So Long to the Dong & Sabaii dee to my trip with the Kip

A little explanation of the title perhaps, Dong is the currency for Vietnam and the Kip is the currency for Laos. Sabaii Dee means 'Hello' in Laos.
12th July Left Hanoi & Vietnam today after a 22 day visit and flew to the Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Met 4 lads from Kilkenny on the flight and shared a taxi into town. Most of the accommodation in town was full and could not take 5 of us so I left them as I felt they would have it easier with a smaller group. I checked in at the very next place i visited for E5 per night and went out for dinner and a beer, a right of passage for any traveller arriving after a long days travel.
13th July I took the self guided walking tour around Vientiane today to see the sights. Its a pleasant enough place but not much going on. I booked my ticket to go North to Viang Veng, a place popular with backpackers.
14th July Arrived in Vian Veng today, a town famous for its 'Tubing' down the river. This is a real backpackers haven with loads of internet cafes, restaurants and bars. There are loads of places playing Movies, Freinds, Family Guy and the Simpsons continuously. I checked into the Champa Lao Guesthouse for E2 per night and it was a great spot. Situated on a cliff edge overlooking a bend on the river propped up by stilts, it has great views. Didn't do much today, just chilled out, had a look around and got to know some of the other residents.
15th July Went Tubing today with Brendan, a lad from Bantry today. Tubing involves floating down a fast river in a truck tyre tube and in the case of vian veng stopping off at the various bars along the way. The bar owners throw out a rope for you to catch and drag you in for a beer. We drifted down the 4km stopping off at a few of the 13 bars. The bars are a simple affair usually on stilts with swinging trappese type swings over the water and with a big cheer, one lets go and falls about 20 ft into the river below. Many people get rat arsed drunk and god knows why there're arent more drowned. Last night at the hostel we heard a girl screaming for help. She was clinging to a bridge below, had lost her tube and was very drunk. She had stayed too long at a bar and hopped into her tube as it got dark, lost her way and then lost her tube. She had decided against a life jacket too. Her 2 other freinds were missing and saw a search party in motorised canoe heading out to look for them. There are countless staff selling the trips but none at the end, helping people out of the water or checking off tubers that have arrived back. I pulled an American family and 2 dutch girls out another day that has missed the badly signposted exit. Thats the 3rd world I suppose and why its cheap.
16th July I wanted to do a short motorbike trip today but the rain was crazy. Our river burst its banks today and flooded nearby paddy fields and made some roads impassable. A bamboo bridge passed by in the water today as we ate breakfast. Watching from the balcony, it crashed into a bridge below to really loud cracking noise and we all cheered. It was amazing to watch. Monsoons are mad.
17-18th July Still in Vian Veng, pissin rain. Water level rising and watching freinds and family guy. Its OK though, lots of other backpackers hanging out, chatting in a great relaxing atmosphere.
19th July I decided to get the bus to Luang Prabang today, 135km North of VV. While I was waiting for the bus and watching the water levels rise, about 2 ft per day, there was a huge thunder type noise. I looked around and the whole cliff side of our guesthouse had fallen into the river including 3 chalet bungalows. I watched the bungalows float down the river and take out 2 bridges with it. The bungalows were evacuated last night. I had to laugh though, it was just the unbelievable spectacle of it all. I felt sorry for the management though (a mother and 2 sons) as their bungalows, their bridge, their concrete staircase and the site they were all on were all on their way down the river smashing up everything in their path. After all that drama my bus pick up arrived and I was on my way to Luang Prabang. Thought id get out while the going was good. On the journey the bus was weaving its way around avalanches on the road and all kinds of earth moving and farm machinery out moving earth off the only highway through the country. Its a very scenic road built by the french through the mountains. It was 300km and took us 7 hours. The bus was carring more people than seat and had plastic chairs all along the aisle with locals sitting on them. A nice finnish girl was put sitting up front on a collaspable chair beside the driver and his male assistant sitting on the steps the other side. She was obviously not enjoying it and i offered my nice proper seat to her. She was delighted and Ive been reaping the rewards of my kind gesture ever since. We (a finnish + english girl and an ozzie lad) arrived in LP & after the usual Tuk Tuk arguements we checked into a nice place. LP is a lovely town and I had my first glass of red wine in an age. It was a Chilean Shiraz and we paid E12 for it. I couldnt help thinking the waiter that brought it to us would only earn that amount in 3 weeks.
