks and to get across the street you just start walking and hope the motorbikes avoid you in time. I met up with another couchsurfer the first night, an English DJ/model type that seemed to have a lot of amazing couchsurfing experiences but who was not the type of person I would typically be friends with. Nice as hell but a little bit to into himself. We ended up at a club and I didn't feel like doing the club thing 2 nights in a row so I left early. I will so the girls in Saigon though are absolutely beautiful. I can see why so many westerners come here to teach and find themselves a nice Asian girlfriend. I don't know if I could do it and respect myself though. I had a lot of conflicting emotions and thoughts about the whole thing, my latest gf being Vietnamese and all.

The next day I visited the War Remnants Museum which I didn't get a chance to do the first time I was here. It was truly a powerful experience and the whole time I felt myself shrinking inside as an American. We really did some terrible things in the Vietnam War but it is really interesting because the Vietnamese that were for the South feel very grateful towards America, many escaped and lived there after the war but many old Vietnamese probably still hate Americans. The young people in Vietnam seem to hold no grudges against Americans though. My tour guide for my Mekong Delta trip which I will go into said Vietnamese have three prevailing opinions of Americans: 1) They all want to learn English so they think America is good, many want to go there 2) They just want all the world to live in peace now, and 3) The American military men had no choice of where they went, they were just following orders so most like Americans but don't like the American government which is perfectly understandable. The War Remnants Museum was very interesting with some graphic photos of the terrible affects of Agent Orange. There were also many photos of all the countries around the world protesting the war. I really don't know much about the war and the world opinion at the time but I am interested now to read a lot more about it. After the War Remnants Museum I visited the Reunification Palace which was the home of the President of South Vietnam during the war. Unfortunately it has not been taken care of very well and much of it was dirty and falling apart and overall it didn't really have an impact on me. The rest of the day I just relaxed and walked around and booked a 2 day trip to the Mekong Delta leaving the next morning.

On a sidenote, being in Vietnam, I definitely had to step up my bargaining compared to Malaysia and Thailand. In Thailand bargaining is friendly and cordial, they get offended when you get upset, in Malaysia there is minimal bargaining as everything is fixed price but in Vietnam if you don't bargain hard you will get taken advantage of. The prices they quote you are five to ten times the actual price you should pay so you have to bargain hard and usually if you walk away they will come chasing after you and agree on your price. The Vietnamese of made copies of pretty much every Lonely Planet book that exists and hundreds of novels as well so you can buy copies for cheap prices which is nice if you want a book to read and get rid of when your down but which wouldn't last for any prolonged amount of time. But the accomodation in Vietnam, at least in Saigon, is much more expensive then any other place I've been so far. Maybe it's because the high season is starting but I had to bargain hard just to get a single room for $10, most places wanted $15 or $20 which is a lot for this area. I hope other parts are cheaper.

Back to the Mekong Delta trip. First of all there are many different travel agencies in Saigon, I went to about five or six of them looking for the best trip but it turned out to be a complete wast of time because they all are the same. All the travel agents use the same company and everyone is on the same trip. So about twenty of us got on a bus and started our tour. Our first stop was My Tho and Unicorn Island an Island on the Mekong River where we saw a bee farm and had some honey and then saw locals making coconut candy. The candy was pretty delicious but pretty much the whole island had been set up strictly for tourists. There were merchants selling T-shirts and souvenirs and I felt like a cow just being herded from one activity to the next. We took a boat and went through some canals but it was all pretty touristy. The best part of the day was after lunch we were able to take bikes and explore the area on our own which was pretty cool. Then we got back on a bus for many hours and eventually on a ferry. The bus ride was pretty bad because half the people on it were just complaining about how long it was taking. I just wanted to punch some of them in the face. This is not Germany or Canada people, you're in SE Asia and you have to go with the flow. I was glad that I had signed up for the homestay option for $10 more because when everyone went to the hotel I was whisked away on a motorbike by my host. After about a half hour ride on the motorbike I arrived at my homestay. The place had been set up to host tourist about three years ago. There were separate rooms for tourists to stay and hammocks laid outside in the common area overlooking the river. Nonetheless, it was an authentic experience. The dad was the only one there for a while and I spoke to him for a while. He was a high school Chemistry teacher and had a 14 and 19 year old son. They came home a few hours later along with one of their friends who heard their was a foreigner staying tonight and wanted to practice his English. So I talked with him for a while and tried to help him with his English. He was trying to study in Singapore and had to pass exams to test his English and was having trouble. English was the way out for so many of these people in these countries the way to study in other countries and to make something out of their lives. Everybody wants to learn English these days, I guess I should be thankful that it is my first language. In Asia, with knowing English comes opportunity. You can work as a tour guide or in tourism in some other way. Everybody wants to know it. Kids and adults alike will walk up to you on the street just to practice. I could see myself teaching English for a year or two when I'm done traveling to try to help these people out. I realize that teaching English is really giving people opportunities and it would be a cool thing to be a part of. The maid or housekeeper served me a feast for dinner which could have easily fed five or six. The next morning Viet, my host lent me a bike and I biked up and down the path that he lived on. There was basically one long path with houses on either side and a river behind one side. Viet's house was right on the river. I rode to the local market and passed many houses on the way, I was able to observe real Vietnamese people in real life and see their houses. Nobody spoke English and I ended up sitting with a group of men having tea for a while which was nice. After my bike ride the maid drove me back to meet up with the rest of the tour group. The rest of the morning we took a small boat and was able to witness the largest floating market in Vietnam and maybe all of SE Asia. This market was as real as it gets, sure there were tourists there watching but the buyers and sellers weren't there for the tourists. The farmers come from all over the area and bring their fruits or vegetables by boat to the floating market. Our guide said if they were lucky they would sell everything in 3 days and then go back home and come back a few days later and do it all over again. Sometimes it took as long as a week to sell everything. Some farmers specialized in one thing, maybe pineapples or potatoes while others grew a few things. To let the buyers know what they were selling they put up a giant stick on the front of the boat and tied the fruit or vegetable they were selling to it. A very basic system of wholesaling. These farmers live on their basic wooden boats while they are waiting to sell their supply. It is a very basic life but a respectable one. Most of the Vietnamese men and all the farmers are in perfect shape because they are doing physical labor all the time, they all have six packs and perfectly proportional bodies. They know how to use their hands and build and fix boats, all things I will never know how to do. I respect their ability and almost envy them in a way. I could definitely live of the fresh fruits and vegetables that people in Vietnam and all over SE Asia by from their local market every day. After touring the floating market we visited a rice noodle factory and rice husking mill, both interesting places. They are pretty much small family owned businesses that just make the rice noodles and rice for that region. After lunch we returned to Saigon on a bumpy ride and after bargaining and checking out 6 or 7 hotels finally settled on one for $10 which was more than I wanted to pay but the best I could do. Tomorrow I go to Mui Ne which is supposed to be a nice beach town with world renowned Kite boarding and cool Sand Dunes. I am excited to explore the rest of this country with so much history and to talk to the people to learn more about the feelings about the current situation in the country.