21st June - Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

When we had been looking at buses from Louang Prabang, we noticed that they did something called a VIP bus for a few extra dollars. At a distance I'd commented that the picture of it looked like an ARRIVA bus and on closer inspection, it actually was. Not that ARRIVA are operating in Laos, they'd obviously just nicked the picture from the internet because it even said 'Southend-on-Sea' or something like that on the front. Anyway, it was still more expensive and so we didn't catch it but the picture had made me smile.

So, we took the non-VIP minibus to Vang Vieng and it was so cosy that we started making some of the friends that we were going to spend the next few days with. There was a younger English couple called Paul and Alex, and a Belgian guy called Yens - who we got to know a little better during an impromptu stop when we stood outside the bus waiting for a road to be rebuilt and retarmaced along the route.

We ended up in the same hotel as Yens and went together to explore the town a little bit more. Despite being famous for being a party town where drunken tourists can tube down the river, Vang Vieng is actually in a very attractive area, surrounded by cloudy karsts and stunning scenery and so we didn't need to walk far out of the main area to appreciate the beauty of it.

After some food and a few beers we decided to take a closer look at the clubs across on the little island. We were the first people there so we sat in hammocks with our promotional 'buckets' and watched the drunken tourists start to arrive. It still wasn't particularly busy but once the fires were lit and a few people were dancing, it started to feel more like we were expecting.

Not that this was particularly fun for Matt, who headed off to bed while I got more into the spirit of it all. A few hours later, after a particularly memorable few minutes of dancing to Madonna in the pouring rain, surrounded by blue sparkly lights and fires, Jens and I grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel - where I went to bed clutching a sandwich for Matt. He must have been tired though because I couldn't rouse him - so I picked out all the best bits and went to bed.

20th June - Louang Prabang

For some reason last night was a restless night and so when the alarm went off at 5am, my desire to see the alms procession was overcome by my desire to get some more sleep.

We had arranged to go and spend some time at a waterfall with Sam and Nick last night and so met them around lunch time to take the long tuk tuk journey there.  There was a bear sanctuary there and though it was good to see the bears that had been rescued from miserable lives of 'dancing', fighting and general abuse, it was still distressing to see their repetetive and peculiar behaviours.

There were quite a few people swimming in the nearby waterfall and we watched people swinging from a tree into the water. I was particularly taken by a Japanese lady who did the jump wearing a pink rubber ring. I'm not sure the ring helped much as she hit the water because she came up looking rather shocked and disorientated.

After plucking up the courage to climb into the freezing water, I was glad to have the Isle of Wight sea shoes that Rachel bought me so I didn't have to cope with the sharp rocks underfoot too (Ta Rach!). After a short swim and a sit under the waterfall with Sam, we climbed back on to dry land and had a wander around some of the other waterfalls in the area.

The biggest waterfall had a path that led to the top of it and we decided to have a look. It was more of a scramble than a walk in places and although Nick skipped ahead like a monkey-man, the rest of us laboured behind. I was determined to get to the top and left Matt and Sam behind with my bags - it was a good job I did because I couldn't even hold my towel on properly and so ended up scaling the hill in just my bikini.

Much to my disdain, even though I made it to the top I could not get to the only bit where there would have been a view over the waterfall without wading through bigs pools of water and making my shoes all wet and muddy for the descent. Given how slippery it already was, I was glad that I hadn't. Especially when it started raining on the way down.

By this time Matt had decided to swim after all and slipped into a deserted pool near a smaller waterfall. After joining him quickly to wash off the sheen of sweat, we headed back towards the car park where the tuk tuk driver was waiting for us - along with some other passengers who'd ridden there on bikes and didn't fancy the ride back.

Due to the general problem of a lack of change that seems to plague anyone who sells anything in Laos, there was some confusion over money that meant that we nearly cheated the tuk tuk driver. Luckily, we'd stood for a while making arrangements and so were still only meters away when he realised the mistake. After lots more confusion and money swopping we were fairly sure that if anyone was out of pocket it was us and not him.

After a chat with my mum, we booked our bus and headed to the night market. This time we were late rather than early and so many stalls were packing up but this was probably for the best because there were lots of lovely things that I would have been tempted by. We have resisted many beautiful things so far but I did give in to a lightshade. It was made of real flowers pressed between paper and looked subtle and delicate. However, he way the flowers illuminated and glowed with colour when they were put near the light filled me with such emotion for my family that I'm amazed I ony left with one.