20th July Walking around LP today I was disapointed to learn that motorbike rental was not permitted in the town. They said it was due to the high rate of accidents but i felt it was more to do with the fall off in demand for tours etc to the locally located attractions. The roads were lovely around LP with nice little villages and photo opportunities rarely exploited on the back of a whizzing tuk tuk. I visited Phu si Hill to see a view of the town and the local Museum housed in former kings palace.
21st July Went to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls which was good. The falls are not particularly big (150 metre fall) but due to the high water levels in the area they are quiet spectacular. A staircase had been cut into the rock alongside the waterfall and as you walk up the stairs the water was gushing down them. Everyone got soaked but I had my 50 cent rain jacket in my bag. I decided to head back to Thailand along the Mekong river on a 2 day boat trip. While in the booking office a spanish couple on my waterfall trip came in and were telling me to go very early to the boat to get a good seat as it was 12 hours.
22nd July Arriving at the boat an hour early i got a great seat with lots of leg room. The boats were modern versions of traditional boats with car seats as the passenger seats and about 30% of them were hard benches. It was great, the views of the forest and riverside tribes were quiet amazing. It was a long 12 hours and thank god for a tatty Jeffrey Archer book i picked up in the guesthouse. 'As the crow flies' is a book about a young lad that builds up a property empire. Felt like I was back at work. Arrived at 'Pak Beng' 12 hours later, slower than it should be as we were travelling upstream in the wet season, and checked into a crappy place for E2 per night. Funny how ones mind set changes while travelling as i turned down a luxury hotel for E15 per night (a months wages for a local) and was quiet happy to save the difference. PB is a real outback place, with no electricity supply so all the electricity is generated by diesel generators. They turn them on at 5pm and they are switched off at 10.30pm. If you are not in your bed by then the place is pitch black. PB was muddy as hell and I could not walk in my flip flops as they kept coming off and getting wedged in the mud. I walked the mucky streets in my bare feet and felt like a local.
23rd July Lashing rain and mud squidgeing through my toes, I headed for the boat this morning at 8am and perilously decended down a muddy embankment with 15kilos on my back and 5 kilos on my front. Got onto our boat and it was nothing like yesterdays. It was all narrow teak benches and put up with it for 12 hours. Everybody ended up sitting and sleeping on the floor as we made our final journey up the Mekong towards the Laos/Thai border town of Huang Xai. We missed the 5pm deadline for the thai border so spent the night in HX. Had a dodgy Indian curry that night and the toilet has been my closest freind for the last day or two.
24th July Bearing in mind my delicate condition, I had sticky rice (rice mixed with gluten) for breakfast, a great way to clog up the digestive system and finally left Laos. I crossed the Mekong river (the border) in a motorised canoe to Thailand. It was good to be back to civilisation but i will miss Laos. It was a lovely primitive country with laid back freindly people which had a positive knock on effect on the tourists.
We got a bus that took through every two bit town and village on our way to Chang Mai (the capital of Northern Thailand) & hours later we arrived in the rain. We (me and an aussie lad called Mark) started negotiations with a plethora of tuk tuk and taxi drivers and after an arguement broke out between 2 of the drivers over one lad under cutting another we quickly exited in the back of our pick up truck taxi on our 3km (E1 each) journey into town. Our prefered guesthouse was full but got another place easy enough.

Hanoi and Halong bay

06 July My first night in Hanoi and settling in to my room. At 12.05am there was a knock on the door and it was a lad from reception. He explained to me that the electricity company had called and the electricity in half of the hotel was going to be shut off in 30 minutes. He went on to say that the hotel next door had a similar room next door and if i wanted air conditioning for the night I could move over. Not having unpacked and the sweltering heat not a pleasant thing at night I agreed. There was a guy waiting on a motorbike outside to help me move. I suspected something was dodgy when they told me the hotel was now a few blocks away. I left my bag a decided to take a look first. The room was OK but they wanted $15, not $10 agreed in the other place. The other people I was travelling with did not know where I was so I decided not to take the room and went back to the original hotel. I demanded my key back and said I was Ok with no electricity. Electric was never turned off and it turned out the following morning that they had an American Couple on the way from the airport willing to pay $20 for my room. I also heard that they moved the Brazilian lads then with the same cock and bull story. They told me in the morning that there was no longer a room for me at the hotel and i was to leave. I checked in to another hotel up the road and it was far better.
