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Sam Boston
Sam Boston

Sam Boston

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    2

    Day 97

    12 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    Thakek Loop Day 2

    I ended up waking up quite early before alot of people which was nice as a I grabbed a nice breakfast of (good) bread and butter and jam, with scrambled eggs, and a mango smoothie. I didn't waste alot of time and got going as most people were starting to wake up. This was good as I was ahead of the mass amount of people all heading out at a similar time.

    The first part of the day was driving past the dead tree artificial lake which lent itself to some really cool looking pictures. Unfortunately, being eager to go and distracted by the lake meant i didn't realise I had pretty much left this morning on an "empty" tank of fuel. I say "empty" as the guages are never that reliable and you never really know how much you have left. Unfortunately, I had hit a hilly stretch of road that didn't have any villages to sell fuel for over 20km which was a bit stressful as the hills burnt fuel twice as fast and I didn't know if I could make it 20km with my gauge at the very bottom.

    I got to a checkpoint and they said that fuel was 4km away which made me a bit more hopeful as I knew I could walk 4km if worst came to worst. Luckily, I made it and managed to get some fuel without running out and having to face those issues. In my focus on my fuel I accidently missed the first stop of the day which was some roadside Buddhas carved into some sandstone. Back past the same checkpoint, I ran into the Swedish dude going the normal way, saying he see a big snake at the Buddha statues which I was excited to look for. Unfortunately, no snake but some really cool looking carvings and they really were roadside, I didn't even need to get off my scooter.

    The next stop was Dragon Cave in which I met up again with the Swede and a couple German dudes who were at our dinner table last night. We explored the cave together which required a little bit of ducking but we found these super weird little spindly hair things hanging from the ceiling which none of us knew what they were but they looked cool glowing in the light of our torches. At the exit there was a proper viewpoint which required an actual bit of hiking and god damn those Germans were fast it was actually a little hard to keep up. At the top we got a really nice view but absolutely no shade which meant we didn't stay long as it was getting HOT. On the way out, we got given some free cold water and the 4 of us rode together which felt like we were in a cool little motorcycle gang. The Germans are a bit crazy though so it wasn't long until they had zoomed off and left me and the Swede to cruise at a bit more of a relaxing pace.

    We all met back up at the "Cool Pool" which was a natural little lagoon and swimming spot where locals would come and have picnics and barbecues. We were there for a quite a while mostly jumping from rocks into the pool, then using the trees to swing from the steep bank into the pool. One of the German guys was practicing his backflip, the other was too heavy and acted as support, the Swede was taking photos on his camera, and I was practicing my half backflips where I exclusively land on my neck and back - the 2 most painful things to land on from my experience. We must have been properly ahead of everyone else that day as for the couple hours we were there only 2 loopers showed up.

    After making the most of it and not quite ripping the branch we were swinging off down, we headed out to grab some lunch. A quick and simple fried rice later (it was the only option) we were ready to keep going onto our town for the night. As usual, the Germans sped off and the Swede and I made our way up through some windy inclined at a nice sensible pace until we caught up to them at a roadblock. Turns out we happened on a piece of road that must landslide quite alot so they had an operation set up with loads of diggers to clear it. Every 30 minutes they would let the flow of traffic through and then start working again and we had just missed an open cycle and had to wait another 30 minutes. This was fine as there was a decent view and I set up my bike so I could lie down on it and sort of lean against a broken tree too. It wasn't super comfy but better than nothing. Unfortunately though the sun was baking everything in its path so we all took shelter under the small umbrella the worker had for himself so we didn't spontaneously combust in the sun. Eventually we got going down the mountain pass, skipping the viewpoint as we had just been at the same view a couple hundred meters back for half an hour.

    We got into the town called Na Hin, and me and the Swedish dude end up sharing a 2 bed room together as it was cheaper. I thought it was quite funny that we were sharing a room and I couldn't remember his name and he probably couldn't remember mine either. I chilled for a while outside on the bench and the wind started picking up, as well as the sky started to grey over which meant it was gonna rain and probably quite alot as it didn't rain yesterday. After joining one of the German guys in with his workouts, we all decided we should try and head to the "Rock Viewpoint" (a viewpoint with a restaurant attached so we didn't need to do any hiking) 15 minutes away and get a drink before it started to rain. Luckily, we all arrived just before a massive torrential downpour started - literally a minute later and we would have been soaked. We didn't go to the actual viewpoint but it was still a decent view of the "limestone forest" which interestingly used to be the at the bottom of the sea millions of years ago and formed slowly over those millions years from dead creatures.

    When the rain broke we decided we'd try and get back before it started again, but luckily it didn't the whole journey back. The Swede and I drove very slowly down as it was wet and very dark and we could barely see but the crazy Germans being crazy Germans sped down the mountain road back down to the guesthouse miraculously without any crashes which is crazy to me as I have no idea how they could even see the road. We headed to the restaurant attached to our guesthouse and played some pool here I proved once and for all how terrible I am at pool. After that we had some really nice dinner before it was time for the world's worst shower and time for bed.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 96

    11 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Thakek Loop Day 1

    Right I'm on my flight back home so let's see if I can catch up on a week's worth of posts before touchdown.

    After a chaotic awakening at 3am by some people breaking a fan, I woke up at a more normal time and got some breakfast. I ordered the French baguette with butter and jam but it came as hard as a brick so is definitely up there in one of the worst breakfasts so far. I didn't want the semi automatic bikes to run out so I asked to rent a bike and a very reliable sounding rental company "Pokemon Go" came and deliverer me a beautiful blue Honda Wave. I packed my bag and went to head out on the start of my 4 day journey. I had never ridden a semi automatic bike before but apparently its pretty simple so I thought I could just ride off but turns out I had no idea why I needed a kick starter (turns out I didn't?) and that I needed to take it out of neutral (I'm a genius I know). A quick YouTube video later and I was off. I swapped my helmet for a better one and picked up a strap to keep my bag in the basket and grabbed some snacks from the shop before filling up on fuel.

    Finally, 4 stops later I was actually off and starting on my way out of Thakek at 10am. The first little stint is along a section of road called "Cave Alley" named after having a bazillion caves every couple meters. Another thing this road had was a shit ton of lorries as it was went between borders of Vietnan and Thailand and also joined onto the road up to Vientiane so honestly it wasn't that fun driving alongside these 100x bigger and heavier death machines chugging along. I had already seen alot of caves in Vietnam so I felt like I didn't need to stop at every cave and only the ones I thought would be different enough.

    I ended up skipping quite a few, Elephant Cave (on purpose), Buddha Cave (on accident), and Xiengliab (after meeting a Swedish guy who had just come out and said it was a pretty much just a cave. We rode together to a swimming hole super closeby called Falang. We had come to realise that the reason that the loop was recommended for 4 days wasn't because the length of the driving but the amount of stops. This was fine but honestly I was hoping to relive some of my Cao Bang Loop glory days and cruise through beautiful landscapes. Don't get me wrong, there were some beautiful cliffs about but I felt like I couldn't really get "in" to the driving as there were pretty consistent stops all the way around.

    The swimming spot was nice, a bunch of little huts along the river and it wasn't too busy and felt nice to cool off. As I said before, the thunderstorms yesterday meant we had nothing but beautiful blue skies today so it was quite warm. Unfortunately, after along about a minute of floating around I cut my foot open on a rock and had to pull myself back onto the little hut and patch myself up. Generously, the Swedish guy (I knew his name at one point but it's long gone in my mind now) lent me some heavy duty tape that worked as a makeshift bandage to keep the plaster on my foot. As we were leaving, we were stopped by a couple of monks who asked us to take pictures with them which I think is pretty funny.

    There were 2 more cave closeby that I thought I probably should stop at as I hadn't stopped at any caves so far in Cave Alley. Unfortunately though, the first one Pha Nya In was closed which just left Nong Aen Cave for me to explore. This cave was pretty cool though as it was lit up with lots of different coloured LEDs which made it feel a bit different to the rest of them. There was also a boat ride through it but I think it wasn't running today maybe because of the water level and the season. Plus, there was small viewpoint which was nice.

    In my head, if I kept going along the route now I would get to my guesthouse for the night way too early. That combined with being sick of seeing other people, I decided to go slightly off route to a town called Mahaxay to find some lunch as a river passed through it and I reckoned I could find a nice spot. The road wasn't long but was a horribly bumpy gravel track which I still don't think my spine has forgiven me for. Plus, when I got there I couldn't find a single restaurant so ended up buying some rice wrapped up in banana leaves and a mango to substitute as a lunch, with some of my snacks. I found a really nice spot along the river in a wooden hut to eat my food. The rice was horrible, it had something inside that I kept trying to convince myself was alright but I kept having to alternate with slices of mango just so I could get it down. I ended up not finishing the rice but the mango was fantastic and I felt like I had mastered cutting slices.

    I did a little photoshoot of my bike and the background before heading back along the terrible road and getting on the main loop. I had gotten used to the semi automatic now and was really enjoying the versatility of gears even if breaking with my foot was weird still. My thinking earlier about needing to waste time was absolutely wrong and turns out if I didn't want to drive in the dark, I'd have to skip some stuff which was fine, I enjoyed my little adventure and it meant I was behind the loose group of people that left this morning from Thakek and felt more solo. I stopped at a viewpoint instead of more caves or a waterfall as I didn't need more caves and I don't think the waterfall would have been as good as the viewpoint this time of year but would have been nice if I had time.

    The viewpoint was at an abandoned waterpark which was really eerie but I paid this random dude and parked up before heading up these red metal stairs. The stairs up were really good to be fair and after briefly passing through a little cave and continuing up, I made it to the top and had enough time to snap a couple pics before having to almost run down as I needed the toilet really bad. When I got to the bottom I had a semi traumatic experience in the abandoned waterpark toilet before heading onwards. I stopped at a café and had some samosas (they didn't have any spring rolls) before realising I had no more time to stop today if I wanted to make it before sun down which was a bit of a shame as there was the "Orchid Path Viewpoint" which sounded nice.

    The place I was staying at was called Thalang and was a town that stood on the edge of a massive artificial lake which was known for its very eerie looking sea of dead tree trunks rising up through the water. All of the environmental and social issues of building a dam and flooding a large amount of land displacing animals and villages aside - when the sun was setting over this lake it was absolutely stunning and I had to keep stopping to take pictures of the beautiful sunset. There were a few guesthouses all in the same area but the main one was called Sabaidee (hello in Lao) and was where everyone went in the evening as they had a well known unlimited barbqueue that I was excited for. After checking in and getting one of the last dorm beds available, I got a beer and got ready to enjoy a nice BBQ.

    The evening was really nice. Lots of people sat around with a beer, lots of really yummy BBQ things (mostly kebab sticks) and we ended the night with a good few rounds of curling without ice (I can't remember the name of the game where you have to throw your balls closest to the smaller ball and whoever is closest wins).    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    2

    Day 95

    10 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    Vang Vieng > Thakek

    Inspired by all the paramotors flying around the in the sky yesterday, and the $70 price, I thought fuck it, and booked on to the "sunrise" paramotor. It was a bit risky because my bus was at 9am and this was meant to leave at 6am. The guy told me it was only 1 hour and I'd be back at 7am but I wasn't convinced. I waited at the office for about 10 minutes before hopping in the back of a tuktuk with 3 other people and we headed to wherever we were heading to. We had to sign some forms, put on a bright red jumpsuit, and wear a helmet but after that we were ready to fly. Unfortunately, the paramotors weren't ready and we had to wait around until about 6.50 for the first set of flights. So much for making it back for 7. There were 4 of us and 2 paramotors so I waited for the first pair to do their flight before I got to go. Luckily, it was only about 5 minutes before the end of the first set and the start of our flights. We got given a gopro attached to a selfie stick thing to record our flight but honestly I wanted to enjoy it instead of focusing on recording the whole time.

    The big fans revved up and before we knew it we were up and in the air. The total flight time was a out 20 minutes and was really beautiful. We did a small loop over the fields aswell as up and close with the mountains. There was no sunrise to speak of because of the clouds but it was still beautiful regardless. Plus, I got maybe the coolest picture of me ever taken. We landed smoothly and were given some paper certificates to write our own names on to mark a successful flight. We made our way back and I got back just before 8am so I had some time to eat a quick breakfast and brush my teeth before saying my final goodbye to Michelle as I was on my way to Thakek and she was not. It had been a nice couple of weeks travelling on and off with her but it was time for me to finish off my travels solo.

    I headed to the bus office and got picked up by a tuktuk to be taken to the big bus that would take me to Thakek. I think this bus left around 10am and we made our way South. I had to change bus in Vientiane which was a bit annoying but gave me some time to grab some food and some snacks before our next bus from Vientiane to Thakek. We got in another tuktuk to take us to the next bus and after being given our tickets we were loaded onto the bus. Pretty much everyone on the bus was doing the Thakek loop so I would end up bumping into alot of these people again over the next few days.