19th June - Luang Prabang

The alarm didn't go off and so when I woke up it was already light and we had missed the monk's procession. It happens every day though so we planned to go another day.

After a quick walk up to town for money and breakfast, we changed hotel to Villay Vanh. They'd been so nice to us the day yesterday when we were waiting for Jordan and Belinda, and had such a lovely bed and air-con that I couldn't resist. We made the most of it and chilled out on the balcony during the heat of the day, enjoying the free coffee, bananas, star fruit (ynummy!) and water.

We ventured out again with the intention of seeing some of the many wats in the town. We took a nice walk up the hill to That Chomsi stupa. We didn't go right up the stupa itself but we did take a walk round where there was a (giant) footprint of Buddha's and a shrine in a cave, as well as bomb casings being used as plantpots.

We also visited Wat Pha Mahathat and took some time to admire the decorative carved friezes that adorned the outside. A monk came and opened up the doors and windows of the main room and we saw detailed paintings depicting the life of Buddha curving around the walls, as well as an altar with countless tiny Buddha's worked into every detail.

We were back in town in time for the night market to start setting up again so we stopped for food at one of the buffet style stalls. Like all buffets the world over, the food looked great but was reassuringly disappointing and so we left feeling a little bit grubby and oily.

After a nice, long chat with my mum, we joined the Miriam and Amber in a little bar/guesthouse called Mojos. It was a million miles away from any bar called Mojos that I've ever been to and was a nice mix between classy and cool. We enjoyed watching some of the musicians there and were impressed that the Kiwis played the banjo and sang even though we missed the performance because we were out trying ot find Nick and Sam. I liked the idea that they had bought one while they were travelling and were teaching themselves songs as they went along.

By chance, Nick and Sam wandered past just as the musicians were winding up for their 10pm curfew and the Kiwis were thinking about going home to bed ready for another long leg of their journey the following day and so we ended up in a bar called Utopia.

We couldn't believe how full it was considering that everyone there must have had to walk past our guesthouse to get there. It was very much the place to be and Matt and I felt far too uncool to be there but we did enjoy catching up wth Nick and Sam again.

18th June - Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang

There was still no working ATM so we scrapped together our last US dollars to change for the fare to Louang Prabang and walked the long road to bus station.

The minibus had a reasonable amount of room at first but soon became more clautrophobic as more people squeezed on and contorted themselves into the small spaces that were left. It didn't improve any when the kid in front of us threw up all over but it didn't seem to shake her mother at all and it was soon all cleared up and forgotten.

We arrived at bus station , helped unload the chickens from the roof and talked a songtheaw driver into taking us into the town for little bit of money we had left. As soon as we stepped off, we bumped into the Kiwi girls, Amber and Miriam and arranged to try and catch up later.

After checking into the nearest guesthouse, Villa Aphay, we found an ATM but were still left without much cash because we pressed the wrong button and payed all the stupid fees for just a few quid. It's easy done when there are so many noughts on everything. Just $122 makes you a millionaire in Laos kip. We did manage to get a sightly better rate on our Dong though and so cashed that in too.

The absolute highlight of the day was managing, after a fair bit of faffing, to catch an hour with Belinda and Jordan, who I met on my mega-trip from Cambodia to Chesterfield when I came home. I could not have asked for a greater source of comfort after I'd said my goodbyes to Matt and took my first step on the long journey home. Their kindness and companionship kept me afloat all the way to Bangkok and I was overwhelmed by how much they did for me just by being there and being them.

After yesterday's news it just seemed so appropriate that they were there again. It somehow felt like I had come full-circle from when I had seen them last and, despite the sadness of the situation, I was delighted to see them just before they headed home to the US themselves.

We spent some time exploring Louang Prabang in he afternoon and trying to unearth the charm that many people find there. We walked by the river a while, looked in some windows and saw the start of the night market but headed back before it got started properly as I wanted to Skype my mum and we were intending to get up early to see the monks receive their alms at 5am.

17th June - Nong Khiaw

Today I received the bad news that I had been hoping would not come. It was very difficult to be so far away from my family and I would have done anything to be with them. I could only be thankful that they all know how much I love them and appreciate them for all they are.

There's nothing else to say here other than that Matt was his usual wonderful self and stayed close by my side as my head spent time back home with my loved-ones.

16th June - Nong Khiaw

Matt woke up earlier than me and opened the door for some air and so I spent a very pleasent hour or two dozing off and waking up to the karst view outside our door.

