Vietnam

So, no surprises here, but I also LOVED Vietnam.  It's a bit less chilled out than Laos (back to lots of horn hooting and nearly getting run over a lot) but it's really really lovely.

We arrived off the night bus into a nothing town called Vinh and were all a bit pleased to move on the next day up to Hanoi which is a great place.  We were staying in the old town which is a warren of narrow streets, filled to bursting with scooters, snarls of overhead wires, touristy and also non touristy shops etc.  We stayed in a hostel (which suited me down to the ground, but others were less impressed to say the least) and it was possibly the nicest hostel I've ever stayed in (and those that know me know I've stayed in a few!).  There was a great bar/restaurant on the ground floor, another lovely bar and hangout zone on the 5th and inbetween the rooms had aircon and hot showers.  And the food was great too.

Door at the Hanoi Hilton

Hanoi Hilton

The lake in Hanoi

One of the city gates, Hanoi

Think someone's got the scale a little wrong on this map
- not sure you could really swim from Vietnam to Oz!

After a day of wandering round the old town, the Hanoi Hilton (a jail where American POWs were held during the war, and interesting not least for the different take they have on the "American" war) and the lake we pootled off to Halong bay for an afternoon/night/morning.  The bay is absolutely stunning and we had a lovely time messing about in the water, kayaking and eating great food.

Halong Bay

We headed back to Hanoi for another night and then got another night bus down to Hue.  This time I was up the back with 4 others in a 5 bed bunk.  Luckily they were people from the trip rather than randoms, but the air conditioning was working and I slept much of the way so the journey wasn't too bad.  This being the night before my birthday the guys had put together a "Clare" package for my journey consisting of Pringles, Oreos, vodka, diet coke and a sweet book mark.

I stayed at the Hanoi hostel's sister hostel in Hue which ended up really well as I ran into the UK to Oz truck.  They're a group doing a very similar thing to us, but with a slightly different route.  We'd run into them briefly in Turkey as well.  It was really great to meet other people that understood the trip, but were new as well!  We spent quite a drunken evening sharing horror stories which was a lot of fun.  And kind Mark, the Kiwi that runs the Hanoi hostel had arranged for a birthday cake for me at the Hue hostel so that was really sweet too.  I even managed to leave the hostel long enough at one point to take a wander round the huge, and ruined citadel in town.

Citadel in Hue

Citadel, Hue

Citadel, Hue

Minor misspelling of my name, but not the worst!  My lovely birthday cake.

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to meeeeeeee,
Happy birthday to me

Ever onwards and we headed off for Hoi An, a little further south, and famous for its clothes shops.  You can just turn up, tell them what you want, pick a fabric, get measured and turn up the next day to pick up your new spangly clothes, and all at a reasonable price.  I thought I was being well behaved, just getting a suit dress made, but then I bought some ready made tank tops and a white dress, which meant I had to order up a white bikini to wear underneath.  And then, (and I'm blaming Jenn for this) I got a couple of lightweight skirts made on the last day.

Hoi An

Temple in Hoi An

Temple in Hoi An

Ooopsie.  Purchases in Hoi An
L-R Vietnam flag t-shirt, long tank top, bikini, tank top, white dress, 2 skirts, suit dress

Needing a holiday (because I've not spent enough time in the last couple of years relaxing), we found ourselves at a wee place called Jungle Beach where the highlight (other than being at the beach of course) was the cocktail competition Zoe & Susan set up whereby, in our tent teams, we had to design, name and present a bucket cocktail to the rest of the group.  Aoife, my tent buddy, who has been known as "Mrs Doyle" for the whole trip on account of being Irish, came up with the blinding idea of making a Craggy Island Nice Tea (based on a Long Island Ice Tea, but with Lipton teabags added) which she presented as Mrs Doyle herself.  Cracking!

Cocktail competition on the beach.  Aoife as Mrs Doyle with her "Craggy Island Nice Tea". 

A bit of nightswimming

Jungle beach

And so to our final stop in Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City aka HCMC aka Saigon.  The main sight there was the War Remnants museum which dealt with the Vietnam war aka the America war.  There was lots of American military hardware parked outside but the main exhibits were series of harrowing photographs both of war and of the effects of Agent Orange.  Full marks go to the American education system at this point as I overheard an American girl in her 20's standing in front of a picture of a victim of Agent Orange asking if "this was anything to do with the war?".