The following day I met up with Seamus and Kathleen for dinner and they asked a bicycle taxi driver for directions to a particular restaurant. He offered to take us there for a price but we said we wanted to walk. He wanted to be paid for the directions, which we did, and then he gave us the wrong directions. The place was turning out to be a complete con job but strangely enjoyable pitting your wits against them. The locals are lovely people but people earning their living from tourists are to be treated with caution.
Deciding to take in some of the local culture we all went to the Water Puppet show for traditional singing, music and puppetry in water. It was good fun but didnt understand much. Hanging out with a great crowd including 3 Irish, 2 Brazilians and 2 English. Rosie the Irish girl asked if she could take a look at our hotel as she was too interested in moving from the first one. I said Id show her my room and when we got to the hotel the owner was not going to let her in. She kept saying to us No prostitute, no prostitute! I dont think she understood what she was saying, but probably meant to say No night visitors that have not paid to stay. Rosie was not impressed and didnt want to stay after that episode. I thought it was quite funny.
7-8th July Didnt do much in Hanoi as it was a bank holiday and nothing much was open in the line of museums etc so just ate, drank and slept. We went to the cinema to see Kung fu Panda which was a laugh.
9-11th July Went to Halong Bay today on a 3 day cruise. Halong bay is a Unesco World hertiage site and consists of a bay of over 3000 islands in the Gulf of Tonkin, part of the South China sea. The cruise on a traditional Vietnameses junk boat took us to various parts of the bay with an overnight stay on an island and the next night on the boat. The other travellers on the boat were a super lot and we enjoyed that bit. On the other hand the organisers were dreadful and everything they did was messed up. Changing boats, buses, hotels at the last minute. Waiting around for hours between buses and boats, not having the names of their passengers, losing passports, charging corkage on drinking water when we refused to buy their extorsionately priced water. We had bus drivers packing buses to squashing point while refusing to allow anybody sit up the front with them (additional two seats), banging windows, slamming doors and shouting and pushing us. One guy refused to pay corkage and one of the crew members grabbed his hand and physically tried to prise his fingers open. Me and seamus rallied the others and told the crew that we were not going to pay corkage on water. We were told 10 minutes later that we had to change boats. What a disasterous company and it is rife in Halong. Such a beautiful place ruined by the tour operators.
12th July Back in Hanoi and flying to Vientiane, the capital of Loas tomorrow. Final thoughts on Vietnam is that its a beautiful and interesting country with lots of interesting history. The people are lovely if they are not making a living from you. The southern parts are more freindly than the Northern.

Leaving Hoi An and the Paddy march to Hanoi

01 July Not sure if that title is a reference to my origins or to the rice fields, but it felt like a bit of both. I left Hoi An today and after reading a reccommendation in the Lonely Planet Guidebook I decided I would take the train journey along the coast from nearby Danang (30 kms away) to Hue (my next desination). The girls on reception offered to organise a bus pick to Hue for me for $1 and couldn't understand that I wanted to go on a more inconvienient, longer and more costly option. The travel scene here is so easy with pick ups at your hotel and drop off where ever for next to nothing. Its too easy and largely uneventful and I do have a blog to keep. Taking the locals route I hopped on the back of a motorbike and off i went down to the local bus station. I got there and a woman selling stall food gave me all my info whilst relieving me of 50 cent for a bottle of water. The bus pulled up and resembled one of those yellow American school buses from the 1950's. The windows were the slide across type and everyone was hanging out the window. I was like the new circus attraction and the whole journey the other passengers were just looking at me. I often think that they must be well used to foreigners but then the bus travelling Vietnamese have come to town from rural areas and not used to my kind. An hour later I arrived in Danang. Danang is a large business town and doesnt really cater for tourists all that much, so english speakers are thin on the ground. The bus conducter told me to get off and I found myself at some big central boulevard place. With the help of a map and an nice young lady with an little english I agreed with a motorcycle taxi driver to take me to the train station. I dont think he understood and didnt have any reading glasses so he took me to whatI thought was the train station but turned out to be the airport, the gobshite. He was paid and gone but at least I could find out all about the trains and get proper taxis at the airport. Off again in a taxi to the train station. Got to the station and got my ticket, the ticket seller asked if I wanted a sleeper carraige and I said no. She gave me a sleeper ticket, too much hassle to change it so i took it. An hour later i was on board and my sleeper car was a cabin of 6 beds with a Vietnamese family of 5 already in there. My bed was the bottom bunk and 2 of them were sitting on it eating their dinner, great. They didnt have any English except the grandfather who fought in the war and kept saying to me whilst maintaining direct eye contact ' Viet Nam No.1 , Viet Nam No.1' I smiled, nodded and said 'yes'. My expected view of the coast line was obscurred by four heads of black hair and one silver so that was a balls. I hopped up to the top bunk (3 levels up) and slept for the rest of the journey. Arrived in Hue and taxied to the hotel. I checked in and went out for food to a restaurant arond the corner. The waiter was a lad named Tuu and he manged to convince me to take a tour with him on the back of his bike the following day.
