Laos - Trekking - Luang Prabang

So, after dropping Elephants back at the camp, we came back to the lodge and had some breakfast, before setting off on our trek.

Our guide Souk had told us the whole trek should take around 4 - 5 hours, travelling through the Jungles, fields and Minority Villages along the way.

So we set off, the weather not looking wonderful, but I figured the overcast day might keep the blistering tempretures down a notch. Unfortunately, after around an hour of walking, the clouds parted, and the onslaught of heat began.....

We crossed over the Nam Khan river on a wonderfully safe bamboo bridge, and headed into our first village. The village was home to two Lao minority groups. All the houses were made of bamboo, and for a village holding around 100 people, there was only one tap pumping fresh water for showering and drinking.

As we were walking around the village, all the kids came running out to us to say "Sabadee!" and to laugh at us aswell, as big tall white people are seldom seen in this part of Laos, so we were somewhat of a novelty for them!
I asked these girls if I could take there pictures, which they said yes to. After I took it, I showed them on the screen of my camera, andthey thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. I love how something so simple, that we as westerners take for granted, can amuse these kids to no end. Its little things like that you just don't see at home.

Once we left the village, we walked through the forest for a while, before we began trekking through a clearing. Our guide explained to us that the clearing was once covered in the same trees we had seen previous, but now to make more money, the farmers burn all there land so they can make rice fields to export around Asia. I had noticed alot of burning land on my various bus trips throughout Laos, which now all came together in my mind. It was good but sad in the same way. It was ruining the wonderful forests and jungles of Laos, but building the economy, which Laos is in desperate need of.

We continued trekking through the fields for about an hour, before Souk lead us along a different path towards a mountain. He explained to us that if we went to the right, we could be in the next village with 20 minutes, but if we go to the left, we can get a great view of the country side but it will take longer. It was more of a statement than a question, so considering the trek had been reasonably easy so far, we just followed.

As we got closer and closer to the mountain, I began to realise just how difficult this next part might be. The path was beggining to become non existant, and was getting steeper and steeper by the meter.After almost 45 minutes climbing in a strait line and on an almost 90 degree angle, I started to not feel so great. I had drank enough water, close to 1.5 litres already, but I was getting hotter and hotter, and more and more lathergic as I climbed. I knew I didn't really have much choice but to climb, as they only way back was down. Which now that I was about half way up, looked quite scary!

After another 20 minutes of climbing (which felt like an hour), I finally made it to the top, dripping with sweat, bright red in the face and feeling like a truck had hit me. I basically collapsed on the ground for about 15 minutes, drinking another bottle of water trying so hard just to cool down.

So, as the picture depicts, I sat there, like this just trying to feel better!

After about 20 minutes, I could feel myself starting to come good, and with Souks promise that the rest was either downhill or flat, we set back off again.

We stopped for lunch about half an hour later, but considering I had downed around 2 ltrs of water in the space of 2 hours, there was no way I could fit anything in. So I sat there munching on some sticky rice and the equivilent of beef jerky, only the buffalo variety!

After we finished, we stopped in at a school where Ville showed off his soccer moves with the village kids, and kicked the ball around for about half an hour. The kids loved it! Towards the end, we had produced quite the crowd watching and cheering.

We then set off for another 2 hours of walking back towards Luang Prabang. After about an hour of walking, a thunderstorm came out of no where and brought a welcome relief from the heat, even if we did get drenched.

At around 3pm, we found our ride back to Luang Prabang, and collapsed into the seats of the Van. I estimate we probably trekked for around 18k's all up, which means I had just had not only the most active day of my trip, but quite possibly the most active day of my life! Any weight I had put on in the past 2 months travelling would have all just fallen off!

As difficult as the day was, it was still an awesome experience, and one I would do again and again....however hopefully the second and third time would be a little easier than the first!!

Laos - Elephant Mahot Training - Luang Prabang

The trip from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang wasn't to bad, just really really long....! It's amusing, because when you look at the map, Luang Prabang is infact only about 90k's away from Phonsavan. However, due the mountains, bad roads and the fact there are next to no bridges in Laos, the trip slowly takes up and down these huge mountains, around rivers and towns, eventually turning a 90k trip into a 245k trip. All I can say is thankgod for Ipod's, books and the fact I was on a good bus!