We spent the rest of morning blogging on the balcony and munching on fruit. We later discovered that, contrary to what we had heard so far, Laos food can be very tasty indeed. We found a lovely restaurant that was run by a local guy who spent some time chatting to us and answering our questions. He told us that businesses in Laos pay a fixed fee for tax every month, regardless of how much money they make and so sometimes he had to go back to rice farming to make the money to pay the bills. Considering how many restaurants there are even in this small place, and how few people are currently here in the low season, it must be hard for most of them to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, our surprise ATM had a further surprise for us and was now out of order and so we were on very limited funds. Luckily for us, you don't have to spend much to enjoy a balcony view and watch TV series on the laptop so we took advantage of this.

15th June - Muang Khua to Nong Khiaw

In the morning I flooded my 2nd  room in two weeks. I didn't notice that the shower water was hitting the door and running out into our bedroom. Unfortunately, Matt didn't notice either until he went to pack his bag and realised it has soaked up some of the huge volume of water that was now on the floor.

Despite the boat not being due to set off until 9.30, one of us had been told to be there at 8 so we made a quick getaway and trooped down to the river but the ticket booth wasn't even open.

We joined Lucy, Vince, Nick and Sam for breakfast and had our first taste of how long it takes to get food in restaurants in Laos: Thirty-five minutes after we'd ordered, my baguette turned up and had to wait alone for a little while until my omlette arrived. When it did, I noticed that the baguette was yesterday's and too dry to eat. I took it to the waiter just as the restaurant were receiving a new delivery of bread and he was passed some fresh ones by the owner. He then walked past me, took my baguette off the plate and continued into the kitchen! Several minutes later he wandered over with one of the baguettes on a different plate. By this time I'd eaten my omlette and we needed to get down to the river.

The boat journey was ok and initially much more comfortable than a bus but after an hour or two, we all started to get very numb bums. Matt and I ended up snuggled up on the floor at the back of the boat with a minority woman who was very nice to us and really enjoyed the lollies and sweets that Sam kept handing out.

We chugged noisily down the river amongst mist veiled karsts and beautiful scenery. It was a cloudy day and it had rained for the whole night so was also much cooler than usual, which was a blessed relief when more people started to cram on further down the river.

 

We left Miriam and Sander at Muang Ngoi - a village that we had planned to stay at until we met the abondoned American yesterday - and they were replaced by a family of three. We nearly got left behind ourselves anyway because we'd had a loo break and they were just setting off as we ascended the steps to the river.

We arrived Muand Khua maybe 4 or 5 hours after we set off and crossed the bridge to look around for a place. The first one we saw had bungalows overlooking the river with little balconies with a hammock (and wifi at the restuarant nearby of course!) so we stayed there.  Sam and Nick were with us and so we negtiated a cheaper rate and got some nice next-door-neighbours to chat to over our balcony. There was also a surprise ATM there so we could get some money out at some point and wait to change our Dong until we got to a bigger town.

After food and a massive downpour we went for a walk to try to get to some caves we'd read about but the mud was sticking the bottom of our shoes so much that we got taller and taller and couldn't plant our feet properly.  We resolved to try again when the ground was dryer and headed back to wander around the village itself a little more.

We wandered both sides of the river until it got dark and we didn't want to venture out into the wilderness too far. We stood and looked for the stars we'd heard were magnificent if viewed from the big concrete bridge but it too cloudy. Instead we spent a pleasent evening on our balcony reading books before Matt went to bed early.  Sam and Nick came back shortly after so I shimmied over to their balcony and got to enjoy a beer and a chat for a while.

14th June - Dien Bien Phu to Muang Khua (Laos)

We slept better than we had in a few days and woke up at 3.30am feeling ok but a bit foggy. 

After showering and packing I was hungry and had time time to mull over the aesthetic difference between Matt's maggots and my 'caterpillar' (why does that sound rude?)  and so considered giving the lychees another bash. I picked up the bag to pluck one out and was very startled when suddenly it started shaking extremely vigourously and I saw something green furiously wriggling about. I screamed and hurled it, trying to mentally process the overnight transformation of the caterpillar. As it landed, I was relieved when a familiar gecko scurried out and under the bed.

We were over at the bus-stand early and bagged a seat with ample leg room. There's always the risk of having a huge sack of rice or someone elses bag shoved under your legs and so filled the space with ourselves and our hand luggage and hoped for the best. People did keep shoving massive boxes and other objects at us through the window but most of the time, we passed it on and it disappeared out of the dorr and on to the roof.