    It was quite a long bus, leaving Vientiane around 1pm and arriving at roughly 8pm. The bus was okay but didn't have alot of leg room, and I managed to chat with a couple people around me to pass the time as my phone was running pretty low on battery and I needed a little bit of charge to make it to my hostel so had to ration wisely. For alot of our journey it was raining quite heavily outside and there was loads of thunder and lightning. This is pretty normal for rainy season in Laos but because there was so much probably boded well for the next couple days as there would be less rain. The only issue is my seat was underneath the emergency exit hatch and it wasn't very waterproof so I periodically got dripped on.

    We arrived at the bus station and it was absolutely tipping it down. We all crammed into a few tuktuks, with me being right at the front half in, half out with the driver. Luckily he dropped me right to my hostel and with a few percent left on my phone charge. I pay the tuktuk guy and check in. I plug my phone in and order some dinner and have a beer with a Dutch guy who was also at the hostel as neither of us fancied venturing out into the rain for some food. The yellow chicken curry I had was pretty nice, and the Dutch guy had a really nice looking duck bruschetta. After dinner I chilled for a little while on the covered roof, watching the lightning fill the sky before having a shower and heading to bed. Unfortunately mid shower there was a power cut because of the storms so had to shave and shower using my phone torch which was definitely fun.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1

    Day 94

    9 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Vang Vieng

    You know the drill, nice breakfast blah blah blah. Yesterday, we booked a buggy for 2 hours for no other reason than they looked awesome and I wanted to do some fun driving. We get picked up around 10am and taken to a yard where there were a few buggies parked up. We get given the keys to a small 2 seater buggy and told to head in a direction and go. Honestly, when we booked it, we thought it was more of a guided buggy tour where they show you some fun spots to drive like an idiot but I guess not. Also, we were meant to be given goggles and dry bags but we were given a rickety buggy with only 1 seat belt but that didn't stop me from having a good time. We set out towards a circuit through around the mountains where most the lagoons and viewpoints were, still not really sure what or where we were meant to be doing or going. We passed some other buggies who had the full set up, along with some race car style seat belts but oh well, gotta make the most of the 2 hours we have.

    The acceleration wasn't very good as it was a weird combo of a semi automatic gear stick but worked like an automatic which was really confusing but I eventually got used to it. Plus, the brakes were really shitty and sometimes the accelerator pedal got stuck down. But other than that, it was as good as new! I got my first opportunity to drift around a gravel road corner which felt super bad ass but Michelle wasn't a fan so I had to tone it down a bit. We got to a bridge where there was an alternative path down through a shallow river for heavy vehicles and I knew immediately what I wanted to do. I turned around and prepared myself to head down the slope, through the river, and back up the other side. We got absolutely soaked but for me it was worth it as that felt awesome. Michelle didn't close her dry bag though, so all of her stuff as well as my stuff got pretty wet. After delicately placing my wet paper money in a plastic bag, I handed my stuff to Michelle and whilst she stood outside, I went for round 2 through the river. Somehow, I got even more wet the 2nd time but still, was well worth it. Afterwards, we headed to Lagoon 2 to meet up with Kasper and Rasmus who were chilling on some loungers. We didn't have much time so I quickly went for a swim then jumped off a big platform into the Lagoon.

    The lagoons are absolutely awesome as they're super clean, super blue, and super deep which allow you to do some fun stuff into the water. Unfortunately, we had to rush off as we needed to return our buggy. With no time for tomfoolery, we got our buggy back to the yard with 1 minute to spare then had to wait around for 15 minutes to be picked up and taken back to our hostel. Luckily, the open air of the buggy had pretty much dried me off but we asked if we could sit in the bed of the truck on the drive back which was a goal of mine in Laos and I'm very happy I did because it felt awesome.

    When we got back, we changed into some drier clothes, as well as lying out all my money and passport to dry, before I gave a bunch of clothes to be washed, then we headed back to the same place as yesterday for some lunch as it was really good the day before. Afterwards, we rented a scooter and we still wanted to see some more lagoons and go to a viewpoint for sunset. Due to my timeline, I could only spend 1 full day in Vang Vieng which is a shame as I would have loved to spend more time exploring the lagoons and viewpoints without having to rush around.

    We headed along the highway to Lagoon 4, meant to be out of the way and not very busy, though Lagoon 2 was pretty much empty earlier. The road was super weird to drive on as I'm pretty sure it was half melting in the heat but other than that, it was a super bumpy and not very comfortable ride. The track to the lagoon was even worse than the road and we managed to take the long way around but eventually we got there and it was surprisingly pretty busy. Not wanting to waste time, I changed into my signature LIDL swim shorts and jumped straight in. This lagoon was cool as it has a zip line into the water, as well as a rope swing, a falling apart wooden jumping platform, and a bunch of inflatable rubber tubes to float in.

    I did my fair share of zip lines and rope swings but one thing I've learnt is that I absolutely cannot do a flip from a swing and it really hurts when you slap down on the water on your neck or back - which I did repeatedly. Other than the pain, it was an awesome time, and again I wish we had more time but we had to drive 40 minutes to the viewpoint and make it up in time for sunset. We left quite late (my fault) so had less than ideal time to make it up the viewpoint in time for sunset. Our plan was to meet Kasper and Rasmus there but even us being 15 minutes late, they still weren't there so we started making our way the short but steep climb. All of a sudden Rasmus ran up and caught us up, saying he was late because an ATM swallowed his card and Kasper couldn't make it as he was feeling sick. We made it to the top in time to get our pictures on the in situ motorbike with the sunset in the background before the sun fell behind a cloud.

    We got to chill for a little bit at the top, but didn't want to walk down in the dark so made our way down, with me playing a game of the floor is lava and trying to climb down as much bamboo hand rails as I could before I ran out of bamboo to climb on. We drove back to town in the dark, accidently driving the long way as I was driving the same way that I drove the buggy back but eventually we got back and had time to chill for a bit before meeting up with Rasmus and Kasper for dinner.

    We went to a seemingly nice restaurant that was riverside and had a nice candlelit vibe to the tables. Apparently they were known for their pizzas but I instead ordered some Lao food which was pretty horrible so I ended up ordering a pizza anyways which was decent but definitely not the best pizza I've had. With no time to go anywhere for dessert as everywhere seemed closed, I had to go without and head to bed instead.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 93

    8 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Luang Prabang > Vang Vieng

    After another great breakfast we packed our stuff and headed out to find a tuktuk driver to take us to the train station. I was unreasonably excited to be getting a train as I hadn't been on a train my whole time in Asia and it makes a nice change from the onslaught of busses I had been on. Plus, this was the fancy Laos-China railways funded by the Chinese so I knew it would be nice. We arrived about an hour early which was a bit more than we needed to but we had been warned that the security checks take a while. After showing them our tickets and our passports, we had to put all our baggage through a security scanner. We had been warned that we'd lose our aerosol suncreams which really sucked as it was $10 a can but luckily we managed to get through keeping our suncream and I even managed to keep my knife?

    We waited around in the lobby before the call was made for our train, everyone got up and got in a big queue to show their tickets, and by the amount of people it looked like the train would be pretty full then we realised there was about 1000 carriages so we didn't have to worry. The train ride wasn't too long, only about an hour with a random 5 minute stop on the tracks for some reason. We arrived in Vang Vieng and hopped on a shuttle bus to the town centre and checked into our room.

    We went on a little walk about to town and found some lunch at a nice little café before seeing some posters for a yoga class at 5pm. We went over to the yoga place and asked it if was suitable for beginners - well I say we but Michelle spent the whole time cuddling a fluffy dog - and they said kind of but the one in the morning would be better. Taking their advice, we headed back and went for a dip in the pool to cool off. Honestly the pool was a bit bleh and I think I cut my foot on a broken tile on the floor but oh well.

    We went on another walkaround at sunset, this time seeing a bunch of hot air balloons and paramotors flying through the air. This, against the mountainous backdrop was really quite cool to see flying through the air. We found a pineapple at a fruit market then found a small bar where we could grab a drink. I showed Michelle what the famous Blue Lagoon cocktail was, then we asked the bartender for a chopping board so we could cut up our newly acquired Pineapple which surprisingly went alot better than I expected - probably because she also gave us a much larger and sharper knife than mine. Ofcourse, I also brought my honey making for a tasty snack with the pineapple chunks.

    After our drink and pineapple, it started to rain so we ran across the road to a Thai restaurant called Happy Mango which happened to be packed. We got a table and I had a really nice green curry with coconut rice, followed by one of the best mango sticky rice's that I've had on my travels. After that, we headed back to our room and went to bed.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    12

    Day 92

    7 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Kuang Si Waterfall

    After my getting back at 2am last night, it was pretty set that I wasn't gonna make it to see the monk walk at 5.30am. I woke up and met Michelle (who got back at 5am so was feeling a bit worse for wear) for breakfast at our hostel. I got a pancake with banana and honey but I added another banana and my own honey on top for an extra kick. That, with the unlimited fresh orange juice, I was a happy boy.

    I was gonna be solo today as Michelle had already seen the famous waterfall near Luang Prabang, so I rented a scooter and headed out towards the waterfall. On the way I picked up a mango but other than that it was a fairly uneventful drive except from the million potholes that lined the streets. It was like a "fun" game of dodge the massive hole in the street except some were too hidden to dodge in time so I had my fair share of painful bumps I wasn't ready for.

    About an hour later, I arrived and parked up. I had to get one of the electric buggies over but eventually I was there. I changed into my swimsuit and started hiking through the jungle. As a huge bonus to seeing a cool waterfall, on the trek was an entire bear sanctuary where you could see bears that had been rescued up close. There are 2 main bears in Laos known as "Sun Bears" and "Moon Bears" because of their distinctive yellow and white crescents on their chests. Unfortunately, bears in Laos are poached so they need to be kept in sanctuaries instead of roaming free which is a shame but allows people to see bears up close.

    I know bears are meant to be scary and dangerous but honestly some of these bears just looked like extra large dogs and I'd love to jump into their habitat and give them all a hug (it they wouldn't rip me up into tiny little bite size pieces). After spending a while watching the bears be bears, I kept walking up the path. The path itself was a lovely walk through the jungle but was made even better by the beautifully blue swim holes that made their way up to the main falls. The falls themselves were beautiful and there is some legend behind how they got their name and their shape but I can't exactly remember, all I remember is that an overhanging piece of rock that was part of the lore collapsed a few years ago.

    There was a pathway up the side of the main falls to the spring at the top which I very sweating ran my way up. I could have got a small boat to the actual spring but decided I'd go for a dip instead. The day actually wasn't as warm as it had been recently which meant the water was quite fresh and cold but it was nice regardless. There was a nice little swing that sat right above the water where small fish nibble your feet which I couldn't help but laugh at the feeling of. I dried off and headed back down the otherside and grabbed a smoothie at the bottom, I was gonna swim in another swimming hole but honestly it wasn't warm enough for me to jump back in after getting changed already. I walked past the bears again and spent a while longer watching them do their thing before heading out.

    It was time for lunch and I spotted a nice restaurant on the Mekong River on my way in so decided to get some food which was pretty good timing as it started to rain shortly after. I decided to wait out the rain, watching some Netflix, instead of heading to Nahm Dong Park like I originally wanted to as I didn't fancy driving and walking around in the rain. When the rain stopped I dried my seat and headed back to Luang Prabang.

    Michelle and I went for another walk, this time meeting again with Robert before heading to the same restaurant as yesterday for some dinner. After dinner, there was a bakery near the night market that had some amazing looking things that I spotted yesterday and I really wanted to go. I ended up buying a Danish and a chocolate custard cake to go, then we decided to head up to Phousi Hill. It was night now, so technically the entry to the hill was closed but we opened up the unlocked gate and made our way up the stairs. On top was a nice temple but more importantly (to me) was a bench with a nice view over the city lights for me to devour my sweet treats. We chilled at the top for a while, trying to be quiet as to not alert the monk that we assumed was in the little house at the top.

    After vibing for a while, we snuck past the house and made our way down the other side of the hill and said goodbye to Robert heading back to our hostel. It was now time for Michelle to show me how to cut up a mango properly given my terrible history - which in all fairness was much much better than my attempt. We enjoyed the mango and honey then headed to sleep.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1

    Day 91

    6 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C

    Kayak Trip 2

    I barely slept because of the thunderstorm in the night, the chickens at sunrise, and some mystery machine that made a whole lotta noise. Despite that I was feeling better and was ready for the day. Before breakfast, we end up playing football with some of the village kids for a while, and when it was time for breakfast I ended up giving them all a bunch of high fives which was really really cute.