After arriving in Luang Prabang a little after 5.30pm, I found a guesthouse and then met up with Ville at his hotel. Ville was leaving for Thailand within 3 days, so we decided to go find a 2 day trek we could do together before he left. We headed to All Lao Travel Services on the main street, where we picked up a leaflet for a 2 day Mahot Training Course & Trek. It basically consisted of Elephant riding & trekking through the jungle, Elephant Bathing in the river and a 5 hour trek. All for $70US each including all food and accomodation. We signed up to leave the following morning at 9am.


That morning we woke up to pouring rain, which luckily stopped at around 8.30am! We were picked up from the travel center, where we met our guide Souk, and he drove us away from Luang Prabang for about half an hour. We arrived at this river, where there was no bridge and no boat to cross, so we had to wait for about 20 minutes for the boat driver to rock up and take us across to our accomodation! Apparently he was asleep....






Once we finally got over the river to our accomodation (which was fantastic might I add!), we were given our "Mahot Gear", a stunning dark blue denim uniform which was about 3 sizes to big for me! Mind you, I had kind of stopped caring about how I looked when I left melbourne, however in this get up I did feel like a bit of an idiot, yet very gangsta at the same time!



We crossed over the river again, and walked for around 30 minutes. The first evidence of Elephants we saw very giant massive Elephant poo on the ground, which resembled bright green coconuts. For this rest of our time, every time we passed some (which was quite a number of times!) Ville would say "mmmm fresh coconuts for breakfast!".



Then as we walked up a hill, we came face to face with our first Elephant. They were absolutely massive! I had never seen Elephants before, except at the circus once when I was a kid, so I was completely awe struck by them. There size was the main thing that got me....they were huge! The camp was home to around 6 Elephants, ranging in age from around 25 - 50, male and female.

Our first Elephant ride was reasonably tame, we had a Mahot (Elephant Trainer) riding in front, and myself and Ville were on the back in a seat. It was a good introduction into what was to come in the afternoon...! We trekked through the jungle for around 1 hour, which given how slow the Elephant actually moves, was only around 1 or 2 k's. It was brilliant though, riding up through the trees, along streams, up big hills. It was suprisingly smooth the whole way.

Things started to get a bit more interesting as the Mahot lead the elephant into the River for the first time, which was the most bizarre thing I have ever done. The elephant just casually walked through the river, stopping to have a drinking every now and then, which was understandable as he was lugging us three and it was about 40 degrees! Me and Ville then got our first shot riding the Elephant for a little while, to get used to the feel and learning the comands to control the Elephant.




We headed back to the lodge for some lunch and a quick rest, before heading back to the camp for our first solo ride of the Elephants. Well, almost solo, we still had the mahot's sitting at the back just incase we started to fall off! I was sitting right at the front, on the Elephants neck, with absolutely nothing to hold onto....no ropes, no seats, no nothing. Now, when you are trekking on flat ground thats not that much of an issue, but the minute you start climbing up hills its another story! It was a little scary, but lots of fun at the same time.

After about 45 minutes, we dropped the Elephants back to the camp, and headed back to the river, where the Mahots met us about an hour later. We hopped onto our Elephants, and took them into the river for bathing. This is quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life! As they Elephant got deeper, the Mahot told her to sit down so she (and me!) would get almost submerged in the water. We then proceeded to spend the next half an hour throwing water all over the Elephants head to clean them, and also cool them down at the same time. The elephants were loving it, Ville's Elephant wouldn't stop diving its head under the water every few minutes nearly throwing him off in the process!



Once we had finished, we walked the Elephants back upto the river bank, where the Mahots took them back to the camp.

Ville, myself, and our guide then spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the river trying to cool down after such a hot day!

We headed back to the Elephant camp at around 6pm, and rode the Elephants back out to the Jungle where they slept away from the camp for the night. After saying goodnight to them, we headed back to the lodge, where we had a fantastic dinner made for us, which we needed after such an active day.

The following morning, bright and early at 5.45am, we got up and picked up the Elephants from the Jungle and rode them back to the camp. So while all you guys were at work or eating breakfast, Ville and I were riding Elephants through the jungle! Just another Monday morning in Laos really!

Laos - Phonsavan

Now, when I bought my ticket for the bus to Phonsavan from my guesthouse in Vang Vieng, the ticket said "VIP BUS" - which means reasonably new bus, aircon, mainly western tourists.

