Trekking in the jungle !!

In Luamg Namtha, I went for 3 days trekking in the jungle, I have been a bit disappointed because the guy at the adjency lied to my about everything, and so it wasn’t really what I wanted to do, instead of a primary forest inside a national park I end up in a very young and light forest not so far from the road, following a track, I could have done it without any guid easily…
anyway, even If that wasn't what I wanted, I still enjoyed few part, I just had to not think about how much better it was supposed to be!!
The first day, we walk up the hill to reach a nice view point then continue to the  “camp site” to spend the night there. To cook the diner we only used bamboo, as a pot to cook the rice and the soup, and also to build spoon, glass, and chop stick. That was really interesting!!

The next day we walk only a couple of hours to reach a small village to spend the night there (as we did the same trek as their 2 days trekking option we couldn’t walk too much everydays).
The village was really nice, it was really nice playing with the kid and see how the live there !!

And the last day, we walk down back to the main road going through some farms and rubber plantation.

I had a good time overall, but I’m really sad that because of their lies I couldn't see what I was looking for when I came here.

In a bus for a loooong time, the local way !!

From Vientiane I decided to go to one place on north of laos. As I have already visited the most interesting place on the way, I looked for a direct bus. I read on internet it was about 16h bus. From Vientiane there is no agency that sell ticket for this bus. So I had to go to the bus station to find out more information and buy my ticket. As almost everywhere in south east asia, the bus station are always out of town, I had to rent a bicycle early in the morning to get to the bus station, buy my ticket for a bus at 17:30 and back in town.

In the afternoon, when it was really hot, over 40°, I went to the bus station again, and find out that my bus wasn’t a sleeping bus, but just a normal public bus, a bit old, without air conditioning!!

Also it was very funny to see how many stuff they loaded on the bus, all over the roof there was 1 or 2 meter of box, bags, random stuff and even a motorbike !! and inside the bus between the sites there was also box everywhere.

During the bus ride I really had every bad things that could happen. Next to me there was a family, they had two site for the mom, the dad and their two children, and of course one of the child was crying almost all the time. And very funny story, the only way to make him stop crying, was when he was looking at me!! I guess that it is because of my beard, that he might have never seen before, I don’t really know but that was really funny !!.

Also for most of the night they were playing very loudly that traditional lao music, which was extremely annoying when I was trying to sleep !!

Very early in the morning there were a very big storm, and with all the water one truk get stuck on the road, and we had to stop for a while to help him. A bit later we had a flat tire and had to stop for one hour to fix it!

And finally, 22 hours after my bus start, I arrived in Luang Namtha, if I count the time of the transfer to and from the bus station, I took me over 26h !!!

That was really hard, but also a very cool experience !! 

In the capital of Laos, Vientiane!

Continuing my trip in laos I went down to Vientiane, It is next to the Mekong, at the border with Thailand, one side of the Mekong is Vientiane, the other side is Thailand!!
It is the capital city, but everyone say there is nothing there. If you compare to other cities in south East Asia, it is very quiet and relax, but that’s what laos is all about!
I like the city, but there is no need to stay long, there is few temples and monument to see, the side of the Mekong is very nice too, but at this time of the years the weather is really hot (it was more than 40° all the time) that make walking around town much less enjoyable.

In Vang Vieng, but the party is over

Vang Vieng is a very little town next to a small river, it is very famous in south east Asia for its “tubing”.
The tubing in Vang Vieng, is simply going down the river on a big tube, going slowly,
For about 4 or 5Km. but what make it famous was all the bars and attraction that there was all along the river. It was a very big party place, with many bars, many rope swing, waterslide and things like that.
It was a “Must do” Activity for all the young tourists in South East Asia for many years, until end of 2012 when the Laos government decided to close down all the bars along the river. As you can guess, very drunk people don’t make a good mix with a river, and many place to jump/slide/swing to the river specially that most of the time the river is not very deep and there is rocks everywhere. So many people died every month doing the tubing, and that’s why they closed every bar and remove all the installation along the river.
Now few bars start to open again, but it is definitely not the same as it was. Before there were 800 people every day doing the tubing, now, it’s not even 150!!! It makes it a much more relaxing attraction, than a big party now.
The first day I was there is did that to relax on the river and see what it was all about, and was interesting to see all the old bars and attractions half destroyed, and I can really imagine how wild it was before !!

The town itself is nice, but nothing really special it is just a tourist center  You can feel that the closing of the bars along the river did a very big impact over the entire city, many bars and restaurant are now almost always empty and struggle to survive!!  Also a funny thing, all the restaurants are almost all the same, and they all show in loop episodes of friends or family guys.

The scenery around is really good, so the next day I rent a motorbike and went for a ride around to see the surrounding area and it was really cool.
I have seen another big cave that was really cool, and swim in a very nice river to cool down!!