    For breakfast we had some sticky rice and some other stuff but honestly I can't remember, but I had a sachet of light roast coffee which I'm sure had lots of creamer in, and honestly I think I've found the kind of coffee that I like. It's one of the few coffees I've ever had where I really enjoyed it and wanted more. I'm sure it also helped with the lack of good sleep too. We packed our things and said thankyou to our host then went to go paddling again. A bunch of the village kids had come to the bank to wave us goodbye and we were off.

    Today was a lot better than yesterday, I wasn't in as much pain which meant Michelle and I were able to get in sync much easier. Kasper ended up paddling super far ahead of us which meant we missed our planned lunch stop but that was fine because it had only been an hour or 2 since we had breakfast. When we caught up to Kasper we all ended up having a little lie down in our kayaks for a little bit as we were well ahead of schedule. It was really nice laying down with a life vest as a pillow and feet in the water, gently floating down the river. Unfortunately we didn't float very far but it was very relaxing nonetheless.

    We ended up getting sight of the dam that marked the end of our suffering / journey and as we approached the currents definitely picked up a bit, helping us along which meant we could float for a bit until we landed on the bank. When we had pulled our kayaks onto land and got them out of the way of the boat behind us uploading timber, we perched a seat on the logs and had a nice lunch of glass noodles wrapped in banana leaves. After a strangely comfortable lie down on the logs, it turns out we had boarded the wrong bank and had to get everything back onto the kayaks and paddle a little bit further towards the kayak to where the minibus was waiting for us. We had to haul our kayaks up from the water up a concrete ramp, up a small dirt verge then heave the kayaks up and onto the roof so they could be strapped down. The 2 person kayak especially was super heavy and didn't have a wheel to help go up the ramp and I somehow ended up carrying most the kayaks which was more work than the kayaking today.

    We hopped into our local bus and went towards Luang Prabang. Because I was helping strap the kayaks down, I was last in the bus which meant I was lucky enough to sit more towards the front and have a bit of AC and a window next to me which was more than the people behind me. After a while towards Luang Prabang, we pulled over and got the kayaks off the roof and dumped them on the side of the road to be picked up later and taken back to Nong Khiaw. Worse than getting the kayaks up was taking them down as there's a sudden moment where the weight suddenly drops down on you. Having built up a sweat, I grabbed some water and some snacks from the shop nearby and we kept going to Luang Prabang.

    When we arrived there was a bit of confusion with the directions as Google Maps directed us across a motorbike only bridge which our driver knew about but refused to look at my map and only wanted me to point forward or left which is why I ended up choosing wrong. He presumably started cursing me out in Lao so I handed my phone to the dude next to me so he could talk to the driver instead of me. We arrived and we got our bags down from the roof and said goodbye and thankyou to David before Michelle and I went to check in at our hostel.

    We chilled for a bit and showered before deciding to go for a walk to explore Luang Prabang. Michelle had already been before but I hadn't so we did a little loop of the main touristy bit so I could get a feel of the place. It was a nice little city with a night market and all kind of centrered around a temple on the hill called Phousi Hill (but hilariously pronounced with a P not a Ph sound). I was pretty sore so had decided I wanted a massage and they were super cheap so I couldn't resist. We found a cheap looking place and I went in. I went for a head, neck, shoulder, and back massage although a lot of the choices looked quite good. After my painful experience with a Thai massage I was a bit fearful of a Lao massage and decided against it. After cleaning my feet, my masseuse took me upstairs to the mats on the floor and I laid down and she started on my back and neck, as well a bit of my legs too. Then, she had my lie on her lap on a pillow and she massaged my head. This was the nicest and most relaxing feeling I had ever felt I almost fell asleep 3 times. At the end, she did this weird thing and cracked my back in the most satisfying way I've ever felt. And just like that, the most relaxing hour of my life was finished. I decided to tip her the price of the massage, that's how good it felt.

    Right after, I enjoyed some tea then headed out and met up with Michelle, Kasper, Rasmus, and Robert (the Scottish dude from Nong Khiaw) for some dinner at Kasper and Rasmus' favourite restaurant. They raved about a specific set of dishes that was the best thing ever so I blindly trusted them and let them order me some food. I ended up getting a pork laab salad, steamed rice, a Lao sausage (with a really weird jelly), and a mixed fruit shake. Honestly, it was okay but I'm not much of a salad guy and when mixing it with the rice it felt like it was missing a sauce. Still, it was really nice still. We had some beer with dinner and we decided that we would be going to the bowling alley as that was the 1 thing in Luang Prabang that a few of us hadn't done and wanted to do.

    The bowling alley was quite well known in Luang Prabang as it was open till 2am and was where everyone headed after everywhere shut around 10 or 11 if they wanted to keep the night going. Plus, it's bowling and who doesn't like bowling. 4 of us (minus Kasper as he was feeling a bit ill and tired) found a tuktuk driver (much different to the tuktuk in Cambodia) and got a lift over and it was a bit out of town. We grabbed a beer and played our first game. Around frame 7 Robert said that loser buys shots which I was not aware of and I am famously terrible at bowling. I was the last up and on the final bowl of my 10th frame I only had to knock down 1 more pin to tie with Michelle. Feeling the pressure, I lined up and bowled the most beautiful strike that has ever been bowled. Just kidding, I threw it straight into the gutter and turned and went straight to the bar and ordered 4 Lao Whisky as they were the cheapest shot on the menu. What I didn't know is Lao Whisky is basically happy water and made me feel incredibly ill as my stomach was still having flash backs to the Ha Giang Loop.

    What's awesome about Laos is I could order a pot noodle in the bowling alley for super cheap and have an awesome snack to have alongside my beer whilst playing bowling. Plus, it helped alot chasing the horrible Lao Whisky. For our 2nd game, now knowing that loser had to buy shots I decided to try and step up my game, unfortunately that meant do even worse than my first try and watch everyone do better. The only chance I had of not losing is if I scored 3 strikes in a row at the end. Feeling the pressure, I lined up and bowled the most beautiful strike that has ever been bowled. And this time I'm not lying I actually got a strike. When it came time for my 2nd and 3rd strike things collapsed a little bit and I went to buy my 2nd round. I ended up getting a cider and 3 shots of tequila as my stomach didn't want any more spirits. With that, alot of people started pouring in and filling up the alleys so we donated our lane to another group and sat around a table chatting.

    Eventually, Rasmus and I felt like heading outside for the post bowling event of archery. Because what's better than giving a bunch of drunk people a bow and arrow and very little supervision. Luckily I wasn't drunk but Rasmus and I lined up and scored a terrible round of archery, with only 4 of my 5 arrows hitting the board and, 3 of them being in the outer ring. Rasmus gained a sudden burst of energy and wanted to jump in with a group of people heading to the club but in the time that we went to grab Michelle and Robert, the tuktuk has gone and Rasmus wanted to head home to bed. We left Michelle and Robert to enjoy their night going clubbing whilst we went back to our hostels and went to sleep.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    2

    Day 90

    5 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

    Kayak Trip 1

    The day started like any other, a beautifully cooked breakfast. Today, however, I went for a beautiful Arabic Shakshuka with some fresh bread which absolutely hit the spot as, like yesterday, was something different for breakfast which was really nice. I, of course, grabbed a final smoothie from the usual spot to drink with breakfast and then Michelle and I checked out and headed to the tour office to begin the tour. We said sometime between 8 and half 8 to meet, as we wanted to leave at 9 but the boys ended up being a little bit late. We paid, stored our big bags and sorted our stuff into dry bags before meeting our guide for the next 2 days: David. David wasn't his real name but his nickname he chose to go by for Westerners. He introduced himself as "David like David Beckham" so we naturally called him David Beckham for the next 2 days.

    We went down the bank and boarded our kayaks. Michelle and I were sharing a larger kayak as it would be easier but Kasper and Rasmus decided to paddle solo - as well as David who didn't really have a choice to paddle solo. At first, it was lovely, we were kayaking along the river crusuing past the beautiful mountains and landscapes before we were told we were going too fast by David. We thought maybe he was struggling but he said we weren't taking in the landscape so we slowed right down and chilled. Then, he said we were going too slowly so we had to try and find a happy medium.

    Apparently David hadn't done a kayaking tour in 4 months as he was more of a trekking guide so I think that he was struggling a little to begin with and that's why we had to slow down for him which was quite funny considering he was our guide. His English was really good and apparently he watches alot of YouTube and TikTok and that's where he's learnt a lot of English from as they didn't really teach it in schools.

    We stopped at this small bank for a little brake where we all went for a swim to cool off and have a small snack. We got going again and asked "how far until lunch" and the answer we got was "not that far". This statement was infact a lie. It was very far - or atleast felt like it. David hadn't been back to his home village for a couple months so we were going a little bit further so we could go to his village for lunch and he could see his friends and family for a little bit. What he didn't mention is that it would be so far away.

    We asked again how much longer - "just around the corner" - then again "just in the distance" - then again "you can see the white house in my village!". By this point trust was gone. My neck and shoulders were in alot of pain and it hurt to keep paddling but I had to keep going. I couldn't wait just to lie down and stretch my neck out as it hurt so bad. The white house he kept saying we could see at first was nothing, then a tiny speck I wasn't sure was a building, it slowly got bigger until eventually we had arrived. From the first time David said "not that far" we had been paddling for over an hour until we got to his village and we were all so relieved.

    We parked up on the shore and we walked through the village to David's parent's house. All of the children of the village probably hadn't seen foreigners for months and were all fascinated by us. Usually we're greeted by lots of waving and hellos but this time they were all just following and staring at us. We got to his house and sat on some cushions on the floor whilst kids poked their heads through every single window in the house to stand and stare at us. After a little lie down, we all sat on the floor round a small table and enjoyed some fried rice wrapped in banana leaves that had been prepared for us that morning. After lunch, we all shared some Beerlao with David and his friends- whilst the Danish boys had some happy water which I chose to decline after the Ha Giang incident.

    After some more rest, we got going again kayaking. We weren't sure how far it was going to be so we were all dreading what was to come. On the way we went past a cliff where there were pictures of villages and cattle painted on the rock, made from climbing up trees and the locals dippings their hands or fingers in red paint. By now, the trees had fallen but it meant there were these ancient looking hand paintings of simple village life high up on the cliff wall which looked pretty awesome. As we paddled we got some of the best views we had gotten the whole journey so far, with some beautiful mountains and cliffs rising up right by the river. Unfortunately I didn't take alot of pictures as it meant I had to stop kayaking and undo my dry bag but I made sure to stop for this.

    Fortunately, we actually weren't that far from our homestay village which begged the question why we went so far before lunch and not far after. It made sense as David got to see his family but God I wish he lived closer to Nong Khiaw. I think we kayaked a total of 24km on day 1 and 18km were in the first stint which absolutely killed. When we arrived and docked it was also revealed that Rasmus' kayak was half filled with water as he was almost sinking and it took a few minutes for all of the water to pour out. Apparently he told David this and David said it was fine and Rasmus ended up struggling with the lack of bouyancy the rest of the way.

    We rocked up to our homestay and this really was a homestay. The upstairs area was designated for us and when we arrived there was only 1 bed in a small room that Michelle was designated. The rest of us only had the floor and a small mattress to sit and lie on. They would bring up more mattresses later but it was quite funny looking at a big empty wooden floor and a small folding mattress and thinking the 3 of us boys were sharing.

    We got invited by the homestay dude to go on a walk which we much obliged by and went to a small streak where it seemed all the locals where bathing and filling up their water bottles which was a little awkward as they were all in only towels. We followed a bit further along the trail through the jungle to go and see the spring which was quite important to the village as its where they went to get their water. Michelle and Kasper decided the walk was too off road for them and they didn't want to get tics so they turned back but Ramus and I powered on the next 10 meters to see the very underwhelming springs. We turned around back the way we came and went for a quick wash in the stream to freshen up.

    We walked back and met the others in our room upstairs. This was where Ramus decided to check for a thorn he thought he thought he got in his foot, and it turned out to be a LEACH. A bit freaked out I decided to check my feet even though I didn't feel anything and turns out I had a leach twice the size wedged inbetween my toes. Honestly, I started panicking, I wasn't sure if leaches gave diseases but I knew sure as hell I didn't want it sucking my blood either way. We weren't really sure what to do so I started calling for David to come save us but he ended up being in the shower. I tried to pull it off myself but it seemed to have a good hold of me. The homestay owner came upstairs, looked what was happening, then quickly hurried back downstairs. He grabbed some paper and slid the sheet under the leech to unhook it, then crushed the bastard.

    We were both now leach free but our feet kept bleeding nomatter how many times we tried to stop it, blood kept coming. It turns out when leaches bite you they thin your blood so that they can drink it and that's why it looks like there was so much blood. Also, apparently they don't carry disease which was a big relief and I was nowhere near a hospital, and didn't fancy kayaking to one. David came up and grabbed his first aid kit and gave us some cotton wool and a cleaning solution which stopped the bleeding, and gave us some plasters. We were left shocked and with a pile of bloody tissues but we had survived the fearsome attack.