The bus was mostly full of Westerners and we chatted to Nick and Sam from the UK for a while. Many of the people on the bus has travelled with them from Sapa the previous day and so there was a general air of comfortable silence.

The border crossing from Vietnam was fairly straighforward although they tried to send Matt off without giving him his passport back because they thought the picture on his was of a girl! The Laos border crossing was much more long-winded and they kept trying us all for additional 'fees' and holding our passports to ransom. It wasn't very expensive but it was annoying and Matt and Nick were the last bastions of stubborness and so did a little male bonding.

We took a lunch stop at a little cafe and debated changing some money with the bus driver but decided to hold out for a better rate and so payed with Vietnam Dong. Unfortunately, I came across a manky tofu which exploded in my mouth and covered my tongue with foul-tasting liquid which refused to budge and so I found myself wishing for green peaches again.

Upon our arrival at the village of Muang Khua, we were made to alight from the bus and watch a man travel across the dividing river on the ferry - a floating platform clearly designed for buses and trucks which was pushed by what looked like an old US patrol boat and guided by a cable system. We were then crammed onto a tiny boat with all of our bags and charged to be rowed across.

We were met by a mature American guy who was hoping we would be taking an onward boat trip down the river to Nong Khiaw. He'd been in the village for a week just waiting for someone else to come so that the boat would run. We suggested we might all do the trip the following day and he receommended the hotel where he'd been staying.

We still didn't have an Laos Kip so our first stops were frustrating attempts to change the stack of Dong we'd had to bring because we were out of dollars. The exchange rate was terrible but we had no choice - who would have thought a bud-driver would offer the best rate?

We checked into hotel with most of our other fellow bus passengers and after a shower and a rest on the communal balcony, went to explore the tiny village a little more. There wasn't much to see but we did brave the suspension bridge, which shook, swayed and clanked quite scarily as people sped past us on mopeds.

The road we had travelled on was still being built and so we watched the locals clearing trees by hand and sitting watching the big digger clearing a passage through the hills, as kids on bikes made a BMX-style track over the progress they'd already made.

Back at hotel we chatted on the balcony with our bus-mates: Miriam and Amber (2 Kiwi girls who were biking around Asia), Lucy and Vince (a french couple in their last 2 weeks of a year-long trip), and Sam and Nick (both nurses from the UK).

Went for a drink and were joned by our last 2 bus friends, Miriam and Sander. They were only travelling a few weeks a much bigger budget than us and so had checked in elsewhere. They both had interesting jobs and we discussed Miriam's work as a Communications Specialist (one of the top 5 or 10 in Holland apparently) and Sander's work as a radio DJ and general media darling before heading back to get some rest before our boat journey the following day.

13th June - Mai Chau to Dien Bien Phu

Our early morning dawn chorus shaved about 2 hours off our intended rise at 6am and we looked in envy at our Italian bunkmate who was flat out and sleeping peacefully.

We took a taxi to the junction where we'd been told we could flag down bus and were dropped off at a petrol station. There were several people who looked like they might work there and just one girl working but they tried to chat to us a little and were very helpful in identifying the right bus. One of the nice things about Vietnam is the equality between men and women and they socialise together everywhere.

We had been told that we should haggle on the bus because they would try to rip us off, which was a good thing because we did not have the money to pay for the fare that they ask us for. They wouldn't bargain much though and we considered getting our bags back off for impact but didn't want to risk being left. Even for something that doesn't techinically cost them anything, the Vietnamese will not haggle further than they think is right and will quite happily not sell it than 'lose out'.

We stopped for lunch and Matt and I bought some fabulously red-looking lychees and some bread. The bread was really sweet and came with a tub of something they we soon found was the Asian favourite - condensed milk. It was interesting but not all too unpleasent.

I was still munching mine when Matt dug into the lychees and expertly started peeling them and popping them into his mouth. When I took one and complained about how squidgy they were, Matt assured me they were very ripe but fine. He looked down at the one that he's just opened and saw some tiny milky-white maggots scoot back inside the fruit. Despite feeling quesy at the maggots he may have already eaten, he perservered and tried a couple more before catching another infestation.