02 July Met Tuu at 8.30am and off we went. He brought me down all kinds of back roads and alleys and saw lots of off the beaten track stuff. Saw the usual tombs, palaces, buddas etc. The town centre of Hue is a walled in town and i decided to do that myself. Late that afternoon I went in and it was too big to get a good look. Its perimiter is 10km and contains a walled in palace inside that again.
03 July I took a tour to the DMZ (The Demilitarized Zone) which is nearby. I saw tunnels used by the North Vietnames and US army bases and various sights that some Viet Nam movies were made. One of the unexpected events was a Dutch couple on the tour had there wallet snatched by local kids, and after a 2 hour delay we were on our way again. As we got home at the same time as expected I reckon they glossed over a couple of sights including a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a road through the jungle used by the North Vietnamese to move supplies north and south during the American war. we stopped on a bridge for 5 minutes and it was pointed to us and that was it. A visit to a tribal village was a running commentary as we drove past. I queried how we made up 2 hours and got some bullshit excuse about makin good time. It wasnt all bad and was good craic, i met 2 sound English lads and we went for dinner and beers afterwards. Im off to Hanoi (the capital of Viet Nam) tomorrow at 5.15pm by night bus.
04 July Didnt do much today, booked my night bus to Hanoi, looked around and met up with a Spanish couple for dinner. While in the restaurant somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said 'You not going to the Isle of Mann this year?' It was Kathleen Dwyer, whom i met at the IOM last year. She is from my village at home and our mothers were great freinds. Small world. She was travelling with a lad from Inverin ( a village 10km from my home house) and will be meeting up in Hanoi day after tomorrow. Got on the night bus at 5.15pm to Hanoi and about 11pm we stopped off at this roadside place. I got chatting to 2 Brazilian lads and we all decided to order the noodles with vegetables. They must of thought we were complete idiots as when our meal arrived it consisted of a bowl of 2 minute noodles with a couple of green things on it. All around us the locals were tucking in to fine big feeds, while mine was gone in 2 mouthfuls. When it came to paying the bill of 15,000 dong i refused to pay the full amount (backed by the 2 lads) we eventually agreed at 10,000 (40 cent) each and left, but not without a big local drama.
05 July Got to Hanoi at 7.30am this morning. About 10 minutes before the bus dropped us off, this lad hops on and started working his way around the passengers selling his hotel. The flier looked good, it was reccommended by the lonely planet and the price was right. We agreed to take a no obligation look at the place which included transport there. Along the way, he wanted to show us another cheaper option so before we could ddecide either way, we were there. Not liking his modus operandi, I didnt even look at the room but the 2 lads did. They liked it and were happy to stay. I got chatting to a girl from Belfast in the reception and she was happy with it too. I looked at the room and decided to stay. Had a walk around the 'Old Quarter' of Hanoi and stoppped in this place for lunch, I got chatting to this Dutch girl who started giving out about the Irish and their attitude to the Lisbon treaty.... she was nice though. Going out to dinner now with my freind from Belfast and the 2 lads.