Taking my time in Luang prabang

Luang Prabang is a bit bigger town, and much more touristic, but very nice place. Like everywhere in laos, it is very relaxed place, people are nice, streets are beautiful, heaps of cheap street food, and a nice night market. I really like that town !!

Around I went to a big waterfall, and that one was really beautiful, Even if it was end of dry season, there were still a lot of water.  There is few different pool for swimming, and some other area very very beautiful, I spend a day to see and relax in the waterfall, and as the temperature outside are extremely hot, it is nice to cool down in such a beautiful place !!

I also spend a day walking around town and going on top of a hill in the middle of town, another day bicycling around the area, it was really hot but very nice !!

Down the river toward the next town

My goal was to get to Luang Prabang in a middle of laos, and I decided to start my journey toward there by boat, so I went on a slow boat, about 5 hours down the river to the next town, Muang Ngoy. The boat ride was amazing, the scenery around is so good, and going next to small village with just few houses or just one family that live at some place all along the river. It is amazing to see how they organize their life around the river for everything!! The boat stopped at some place to pike up some people on these places. And I realized that like the bus, the boat are NEVER full, at some point we were about 23 people, 7 dogs, 3 chicken, heaps of bags of rice or vegetables, and one tv !!!!

When I arrived in Muang Ngoy I really loved that place, it is very small, no road just few guest houses and restaurant, and few families that live here, I stayed in a bungalow with an awesome view over the river.

I was thinking about staying only one night and continuing toward Luang Prabang, but When I saw the village I decided to stay more.
I spend a full day hiking around, visiting an awesome cave, walking through farms and going to a very small and remote village\ that live only from farming and hunting, and that was such an awesome experience I really loved it!!

Then It was time to continue my trip, leaving the village by boat, to reach the next town that is connected by road, to catch a bus to finally get to Luang Prabang !!

Arriving in Laos

Just after crossing the border I arrived in a town called Muang Khua, it is a very little town next to a river. And when I arrived here it was a very big cultural choc again!!! it really feel like the country is really poor, and as it is a very small town very remote, it appear more !!

I really love this place people are really nice and friendly, they speak almost no English so it is a bit funny to communicate. I stayed only one day because even if the town is really nice, there is not a lot to do around.
Also it was the laos new years at this time, they called it also the water festival, as during few days people party everywhere and throw water at everyone. It was awesome to be in such a small place like that with almost no tourist to celebrate with them !! It was really feeling like reel Laos !!

Leaving Vietnam!!

So as I’m leaving Vietnam, let talk about my feeling about this country!! Overall I really like it, but didn’t find any specific point that was extremely good. Food is good, but I didn’t find as much variety as in Cambodia or Malaysia for example, people a usually very nice, but not as smiling and friendly as Cambodians.
I visited Vietnam starting from south and went up north stopping at many place on the way. And until I reach Phong nha (the place with the big caves) I didn’t find anything really breath taking, not any place that I can describe as a must see, but when I reach phong nha, then ninh binh, or event halong bay and sapa that I have seen with a weather quite bad, all these place are really amazing. The big cities are hu chi minh city (Saigon) in the south and ha noi in north. Both are a bit crazy with soooo many motorbike and everything is soo fast, it is very interesting!!.
Like Cambodia, Vietnam was a French colony, but if we can see that in a very nice way in Cambodia with a lot of French product in supermarket, or some old people speaking French correctly, in Vietnam the only things that reminded me about France was the fact that everyone is smoking which is a bit sad.
Also it’s funny to travel in Vietnam, as everyone arrive in one of these city and finish at the other one, so when you arrive, you met few people that just finishing visiting Vietnam and that can give you many tips, and also many people that like you, just arrived in Vietnam, and you will see these people very often on your trip, as everyone go to the same direction.
And when you arrive on the other side, it is your turn to give tips to the new traveler that just arrived,
Also for a very good way to visit Vietnam; I didn’t do it as I was alone but many people did it, and I think that is the best way to visit Vietnam. It is to buy a motorbike on one side, and reselling it on the other side, I have seen many many roads that are really beautiful and you get to see soo many place without any tourist and get to see more what really is Vietnam!!

At the place where French get kicked out of Vietnam 60 years ago, Dien Bien Phu !!

From Sapa, I wanted to go to Laos, but there is no direct bus, so I took a night bus to get to Dien Bien Phu, a town very close to the boarder, and from there I wanted to take directly a bus to laos.

So I left from Sapa around 6:30PM and I was supposed to arrive around 6AM. But around 1AM the bus stopped on the road.  The road is in very poor condition, and a truck in front of us was stuck in the middle of the way, so we had to wait all night there. And we started again around 8AM, the good thing is that it allows me to have a look around and the scenery was really incredible!!

