I decided to stay an extra day in Hanoi to get myself sorted and book a bus for the next part of my trip. Luckily Sally, one of the Australian girls on my trip was staying too so we were able to share a room and spend the following couple of days together. We went to see the Temple of Liturature - the first official university in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh's Museum and where he lived and Ho Chi Minh himself. He is laying in state in a huge mausoleum. It was strange to see someone who had been dead for 40years, but just looked like he was having a siesta. He looked a little bit like a wax work model at Madam Tussauds.
Vu, our tour guide, had said that he would take us out for dinner that evening to a "traditional Vietnamese restaurant". 8pm arrived and Vu and his non-english speaking flat mate rocked up to the hotel on their scooters, with an extra helmet each for Sally and I. We clambered onto the back of their scooters and jetted off through the busy streets of Hanoi. I spent the majority of the time staring at the back of Vu's head, too scared to look at the road ahead and how close we were to other traffic. We arrived safely at the "Restaurant", which turned out to be little plastic stalls and tables on the side of the road and Vu ordered a traditional Vietnamese meal and the local wine. We were served bits of chicken - i didn't like to ask which bit of a chicken, a soup which had "baby eggs" floating in it - they get the eggs out of the chickens womb (or whatever a chicken has) before they are laid, pigs brain soup - literally a brain floating in some stock with some veg and chicken legs - as in the feet and ankle part, and a small bottle of vodka. The chicken i could deal with, and the baby egg soup was ok, i couldn't manage a whole brain but nibbled on a bit and the chicken feet were just a step too far. I held it, thought about it, watch Vu eat it, sniffed it, licked it, but I just couln't bring myself to nibble on a chicken toe. It still had the claws on and everything! The vodka we drunk straight and made it more acceptable to be eating parts of animals anatomy that I never thought i would be. Although when I look back at the pictures of that night I feel a little sick, Im so pleased we went for the experience.
The following day I had to catch my bus to Laos at 5pm. I turned up to the travel agents on time, was then told to get on a scooter with a guy who worked there - with my massive backpack on! I thought there was definate chance of injury. I was then dropped on a random street corner and told to wait. Slowly a few others joined me on the street corner and we were then crammed into a taxi and driven to the side of a main road where we had to wait for about 10mins. We were then lead up a dirt track, past the entrance to what looked like a bus station and left on the side of the road again for about 45mins. Finally a bus turned up and we all piled on. This is what travelling in Asia is like. Never simple, never straightforward and never on time. The bus was no where near as bad as I expected it to be and neither was the 22 and a half hour journey to Vientienne. There were others on there that I was able to chat to for entertainment and the journey was broken up by a confusing border crossing. I was slightly confused as to what was going on and you're not told what to do, you just kind of have to follow suit. But I almost got lost (there was a 10minute walk between where you got your passort stamped and where you got you visa) and i got told off by a guard for missing out a check point. Ooops....I made it over though and was allowed into the country, so a success overall!!
We arrived in Vientienne, the capital of Laos at about 4:30pm. It was so different from being in the capital of Vietnam. Hanoi was busy, noisy, polluted, busy and busy. Vientienne was quiet and you could cross the road without risking your life and there were no beeping horns or people trying to get you into taxis or cyclos.
I tagged along with a brother and sister (Tom and Kat) and a couple (Simon and Emily) from England, all around 20-21. We found a fairly cheap hostel and then went to find some dinner. The restaurants along the river were really pretty and we sat eating and drinking and chatting for a while here. They had all decided that they were going north to Vang Viang the following day and asked if I wanted to go with them, so I did.
We had a very uncomfortable and bumpy 4hr bus journey the following day to the backpacker haven of Vang Viang. This is where Tubing takes place, the main attraction if Laos for many travellers. Tubing is essentially sitting on a rubber ring and floating down the river. Along the way there are different bars that you can go into for a drink or two. When you see a bar you want to go into you wave at one of the guys standing on the edge of the river and they throw you a rope and oull you in. There is no other way of getting out because the river flows so fast. There are rope swings and zip wires and slides going from different bars into the river - I was only brave enough to go on one rope swing and even then the guy behind me in the queue had to give me some moral support!
We spent a couple of days tubing - some people get stuck there for weeks, months even, just tubing and drinking everyday. I'm just not that hardcore and 2 days was enough for me! The following day Tom and Kat had to leave as they were travelling to Chang mai in Thailand to meet some friends. Emily, Simon and I stayed in Vang Viang for an extra day (the majority of the bars and restaurants show either Friends, Family Guy or the Simpsons all day everyday, so I got a big Friends fix on this day!).
The following day we had booked a bus back to Bangkok. It was a 16hr journey, the first 4 being the worst ever. We were crammed on a minibus with broken air conditioning with too many other people. I was squashed on the back seat in between two guys, who weren't skinny and i kept sticking to them because it was so hot. I spent the majority of the journey on the edge of my seat! After this, we got a much more comfortable bus overnight back to Bangkok. I didn't sleep at all. The guy next to me got comfortable, put on his eye mask and blanket, snuggled down and in the process practiacally sat on my lap - he got a good nights sleep, I did not. We arrived in Bangkok at 5am and had to find somewhere to stay. We couldn't all get into the same place but we were so tired we didn't care.
This being my 5th time back in "the gateway to South east Asia", I wasn't keen to do anything in particular apart from get over the long journey in preparation for another. The places where we stayed gave us access to a hotel with a pool - tiny, but big enough to immerse your body in, which was a welcome break from the mid-day heat of the city. So for 2 days I sat in cold water, ate, shopped a little (after 2 and a half months some of my clothes were beginning to look tired and falling apart which although I am travelling and you can't care what you look like the majority of the time, there is only so far I will go......i'm not quite at the dreadlocks and wearing bits of shredded cloth for clothes stage just yet) and wrote my pages and pages of blog and diary that I had to catch up on.
On Friday (28th) Simon, Emily and I caught a bus at 6pm to travel to Koh Phanagan. Although Lauren and I came here for a short time in July, there is a Full Moon Party happening on 4th September which a lot of people I have met are going to and I decided that it would be cheaper to just come straight here, rather than paying to travel somewhere else and then come here later on.
The journey was quite a long one. We travelled by bus to Chumporn port, where we arrived at 3:30am. The next boat wasn't until 7am, so we settled on the tiled floor of the port office, to try to get some more sleep before getting the boat. Suprisingly, I did sleep a little. We boarded our uncomfortable, but air conditioned at least, boat and sailed to Koh Tao, where we dropped people off and picked people up before continuing to Koh Phangan. We finally arrived tired and hungry and about midday. We decided to stay somewhere slightly quieter for a few days before going to the south of the island to Haad Rin, where the party is held, so we got a songathew (the island taxi) through the windey roads to Haad Yao, on the north west of the island. We found little bungalows to stay in (this is where I wish I was travelling with someone else as a lot of places charge per room/bungalow, so it makes it a lot more expensive for me) and went to the beach for lunch. The beach here is really nice and there is a good choice of bars and restaurants dotted along the beach front. We spent the rest of the day, like we have today sunbathing and swimming. Simon took himself off diving as he has already got his diving qualifications, while Emily and I read on the beach and did a bit of snorkelling (although there wasn't that much to see!) We've had a text from Kat and Tom to say that they are arriving on Koh Pahnagan today, so we are leaving here tomorrow to meet them on the south of the Island. It appears as though the week will continue as it started and my batteries will be fully charged in time for my flight to Australia. The next hurdle being getting to Singapore.....