    After the commotion we all sat down for dinner where we were treated to some fresh sticky rice, bamboo soup, and this egg / veg mix which was all really nice. The sticky rice is really fun to eat with as you tear off a chunk, roll it up into a nice ball then dip it in a sauce to eat. We were given chili sauce which was too hot to enjoy properly so I dipped it in my soup instead. We then didn't have a choice but to indulge in having a shot of happy water 1 by 1 and when it was my turn I felt like I was going to vomit and decided I did not want another one.

    When we finished we all chilled for a bit, with Kasper and I chilling on the floor on some cushions with the 2 kids of the house, and Kasper let them play some games on his phone. When we went up to bed they set up a lovely couple mattresses with pillows, blankets and bug nets which was really nice of them as I needed a good sleep after the abuse my neck and shoulders had been through.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 89

    4 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    Sleeping Lady Hike (Again)

    On my first day I had done a hike called Sleeping Lady but Michelle really wanted to do it as her boyfriend did it 8 years ago and had a terrible time fighting for his life in the heavy rain so she wanted to prove she could conquer it. For breakfast, I went to the place where we had dinner yesterday and ordered a Laos breakfast as I was curious what it was. It turned out to be some sticky rice, dried Mekong river weed, omelette pieces, and a cup of tea which was actually really nice - especially when dipped in the Chili sauce and made a nice change as the river weed is a very local delicacy and was surprisingly pretty good. Unfortunately, Elisa was leaving this morning to Luang Prabang but I wasn't able to say goodbye in person which was a shame

    For my first Smoothie of the day I grabbed a mango which as always was beautiful and also wanted to stock up on some snacks for the day. I decided I didn't want any Western snacks so along with the stuff we still had from yesterday, I also brought some oranges, some bananas, and a mango from a fruit stall. We made our way up which compared to our hike yesterday was much easier as it must have been only half the height - though the path wasn't as good. At the top we enjoyed a lovely feast of sunflower seeds, peanuts, fruit chips, bananas and oranges. Also, due to the rain yesterday the view was much clearer than 2 days before so that was nice and boded well for the next couple days.

    I usually adopt a "falling with style" method of descent from hikes which meant that I stacked it a few times last time I did this hike but this time I moved a bit slower with Michelle and saved myself the hassle of sliding down on my ass. When we got down my next mission for the day was to find a knife so I could cut up fruit as it seemed like a cool thing to do - especially with all the the fruit stalls dotted about. Surprisingly, I found one straight away in a massive hardware store and I had the choice of a few sizes but went with the smallest one just to be less of a threat. This one had a peeler built in to the middle which I thought might be useful but ended up being a pain in the ass when cutting.

    We went back to the usual spot for my 2nd smoothie of the day where I went a bit adventurous and brought a mint, lemon, and honey smoothie which happened to have a very strong mint flavour which I wasn't the biggest fan of but I persevered regardless. I saw a sign for some local honey and thought it would go perfect with the mango so went on a mission to find the shop and buy some. I ran into Paul from the boat journey from Muang Khua and said hello, as well as Rasmus and Kasper who we had booked the kayaking with. After getting the honey, we eneded up having lunch with them before I started on the mango. I asked for a plate then got to work cutting. It was my first time ever cutting a mango and was very surprised to learn that mangos had a massive seed in the middle. After butchering the hell out of the mango I eventually had it cut into little chunks ready to eat. Dipping the chunks into the honey, I was in heaven with both the taste of the mango and the local honey. Another side mission of today was to find people to join our tour as it would have made it cheaper for all of us, but unfortunately depsite our "best" efforts (we didn't try very hard) we didn't find anyone, even after asking about in the restaurant.

    I precariously cleaned my knife with tissues and hand sanitiser then we chilled at the restaurant for a while longer before I went for my 3rd smoothie of the day - a banana and coconut combo which tasted solely like banana with no hint of coconut unfortunately. The boys hadn't slept in a few days so they headed to bed early and Michellle and I went back for a shower before dinner. Michelle had moved to the same homestay as me which made it alot easier as we weren't on other sides of town to eachother. After a shower, shave and a bit of a rest, we went out for dinner and tried a different restaurant where they had an adorable little cat who begged for food and cuddles. I went for a red curry and Michelle went for a green curry and it was bloody tasty and possibly one of the nicest meals I've had in Laos. I've fallen out of the habit of taking pictures of my meals but thought this deserved the privilege.

    After them not having any sticky rice for a sticky mango rice, we called it a night and went to bed as we were starting our 2 day kayak tour tomorrow and needed to be fresh.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 88

    3 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Pha Kao Hike

    We decided on an early rise to beat the heat of the day for our bike hike we had planned. We went for some breakfast, joining with Elisa and Robert before their day trip to Muang Ngoy. With a full stomach, we made our way to the start of the hike to the viewpoint and paid entry. We had to cross a very rickety bamboo bridge before starting on the incline. The actual distance wasn't very far but there was enough elevation to get us sweating. Luckily, unlike the other viewpoint I did yesterday, this one had very good steps cut into the dirt so I wasn't as concerned with slipping over.

    There was a smaller viewpoint about 1/4 of the way up again which was nice to stop for a little break and let my sun hoodie air out a little but as it was starting to get pretty sweaty. The rest of the hike was really nice, walking in and out of the jungle with beautiful old trees, big luscious green leaves, and some stunning views of the cliffs to our side. Luckily, it was mostly covered in shade aswell so wasn't as hot as it could be, but we were definitely happy that we left early in the morning. Towards the top, where it got steeper over rocks, there were little wooden ladders in place which were quite fun to go up.

    When we reached the top, we scrambled over some rocks and found what seemed to ge the in-situ camping stuff all packed up ready for the tours that they did to the. We got to the little platform that had evidently once been a whole structure with a roof but hadn't survived as all the metal sheets lied strewn about. The view was pretty nice but more than anything, I wanted a bit of shade to relax in for a while. I immediately got to work, grabbing the sheets and trying to balance them on the beams to try and give us a small covered area. With a bit of teamwork and tip toes, we were protected.

    After the scrambling, my shoes that I had proudly repaired a couple weeks ago I'm Vietnan had decided they had enough and started to fall apart again. Luckily, I had a suspicion this might happen and brought my glue with my to do an emergency repair. To celebrate the finish of the hike and the repair of my shoes, we busted out some snacks. I had decided that I had indulged in too many sweet treats in Vietnam (mostly Oreos I can't lie) and wanted to force myself to try more local and less sugary snacks. I had some seaweed crisps from the day before left over, as well as some small packets of peanuts, and some dried fruit chips. Those paired with Michelle's coconut flavoured sesame seeds, we were eating like royalty.

    We met a couple that stayed for a while and as we were chatting, the metal sheets I had precariously placed right above my head decided that with a bit of wind they didn't want to stay and fell down right next to me, almost either knocking me out or cutting me up. Luckily, I wasn't hit but my stupidity still continues to surprise me - even after 20 years. After having enough of the karaoke we could hear from all the way down in the town, we made our way down which was considerably easier than the way up.

    Fancying a smoothie, we went to the same place as dinner yesterday and I grabbed a coconut smoothie, then we grabbed some lunch there too. After lunch we ended up chilling for a bit and I had a shoeer before meeting up with Elisa and Robert again in the evening for some dinner. I ended up choosing the Laos Steak which looked amazing on Google but ended up being some really thin pork steaks and nothing else with it so I was a little disappointed. After dinner, we headed to a restaurant / bar / café thing that was still open and had a drink (I had a lovely watermelon cider called Somersby) before I had to figure out how to open a gate to get back in my homestay so I could go to bed.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 87

    2 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    Muang Ngoy > Nong Khiaw

    I grabbed another pancake for breakfast, and quickly packed my bags up whilst saying goodbye to the dog from yesterday and her friends. Afterwards, I buy a ticket for the boat to Nong Khiaw which "left at 9". It seems in Laos things are very much more relaxed when it comes to schedule - or atleast the boats are. A group of us wait on the steps before boarding the same boat I had gotten off yesterday. As our captain was about to push us off from the shore the boat next to us shouted at him, warning him of the snake sneaking up on him from behind. With quick reactions he turns around to scare it and throw a rock at it too. With in only 12 hours I had now seen a scorpion and a snake!

    We cruise along the Nam Ou for only a short while and I grabbed myself one of the nice seats so I was cruising in comfort. When we arrive my first mission was to find somewhere to stay as everywhere online seemed to be super inflated and the 1 hostel seemed terrible. It didn't take long before I found a private room for only $7. I went without AC as I did fine last night without it so I may aswell save some money. After grabbing some cash from the ATM and feeling rich (the biggest note is the equivalent of $5 so you get given alot of notes) I found a place on the river for some lunch and a very interesting tasting papaya smoothie.

    After looking into some of the hikes in the area, I decided to go for one of the medium length ones known as "Sleeping Lady" for reasons I couldn't explain. After paying for the entry I found a bamboo stick as my walking pole and made my way. The first viewpoint was about 15 minutes up and gave a small view over the town, and I rested for a bit whilst hanging up my sun hoodie for a bit to dry. Using old cables nailed to the trees and some shoddy bamboo hand rails, I made my way to the top of the 2nd viewpoint covered in sweat. There was another little shack at the top so I sat in the shade and drive my hoodie off for a while whilst giving my mum a quick call before she went to work. Because of burning season, the visibility wasn't that great as was very smoggy in the air but it was still nice regardless.

    On the way down I actually ended up slipping a couples times as the dirt was so dry and fine, and my shoes were so destroyed that I had no grip. Unfortunately, I had also put too much pressure on my precious trekking pole and it ended up splitting at the ends and cutting my hand. I still felt committed to bringing it back down so I carried it down the rest of the way with my butt covered in dirt and my hand sore, then laid it to rest in a tree at the bottom.

    Michelle and Elisa (from the Ha Giang Loop) had now arrived from Luang Prabang so I joined them for some lunch where I had my 2nd smoothie of the day (this time mixed) and some sticky mango rice. It seemed that Laos was quite similar to Thailand which meant that the smoothies were good again (Vietnam's weren't the best) and they had sticky mango rice which I had missed so dearly. I had heard that you could Kayak from Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang online so we discussed that for a while as Michelle and I were interested in doing that instead of taking a bus as it sounded much more fun. That's when a couple of Danish dudes called Kasper and Rasmus overheard us and said they'd be interested in doing that too. I ended up messaging the company and going over to their office to get some more information about prices as well as what the difference between 2 and 3 days were. With some good information, and even better prices we said we'd discuss it with the other 2 and let them know what we would do.

    By now, it was almost sunset and there was a small viewpoint that wasn't far that was meant to be good for sunset. Elisa had already gotten a headstand whilst Michelle and I had been asking about the kayaking but right after we had paid and set off the wind had picked up and thunder bellowed in the distance letting us know that it was gonna piss it down from the heavens any time up. Hoping to make it up to the shelter at the top before it started pouring down, we sped up. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the top, but fortunately there was shelter at the halfway point where a small group of us hid from the sudden downpour. Eventually, Elisa made her way down from the top, absolutely drenched and came under the shelter again. There was a hammock which happened the be the least comfortable thing in the world, being nothing but a thin net but I made it work as I really wanted to lie down.

    Soon after, the rain cleared and Michelle, Robert (a Scotsman who came up at the same time as us) and I made our way the rest of the way to the top and enjoyed a nice view. The rain seemed to have cleared a little bit of the smog in the air and the clouds passing brightened up the sky a little, but the sun had definitely disappeared. After chilling for a bit, and waving the Laos flag about, we realised we spent a bit too long at the top and it was starting to get dark so we made our way down and met back up with Elisa and a nice American dude who waited with her called either Ryan or James (I can't remember) from Boston.

    With my head torch now on, we made it the rest of the way down and decided to head to a restaurant that James/Ryan recommended. They said the smoothies were really good so I grabbed my 3rd smoothie of the day (which was incredible) and some noodles (which were also amazing). Service was a bit slow as the lady cooked 1 meal at a time but she was lovely and the wait was definitely worth it for the food. After a while, we paid and let the lady close up then I headed back for a shower and to sleep.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 86

    1 Mei 2024, Laos ⋅ ☀️ 38 °C

    Muang Khua > Muang Ngoy

    After my first breakfast in Laos (which I'm somewhat ashamed to say was a banana pancake) I packed my bags and headed 1 minute down the road to the dock for 9.15 as I was told the boat left at 9.30. My aim was to go all the way down to Nong Khiaw but they could only give me a ticket to Muang Ngoy and I could see if there was another boat from there. In total, it was only me and 2 other guys - who were both tourists - and we had all been told different times.