Ho Chi Minh bothering a small child

Cathedral, Ho Chi Minh

War Remnants museum, Ho Chi Minh/Saigon

Billboards, Ho Chi Minh

Laos

Another country to fall in love with.  And this time I'm not sure why as there weren't any particular highlights as such.  But the people were really lovely, noone tried to run you down or used their horn continuously (a welcome change from the madness of China) and the country is really chilled.  Plus Jenn and I made it our mission to eat at all the Indian restaurants we could find and they were all brilliant!

We pitched up in Luang Namtha, a lovely wee place with a great Indian (though my first meal was Pho, a gorgeous noodle soup which you have to season yourself, or get Zoe to do so the first time).  Someone had the bright idea of booking a cycle ride so most of us went off in the heat the next morning for a tour round a couple of local villages and then up to a waterfall.  Great idea in theory, but hard saddles and bumpy roads led to a lot of wincing and an inability to sit down on hard surfaces for a few days!

Rice

Dried eels

Some kind of catfish perhaps?  They were alive but didn't seem to need water.

Live frogs for sale.  To be eaten whole.  Staked through their back legs.

Water buffalo blood, congealed and cubed.

Rice paddies

Denis at a whiskey still!

Don't know what this kid was up to, but he seemed happy!

Spinning silk from cocoons

Making rice noodles

Weaving

Rice again

Lunch at the waterfall

Aoife & Lucy with cocktails (we're so civilised!)

From there we went to a wee tiny little one road place called Nong Khiew (or a variant on that spelling) where we stayed in the most rustic accommodation so far, but it was perfect: little huts with balconies overlooking the river.  The most we managed to get up to here was a walk down the road, a thigh high fording of a river and climb up to some caves.  But it was lovely and we "employed" a little kid to guide us the 50m or so from the river to the bottom of the stairs!

View from our balcony

Stairs up to the caves

Beautiful

We, rather glamorously* left Nong Khiew and travelled by boat down a tributary of the Mekong to the mighty Mekong and to a fab wee town called Luang Prabang.

* there were 2 boats: one had comfy seats, a toilet and was dry inside, one was the complete opposite.  I was on the latter!

Luang Prabang is pretty touristy, but there are some really beautiful temples/wats and a palace and Jenn and I spent a lovely day having a wander round town, looking in on some of the sights, before it was time to shower off all that sweat and dress up for Zoe and Susan's engagement party down by the river.  Much booze and cake was consumed by all and it was a really lovely night.

A touch of rain, Luang Prabang (we're travelling in the rainy season!)

Palace, Luang Prabang

Wat, Luang Prabang

Reclining buddha, Luang Prabang

View of the Mekong from the wat at the top of the hill, Luang Prabang

These were for sale on the street.  The white things are split open carefully with a knife to reveal the wriggly brown thing within.  No idea what they are!

Food at the night market.  Look closely to see the pig's head.

And then the carnage began: we were off to Vang Viene.  For those of you in the know (I'm thinking of you Louise!) I hope you're proud of me!  For those yet to be indoctrinated, the town is famous for one thing - essentially an inner-tube based pub crawl down the river.  The less said the better.  (G'dad - to avoid you disinheriting me you might want to bypass the next few photos!)

In the tubes

Getting hosed down after a mud bath!

Mud bath

Drinks are served in buckets

And from there it was to our final stop, in Vientiane (or Wien Chen as it's known to the locals - damn those French!).  It would be quite a lie to say that this place has anything really going for it, but it was an ok place to spend a couple of days.

Durian fruit for sale

Concrete version of the Arc de Triomphe

Even the official sign at the bottom of this monstrosity recognises it for what it is:
"From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete."

Frog for tea?

Local whisky, "Smooth & Mellon"

We said goodbye to Laos (and the truck for a few weeks) and hopped on a night bus to Vietnam.  Much whinging ensued, and granted, it wasn't all that comfortable, especially the four hours where the air con was turned off and we were parked up in the grounds of a brothel, but I thought it was fine.  Not up to Argentinian night bus standards perhaps, but fine.