What I got was this:




Not quite what I was expecting!!! All up, the bus was missing 6 windows, the seats were mostly broken, and there was around 16 sacks of rice piled up in the aisle, which I had to climb over to get to my seat. When the bus finally left, they had oversold the bus by about 10 tickets, so people were actually sitting on the bags of rice.....!





However, like I said in the previous post, you really shouldn't come to Laos without a sense of humour, and this was one of those moments when you really needed one!

Anyway, the bus did make it to Phonsavan, after around 8 hours of travel up and down the mountains in the Lao country side.

Phonsavan is a tiny town, the main street is the only street, and its around 4 k's long. The only reason people come here, and the only reason I came here, was to see the "Plain of Jars". The Jars are a bizarre formations situated on three different sites about 10 - 20 k's out of Phonsavan. No body knows where they came from our why they are there or what they are made of. The typical Lao rumour is the were used to make Lao Lao hundred of years ago for Lao New Year parties.....given the size of the jars it would have been one hell of a party!!



I signed up with a tour for about $11US with 3 other backpackers I met on the bus, and a Belgium couple in their 60's who had been travelling the world for almost 15 years.

The first site, and by far the biggest, was probably the most impressive. Spanning over around 6k's of country side, there are around 60 jars on the site, as well as a cave in the middle.



After going to the first site, the last two sites were a bit of a let down as far as size was concerned, however, they were a lot prettier. The view from the last two sites were amazing, and there was a bit of shade, which is always welcome during the hot season in Laos.

We spent all up around 5 hours travelling through the three sites and stopping for lunch. It was an interesting part of the world to see.

Phonsavan is also in one of the areas that was most heavily bombed in the 1970's by the US. So everywhere you walk, there are signs warning you about Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) which still haven't been cleared. The Plain of Jars is one area that has been mostly cleared, but its still not worth wondering of the dirt tracks just in case...!

The next day, I headed to Luang Prabang to meet back up with Ville...

Laos - Vang Vieng

Ok, first off let me apologise for the lack of updates on here. I am trying to be as up to date as possible, but at the moment I am about 2 weeks out!

So, Vang Vieng...........

Ville and I had every intention of leaving Vientiane for Vang Vieng at 10am, which was what our bus ticket said. However, you do learn very quickly that here in Laos, everything happens on a different time frame. So for no apparent reason, we left at 11.30am instead. Bizarre....

Having heard from guide books, the internet and fellow travellers that Vang Vieng is a bit of a dead end town filled with dead end back packer bars constantly playing dead end re-runs of friends/family guy/the simpsons, we decided to stay out of town instead. We headed to a place called the Organic Farm, which was around 4k's out of town situated right next to the Nam Song river. When we arrived the place looked quite good, very quiet and very picturesque. The owner showed us to our rooms, which were $5US a night, and then we decided to sit down and have some lunch at the restaurant.

While waiting for our food, some very hippy looking young backpackers came into the restaurant and sat down next to us. They were talking about the work they had done on the farm ie: cleaning the goats house, farming etc etc, so me and Ville presumed they must live and work at the farm. After a little while, one of the hippy kids came over to us to say hello and asked when we got there, where we were from etc etc etc.

Then he comes out with "So, you guys will be doing some volunteer work on the farm while your here??"
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
It took all of my composure not to spit my drink everywhere and start laughing hysterically.

One look at Ville told me he was thinking the same thing: "Volunteer? On a farm? We are on holiday!!!!!!"

As politely as we could, we declined the young mans offer, and decided then and there that we would have to check out first thing in the morning and find a guest house in the city.

The next day signified the beggining of Lao New Year, which is a three day new year celebration in which almost all of Laos shuts down and its one big party in every corner of the country. Vang Vieng was no exception. All the locals walked around wearing super bright Hawaiian Shirts, and could be seen drinking Beerlao as early as 8.30am. However, the big fun of Laos New Year is not the drinking, dressing up and dancing. No no no, its all about how many western tourists you can soak with water for the three days! No joke, you couldn't walk any more than 5 meters without some random child comming out of no where with a huge bucket of water to throw at you. Everyone was armed with water pistols, water bombs, garden hoses and buckets. This is a great time of year to visit Laos, however, make sure you have come with a sense of humor and a dry pack to protect your valuables....!!