We debated just throwing them away but since there were 2 kilos I had a go at taking them back to the stall. I used my finger to gesture wriggly things inside and surprisingly, she gave me our money back. More surprisingly she gestured for me to return them to the place on the stand that we had bought them from. Icky!
There wasn't enough time to get any more food and we were herded back onto the bus to continue our voyage. A kilometre or so up the road there was a bit of discussion and we did a U-turn and pulled back into the rest-stop - where a very-relieved looking passenger that we had forgotten, climbed back on.
Later, a few hours and many scenic views later, we stopped at a stall at the top of a hill so everyone could buy fruit from the colourful minority women. They didn't have much apart from marrows and some of the tiny, under-ripe green peaches that they seemed to be so fond of so we didn't indulge. However, the old man in front of us insisted that we shared some of the ones he'd bought and, although they were bitter and crunchy, they weren't as bad as other ones we'd tried and they satisfied our hunger pangs a little.

We arrived about 5pm to a few awaiting touts for the hotels in Dien Bien Phu. We wanted to get food first but one of the touts thought we were following him to his hotel just across the road and so we said we'd have a quick look. As we were crossing I heard an urgent whistle and a shout and turned to see a local man shaking his head at me to warn me off. As tempting as it was to find out what he was talking about, we politely declined and went to reintroduce ourselves to noodle soup.

We looked around a few local rooms but since we had a 5am start the following day we didn't have many needs apart from proximity to the bus station and wifi. We found a place called Thu Diu where I got to show myself around before checking in. A few other Westerners were arriving at the same time and had selected the same place and so we performed brief greeting rituals and heded out to find some fruit.

We explored the first actual supermarket we'd seen in Asia for a long while but it was fruitless (pun not intended but a pleasent surprise all the same) and some of the massive outdoor market but we were tiring and so headed back to our hotel with 2 more kilos of less ripe looking lychees and some green oranges (that always messes with my head).  We attacked the lychees with considerably more caution than usual but it didn't take long until I found one with a tiny, green caterpillar thing mooching around in it and so we abandoned our vitimin C fest.

12th June - Mai Chau

Our stilted house seemed to amplify sound and so we had quite a restless night of shouting villagers, cockerels and early-rising locals passing on the morning's news at full volume.

We took a walk from the village to the local town with Toke. Not much at all to see but we did duck into the shade of a covered market and came out with a parasol brolly and a new fruit knife in the shape of a fish that Matt accidentally aggressively bargained for.

To avoid the dullness of the town, we ventured down a few alleys and made our way back through the rice fields in the baking heat. I was really grateful for my umbrella but have no idea how people manage to work at those humid temperatures. It's very humbling.

We were in a different area to yesterday's rice-field walk but you could see how everyone was on a very similar schedule and that progress had been made since yesterday. More of the houses in the village had big piles in rice or were drying the husked grains on big tarps in the street.

We considered moving to somewhere cheaper but liked the atmosphere at the place and felt too lazy and cheeky to pack up and then come back for dinner so we spent evening chilling and chatting with Toke. We learned a new card game and found out that Denmark has more pigs than people before saying our final goodbyes and heading to bed.

11th June - Hanoi to Mai Chau

We said our goodbyes to the wonderful Tuey and her helpful staff at Viet Fun and followed the man who came to collect us to take us to the bus. The man was much more helpful than any tour guide we've had so far so we were sorry he was only taking us to the end of the road. 

It turned out that instead of the huge crush of a full consignment of backpackers and their hefty bags squeezing on to the minibus, there was just Matt and myself. It was pure luxury - but only while we were stationery. It also made Matt's ticket search of yesterday quite entertaining as there must have been a very patient man at the end of the phone agreeing to the same price each time.

We bounced around mountain roads and our driver stopped for us to take pictures over-looking an impressive vista. Very soon afterwards we had a terrifying near death experience as some girl pulled out in front of our speedy minibus on a push-bike. The driver slammed on the brakes and swerved, leaving half of the tyres on the road and the bus filled with the pungent smell of burning rubber but thankfully avoided the girl. Even the driver was shaken up and so it wasn't so long after he'd climbed out and berated the girl that we stopped for a cup of tea.

The place may have been a restaurant-type affair but was filled with huge pieces of wood that had been carved into sculptured animals and big pieces of furniture. We sat with the driver as he investigated Matt's phone, drank tea out of tiny cups and stared at a giant wooden toad before setting off again.

The bus dropped us off at The Nature Place in Mai Chau where there were already lots of people sat having a delicious looking lunch. Matt went for  quick check around a few of the MANY other homestays but nothing else stood out so we decided to stay and join them for food.