After this incident I arrived in Dien Bien Phu around 2PM and the bus to Laos had left already. So I stayed one night and took the bus the next day.
It was also a good thing because it was interesting to see this city. for those that don’t remember their history lesson from high school It is the place of one of the last battle between the French and the Vietnamese during the war; after being defeated here the French people left Vietnam.
At one side of the town there is a small hill with a big monument and the view from there is really beautiful!! you can see a part of town and all the field where the battle took place, with the mountains all around.

The head in the clouds! in Sapa

Everyone talk about Sapa it is supposed to be one of the most beautiful place in Vietnam!
But it is also a bit up the mountains and the weather here is not always friendly!!
When I arrived there it was raining a lot and it was very foggy, we couldn't see anything!
The rain stopped quickly but the fog stayed here during the whole day, with some occasional rain. So I didn’t go hiking like I was planning as there was nothing to see with that fog. I just walk a bit in town, and hope for a better weather the next day.
Unfortunately when the weather is like that it can stay for many days and the next day was the same. I still when for a short walk and get some very small clearing at some time, but I needed to be quick to take picture as that was never long!

As it might stay like that for long time, there was no point of wasting too much time waiting here so I left after too days the head in the clouds.

In the capital city, Hanoi !

Hanoi is a really big city, I didn’t find any special things there, it was nice and a bit a crazy city, like few city in south east Asia.
Also, a funny things is that you have many different streets with only one type of shops, like you have a “shoes” street, or “pants” street, “ceramic” street or really any kind of things event a “tomb stones” street.
I stayed few days in total, visit few monument, relax and plan few things for the rest of my trip!!

Relaxing in halong bay

Halong bay is about 4h bus from Hanoi, it is a big bay with a lots of small island and very beautiful. It reminded me Koh phiphi in Thailand. And also it look like ninh binh but with the see instead for rice fields.
I took a boat across the bay to go to a small island, stay one day there enjoying few nice activity and relaxing, and took a boat back the third day. The weather wasn’t really good, but we didn’t get any rain so it was ok !

In Ninh Binh, for amazing scenery !!

After an amazing day visiting paradise cave and the area, I directly took a night bus to go to Ninh Binh. I arrived there at about 4AM, which is not really ideal Timing, but after waiting few hours for something to open, I took a good breakfast and start my day exploring the area, I rented a bicycle to visit around, First I got on the river going between and under the mountains of the area and the view was really impressive, rowing in the middle of rice field and huge cliffs was awesome. And the way our “driver” was rowing was also very impressive!!!

After that small cruise, I went on top of one of the hills to see the area from another point of view and the view from up there is really incredible!

 After this day biking around I went back in town to take a bus to Hanoi, it was very loooong day !!!

In big caves, deep underground!!

Not many people heard about it, but Phong Nha national park is really amazing and definitely a must see in Vietnam !!!  it’s a big national park with some huge caves, that recently open its doors to tourists.
I have visited only one of the cave (paradise cave), apparently the best one, but all the other are also incredible!!

When I first arrived in the area I went to popular tourist place, it’s a small business in the middles of farms with some accommodation, a small restaurant, a nice relax area with a swimming pool and all the information you need about the area, with some very friendly staff. But unfortunately this place was all booked, so I just stayed few hours to relax a bit and gather information, then I went to look for a place to sleep in “town” the town is very very small just few guest house and few “cafe”, But very nice !

The next day I rent a motorbike for the day and went to paradise cave. The road to get there is already amazing, going across farms with rice, corns, cows, and water buffalo everywhere, and once inside the national park no more farm but still amazing scenery.

The visit of paradise cave was really amazing, it is really huge, it is possible to go like that about 1km deep in the cave, there is also one tour that allow you to go about 7Km deep, only with flash light, guides and good equipment, but As they want to preserve the site, they keep a prices extremely high, and limit the number of people that can do that at 10 every day. Apparently it is really incredible, but I couldn’t do it. Anyway, the part accessible by everyone is already breath taking, so I had an amazing time visiting this cave.

You can zoom much more that usual in this panorama !!

You can zoom much more that usual in this panorama !!

Also just outside this cave you can find the entrance of another cave without any installation, so I went there with my flash light and explore on my own. After fighting a bit with some bats, I get quite deep and it was impossible to go deeper, so I went back.

On my way back I stop for a short walk in the national park, along the river and it was also really nice !!!

This cave is by far the best things I have seen in Vietnam so far!!

A bit more north, in hue !!

I just stayed one day in hue, there is only few historical building to see, a big citadel, but it have been very damaged by the war, and the restoration is far from being done, so it’s nice, but not too  much to see.  There is also another temple… and the main things to see are some big tombs. There is 3 different to see, but it’s a bit expensive to see each one, so I just went to one which was enough.

That was good for a day, but no need to stay longer !!!