At about 11am, we started our first day of tubing. Tubing is what Vang Vieng is famous for, and to be honest with you, theres not a hell of alot else to do here except tube. For those of you who are unaware, Tubing is sitting in a giant tractor tyer inner tube and floating down 4k's of water. The fun part however is stopping off at the many makeshift bars en route to drink, eat and fly off giant rope swings.

Our first tubing day ended up being rather eventuful. At our 5th stop, a young lao boy started squirting me with a water pistol, so I chased him with my water bottle. As I ran, the lovely safe and stable bamboo balcony I was running on snapped from underneath me and I went flying through the floor. Lucky for me, I had had quite a few drinks so didn't feel much pain, and found it rather hillarious....which even now it still was quite funny. However, in hindsight, it could have been a lot worse. It was around a 7 meter drop from the balcony down to some rocks and then the river, lucky for me and managed to pull myself back through before any more damage was done. I finished up with a very cut, bruised and swallow right leg, and a few cuts up my right arm. I do wish someone had of got a picture or a video though, it was pretty funny....!!

The next day we decided to hire some push bikes and went riding through the country side of Vang Vieng, which is much prettier than the town its self. All up we probably rode for about 15k's, going down some dirt roads and finding some nice parks. We even accidently ended up crashing a Lao new year party full of locals, which finished with us drinking Beerlao and dancing with them....while being soaked by water of course!




We ended up going tubing again, this time managing to get some really nice photos along the way, which you can view via the link on the right hand side of the screen.



Ville and I managed to go without watching American TV re-runs every day we were in Vang Vieng except one, where we spent about 3 hours watching Family Guy one night when it spontaneously bucketed down with rain. The restaurants with the TVs are the only restaurants with cover so we didn't have much choice...honestly!

All up, we spent 5 days in Vang Vieng, which was probably about 2 and a half days to long, as there really isn't anything to do there aside from drinking, tubing and watching TV. However, we did have a blast there all the same.

Me and Ville then went our seperate ways for a couple of days, as I headed to Phonsavan, and Ville headed direct to Luang Prabang.

Laos - Vientiane

Its funny the people you run into in the most random of places.....

Just after I checked in for my flight to Vientiane, and was waiting to move through customs, I ran into Ville. Ville I met for all of 20 minutes about 2 weeks earlier in Nha Trang, over a beer at our hotel, and there he was, waiting for the same flight as me! Crazy...! We decided once we were on the flight that we would head towards the same guesthouse, and it turned out we both had roughly the same travel plans for Laos aswell. So a new travel buddy friendship was born!

The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane in Vientiane was how small the airport was. For an international airport that has connections to most of south east asia, china, russia etc etc, it was tiny! It was like landing in the middle of a farm if it wasn't for the giant runway in the middle.

The second thing I noticed was how hot it was. It was 10am when we landed, and it would have already been 35 degrees....!

I paid for my visa, and myself and Villa headed out to find a tuk tuk to take us into town. All the guide books said don't get a taxi from the main exit, as it will cost you to much (too much being $5....). So we headed out the main gates of the airport, where we were immediately approached by another taxi driver, who offered to drive us into Vientiane for $1 each...! Once in Vientiane, me and Ville both booked into the same hotel. I got a nicer room than what I have been used to...mainly because after a night bus and two nights in a dorm room and hanoi, I was absolutely exhausted and needed my own space for a bit. I'm so glad I did it....I slept like a baby that night.

The next day me and Ville headed to Vientiane Swimming Pool and spent the morning there, which we ended up doing for the next few days we were in Vientiane. It was so great not to run around trying to check out sights all day. It was great just to chill out...!

On the way back to our hotel for lunch, we met this old guy called Dowel, who would have been about 70, covered in Tattoos and was traveling the world on his own. He was a sweet old guy, but one of those guys you meet and think "wow, I hope I or anyone else I know ever ends up like that". Dowel had had a pretty rough life, with friends dying in the past few years and his wife left him 7 years ago etc etc etc. He just decided to travel to be away from everything at home. He was a great, happy & funny guy with a reasonably positive outlook on life, considering the circumstance he was in. Ville and I had a beer with him most nights, as otherwise he sat out the front of his hotel, on his own, drinking beer after beer after beer after beer.