We sat with a very nice Japanese couple and found out that the group had been there on an organised tour for a couple of days but that it had been too hot for them to get up to much. We were joined by their tour guide who was a very friendly and chatty young Vietnamese woman who showed us lots of interesting photos on her phone. She had started organising photography trips for tourists around some of the more beautiful areas of the north. They were really catching on but she had trouble promoting them further or responding to requests because, even though she spoke great English, she could not read or write it.
Just before the bus set off, Matt noticed a missing wheel nut that he thought might not be so great on the twisty mountain roads. He mentioned it to the driver and he didn't care a jot so we waved goodbye to the group and hoped that they got there okay.

We wandered the village for a while and explored some of the local handicrafts that most of the houses had on sale. It was much more low pressure than we expected and in many of the places, they were too busy having their afternoon nap to even notice us.

One of Matt's favoutire stalls made basic but effective bamboo pellet (stone) gun and some rather hefty-looking crossbows. Thankfully he concluded that they were a little bulky for our luggage and that we may struggle to get them onto a plane and o we left them and the village and headed off throught he rice paddies.
In most of the countries that we have visited, we have spent many hours looking out of bus windows and watching them working the fields. I've often wished to be closer and see more but they are very far-removed from the bus stops in major tourist towns and difficult to get to. Even if we could get there, the idea of just strolling through while everybody toils away seemed ridiculous and rude but today, that's just what we were encouraged to do and just what we did and it was great.

Men and women of all ages wore their conical hats (sorry I don't know the name!) and maxi-cover clothes as they waded through the water-logged fields, scything, bundling, piling and carrying the harvest. Many said hello or smiled at us as we passed and none of them seemed at all annoyed that we were there.

We tried to walk up one of the huge hills and couldn't find a path and so just meandered down the main road for while. Groups of farmers sat by the roadside having a bit of a rest and a chat while other individuals scooted past us on nbikes piled high with crops. Big, scary ox rested by the roadside and stared at us as we passed. Some houses were already working on the seperating the grain from the stalk using pedal-powered machines and called 'hello' as we passed. A few more had no anumals to feed the stalks to and so were burning piles of them, sending  plumes of sour smoke into the road and air.

On the way back to the village we came across two groups of women carefully heaving and steering their carts of crops down the narrow, raised paths between the fields. They stopped to gather their breath before having to attempt the steep slope that we had just walked down. After a short exchange of gestures and words, we helped them trundle their carts up the small hill. They loved this and were delighted at our joining in. The carts were heavy though and I imagine probably the last thing you want to deal with after a long, hard day harvesting in the hot sun.

Back at the homestay we were given such a large amount of food that we wondered if we were expected to help ourselves and pass the rest on but apparently not. A Danish guy came over and had dinner there too and he was given almost as much to himself and so we heartily tucked in, enjoying the break from noodle soup. We were also given rice wine, decanted from a 10 litre container into a 2 litre one and then served by the cupfull. They give bigger servings of tis pure ethanol brew than they do their tasty coffee.

We chatted to Toke for a while then Matt went to bed as I went with Toke to try and find the 'bonfire, music and dancing' we had been told about and encouraged to go to. After a few wrong turns down very dark paths with no torch to rely on, we finally stumbled across the only thing that resembled what had been described to us. There was no bonfire and it looked like a private show that had been put on for a tour group but we stood with the locals at the other side of a broomstick barrier and watched for a while. It was very similar to the life-based dance that we had seen so often in Asia and though it is nice to watch, I really struggle understand why, after such a hard day toiling and working in the fields, they would want to dance about working and toiling in the fields.

It was quite relaxing though and we soon wandered back to our respective stilted house to get some rest.

10th June - Hanoi

This morning we finally sold the bike. 200 long-awaited American dollars were handed over by New Yorker Norman and his Vietnamese girlfriend. It wasn't as much as we'd hoped but we were glad to finally be able to move on.

I showered and got hooked on back-to-back episodes of Glee (I know!) while Matt went in search of bus tickets to Mai Chau. They were originally twice as expensive as we'd thought they'd be and so he trailed from place to place trying to find out the best price. He eventually realised that they were all just continually calling the same place and so came back to our hotel to book them from there.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful: the highlight being our search for machine lubricant for my Ladyshave and Matt's multi-tool so probably best not to dwell on that too much.

We spent the evening at our favourite haunts for our celebratory goodbye to Hanoi. We went to Beer Hoi 45 again for our last few jars and then popped to the noodle stall at the end of our road to squat on teensy stools and stuff our faces. After several days of waiting to leave, it was almost sad to be finally going.

