Brendon
After all the exciting stuff in Nha Trang we moved on to Hoi An, which is listed as a World Heritage Site. Our hopes were were quite high and we quickly discovered that we are getting a little spoilt. It is a small cute place, which according to the Lonely Planet would give you a good idea how life would be here during the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, we got the feeling we were walking through a Walt Disney amusement park. It was very cute and quaint, but pretty much all the buildings were turned into shops selling souvenirs, which made it very hard to get a Vietnamees feel to the place. I think we enjoyed the bit outside the "old quaters" the most were the real Vietnamees lived and we went through a buzzing market, which resulted in buying more stuff. Hester has finally convinced me we should buy loads of stuff and ship it all back! I still feel we have different perceptions of loads, but I'll cross that bridge when we get there!!! The nexy days we didn't feel to well, so we had to cancel a trip to My son, but we did make it to the beach on our bikes. Had some coconutjuice straight out of the coconut with a straw and went for a splash. It is surounded by mountains, and when the sun was going down, absolutely gorgeous!
The plan was to cross over to Southern Laos and go to the 4000 islands, but when we suddenly started counting our days, we realised it was going to be very tight. Travelling just takes a little longer here. If you're (very) lucky you get an average of 50km/h! Hester already wrote about our 27 hour trip to Vientiane which followed. Vientiane is described as the most laid back capital in the world. Well, I haven't seen them all yet, but I would put all my momey on that bet. We stayed in the middle of the centre and could easily walk on the road to find a place to eat or do some site-seeing. So quiet! But it has a lovely feel to it. Not that much to see there, but after our bus trip it was perfect. We hired some lovely pink bikes (picture an 8 year old girls bike and you got it spot on) and we cruised around the town seeing their Arch du Triomph (A lot of French influence here), some more wats (What What?) and tried the Lao food (very nice)! Although we are a little "watted" out we went to one temple which was really nice. It was were they stored all the Buddha images and the temple itself was a bit understated, which made it amazing. Not too flashy, but a real feel to it. We walked more outside the temple where we started chatting to a Monk, whose English wasn't great, but we could sort of understand him. He studied in English in Thailand and we ended up sitting at a table in the park with this monk checking his homework!!! Normally women are not allowed to sit at the same table as the monks, but they made an exception for Hester, as he needed the help. And did he need it. The exercises were extremely hard and he had absolutely no clue. So we tried to make him understand the basics. He then asked for my email address, so I'm expecting many emails in which I can check his english. We did get the feeling that he just wanted us to make his homework for him, but we didn't do that of course! Not helping a cheating monk, ha ha.
Next day we were on the bus again to Vang Vieng, which is known for it's tubing. Basically it is drifting down the Mekong for 3 km on a inflatable tube, stopping at many riverside bars getting absolutely drunk/stoned! The town is full of late teens and early 20s travellers, sitting in bars which show non stop Friends episodes. It is unreal. I love Friends pebably more then the next person, but you don't feel like you are in Laos. The scenery is absolutely amazing, with the Mekong surrounded by mountains, which have many caves. We decided to go with a tour and not the tubing trail (I am in my thirties now, aka boring), which would see us kayaking on the Mekong, a little trekking trough the countryside, caving through 4 caves, of which one on a tube (so a little tubing after all)! We woke up in our nice bungalow on the riverside and it was poring down with rain. I can tell you know that it didn't stop the whole day and it only got worse! Welcome to the rainy season. I have never seen anything like it. Did didn't stop the tour though, obviously. First up 2 k, kayaking to the first cave, which is called the elephant cave. Inside was an enourmous Buddha (How did they get it in???) and on the wall was an elephant carved out. Impressive! then we trekked to the 2nd and 3rd cave, through rice fields and some bushes, which was quite funny, as there were 12 people on this tour. We had apropriate footwear in, but most were wearing flip flops! Muddy, uneven terrain with heavy rain, so they were sliding all over the place. Although some just had no coordination what so ever, so a liability for the