    Eventually though, about an hour later than I thought, we hopped on the boat. Then, after another 15 minutes, so did our driver. We pushed off of the jetty and waved goodbye to the group of kids who were swimming, jumping off our boat, and washing their clothes in to the river. I think I'm starting to learn that in Laos, schedules are a bit more relaxed and you should never be in a rush to get anywhere (which is true in all of South East Asia to be fair). We floated down the Nam Ou River at a decent pace and for the most part it was pretty relaxing (if you ignore the deafening roar of the engine only a few meters from us). I was wearing my ear plugs but still, it was pretty loud.

    For most the journey it was just us, but we ended up picking up people along the way, until there was about 15 of us. I spent the whole journey writing blog posts so I kept myself occupied but I could have easily sat and enjoyed the views. When we passed villages there were small ramps of mud that constituted a pier and all the kids would wave as we went by. Unfortunately, due to the Chinese's love of building dams in other countries, we had to hop off to go around. We waited for a while at a little stop before hopping in the back of a raggity truck to the other side of the huge dam. We helped the only local left with us with her heavy sacks of who knows what carry them down the hill onto our new boat then we set off again down the Nam Ou.

    This last section was really scenic as we got some great views of cliffs and mountains along the river. When we arrived in Muang Ngoy I decided I would stay the night and get the boat tomorrow (which I don't think I had a choice about anyways). Without having to make any effort a lady greeted us at the docks and said that she had a room for only the equivalent of $5. This was good news as everything on Booking.com seemed super expensive so maybe I just have to wait until I arrive somewhere before booking online in Laos?

    The rooms were okay, they quickly cleaned them before we checked in but there were quite a lot of geckos and ants chilling about. First things first, I changed into my LIDL shorts and went for a swim in the river, swimming over to the other shore, having to fight the current. The other side was nice but had alot of trash and broken glass from what seemed like a big party so I thought I should stay on the side of caution and get back in the river to avoid any potential gashes.

    After that, Paul (a French man) and I went on a hike together towards a cave and a viewpoint for sunset. As we made our way, an adorable dog decided to be our guide for the day and led the way. We paid our entry and made our way up the mix of trail and bamboo ladders to the cave, occasionally having to lift our new friend above the harder bits as she seemed to get a bit confused. The cave was pretty nice, it was somewhat lit and at the end there was a little shrine which is always cool. The highlights were definitely the tree roots that were hanging from the ceiling like large bundles of ropes, making their way through the ground and into a cave - pretty cool. Also, seeing bats flying and being able to hear nothing but their wings flying, no squeaking or anything, felt pretty rare.

    Still with our trusty friend by our side, we went to to end of the trail to the viewpoint which overlooked the whole of the town, as well as the mountains and river. Due to burning season still being a thing in Laos, the sun had disappeared behind a layer of smog in the air and there was definitely a thick haze floating about but the view was nonetheless really nice. I think the dog was quite thirsty as she was panting quite alot so I got a water bottle and cupped my hand and allowed her to drink as much water as she wanted. It turned out to be a whole small bottle which I'm glad as it seemed she really needed it. Pietro (an Italian) ended up joining us, and Paul went back down with the dog so I ended up wandering back down with Pietro after we had chilled for a while.

    For some reason Laos was hotter than Vietnam was, and it was sitting just under 40° even at sunset. I think the smog helped it feel cooler as you never had the sun directly on you but any amount of trekking (especially in my full hoodie outfit) was a pretty hot endeavour. I walked around the town for a little bit, getting a feel for the place. Half of the main street was either restaurants or places that offered trekking, fishing, kayaking, or tubing but there was also a few shops, a weiving place, and even a couple massage places. I met Pietro up for dinner at a place close by and we stumbled upon Paul too. I ended up having a Lao dish called laap which was fish and vegetables and was really nice but quite spicy. I also had some vegetables spring rolls and a Lao beer called BeerLao (great marketing in my opinion). We all talked for a few hours and we heard about alot of interesting travel stories from Paul who had been travelling for 2 decades.

    After that, I thought it was time to shower and head to sleep but all of a sudden I got a knock at my door. Opening it, I got a simple question from Paul "Do you wanna see a Scorpion in my bathroom". Not sure if I did, I reluctantly went in with Paul and Pietro and he shows us a small (but maybe still deadly? Who would even know?) scorpion chilling on the back of his door. And I was complaining about all of the ants forming a colony on my floor! Now being too scared to look at anything in my room too closely, I showered and headed to bed in my very hot room with nothing but a fan to cool me down.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 85

    30 April 2024, Laos ⋅ ⛅ 36 °C

    Vietnam > Laos

    Unsure what was happening, eventually someone told us that we needed to change bus. This was what I expected at this was meant to be the "good" part of the journey and now we had to go on a local bus. We went to get our luggage from under the bus which I wasn't sure if mine had even made it on board as we were told to get on the bus before they had figured out how to fit our bags in around the whole motorbike stuffed underneath.

    Luckily, mine was all there and we threw our stuff onto the local bus where it was only us as tourists left. This meant that it was actually fairly comfortable as we all had space to exist. That being said it was still early hours in the morning and we weren't going straight on with our journey as we assumedly had more people to pick up before going across the border. We drove around the town a little bit, only picking up packages before arriving at a bus station around 4.30am. In my head, I had heard someone say that the bus leaves Dien Bien around 5.30am so I didn't think we had too long to wait. We helped our driver strap our bags to the roof which didn't bode well for the amount of passengers due to get on, then we sat outside for a while. About 30 minutes later we asked our driver how long it would be and he said 7am which was much longer than my 5.30 estimate.

    We all headed inside, and as a little group of 5 we sat round a table in the restaurant and played a few games of Uno to pass the time. I ended up getting a drink and a bowl of Pho for breakfast which ended up being my actual last meal of Vietnam and also happened to be the blandest. Eventually the sun rose and we watched a bright ball of fiery red appear above the horizon. I knew I didn't have a long journey after the border but felt terrible for the people who were not even halfway. We ended up leaving about 30 minutes early and headed to the border with a still relatively empty bus - much more comfortable than the sleeper.

    We had to get off to be stamped out of Vietnam - luckily they allowed me to exchange my Dong into Kip which was super useful. We then had to hop back on for another kilometer or 2 before being stamped into Laos. I heard that this could sometimes take ages with no one being about but we must have been lucky. We did have to fill out an entry form (which the guy proceeded to not look at in the slightest) before being stamped in but it was pretty easy. Back on the bus now and we head towards Muang Khua, picking up people on the way. I was super tired so kept falling in and out of sleep but eventually the call for Muang Khua was made and I hopped off, wishing those with another day of travelling good luck.

    I had no signal but I had learnt my lesson and downloaded the map, as well as Lao on Google Translate. I didn't know if I was going to be able to get a boat today but I walked along the main road towards where the boat would be. Luckily, on the way was a phone shop where for £10 I was able to get a SIM with 70GB of data for a month. A bit overkill for my 2 weeks but it wasn't much to pay and makes me feel better about being solo. I asked what time the boat was and they pointed me towards the dock so I made my way. I was told 9.30am tomorrow morning which I didn't mind so walked to the only accommodation I could find on Booking.com and checked into a room.

    It was only 11am but first things first is I needed a shower and to brush my teeth. After that was taken care of, I laid in bed for a while before gathering the energy to head out. I gave my brand new sun hoodie a spin and went to find some Iunch. The place opposite was apparently closed so I thought I'd walk to the other end of town to get a feel for the place. This was definitely a local place with not alot of tourists so I got some funny looks, but with some basic Lao (hello and thankyou) learnt, I found a restaurant that seemed open. I asked if they had food and after a long drawn out conversation on Google Translate where they said they didn't have foreign food and didn't have a menu, I eventually got her to recommend me some stir fry rice and I obliged.

    After enjoying my meal, I paid and headed back to the hotel. The Laos currency is strange because their biggest note is 100,000 (less than £4) which I think is because they suffer from such high inflation. I think because of this they've had to print alot more 100,000 notes which means that I have 2 different kinds that don't look similar or even the same colour or size - which makes it pretty confusing. Once I made it back, I pretty much instantly fell asleep even though it was only late afternoon.

    P.S. Uploading 5 posts in 1 day is definitely a personal record, for the first time in ages I'm fully caught up!    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 84

    29 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    Sapa > Dien Bien

    Today was my last (full) day in Vietnam! I had very much enjoyed my time here but honestly, I'm excited to experience a new country and I know that it's soon time to go home. But for today, I didn't have much to do before my bus this evening so I had a lie in, checked out, and headed to a restaurant for brunch. I ended up staying for a few hours and ordering a banh mi, a pancake, and a couple smoothies (which both sucked). Eventually I knew I should do some stuff before leaving so paid my hefty bill and headed out.

    As Sapa is known for its trekking, it has a plethora of trekking & outdoor shops, with lots of fake clothes. I was still on the search for a sun hoodie, as well as any other clothing that caught my fancy. The first shop I went into had a beautiful Patagonia T-shirt that I immediately wanted but was a bit more expensive than the others I had seen in other shops. Not wanting to commit straight away, I went in every other outdoor shop I could see on the way. Honestly, everything sucked. All the Patagonia T-shirts that they had, sucked. I decided on one last shop before I went back to the first shop. And that's where I spotted it, a beautiful sun hoodie that was both thin, and not plastered in terrible logos. I tried it on, and they had my size and a nice light grey, so for less than £5 I snapped it up. Back to the first shop now, I wanted the T-shirt in a nice light blue but they didn't have the size I needed so I settled for a light brown which isn't my normal colour but I went for it anyways.

    Even though I wasn't hungry, I went to a restaurant for my last meal in Vietnam as I knew the bus was long and there was no guarantee that we would stop for food. I went for some vegetables and pork with rice, as well as some fried chicken spring rolls. It was tasty but honestly way too much food as I was FULL afterwards, and now I had to waddle half way across town to catch a bus. The time said 18.20 and I wanted to be there 30 minutes before but I ended up being there with only 15 minutes to spare. Luckily though that didn't matter as no one was to be seen. The address was for the hotel next to the booking office which was quite confusing, but at the booking office, there was no one atall. A couple people said that they had messaged the company and they said 7pm which made sense as when I went to book the bus there were 2 times of 6.20 and 7.00 so I was fully expecting them to be the same bus. Eventually, more people were showing up, confusingly with different times given to them, but I wasn't alone at the very least. Most people were heading to Luang Prabang which was over 24 hours so I didn't envy them but we would be on the same bus anyways. Eventually some guy showed up who apparently didn't work there according to one of the girls waiting but after that, someone who actually worked there showed up and started asking to see tickets as well as proof we had our Laos VISAs.

    In our long wait I had gotten chatting to the others, and one of the couples were from Kent, with the girl having gone to Highworth in Ashford, in the same year as my sister. She didn't know my sister but apparently had over 20 mutual friends on Facebook. Very odd. Also the boyfriend was also called Sam and they now lived in Hythe. When the bus arrived, this is where the fun either started or stopped depending who you were. The bus was absolutely packed and was the most basic sleeper bus. I think they reserved the "best" seats for us but they definitely weren't good. There were 4 different places you could be. The first was definitely the best which was a single seat down one side of the bus. Narrow but you had a seat to yourself. The next best was the double seats on the other side. Pretty good if it was a couple but some had families all in these 2 little seats. The worst by far was the floor between the seats. As more people piled on, they had the share the same small floor space as the rest. Then there's the back, where I was. It was a 5 wide reclined seat like cushioning but with absolutely no divider. This meant 5 of us (all tourists luckily as locals weren't known for their respect of personal space) were lined up like sardines with not enough headroom to sit up straight. It wasn't good by any means but we atleast had room to lie down and maybe a couple centimeters between us. Some of the other tourists were complaining but they were definitely winning having their own seats to themselves - especially compared to the people on the floor.

    As we went along, more people kept getting on which was absolutely insane. The very small amount of room the floor people had was getting smaller and smaller and I was worried they'd try and get a 6th person in the back with us. Luckily, that wasn't the case. At our first proper stop, as we were leaving I had noticed that the reason for our stop was the pile of vomit that was on the floor near the front. After going to piss in a bush as some of the locals seemed to be annoyed at me for trying to use the actual toilet, we got back on and climbed over the people who were laying right were the vomit was 5 minutes ago. With nothing but Pikachu Oreos, my earphones, and a blanket as a pillow we kept going. I forgot to mention that in this little slot we had found ourselves in, the AC barely worked which made it pretty hot and sweaty. Especially being so close to the people either side of me, I could feel the heat from the dude to my let's armpits whenever he lifted his arms. Eventually we all kind of turned on our sides into the weirdest 5 way spoon of strangers and I managed to get a little bit of sleep.

    We arrived in Dien Bien sometime in the early hours of the morning and every local got off. Not sure if we were staying on the bus or leaving, we all claimed a seat to ourselves which compared to the sardine hot box we were in, felt like luxury. Unsure what was to happen next we sat tight. To be continued...    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1

    Day 83

    28 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Big Hike

    Even if I couldn't do Fansipan without paying, I knew I wanted to do a big hike that went through some local villages as well as up some mountains. Luckily, AllTrails seemed to have exactly what I wanted. 2 separate hikes, 1 that went out to a neighbouring village called Ta Van, and one that came back on the other side of the valley. I could combine these for a fairly big single day hike.