9th June Hanoi

Woke up with a bit of a hangover. I printed out more bike adverts to replace the ones that had been removed over night. 

Decided to wander through the french quarter to Lenin park which is between Thien Quang lake and Dao Hoa lake.  Just before the entrance to the park was an old SEGA arcade which was dark and dingy inside and had most of the machines switched off. One of the few machines working was air hockey so we had a quick game.

Had a wander through the park, watched people fishing and a man playing on his own with a paper plane. The park has a few old fairground rides, some of which are covered in rust and some which look like they might not be so deadly. The park also has a "muscle beach" style workout area full of muscular Vietnamese men.

Just outside the park we stumbled across a frozen yoghurt store where we could pick our flavours and toppings. It turned out to be fairly expensive but was lovely. Being all modern I decided to have a look on Foursquare for recommended food places nearby and we set off to a food stall nearby. After a few minutes walk we were at the location shown on the map but couldn't find the correct place so we we just sat at the nicest looking street stall and ordered some Bun Rieu Cua which we'd never heard of but looked good. It turned out to be crab noodle soup and was as good as it looked.

Wandered back in the general direction of the hotel, past the opera house and towards the lake. We walked into a small square where skateboarders were attempting to jump some steps so we stayed and watched them for a while before heading back to the hotel for a nap.

We'd been craving lychees for a while and there's normally at least one person selling them on the street near our hotel but not tonight so we wander around a few streets with no luck until heading back and bumping straight into a woman selling them from her bike right near the hotel.

8th June - Hanoi

A pretty uneventful day. We've seen pretty much everything that there is to see in Hanoi. Despite being crazily busy, there isn't that much to do other than a few museums that we're not really interested in and going to see Ho Chiu Min's body at the Mauseleum - which we're never up in time for.

A good few hours were spent looking for a pair of shorts for me. New clothes are always a bit of a trial because Asian women are so tiny and I am not. I tried to look at some things on a stall in the huge indoor market but got my hand slapped away by the woman, who gestured that I was too fat for them.

I found a pair in a shop that had been recommended as selling 'big' sizes by Tuey. Matt helped me pick up everything that was in the largest size and I took them to the changing room, stepped over the woman working there who was asleep in the middle of floor and proceeded to try and squeeze my chunky, sweaty limbs into them. Nothing was very suitable and I soon went off the idea because of the heat and the unlikeliness of finding anything.

After we'd been shepherded down a particular set of stairs and out of the door, Matt spotted a more suitable pair of shorts in the bargain bin and so I made my way back to the sticky-hot changing room. This time, the woman inhabiting it was awake and playing with her phone, though she was still prostrate on the floor. The shorts fit and so I happily made my way downstairs to pay, only to remember that we hadn't been to the ATM and so we had no money.

All that sorted, we pretty much spent the rest of the day mooching around before deciding to go and see how much beer hoi you had to drink to get a hangover. At Beer Hoi 45, we met Harry and Sabi - an Australian guy and French girl. They were really nice and we made our way through many beers, talking about Harry's career as a chef and Sabi's experiences as a language assistant in Birmingham.

On our first visit to Beer Hoi 45, the guy there had shown us a picture of a hugely fat English guy and told us that he had drunk 17 beers. We worked out that those 17 beers had still worked out cheaper than one pint of lager in the UK and much cheaper than in Paris and Australia!

On our way for some food at the end of the evening, Harry's arm was clipped by a bike. He was fine but the bike went down and skidded down the road a bit. The driver was uncharacteristically apologetic but as there was no real damage done, we all went on our way. Given the sheer volume of bikes and people, I'm amazed it wasn't much worse but thankfully it was a quiet time in the street and so no-one else was hurt.

7th June - Hanoi

Had a few calls and emails about the bike in the morning but by the time I'd responded other bikes had been bought, etc. Eventually an Australian guy called and I took him up to see the bike in the parking garage. This parking garage also has a number of Honda Wins for sale and when I was getting my bike out to show the guy, the owners of the garage took them to look at their bikes. Eventually I got the bike out and the potential buyer took it for a ride. When he returned he complained that the back end felt loose and when we looked the rear wheel had come loose and shifted forward, leaving the chain very slack. I found this very odd as the bike had been fine on the ride to Hanoi and hadn't been ridden since. 