One thing about Vientiane that stood out from the other places I have been so far is how quiet it is. After travelling through Vietnam where every driver is a horn junky, and everyone is trying to get your attention to buy something, coming to Laos is like a breath of fresh air. People pass you in the street saying "Saybadeey" (which means hello, or good day), with the biggest smile on their face, and thats all they want to do. Say hello. Theres no alterior motive here.

Vientiane easily would have to win the award for the most laid back capital city in the world. Everything in Laos is done on "lao time", meaning you order food in a restaurant...maybe you will get in 15 minutes....or maybe you will get it an an hour. No one rushes, everyone is just so chilled out its amazing.

After a couple of days of chilling out Lao Style (ie: swimming, bowling and drinking beerlao everyday!), we decided to go and see the most famous monument in Laos - Pha That Luang, which is a giant gold temple dedicated to Buddhism. There were at least 150 monks walking around the grounds as well. It was really quite amazing to look at. We walked around the grounds for around an hour, and then headed to the market which is just outside the Temple grounds.

Now, before I tell you the next bit, I must first explain what Lao New Year is.

Lao New Year is a three day (or sometimes 4 or 5 day) festival in which the people of Laos and in some parts of Thailand celebrate the Lunar New Year, with amazing fashion. It is the one holiday of the year that everyone in Laos looks forward to, as for three or 4 days, absolutely everything closes down.

This festival is also known a little more commonly as "The Water Festival".

So, when me and Ville left Pha That Luang, and were walking around the market, a Lao guy came up to me and said "Excuse me miss??", presuming he was trying to sell me something, I began trying to say politely "No Thankyou", when all of the sudden he poured a 1.5ltr of freezing cold water all over my head!! He yelled at the top of his lungs "HAPPY LAO NEW YEAR!!!" and the whole market broke into hysterics! It was absolutely hillarious.....!

I absolutely loved every second I was in Vientiane, and has definitely got my vote for one of the best capital cities in the world!!

The next day we jumped on a bus to head to Vang Vieng, one day before Lao New Year officially began....

Vietnam - Hanoi

After yet another sleepless night on yet another sleeper bus, I arrived at Hanoi at 7.30am with all of 2 hours sleep...!

I headed to Hanoi Backpackers, where I had decided to stay. Unfortunately I couldn't check in until 12noon, but they did have free coffee and free internet...so that summed up my whole first morning in Hanoi....however, which sitting on the internet I ran into Mary Liz who I hung out with in Cambodia...which was a huge surprise, as I though she was back in Ireland..she was flying back to Dublin the following day.

We met back up again at 1pm, and headed out to see the Water Puppet Theater. It was quite interesting to watch, and quite possibly the most cultural thing I have done this whole trip. Unfortunately, but as expected, the whole show was in Vietnamese, so me and Mary Liz made up our own story lines as we went along....I think it was much more entertaining that way!

Walking around Hanoi made me wish I was staying there a little longer. It didn't really have that big city feel that I thought it would, which was brilliant. People were quite nice, and there wasn't very many random people trying to sell you stuff every 5 minutes....the complete opposite of Ho Chi Minh.

That night we decided to go out for dinner, Vietnamese style, and eat at one the side restaurants on the streets. At first it was great, we showed the waiter what we wanted in the Menu which was seafood noodles. After about 15 minutes our meal came out....however it wasn't seafood noodles.

Still to this day, I don't actually know what it was we ate. All I know is the next day I could hardly move, and couldn't afford to be any further than around 6 meters from a toilet....or all hell would break lose!!! I spent the whole day either sleeping or in the bathroom. It was quite a productive way to end my time in Vietnam.....!!

I wish I could have spent a little longer in Hanoi, however I am more than happy with amount of time I spent in Vietnam in general. All up I spent about 2 and a half weeks travelling through, and while it is a wonderful country with wonderful people, I definitely didn't love it like I loved Cambodia.

The next day....I headed to Laos!

Vietnam - Hue

After nearly 4 weeks of perfect sunshine and hot weather, I had my first horribly weather day. I left sunny Hoi An for Hue on Wednesday morning at 8am, and arrived 3 and a half hours later. It's amazing how much the weather can change just by driving three hours north! As I got off the bus it was a little windy and a bit chilly. However I thought it would fine up, so I went to my hotel, and changed into a singlet and shorts and shirt over the top, and headed out with Cuba, a moto driver who worked at the hotel.