    The first half was quite relaxed, it was about 11km in total, mostly downhill to drop into the valley with a little bit of elevation towards the end. It was nice and sunny and I got some gorgeous views of the rice fields as I passed through the "Black H'mong" villages, seeing lots of livestock too. Unfortunately some people did try and sell me stuff, though they were mainly kids and you're not supposed to buy anything from them as it encourages them to drop out of school.

    There were a couple bigger villages too, Lao Chai and Ta Van which were both towards the end. These evidently were super touristy too as the vibe was super different from the other ones I had passed through. I grabbed a smoothie at Lao Cai before heading over to Ta Van for some lunch. I ordered a Banh Mi, but to my surprise I got an even smaller portion of chips than I did yesterday, and it was in "normal" square slices of bread instead of the classic baguette. I knew the 2nd half would take a bit longer as it had some more elevation out of the valley, and it was getting to the hottest part of the day so I didn't stay long.

    After foolishly trying to take a shortcut and ending up having to sneak through a farm in order to get back on the main track, I found myself sweating and breathing heavy as I tried to push my way up the valley. Luckily, once I had actually gotten onto the path, it was fairly linear and I didn't have to think much, which caused me to apparently miss the route I was meant to follow and end up a bit further down the road than I was meant to. But hey, I'm never one to complain about extra kilometers as all that meant was more adventure.

    I had noticed that the route on AllTrails went around a mountain but there was a perfectly good trail that went directly towards Sapa with only 500m more elevation, plus I'd get to summit a mountain which would be quite cool. I stopped at a homestay on the way to get some more drinks as I was getting low on water then kept powering on. The trail up the mountain was actually pretty good, although there were alot of diverging paths but I assume they all went the same way so I wasn't too worried. Plus, I had my GPS to keep me on route. As I climbed further up, I got an even better view on the whole valley below which was nice. I passed some locals, and some horses and before I knew it I was on the summit of Mount Ham Rong. Well, maybe. As there wasn't a summit marked and the path went straight up and over, I bushwacked to the summit as per my GPS and called it mission complete.

    I could see Sapa for most of the descent and knew I had a while left of sunlight so I wasn't in a big rush on the way down, so I took it fairly slow, watching the sunset behind Fansipan. As I made my way down, it passed through a little tourist attraction where there were some nice statues, gardens, and walkways. Plus, to cement the fact that Sapa felt like a D tier Disney, there was even a knock off Mickey Mouse statue. As I made my back into town, I had completed my 20 something kilometer hike with 1300 something meters of elevation - all to avoid a less than 3 pounds entry fee into the Ham Rong Park thingy right at the end. I knew I was a cheapskate but I didn't know by this much.

    I was now perfectly hyped to go to the Alps in just over a month, and perfectly craving an ice crea, some cookies, and a drink, so I went to a shop and splurged before eating till my heart was content.

    Unfortunately, as my homestay was full tonight, I had to move for a 3rd time in 4 nights in Sapa to another homestay on the other side of town. Luckily though this was the last time as I had booked my bus ticket to Laos for tomorrow evening. After checking in and showering, I went to a restaurant across the street and enjoyed a much wanted final dinner in Vietnam.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 82

    27 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Sapa & Valley Hike

    Michelle was leaving today so we wanted to do a small hike in the morning as Sapa was known for its trekking. For the first time in almost 2 weeks I didn't have to pack up and check out which was a nice change of pace. On the way to our meeting point, I went to a bakery and grabbed a mystery bun as well as a chocolate doughnut. One thing I've learnt about bakeries in Asia is nomatter how good something looks, its always mid at best. The mystery bun that the person said was chicken turned out to be bright purple on the inside, yellow on the outside, and green on the edges. Whatever it was, it sucked and I had no more than 2 bites before I stuffed it back in my bag never to be seen again. The doughnut was as expected, bleh.

    After battling with the AllTrails app to get the trail to stay (I eventually would realise I was using it wrong the next day) we managed to find the start of the track. It was pretty well defined so we didn't really need the map but I've fell victim before to following a well marked trail and going the complete wrong way so I checked on it every now and again. It was only 9km so shouldn't take that long so we weren't in a rush. The first half descended into the valley, giving nice green views of the rice fields, mountains, and small villages. I managed to slip over and stopped myself from stacking it with my hand. Unfortunately though, the months of wrist pain had come back after not having any issues with it for my whole time in Asia.

    On our way back up, we stopped at a café for a smoothie, which unfortunately tasted more like milk than mango but was much needed in the heat. The way back wasn't as scenic and took us up a road most the way into Sapa but eventually we got back just in time for lunch. On the way, we encountered a local lady who wanted us to go trekking with her. When we said no, she said we should buy something from her as we weren't going to trek with her. Unfortunately, this is pretty common in Sapa and its hard to walk anywhere without the people harassing you for trekking and shopping. This lady was a little bit different though as she decided to follow us until we brought something from her, literally saying "if you buy something I stop following". Even when we sped up, she would run to catchup. Eventually, I spat out all of the Vietnamese phrases that I had learnt and she stopped following us. This was meant to be pretty common in Sapa which is why alot of people stayed in the villages outside of Sapa instead, and sadly was why I didn't really like Sapa too much.

    We went to a restaurant for lunch, and I grabbed a chicken burger and chips where I got maybe the smallest serving of fries I've ever seen, as well as the driest piece of chicken. Depsite that, a bit of strange Asian ketchup and it was pretty good. Apparently, being Belgian, Michelle said that the Belgians make the best fries in the world and if I ever went I needed to try them.

    I said goodbye to Michelle, hopefully to see her again in Laos, before heading back to my homestay for a bit. I decided I'd spend the rest of the day walking around Sapa to get a feel for it. Dodging countless motorbike, trekking, and shopping requests, I walked around the lake for a bit. There was a small supermarket nearby so I grabbed a drink and a snack then sat by the lake for a while, whilst what seemed to be a parade went on by.

    With the amount of bottled water I had been drinking, I (embarrassingly) wanted to do a taste test of water from the major companies (Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Nestlé) to see if I could taste a difference and if I had a favourite. Before I could buy all the water I wanted, I ran into a couple French girls from my homestay and they invited me to eat some dinner with them. Not having anything better to do than to taste test water, I joined them to a vegan restaurant where I tried a mixed rice dish, with vegetables and tofu. It was definitely different to the kind of food I had been eating and that was probably a good thing as it wasn't the nicest thing. Depsite the taste, it filled me up, and we were ready to head to the main square in Sapa for what seemed to be a big show.

    Sapa isn't very big but for some reason all the accommodation was pretty much fully booked. I didn't know why this was, whether Sapa was generally quite busy as it's close to China, whether there were lots of Vietnamese people as it was a weekend and there was a public holiday next week, or if it just always was busy. Then, I think what it was is that there was this massive show going on, with a big stage and sound system that officials from all over neighbouring countries had been invited to, so had probably brought alot of tourism with it. For me, I didn't know any of this was going on and just so happened to be here.

    The square was set up with 1000s of amphitheatre style seats but that still didn't seem to be enough for the amount of people that had flocked for the show. Us 3 waited through an extremely lengthy introduction of all the various officials that had joined, which nicely enough was also repeated in English, before the show actually started. The show was a mixture of dancing and singing which was cool but ultimately wasn't enough to keep my French friends awake as they had been up since 3am for the Fansipan hike, so they headed back. I watched the rest of the show then headed back myself.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1

    Day 81

    26 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Sapa & Cat Cat Village

    After another much needed sleep, I ended up sleeping till past 10am which was much later than I had hoped to but I needed to. The plan was to meet up with Michelle from the Ha Giang Loop so I rushed to pack my bags to check out and then headed out. The plan was to rent a scooter and ride about so I walked to Mr Mung's Motorbike Rental, handed my passport over to a random lady on the side of the street and then voila, I had a scooter.

    Michelle couldn't really ride a scooter so I was her easy driver for the day. She hopped on the back and our roles were set out - she had to direct and I had to drive. Fortunately for her, once we were out of Sapa it was just a straight road. Fansipan is the tallest mountain in Vietnam, so was a fairly prominent feature in the landscape. Unfortunately you either had to pay a guide to take you up, or pay for the cable cart and both were fairly expensive. Instead we decided to take the road that went around Fansipan to try and get some good views. Just like any range of mountains, they were beautiful and there were some nice spots to stop off on the way. The whole way was downhill so I could pretty much not use the throttle the entire way down (unless I got impatient).

    Unfortunately the road was too big to do a full loop so when we got to the bottom of the long down slope, we turned around and headed back up. Our mission now was to find somewhere that sold food as I hadn't had any breakfast and it was now lunch time. You'd think this would be easy but most places on Google Maps didn't exist and most signs for restaurants seemed to be for decoration. We found a small place on the side of the road that I spotted on the way down and managed to order some food using Google Translate.

    We made our way back up the hill which for our little scooter proved harder than coming down. We stopped a couple times on the way up, once for a waterfall which we decided against after a group said it wasn't worth it, and then a little further up at a mystery set of stairs. We parked up, climbed the stairs and Google translated the sign: "Chineese Doctor Cemetary". I went to and turn around but Michelle said we might aswell keep going, so we hung out at a cemetery for a while. Hopefully it wasn't as disrespectful as it might have felt. A small while later, we left the cemetery and kept going.

    After trying to keep up with a motorcycle group and failing, we made our way back to Sapa. Having some more time in the day, we went to Cat Cat, a small H'mong village right next to Sapa. The road down was steep, busy, under construction, and for some reason, wet - meaning it was a not very nice drive down. We paid for entry, then parked up at the bottom of what we thought was a path up to a café. Unfortunately the café was one building over and this lead to an abandoned café fenced off to the main path. Luckily for us some kids showed us a way to get past the fence which seemed super dodgy looking but we went for it anyways.

    The village itself had a really weird vibe. It seemed like it was meant to be a local authentic village but had been exploited into becoming a tourist hub meaning the culture was now focused on selling "handmade" things to tourists and having things for tourists to see and do. Tourists were also dressed up in the local colourful clothing in a theme park gimmicky kind of way. It really felt inauthentic and I wasn't enjoying a fan. What certainly didn't help was the music playing out of speakers all over, making it feel like a D tier Disney. We didn't explore everything but there was some nice bridges, a nice waterfall, as well as some goats and sheep in a pen. Around sunset the theme park - I mean the village was closing so we made our way back out and up the terrible road.

    I dropped Michelle back at her homestay before I picked my bags up from mine and headed to my 2nd homestay in Sapa. I checked in for 2 nights as I still wasn't sure how long I wanted to stay for, then returned my bike to Mr Mung, and chilled for a bit at my new homestay. I met back up with Michelle in the evening at a restaurant that supposedly did decent Vegetarian food according to TripAdvisor. I enjoyed an okay Bun Cha before I headed back to the homestay. I had a shave and a shower then had an early night as I was still trying to recover from Ha Giang.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 80

    25 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    Hanoi > Sapa

    When I woke up I felt so much better as I had gotten a good night sleep which I so desperately needed. Depsite that, my throat KILLED, and my voice was almost gone. I only had 1 reason to be back in Hanoi which was to get my VISA for Laos as the border crossing I was doing from Sapa required a pre approved VISA for seemingly no good reason except to be a pain in the ass. That wouldn't be the worst thing if it wasn't for the fact that last time I was in Hanoi they were shut for Laos New Year's so I had to make my way back for a 3rd time.

    After some breakfast and checking out (I hoped to get my VISA in time to get to Sapa tonight) I ordered a Grab over to the Laos Embassy. Luckily the process was fairly easy, all I had to do was fill out a form and come back later in the day. I ran into Elisa (from Ha Giang loop) at the embassy so we filled in our forms together then headed out. Elisa had something wrong with her ears so we walked to the hospital together then I went on my way to fill the rest of the day.

    I needed something for my throat so I went to a pharmacy and found something lozenges that should help, and I hope that the random chemicals aren't gonna end up killing me. After that, I really really wanted a sun hoodie (long sleeve & hooded sports top) that alot of locals wear to protect them from the sun, so I found a market and headed there. The issue is, most clothes were for women and would have been way to small for me, and the few male sun hoodies I could find were super thick and would make an English guy like me melt in the sun. It was also a completely different vibe to most the markets I had been to as no one was trying to sell anything and I had to put in alot of effort to get the sellers attention - completely opposite vibe to the market in Saigon.