I took it around the corner to a mechanic who told me it needed a new chain and sprocket which I didn't believe so tried another garage a couple of doors further down who straight away said all it needed was the rear wheel putting back in position. Two minutes and $1.50 later it was sorted and riding fine. Unfortunately the damage to the sale was done and I didn't hear from the Australian again.

When I returned, Anji had got chatting to two people from the hostel across the road, Bo and Loic. We decided to go for some beer at the Bia Hoi place Anji and I had been to the previous day so headed over there for a few before moving on to the Bun Cha restaurant that had been recommended by Tuey, the manager at our hotel.

We then headed over to the "Hanoi Hilton" prison museum before being told to leave half way around as it was closing and then on to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which was closed. After wandering around the park surrounding the mausoleum we decided to head towards Lenin park again, had a few beer hois on the way and spent some time watching the dancers.

 

6th June - Hanoi

In the morning Matt had fun trying to print off some posters to advertise the bike while flooded the bathroom. This wasn't at all intentional but was quite funny. I think I've mentioned the 'bidet' type attachments that they have in Asia, which are basically trigger-operated pressure hoses to be used instead of a toilet brush and also in the absence of toilet paper. Unfortunately, the pipe of the one in our bathroom had persished and sprang of very powerful leak which shredded the hose further and left me soaking wet, gasping for air and wondering what I could do from a remote back room of the 4th floor with no telephone down to reception. Luckily, there was a stopcock on the shower that did the trick and I got changed out of my drenched clothes and traipsed down to reception to report it.

We spent most of the rest of the day searching the many bag stalls for a Timbuk2 bag that Matt had spotted on our way past as we headed back to our hotel yesterday. Though he maintains that he didn't imagine it, we couldn't find it and so Matt started the first of a series of negotiations regarding a different one that he quite fancied.

To keep myself entertained, I considered buying some doughnut-type things from one of the very persistent woman who walk around with baskets of them hung around their necks. She tried to charge me $5 and I was just in the process of bargaining when we were surrounded by a bunch of Malaysians all trying to talk to me, her and each other. It got very confusing and when Matt turned around -  it looked as if I'd started a bit of a riot. I ducked out, had a quick chat about Malaysia with a nice couple from the group and the bag-search continued.

The next few hours were spent discovering the joys of 'bia hoi' in a very cheap place in the old town. I'm sure one of us has mentioned it before but if not, it's a beer that is brewed fresh every day and served at outdoor stalls. We were paying 5000 dong per glass (about 30p) and it is just perfect for hot weather - it's not too strong, very pleasant and occasionally very cold. It's also about half the price of water!

A nice man in the the bia hoi place helped me learn some Vietnamese words and how to pronounce them. They have 6 'tones' in Vietnamese and it's very easy to get it wrong and say something completely different to what you intended. He also showed us a picture on his phone of a big English guy who had drunk a staggering (to this guy, not so much to English people) 17 beers. I'm hardly surprised when it comes to less than the price of a pint back home!

Later that day, we watched a lovely sunset over the lake then popped back to our hotel for a quick change (stopping in each direction for Matt to haggle with a bag-shop owner of course) before heading to the Water Puppet Theatre.

Water puppet theatre originated in the rice paddies of Northern Vietnam over 1000 years ago and puppeteers were originally male (they feared that women would take the knowledge away to their husband's families) and trained for a minimum of 3 years in the art form. 11 puppeteers and several musicians make up the one hour show.

We were lucky enough to get a seat in the middle of the 2nd row, next to an interesting Swiss surgeon who was in Vietnam volunteering for Operation Smile - an international organisation helping children with cleft palattes.

The 'stage' was set with a house perched on a body of water and the orchestra played their bizarre looking instruments for a while before a man came out and banged a gong to signal the entrance of the first set of puppets. I had read that the puppets were very realistic and since the man had a big papier mache head (in the style of Frank Sidebottom), I was initially very impressed by how life-like he was. When the tiny puppets appeared in the water in front of the house I realised my mistake.

The puppet show depicted typical events from the lives of rural people, including catching a frog and collecting coconuts, and was accompanied by music and singing. The show culminated in the puppeteers emerging from the house with lotus flowers and a big chinese dragon lit by black light. It was all very pleasent and was very much enjoyed by the few Vietnamese children amongst the many Western tourists.

Final price wars were undertaken on the way back to the hotel and Matt emerged the victorious owner of a $10 geniune Jack Wolfskin bag. We'll soon see how long this one lasts him!