Na Trang and up the South central coast

28 June I rented a motorbike today and went off to see the sights. Saw big boulders with all kind of mythololgy attached, towers, museums and couldn't find other things. As i was checking out today and taking the night bus to Hoi An , I had to leave the hotel at midday and hang around until 7pm. So half day sightseeing on the bike and back to hotel for a final shower and another half day on the road again. The place is swelteringly hot (about 35C) and im sweating like a pig. I decided that what better way to while away 6 hours but to go to the local Hot Springs. Thap Ba Hot Springs centre caters for wealthy visitors and arriving on my Honda 50 amongst the luxury air conditioned buses and fancy cars must have been a sight. So, my money being as good as anybodys I went in and ordered the full monty. Mud bath, mineral bath, monsoon power shower, fluffy towel and pool access ($20). First off was the mud bath, probably full of beneficial stuff and from some amazing place, but I didnt bother reading the spoof on it. Your man directed me to my tub, which was a big timber yolk and turned on the mud flow. The stuff looked like hot concrete and I wondered if i get in will i ever get out. Hopped in for 20 minutes and covered myself in the stuff. It was in my eyes and everything and couldnt find any water to wash it off. Eventually, after my best Stevie Wonder search, i poured my drinking water on my eyes and was Ok. Then i was told to sit on a lounger under the sun for another 15 mins, I fell asleep and when I woke up I thought I was paralysed. The mud was baked hard on my skin and was mad keen to get it off. Shuffelling over to the showers i spent 30 mins scrubbing. Good for the skin, as all the mud grains exfoliate you. Down to the mineral baths where I was put in a big love heart bath on my own. All around me were couples and looking at me and feeling sorry for me. Even the staff started talking to me so I would not be on my own. Had they not passed any heed, I wouldnt have known any better. Not phased by that I went to the pool and relaxed for a couple of hours. As Im not one for relaxing that much, i decided to conduct an experiment with the local ant population. A empty can of red bull was on my table and I poured a few drops onto the table surface. The Ants gobbelled it up and started running around in circles like lunatics and about 20 of them died, heart attack or brain failure i expect..... moral of the story: avoid red bull!!
Got the night bus, which are special buses with large reclined seats. Its a bus of 31 beds and made in China. The South East Asians are smaller than us and they were a little cramped but OK. They were air conditioned and had a toilet so all in alll very comfortable. Fell asleep and woke up outside my hotel.
29 June So I had arrived in Hoi An. It is a very beautiful and scenic town which was spared Bombing by the americans so its old and full of character. I checked into a nice hotel a couple of Klms from the centre. It was a lovely hotel with pool and all the comforts for $10 per night. I didnt mind as I rented a motorbike and flew in and out of town to my hearts content. Saw all the sights and went for a great lunch in a Vietnamese/french restaurant. I went to a nearby town called Danang where there is a beach called 'China Beach'. It was the setting for an 80's American TV show about a Vietnam war medical centre. It was an American Gi resting spot and was beautiful. I drove the bike up to the top of Monkey mountain up roads that were rarely used and the jungle had practically grown over them. Only enough for a bike. Got to the top to this old US army lookout thing and lo and behold there were a couple of lads living there. They were as surprised to see me as I them. I made my excuses (Sing Jow! Sing Jow! Kaam urn! / hello hello, thank you) and left. I got back to town and spotted an American girl i met in kampot, cambodia and we went for a great dinner and a few beers.
30 June I went on a trip to 'My son' a Cham ruin (dont ask) and although I d like to think Im sensitive to ancient architecture and all that, it was little more than an auld bunch of red bricks. The yanks had bombed it however as they believed the Vietcong were hiding there. There was one site I had just looked at and this lad from the tour asked me if it was worth looking at. I replied 'Nah, the yanks flattened that one'... it turned out he was American, ouch.
The bus tour became a cruise went to a remote carpentry village so we could meet the villagers that made wooden crafts. It would have been more accurate to say 'we will bring you to a village with 3 shops' but thats tours for you. Got back to Hoi an and had dinner with a french girl from the trip who educated me in some fine french cuisine. Hoi an is beaitiful by night as all the riverside shops sell chinese lanterns and are really colourful at night. going to Hue tomorrow by train if possible.