For $12 he took me around to all the main sights, aswell as a few off the normal tourist trial. I went to the tomb of Tu Duc, the tomb of Minh Mang, and some pagodas aswell. When I finished at the last Pagoda, Cuba said he could take me to an old army combat base up on the hill if I wanted a really good view of the River. Once we got there, he explained to me that this was the equivilent of "lovers lane" for the Vietnamese and was where they guys took there girlfriends to hang out....and other stuff....(!!). Sure enough, once we walked to the top, there they all were sitting on Moto's, or on blankets over looking the river. It was hillarious...! However, the view was fantastic so I got some great pictures....

Just as we left the Vietnamese "lovers lane", it absolutely poured down with rain. I didn't take my rain jacket out with me so I got absolutely saturated! I learned my lesson pretty damn quick though....always stuff your jacket in the bottom of your bag and never take it out!!

That night I headed to the DMZ Bar on the main street next to the river, where I hung out with a really nice couple from Birmingham. We proceeded to get rather drunk on Tiger Beer and Rice Wine and hung about there till about Midnight. Suffice to say the next day, I was a little worse for wear...so I spent the whole day loading pictures onto face book which you can view by clicking the links to the right of your screen.....

The next day I headed out to the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) about 230 k's north of Hue. The DMZ is the border then used to separate the communist North Vietnam to the Capitalist South. One thing I learned very quickly on thsi tour is how the Vietnamese do not refer to the Vietnam War as the Vietnam War. They refer to it as the "American War".

I spent about an hour crawling and walking through the Vin Moch tunnel, which were used as a living area for North Vietnamese families during the war. To think families lived down there terrifying, as it was so small, damp and dark. I kept smacking my head on the roof every time we had to go down some stairs....!

From there we went driving through the mountains, which is where alot of the battles took place. The mountains used to be covered in thousands of acres of Jungle. However, once the Americans started throwing agent orange around everywhere, they all burned up...and now nothing will grow properly there. They currently estimate that perhaps in a thousand years the jungle will be back to half of what it was.

We then stopped at a former military base, where there was a collection of photographs and memoriblilla from the battle of Keh San. For obvious reasons, it was all Pro North Vietnam, and it was interesting too see it all from a different perspective.

When we went to leave, our bus broke down, three times within half an hour. Each time everybody had to get out and push it along so it could start again! Well, nearly everyone. I choose to watch and take pictures instead...its probably the one and only time I will use the fact I am a women to get out of something!

We eventually found our way back to the hotel, where I had dinner with a great couple from Glasgow, and finished the night having a few beers out the front of the hotel with Cuba and his mates...a true authentic Vietnamese experience....!

The following night I jumped on yet another night bus, and headed for Hanoi....

Vietnam - Hoi An

My first night bus experience. I would love to say I hope it would be my only night bus experience, but unfortunately the journeys are just going to get longer the further north I go...!

I left Nha Trang at 7pm and jumped on the bus. A night bus is basically a dorm room on wheels. It has three row's on bunk beds plus 5 lots of top and bottom beds at the back. I thought maybe if I sat up the back I might be a bit more comfortable, however that was not the case. I got stuck between these two German people, and during the night you are practically spooning the people either side of you....! Now, if I was a lonely person I'm sure I would have loved it. But I'm not. And I hated it. And I only slept for about an hour the whole journey.

One thing that takes a bit of getting used to in South East Asia, especially in Vietnam, is the way they drive. Basically its one foot on the accelerator, one hand on the steering wheel, and the other hand is permanently on the horn. So, basically I would fall asleep, the bus would hit a bump, and the driver would start madly beeping his horn. This happened all the way through night, but became progressively worse the closer we got to Hoi An. Then, as we were approaching Hoi An, the bus driver decides to wake everyone up by turning on the stereo at full volume playing Vietnamese dance and pop music...what a wonderful way to start my first day in Hoi an!

I finally arrived in Hoi An at 6.30am. As some of you may or may not know, Hoi An is the Tailoring capital of Vietnam. You can practically get absolutely anything made for you. Unfortunately, this also produces a lot of touts in the street trying to get your business. Whats even worse, is at 6.30 in the morning, after traveling nearly 12 hours and sleeping for 1 hour, the minute I stepped off the bus I started being hassled by this girl telling me about her families shop. As I waited for my bag she went on and on and on about how her family could make me a cheap suite and shoes ready to take within 2 days.