    I gave up with that and went to find some Banh Mi for lunch at a small café. I chilled there for a while before going to pick up my passport and VISA with Elisa at 3pm. I had booked my bus for 5.30 so had some time to kill, so we ended up going back to the same market I was at to do some shopping for Elisa. After successfully haggling for a couple tops, I said goodbye and went to get my bags before going to the bus office. Because I booked my ticket so last minute, I almost didn't have a ticket but in the last minute it came through confirmed so I hopped on the bus (which was another nice sleeper) towards Sapa.

    We stopped once where I quickly ate some noodle soup, and then we eventually arrived in Sapa at 11.30pm. It was well past check in so I had been given instructions of where to sleep but the dude at the hostel was still awake and seemingly quite annoyed at me - oh well. I was so tired I needed a quick shower then slept ASAP.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1
    1

    Day 79

    24 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Ha Giang Loop Day 3

    When I woke up I felt like a corpse. Actually I felt worse than corpse, I felt like an extremely hungover corpse. I felt so ill I couldn't eat any breakfast, so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, and my throat hurt so much from 3 nights of karaoke that I couldn't even drink without it hurting. I was definitely reaping the rewards of my choices last night, but hey, play stupid games then win stupid prizes.

    The start of the day was a blur, I was so focused on trying not to feel sick and stay awake I don't even remember the surroundings. We stopped at a viewpoint for a while and I took the opportunity to sit on a chair and try and recover the best I could. It's ironic because the day that my easy driver finally stopped feeling sick, I felt incredibly sick. I found a hammock in the building and half fell asleep as I was that tired and need to lie down. Turns out no one knew where I was and I woke up to Quin saying that we gotta go and then I realised that everyone had left and he spent a while searching for me. Whoops. We were only about 5 minutes behind and we could see the group in the distance across the valley but it was nice as it felt like we were on our own adventure. Also, my mini nap revitalised me, I still felt a little worse for wear but felt maybe 5x better than I did.

    The weather was starting to get a bit rainy and it was a little windy too so we all stopped to put on our obnoxiously in your face blue or purple plastic full body ponchos, so that's why you see me looking like a bin bag for the whole day. When we caught up, everyone said that I looked alive again so that was good news and worth the 5 minute delay - though it didn't stop me from finding the nicest spot on the floor and trying for another nap.

    Our next proper stop was a bit of a confusing one as it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, then it turns out it was next to a massive field of weed plants. Some of the drivers picked a few stems for themselves and we went on to the worst roads we had faced for the whole loop so far. Sitting on the back of a bike really took its toll on your ass and for me, my back. Maybe it's because I'm slightly taller, maybe because of last night but my back was in so much pain and the constant bumps didn't help. I was honestly quite glad I was only doing 3 days as I couldn't survive another day. After a constant onslaught of my new favourite Vietnamese phrase "Oi chau oi" (oh my god) we had gotten past the worst of it.

    We stopped for lunch but I still didn't really have an appetite so I only had a small amount which was a shame as it looked super tasty. I instead found a sack of leaves to have a lie down on (this time I had learnt my lesson as they were right next to where we parked so it would have been hard to leave me behind again). I didn't really nap as there were some kids playing nearby but every little bit of rest was working wonders on getting me back to Ha Giang. Quin came over and effectively laughed at me for getting in such a state which I cannot blame him for as from his perspective I was dressed in a bin bag laying on a sack of leaves - definitely a low point (I guess not as low as throwing up in a bush yesterday but not far off).

    After lunch, we went to a waterfall where I grabbed some hot peach tea to help with my destroyed throat which was really good. We took a group photo then headed towards our final stop of the loop. The final stop was nice, a little platform overlooking a river but what made this stop great was the amount of Chinese tourists. That might sound weird but Chinese tourists LOVE taking pictures with white people. I don't know what it is but they love it, so us and the other group ended up spending ages taking various photos with the hoards of tourists. It was surreal. It wasn't even like a quick selfie, they were properly posed photos - so crazy. And some of the time they weren't even asking, they would take a picture with us in the background.

    And that was it, we make the short distance back to Ha Giang, and we're back at the hostel. We thank and tip our drivers then head inside. Most of us had a night bus booked to Hanoi tonight so I took a quick shower, then after claiming our free T-shirts, we headed to a restaurant for some dinner before our journey. My appetite had come back in full force and there's nothing I craved more than a pizza, so we went to the Italian restaurant I went to a few days ago and enjoyed some well needed food.

    We were split between 2 busses, and I had opted for a slightly nicer bus which I'm glad I did as I was so tired I fell asleep almost immediately. We arrived in Hanoi at like 1am which kinda sucked, but I made my way to the same hostel I always went to and went to bed for a 2nd time.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    11

    Day 78

    23 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    Ha Giang Loop Day 2

    In the morning I had some noodle soup for breakfast which might sound strange for the West but in Vietnam it's one of the most popular breakfasts and I'm starting to see why. I also had a coffee as it was free and I thought I might aswell give it a try - and you know what I actually really liked it.

    We headed out, once again crusuing through stunning scenery and dodging police checkpoints wherever needed. We had a couple stops but our first notable one was at the Chinese border which was fairly anticlimactic as it just a few fences and a small shack on the other side but still interesting nonetheless. I picked up a couple Redbulls from the rest stop but they were nothing like the ones in England. The ones in South East Asia were made in Thailand and were in a small gold can. They were much nicer and also probably had some sort of cocaine in, but you can't say they didn't work to give me some much needed energy. I tried to get one for my easy driver Quin but turns out he's had food poisoning for a couple days and unknown to me was suffering quite alot yesterday and that's why he wasn't drinking with us last night. It's a shame but I can't blame him especially as he probably spends most his time on the road.

    Our next stop was to this big ass tower on a hill with a massive Vietnam flag flying proudly, just across the border from China. If there's one things I love it's massive flags and this definitely fit the bill, being able to be seen from kilometers in all directions. We were able to park up and walk to the top of the tower and get all close and personal with the flag. After running back down the spiral stairs and getting super dizzy, we headed out once again.

    On our way to our next stop there was another police checkpoint but this time they were checking the easy driver's licenses which meant that one of the drivers who didn't have a license tried to turn around and drive away but the police stopped him. We all waited for a while to see what happened to him and eventually he was let go with only a small fine but it was pretty tense stuff. Our next stop was not too far onward and was a little bit of a hike up a rocky hill. Most people went there because there was a nice little stone jutting out that was perfect for Instagram photos but I wanted to conquer the "mountain" and scramble my way to the top. There were little kids who were helping people find their way up then once they got to the top were asking for money, and honestly it seemed they were doing pretty well for themselves.

    After we had waited for a while for the stragglers to get back, we made our way to our homestay which was much nicer than our other one. We were split into 2 groups for 2 rooms and we had some time to kill before dinner. We explored the homestay a bit which was massive and ended up finding a park with a swing and a see saw. After discovering what different languages call a see saw it was time for another family dinner... but not without some happy water first. I'll spare you the details but they ended up bringing out jugs and jugs of happy water and as the night went on I had more and more until I ended up being sick in a bush at God knows what time in the morning. I ended up going to bed at 6am feeling incredibly terrible but before that it was a great night filled with lots of singing and lots of drinking chants.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1

    Day 77

    22 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Ha Giang Loop Day 1

    The whole 3 day loop was a bit of a blur but I'll try my best.

    Woke up in maybe the comfiest bed I've had on my whole travels which made it hard to get out of bed but I mustered up the courage to make my way down for breakfast (I know - I live such a hard life). The lobby was super busy and a little overwhelming as there were about 40 people who were getting ready to leave on a tour. We were split into 3 groups and I was in the 3 day tour of about 20 people. I got my helmet and met my easy driver for the next 3 days, Quin (I have no idea how I'm meant to spell it).

    For the next 3 days we rode as a group, most of us with easy drivers and a few riding by themselves but we all drove in a kind of formation which meant Quin and I were chilling near the back. The thing about being driven around is you have absolutely no idea where you are. Coming from having to navigate myself for 3 days it was super weird hopping on and off the bikes and being taken to the next place with absolutely no thought. It was nice as you could really take in the surroundings and take as many pictures as you wanted without worrying about the road.

    We didn't really stop anywhere specific apart from viewpoints fairly regularly which was nice as sitting on the back of a ditty little scooter isn't the most comfortable thing in the world. One thing that was pretty mad was the amount of people doing the loop every single day. It's hard to know exactly how many people there were but definitely in the 100s with all the different companies so definitely felt super touristy. Another thing is that the police have checkpoints all over the loop looking out for tourists riding themselves without proper licences so we had 1 dedicated rider who would ride ahead of the pack and look our for police - letting our leader know so we could pull over before hand and shuttle people ahead of checkpoint on the back of an easy driver.

    We stopped for lunch and like every other meal we'd have on the loop it was a big family style dinner with shared plates. This was great as 1) it was yummy and 2) it is a super social experience. I think for me, my favourite part of the Ha Giang Loop was the people that I did it with. The views were beautiful too of course but it would have been a very different experience doing it solo.

    We eventually head to our first homestay of the loop and we get to chill for a while before dinner in the evening. This was where I met the group that I'd end up spending the whole time with. All 3 groups were staying at the same place but there was about 10 of us from the 3 day group that stuck together. After chatting for a bit in the dorm, we all played Uno together, adding a new rule every single game so by the end it was complete chaos (as every Uno game should be).

    It was now time for dinner where, again, it was time for a family meal. But before things got too repetitive we were introduced to an important part of any Ha Gaing Loop experience - the happy water. Happy water is a self brewed rice wine that everyone does shots of and is hugely popular all over Vietnam. What made it special is the drinking chant that goes along with it which I hope to be bringing home to the UK with me. The chant was also on the back of the T-Shirts we got at the end and some of the drivers were wearing them, letting us follow along - and a few of us lead our own. The karaoke started and more happy water was had. It was a fairly relaxed night and was pretty much coming to an end by 10pm.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 76

    21 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Cao Bang > Ha Giang

    Okay I'm starting to catch up now, so let's keep it rolling.

    Woke up, nice breakfast, packed up and hopped on the bus to Ha Giang. There weren't any tourist busses which meant I had to hop on 2 local busses. The difference between a tourist bus and local bus is pretty decent in terms of comfort, space, price, speed, and reliability so I settled in. The first bus wasn't too bad, but I had a very annoying person next to me that kept falling asleep and throwing her full body weight into me for every corner we went around - which being a very mountainous route was quite often. Honestly above the pain from my shoulder being hit into the side of the bus I was more impressed she slept through most of the full body attacks. Between the countless stops for people to hop on and off and deliveries to be given and received (including a full plastic bag of fresh meat placed on the floor) all the people eventually got off leaving just me and the only other tourist to wait around for the 2nd bus.

    Luckily we didn't have to wait long but unluckily the bus was slowly getting fuller and fuller. I say full as if its an objective thing, but no full is how many people can fit in the space of the bus, not how many seats there were. Our bags were strapped to the roof to make more sense and we were well over capacity with one guy standing next to the half open door. The door was half open as the bus' AC either stopped working or the driver wanted us to melt. Melt we did and I could not wait to arrive and get off the bus. Exactly 10 hours on the dot later, I arrived in Ha Giang about 40 minutes from my hostel which I couldn't care less about the walk as it wasn't in the sauna of a bus.

    When I checked in, there was a lobby full of people who were waiting for a bus, and by the time I had showered the entire hostel was pretty much empty as most people arrived during the night in a night bus from Hanoi. I went for dinner by myself at an Italian / Vietnamese place down the road that someone volunteering at the desk suggested and I ended up unintentionally ordering a mountain of food. After a long while I managed to finish everything and was left extremely full and satisfied.

    Thinking I was ready to get an early night, I started chatting to the same person at the desk and I got invited to go out for karaoke with the group of volunteers at the hostel. We went to a private karaoke place and we had this crazy fancy room which made me feel like a VIP getting the first class treatment. After a few hours and some soju, we called it a night and I headed to bed for real this time.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1

    Day 75

    20 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    Cao Bang Loop Day 3

    Righto let's try and knock this one out fast as I'm still many days behind.

    Breakfast? Check. Another cuddle with cute little Sam and a very heartbreaking goodbye? Check. The coolest parrot in the world that waddled up to me and wanted me to stroke it? Check (yeah I know right this place was awesome and I didn't want to leave). There was really only 1 stop today so I wasn't in a very big rush, so I waited for the rain in the morning to pass before heading out as I couldn't be assed to get wet.

    I made my way back along the sketchy track but now it was filled with mud and puddles of water - which just required even more of my unmatched skill to maneuvere (I say riding an automatic 110cc).
    Honestly for the first leg of the journey, this was the best quality driving I had done so far. It was absolutely stunning and I had to keep stopping to get a picture of the luscious green landscapes.

    I arrived at Pac Bo cave which is famous for where Ho Chi Minh returned to Vietnam from China for the first time in 30 years in 1941 and stayed for a few weeks. And, it is at one end of the "Ho Chi Minh Road" that stretches almost the whole length of the country. It's a popular spot that Vietnamese people will take the time to visit atleast once in their lives. When I arrived it was fairly quiet and I hopped on an electric buggy from the car park to the area.