rest of the day. The following 2 caves were very impresive, so you are walking with your little light on your head through pools of water and great views. The archeology geek in Hester was making over hours!!! The third cave was the best, as it was just dangerous climbing into it. Health and safety really doesn't apply here. That our friend made it was just a little miracle, but it was worth it. A cave which opened into 3 large rooms and in between narrow windy passage ways. Saw nice cristals as well, contemplated how we could take them with us, but didn't come up with a watertight plan!!! We had lunch next to the cave under a little roof, which was great. Rice wrapped up in banana leave (which was your plate as well), kebab with beef and veg and bread. We thought it had rained really hard already and we were soaked to the bone and beyond, but then the sky really openend with some force! We hiked through it to our last cave which was the watercave, but due to the rain, the cave opening was only just visible, so it was a no go! Big shame, but you don't want to be stuck inside a mountain for too long! We hiked back to the kayaks, through some more amazing scenery and we were ready for our last bit of the adventure. Hester and I got on our kayak and it was obvious that the river was going "slighty" quicker than in the morning. We had 16 km ahead of us and with this current it wouldn't take long, or so we thought! There were 6 other kayaks, of which 2 were the guides, a dutch couple, the special man with his wife and two aussie couples, of which one had their 5 year old daughter with them as well! They had a great day, as they didn't go in any caves and just had the kayaking experience in the rain. Hester and I were ready for it, the rain didn't matter at all, and we were looking for the rapids to get some air between the kayak and the river. Till we got to the biggest rapid on the way!The dutch couple were ahead of us and capsised just in front of us, as we couldn't avoid the kayak we rolled over their boat, and the next thing we know we are floating on the river. We both used the time between knowing we were going under and actually going head under slightly differently: Hester closed her nose and I kept hold of the kayak! Result: I lost Hester, as I could quite quickly climb back on the kayak and Hester was floating down the river. I looked around and not one kayak (including the guides) was still with the right side up. I tried to paddle towards Hester, but there was no way getting to her. She had by this time found a spot floating with the Dutch couple holding on to their kayak! Still not sure if she used the time wisely and practised her Dutch! I ended up fishing paddles out of the water and the young Aussie couple. The girl climbed aboard, but at that point we went through some trees, so the guy let go. There was nothing we could do, but try to get through these rapids and trees in one piece and then hope and wait for everyone to come out. The Aussie girl and I got to the side of the river and waited. It was horrible, cuz you feel powerless. I wanted to get H out, but it was impossible. Before we did quickly do the thumbs up at each other, but I couldn't see what was going on now. One by one the kayaks came by, with mostly different couples then before. The little 5 year old girl, who was terrified, was fished out by a guide. All this time I was worrying about Hester, she was loving it! But she couldn't really show this as everybody else was realy concerned! After scuba and the Jet ski she's turned into a adrenaline junky!!! Besides getting stuck in the trees! Eventually everyone came by and we set course again, for another km, where we stopped to see how everyone was doing. The aussie couple with the kid refused to go further, so there was a kayak spare. H and I volenteered to take a kayak each and had a fairly, although H did hit a bridge at some point, uneventful last bit. The last 3 km we saw the tubing and we were happy we did our tour in stead. When we got back to our bungalow, we had a hot shower, as we were quite cold in the end, and went for our second indian in a row!!!
The next day we took a bus to Luang Prabang, the next world Heritage Site. The trip over was absolutely gorgeous, with misty mountains (according to hester just like the movie Gorilla's in the mist, just without the gorilla's!) and valleys. During a stop I gave a kid a can of coke and he was the hit with his mates, all surrounding the can! It was funny to see. When we got to Luang Prabang (casual 7 hour trip) we checked in to a guest house and walked around. Got info about 3 day trekking, which we'll start tomorrow! The stories will follow, it includes learning to control elephants, trekking through the jungle and sleeping in a minority village. Already excited............