I was as polite as I could be with one hours sleep at 6.30am, and tried to say I wasn't interested. However, as I headed to my hotel, she yelled after me "I will see you later on Australia!". After a couple of hours sleep at my hotel, I headed for a walk through the town, and this girl has obviously worded up her family about what I looked like, because they saw me pass their shop and came sprinting out yelling "Australia! Australia! You buy suite from me! You speak to my sister!" I just shook my head and said no and practically ran in the opposite direction...!

I spent the rest of the day walking through Hoi An old town, which is now a Unesco World Heritage sight. It had a very heavy French, Japanese and Vietnamese influences, which created a real multi-cultural experience every time you turned a different corner. Hoi an itself as a town is very laid back, not a lot of people and is very easy to navigate your way around on foot. It was nice to be in such a small city for a change.

The next day I hired a push bike and rode 5'ks to the beginning of China Beach, which stretches all the way up to Danang. I then spent about 3 hours walking up and down the beach which was great. It was good to actually do some exercise rather than take a Moto everywhere which is what I have been doing since day one....! I am starting to worry all the beer, rice and noodles are going to catch up with me...!

I headed out for dinner to a tiny little restaurant, where for 60,000 Dong (about $3.50) a had a set menu with all of Hoi Ans culinary specialties, which included White Rose, Cau Lao and home made spring rolls. White Rose is a small steamed dumpling stuffed with shrimp, and Cau Lao is a noodle soup mixed with pork, croutons and bean sprouts. It was absolutely delicious....!

Overall I really like Hoi An, even though there wasn't a huge amount to do there, it was very much a traditional town & not completely over run with tourists. I'm sure in the next few years it will start to change and expand more towards the beach, but right now it was probably one of my favorite places I have visted in Vietnam so far.

Vietnam - Nha Trang

Once I left Phnom Penh on the bus bound for Ho Chi Minh, it caught fire. Twice. I couldn't believe it! I was sitting on the bus, and all of the sudden I could smell smoke. About 5 minutes later the driver pulls the bus over, jumps out and runs to where all the luggage was, opened it and all this smoke comes pouring out. Turns out a towel of some sort had caught fire. The driver pulled the towel out, stood on it to put it out, and then threw it back in. Unfortunately what he failed to realise is the other end of the towel was still alight, and 10 minutes later we were in the same situation again. This time he actually ran towards a dam and dropped the towel in and left it there. Bad for the environment, but good for our bus.....!

I arrived in Ho Chi Minh at about 7pm, and had missed the last night bus for Nha Trang, so I left the following morning.

Nha Trang was quite a nice place. The beach was beautiful and the weather was fantastic. Unfortunately if you weren't really a beach person there isn't a hell of a lot else to do there. Condering I had just spent close to a week in Sihanoukville, I was and still am a little bit "beached out". That didn't stop spending a full day sitting on the beach though....! It was nice to sit there and not be hassled by 15 Cambodian children trying to sell me bracelets every 5 minutes....very peaceful...!

The following day I did what was becoming a bit of ritual for me - I hired a Moto and driver and got them to take me around to see the sights.

We went and saw the big giant budda that is set up on a hill overlooking the town. While I was walking up to it I was approached by two people, a guy and a girl, in uniform saying that they work at the sight and that they grew up there in the orphanage. They were quite nice and walked with me up to one of the buddas where they offered to take my picture..which I let them do. After that was done they started saying "oh please buy postcards for the orphanage to pay for the children" etc etc. So I bought some postcards, and then they insisted on me giving them $10 donation! To which I refused but they kept on and on for about 5 minutes, so eventually I gave them $5. I can almost guarantee that wont go near any children's orphanage...

The view from the very top was amazing, and well worth the hassle and the stairs....!

After that we went to see the Po Nagar Cham Tower which again over looks Nha Trang, and is still a worship ground for lots of buddists in Nha Trang. Again a wonderful view from the top.

From there we headed to the Oceanographic Institute, which had a great collection of different fish, sharks and stingrays to look at.

By then it was 1pm, and I had seen absolutely everything! I spent the rest of the day on the roof of the hotel reading a book and then went and had some dinner.

I was glad I didn't end up staying longer in Nha Trang. Like I said, it was a nice town, reasonably quiet, but after 5 days of the beach I clearly had well and truly had enough.....

The next day I headed to Hoi An...