Hello to everyone!
I'm in Vientiene, Laos right now enjoying the relative (compared to Vietnam) peace and quiet of this beautiful country after enduring what must be the worst bus journey yet...a 27 hour gruelathon from Hanoi to Vientiene...a true hell on wheels.
But first, the final events from Vietnam...
In Hanoi, met a great guy (Matt) from Montana - we all went out for a sketchy meal of the local fare and drank too much bia hoi (fresh beer) - you can just sit on the street corners here in Hanoi and order draft beers for 1500 dong (about 10 cents). Needless to say, I didn't feel that well the next morning which was a perfect way to start a ride in a Russian army jeep (real one) over some of the worst roads I've ever experienced. Let's just say that the first morning was not fun..."harrowing" would actually be the word I would use. I'm pretty sure Chris (our third person on the tour and all-around great travel companion) thought I was just a mute until the next day.
The Sapa area was definitely the highlight of Northern Vietnam for me. We trekked for three days/two nights and stayed in the home of the local (ethnic minority) people each night. The first day we hiked from Sapa to Ta Van - mostly passing through the area inhabited by the Black Hmong tribe. It was very, very muddy (and cold) and I managed to greatly impress two of the local boys by falling on my ass while descending a steep hill - oddly enough they were going much faster than our little group but then slowed down so they could watch me climb down the rest of the slippery area (that would be all of it).
The Hmong kids were fantastic. Many of the girls sell crafts to the tourists so their English is actually quite good - our guide told us that many of the Hmong kids do not speak Vietnamese...just English and Hmong. We met a fantastic group of little girls in TaVan - they were just SO cute and fun - when a ten year old named Ping was asking me why I wasn't married, I asked her why SHE wasn't married and she simply responded "I'm TEN! That's why." I may yet come home with an adopted child. They walked us through the entire village and then were waiting the next morning to walk us out of the village and send us off - granted the whole point is for us to buy things - but it was just fun to be able to communicate and talk to them...even if it did cost me buying a bracelet. When I put the pictures up from Sapa, it's worth checking out - all of the hill tribe women dress in traditional clothes still - so many colors.
From the Northwest, we went back to Hanoi and then to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is quite beautiful but very similar to the Krabi area of Thailand. Limestone karst formations (think James Bond Island again in Golden Gun) in a huge Bay - over 2000 islands. The trip was fun - we met Ian from Oakland and inaugurated the "Leisure Club"...a bit of a joke considering the sun broke for exactly twenty minutes during the three day trip. But we dutifully took all the mandatory vacation pics: "lounging on wet deck chairs on the boat", "sitting on the beach in 40 degree (F) weather", and of course the classic "Ian walking out of a water cave after capsizing kayak"... Our guide decided that we were capable of kayaking through a very low head-space, very dark, strong counter-current cave so we could see the lagoon on the other side. Now...I don't want to chalk everything up to unsafe conditions...but I would have to say only 30% of the difficulty stems from our own incompetence in the kayaks. I don't think anyone came out of the cave without some consequences:
1. Most suffered cuts on their hands.
2. One couple will need marriage counseling
3. Ian and our "guide in training" capsized in the cave - the guide then tried to bail the water out of the kayak in the pitch darkness. Then took Ian's suggestion to leave the cave before righting the kayak but didn't set any direction while the other people on the tour gave the capsize victims dry/warm clothes. He made a joke about being hungry and then joked with Ian about charging him 10 Million dollars for his dry jacket. Funny...we were just thinking in the US we would be taking pictures to fully support the impending lawsuit. Instead we took pictures so Ian could laugh about the experience later. Finally the guide capsized his own kayak while climbing back in b/c he was unwilling to ask someone to steady his kayak . Really a wonderful lesson - "Crisis Management: What not to do." We did meet really fantastic people including a couple from the UK - Deb & Dave - that are traveling for 7-10 months and we're hoping to meet up with in India.
Finally - the bus ride. We got on the bus at 7:30pm in Hanoi and got off the bus at 10:30 pm the next day in Vientiene. Along the way, many facts became clear...and this is all true:
1. The bus was a local bus...we stopped for passengers and/or cargo at least twice an hour and often had to drive about 5 mph while looking for the next pick-up.
2. Some of the cargo was seafood products. It smelled.
3. Some of the cargo was something labeled "feed" and wrapped in small plastic packages. At one point we had to walk on this two foot high"aisle" when getting out of the bus.
4. We changed tires on two separate occasions during the trip after blow-outs on the road.
5. The family that ran this "private bus" certainly didn't cater to it's passengers. All stops for the bathroom were on the side of the road. Yes...for the girls too. Drop trou and go.
6. In the cargo hold was a live chicken in a mesh bag. Everytime we stopped and opened the cargo hold it fell onto the side of the road.
7. At the lunch stop, Deanna and I actually watched a cock-fight with very animated spectators betting.
8. Before the Lao border, the driver/crew actually taped some of the plastic packages (in #3) to the underside of the wheel well. There was also a compartment underneath one of the steps when climbing into the bus that they filled with these containers and screwed the top back onto the step.
9. It is my sincere belief that this bus smuggled drugs across the Vietnam/Laos border.
10. The people were incredibly rude - once we crossed the border and we were "home free" they didn't have to keep up the pretense of making us happy.
11. At every government checkpoint, a man would get out and give a "gift" to the guard. When any authorities did get on the bus, we kept hearing "falang" (which means foreigner...I think we were pawns in the "you can't make these foreigners wait while you search the bus" game) Near Vientiene, we actually got chased down by government officials on a motorbike. Three separate batches of cash were handed from the lady in charge to the official. Corruption? Yes.
12. Coming into Vientiene, we picked up local folks making their way into town. Three were drunk. An old man passed out in the seat in front of Deanna.
13. At the end of the trip, we were dropped off significantly north of Vientiene - we think b/c they didn't want to pass any more government stops. They were actually yelling at us to get off the bus. I thought there would be a fight.
Kind of funny. Kind of scary. It's clear we were being used in a scheme and just unfortunate that it was our first impression of Laos - which has been great in the two days following the ride.
I hope everyone is well...more on our continuing adventures when something happens! Laos seems SO laid back...
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