    Not really knowing where I was going, I followed the path along the stunning turquoise water known as "Lenin Creek" and up along the first pathway off the main loop. None of the signs were in English so I did my best to translate them but it meant I didn't super know what was going on. I reached a little hut which I thought was where Ho Chi Minh lived but apparently he lived in the cave so I'm not super sure who's hut it was. Behind the hut, the path continued and having not learnt from yesterday I decided to keep going as I wanted to see where it went. Another sweaty climb uphill resulted in a dwindling path so I cut my losses early and headed back the way I came.

    It seems whilst I was off gallivanting in the forest, everyone in Vietnam had arrived to this 1 place. It was a Saturday but it seemed that every school also decided to make their school trip here aswell. It was safe to say I may have been the only white dude in hundreds of Vietnamese people - so I definitely got a good few curious looks and a lot of enthusiastic hellos. I had a gander at the famous cave, with his bed / workstation and a cooking pot. Down by the creek, there was a spot where he would fish as well as a rock that he would use as a table. Becoming super exhausted I grabbed a cold drink of sugarcane juice by the exit and left to find some lunch.

    I drove down the road for a bit before stopping in the first place I could find with food. It was completely empty and the food was sitting there so I decided to go vegetarian for the meal, not wanting to risk any food poisoning. The rest of the ride back wasn't very scenic and mainly took me through towns until I arrived back into Cao Bang.

    I had oficially survived my 3 day adventure and hopped in the shower before going for dinner. I loved my dinner so much my first night here I decided to go back and order the exact same thing (and finish watching Castaway) before heading to bed.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    11

    Day 74

    19 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C

    Cao Bang Loop Day 2

    I'm about a week behind writing these so my recollection may not be all there.

    After a terrible night sleep from being woken up by the roosters (which I didn't mind) then being kept awake by the rattling of footsteps through the thinly constructed walls and floor (which I did mind) I mustered myself out of bed not super ready to attack the day. Although, being able to open the shutters in my room and look out at the fields was quite nice. I had a quick breakfast of pancakes and fruit then checked out and headed towards the cave.

    The cave was right by the waterfall but I had to kill some time before the dam at the waterfall opened at 11. The cave was okay. It was pretty decently sized but honestly I've been in quite a few caves now and I'm a little bit over them. After a brief run through I headed towards the waterfall, stopping at the Stone Village where all the houses felt very small European village. After a quick drink and a walk around I finally headed to the Ban Gioc waterfalls.

    I parked up at a considerably more busy carpark than yesterday, paid for my entry and wandered in. Apparently it's the 4th biggest waterfall on an international border which is a very specific but nonetheless cool fact. It was also a big tourist hot spot as the waterfall is only "good" between 11 and 2 so everyone comes in those times. People were selling pictures riding horses whilst wearing cowboy hats. Definitely not my vibe but when I got to the waterfall I found a bench and sat for a while, watching the boats do circles in the water. When the dam opened it revealed even more to the waterfall around to the side too. Eventually I felt I had taken in the waterfall and got ready to do a bit of walking around when I saw a half fenced off pathway leading up towards the waterfall, and then a minute later I see a couple people making their way down. I asked them what's up there and they say that after about 15 minutes and a bit of a climb there's a nice little view away from the people and the boats. Perfect.

    I made my way around the fence and in about 5 minutes I reached a bit of a dead end with not a super view and not the walk through the field that the couple said there was. A bit confused I turned around and found my way onto the path they were talking about. They warned me to remember my way back which was good advice as the path was pretty feint and quite diverging. Eventually I got to where I assume they were talking about and scurried a bit too close to the massive drop and waterfall below me but got a nice view out of it. Not wanting to forget the way I came (plus very hungry) I made my way back only getting a little lost and headed out.

    I got some Pho across the road from the entrance and followed it with some ice cream before getting on my way as I had some kilometers to cover and it was well past lunch time. Something about the roads on the loop is that generally they were in really good condition but there were so many animals in the road. Whether that was dogs, chickens, buffalo, cows, or goats something was always laying in the street or ready to jump out and it made it quite a challenge to dodge anything with a death wish. Luckily there isn't much traffic except for the fairly frequent farmer walking a small herd of buffalo down the road (which I honestly couldn't tell you why).

    After a while I made my way to a walking track that was meant to give a good view at the top. I parked up and had to walk behind this dudes house in this tiny village but then I got to the path that lead up. Feeling springy I jogged up this one till I got to a nice rock with a perfect seat for the view down the valley. Thinking that was it, I sat for a bit admiring the view before realising that the path continued and I was curious where it took me as I thought I was already at the "spot". Have you ever heard the phrase "Curiosity killed the cat"? Well I certainly felt like the cat. As I wandered up the path it was becoming clearer and clearer that this was becoming less and less trodden (but still fairly obvious) as people assumedly turned back. Unfortunately, my curiosity wouldn't let me stop going and I just *HAD* to see where the path lead. I kept venturing for maybe 30 minutes deeper into the jungle, with seemingly no end to this path. I then realised I had no phone signal and no one knew where I was if something were to happen, so being quite sweaty and dirty from battling through the jungle I turned back and followed the path back. Unfortunately, the path had split in 2 directions and I wasn't super sure the way I came as most things looked like trees and there wasn't many markers. Knowing I wasn't lost but just a bit confused, I made my way up one of the tracks to see if it led to anywhere recognisable. I ran into a disappearing track and small herd of cattle blocking the way so I decided to head back the other route. Eventually it led back to where I recognised and even though I was never off the track, I still got a bit panicked I'd end up lost so you can say I learnt my lesson. I got back down completely sweaty and headed out.

    After no more official stops, I made it to where my homestay would be that night. I had to ride down this bumpy dirt and gravel track which required some good evasive techniques but eventually I ended up at 1 last stop a minute from my homestay. The stunning "Angel Eye Mountain" is a limestone karst with a cave going all the way through meaning you can see the sky through it. Plus it stands tall in a wonderful lush green plains below it. I got there just at sunset as well which meant 2 great sunsets 2 days in a row, lucky lucky me!

    I checked in to a relatively expensive but super nice homestay and got ready to chill for the evening. They had about 5 or 6 dogs that were very excitable and great to play with, running around like crazy. It wasn't until I met a small curly hair little dude that my heart melted as all he wanted was to cuddle up to me. Turns out his name was Sam! It was really meant to be. I had some dinner, with little Sam sleeping on my lap then went for a shower before cuddling up to Sam again whilst I watched some Netflix (Castaway is a pretty good movie). Overall it was a really nice evening except for the stupidly low wooden beam in the bedroom which I hit my head against not once but twice, sending me to the floor on the 2nd time and leaving behind a bump right on top of my head.    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara

    Day 73

    18 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Cao Bang Loop Day 1

    After getting a nice waffle, fruit, and honey combo for breakfast I renter a scooter from my homestay. I went with a little 110cc automatic but I probably should have went for a semi as it would have been cheaper and I would have plenty of time to practice. Depsite it being on the expensive side, it was definitely worth it as it was the nicest bike I had rented in Vietnam - even the mirrors were good. Plus, I got a brand new full face helmet with a nice clear visor. I would have bet my life nothing would go wrong with this scooter so I was filled with confidence which is always a good sign at the start of a 3 day solo motorcycle loop. The owner, Lin, showed me the whole route on a map and pointed out exactly where I should stay and what I should do each day. With my notes written, bike revving, and bag packed I headed out.

    My first stop was of course the petrol station to fill up but after that I was cruising through the beautiful Northern Vietnam. Being on a scooter is so much nicer than being in a car as you actually feel like you're a part of your surroundings rather than in your own little world in a car or bus. I ventured through the Ma Phuc Pass which gave an incredible start to my adventure. All the stops in Cao Bang seemed to be sign posted as part of UNESCO which was really useful, and there was a nice information sign at each place to explain what was going on.

    My first stop was at the Incense Village. There were 3 small villages not for from eachother that all specialised in a very specific thing. The Incense Village was quite cool as you could just smell the aroma of incense in the air, but I must have gotten unlucky with the day I came as there wasn't any incense out and about being made, I think this is because it needs sun to dry and there was too much of a risk of rain - especially with the thunder storms last night. I watched some locals all come together to build a new house or building then went off to the next village.

    The Paper Village was up next, and I happened upon this nice lady's paper factory. She showed me some paper products she had made, as well as showed me how to paste the paper on the wall so that it could dry. My pasting was horrible on my first try but went better on the 2nd. Afterwards she invited me inside for some tea and some happy water (11am is way too early for spirits). She didn't speak English so we communicated through Google Translate but it was clear it had some limitations as some messages made absolutely no sense. She was kind enough to make me some food which was made from vegetables she had grown herself as well as meat she had raised herself, telling me that she wanted to be as self sufficient as she could be as she was poor. She showed me some pictures of her family and after paying her 5x what she wanted for a beautiful hand made paper fan (which was still not much money to me) as a way of saying thank you, she wished me good luck and good health and I went on.

    I had spent a couple hours there so didn't have loads of time to stop in other places as I wanted to get to Ban Gioc before sunset. I stopped off at the final village, the Forging Village, which was pretty cool as just riding through you could see their products. Mostly, it was various knives and cleavers which were "known for their quality and durability and not their looks" but honestly if I didn't have to carry round a cleaver for another month then take it on a plane, I would have loved to get one as I'm sure it would have done wonders in the kitchen.

    After that there were a few more stops listed but either I couldn't find it (The Magic Stne) or they weren't much (Little Ban Gioc & The Chestnut Tree). With the Magic Stone I tried to follow signs but the roads got so bad and the directions got so loose I gave up hope. Little Ban Gioc was just a nice river, and I stopped for an orange juice there. And the Chestnut Tree was meant to be this grand important tree from when the French came over and brought chestnut trees with them but either I couldn't find the right tree or the tree that was next to the plaque had been felled in the storm last night... whoops.

    I quickly checked in to my homestay before heading out again to the temple that was right next to the Ban Gioc waterfalls. Lin suggested to go here for sunset so I parked at the bottom and trecked up the hill into this temple that had a wonderful vantage over the Ban Gioc waterfalls (which were at low flow at the moment) and the mountains. I trekked slightly off the beaten path to this little hut further up the hill and that's where I sat and watched the sun set over the mountains for one of the best sunsets of my travels so far.

    I drove back to the homestay about 15 minutes away as I didn't want to be out in the proper dark and eventually had some dinner with a French couple before showering and heading to bed in my own little private room (for the same price as the shared room?).    Baca lagi

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  • Sam BostonSouth East AsiaPengembara
    1

    Day 72

    17 April 2024, Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Hanoi > Cao Bang

    So it turns out that this hostel (that I had stayed at for a few nights before) provides FREE BREAKFAST. And I didn't know this until today as Megan let me know last night. I'm not sure if I'm fuming because I missed out on breakfast or glad that I atleast got one free one.

    I then walked over to the bus office and checked in, before grabbing a quick Banh Mi as I didn't want to get on the bus and get hungry. The bus was pretty long - it left at 11 and didn't arrive till half 5 and oh my God my ass was sore. I'm not sure if it was the seats or what but I was so uncomfortable that I ended up putting my blanket under me for a last resort of padding. Depsite the discomfort I powered on and decided to be responsible and finally book my flight home. It's a little worrying knowing that I'm not even in the same county as my flight but I can officially confirm I'll be home at 6.40pm on the 17th May - exactly 1 month away (if I make the flight). I also enquired to 2 hostels about booking the Ha Giang Loop. It's safe to say I felt pretty prepared for once which is a new feeling for me.

    I ended up booking the same hostel as the other 2 people on my bus as they also wanted to do the Cao Bang Loop and said that they that this one rented bikes so I didn't bother checking anywhere else. The hostel was actually really nice and I ended up meeting a few people and heading to dinner with them in town. We chose a random place and the waitress said that one of the plates was her special so I just ordered it without even looking. What came was a whole plate of meat in a broth with 2 pieces of bread. It was absolutely delicious and I am so glad I went with what she suggested. I had to dip from the meal early and head back to the hostel as my uni was hosting a teams call about module choices for my final year. I didn't want to leave anything too late and miss out on the modules I wanted so a long 2 and a half hours later I ended up calling my friend Mann and talking about the choices before I made my final decision and submitted.

    Whilst I was sitting on the balcony on the phone, out of nowhere a huge thunder storm came our of nowhere and the rain poured as heavy as the wind blew, and there were bursts of lighting every few seconds for over an hour. I tried capturing some of the lighting but my phone is nowhere near good enough but I don't think I'll ever get bored of seeing the electricity dance across the sky. With that, it ended up being quite a real life back at home productive day and I was excited to start the 3 day loop tomorrow.    Baca lagi

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