Chiang Mai - flying with the gibbons

The unofficial capital of Northern Thailand and more similar to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia than it is to Southern Thailand. The people are more friendly and the prices much cheaper. We had booked our hotel in advance on the internet and it was so nice that when we arrived we though the tuk tuk driver must have the wrong place! We visited the huge night market and food court on the first night.
The next day after yet ANOTHER early start (can't say I'm getting used to these!) we were on our way to Flight of the Gibbon. This is a zipwire adventure through the canopy of a 1500 year old rainforest, 80-100m high above the forest floor. After an hours drive to our destination we spent 3 hours up in the canopy zipping between trees on wires of various lengths and speeds. We travelled for over 2km via platforms, treehouses, cables, ladders and sky bridges. We met the local gibbons including a mother and baby and could hear them howling throughout the experience.

Mother and her baby

One of the longest zipwires was so fast that it needed a cargo net at the end to stop the user crashing into the tree. There were even some double wires that you could travel down together.

Karen zipping through the trees

John flying like a gibbon

Look mum - no hands!!!

The experience was finished with a 50m rappel off a platform on the side of a Banyan tree. The safety and professionalism of the company were excellent and the sky ranger leaders were fantastic. We would recommend this to anyone who ever visits Chiang mai - it's not to be missed!

It's a long way down!

Don't look down John - I'll distract you. Post-Valentine day kiss at 50m!

Laos continued ...

We spent our last couple of days recovering in Luang Prabang and enjoying the local food stalls, perusing the huge night market, visiting wats and getting up early to watch the monks receive alms from the locals.

Billy Bunter doesn't know what to do with himself!

The never-ending night market

The view of Luang Prabang from Phousi hill

The monks collecting alms

One of the many Wats

A jaunty bike ride around town

After our shocking bus ride and information from others and Lonely planet we decided not to repeat the experience on a boat so in true flashpacker style we treated ourselves to a luxury 2 day, 1 night boat cruise up the river Mekong to cross the border into Thailand.
After ANOTHER early start we boarded the boat, only 20 people and so much room, what's going on!!? We had a continental breakfast and enjoyed soaking up the scenery as it passed. We made 2 stops on the first day. The first at the Pak Ou caves, now a Buddhist shrine housing over 2000 images of Buddha.

A few of the 2000 Buddha images in the Pak ou caves

The second at a local hill village that specialised in weaving and lao Lao Whisky that only three of us dared to taste. John and I being two of them unsurprisingly! It tasted similar to Sake. The village had a small temple and Buddhist monastery. The village housed 180 people, comprising of 38 families. The women lined the path with their colourful fabrics as we walked past the huts on stilts.

I wish I had more room in my suitcase!

Relaxing with a drink towards the end of the first day

After 10 hours we arrived at the half way point, Pak Beng, for an overnight stay in a lodge. This was a gorgeous resort which we arrived in just as the sun was setting.

The view from Luang Say Lodge

We enjoyed a local dinner and watched some children showing off their tribal costumes with singing and dancing. We even had to join in at the end... yes even John!

ANOTHER early start and back onto the boat. We again spent the day cruising up the river, being fed and watered with only one stop at a Hmong Village. On arrival about 20 children surrounded us selling their wares and continued to follow us wherever we went. These people are so poor that it's impossible not to feel guilty and part with some of your money.

How could you not buy a bracelet from these children?!!

We viewed inside one of the huts which was still like something out of the stone age.

The village granny took a shine to John (as most granny's do!) and wouldn't leave him alone. In the end he managed to get rid of her by paying her off for a couple of photos. They did have fun as he made her laugh.

Our entourage and you can just see John's granny in the blue flowery hat chasing him down the hill!

We boarded the boat and headed up to the Thai border crossing with Laos on one riverbank and Thailand on the other. The border crossing was a confusing military operation by tuk tuk, a small boat, another small boat carrying our luggage, passport control out of laos and another into Thailand. Thank goodness for our guide! Then it was onto another minibus for a 2 hour ride to Chiang rai for the night, where the most exciting thing that happened was a large cockroach running over John's foot during dinner! We boarded a bus the next morning for Chiang Mai - a surprisingly easy process!

There's nothing like a comfortable bus ride ...

I have been asked to add some of my Victor Meldrew type thoughts to the blog by some of you guys so here is one.

There's nothing like a comfortable bus ride.......

The 2.5 hour trip from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw in a minivan was uneventful if a little cramped. 2 days of quiet village life and chilled tubing was soon finished and it was time for the return journey. The local bus station was as confusing and misinforming as only SE Asia can be. Basically turn up and run the gauntlet of local buses throughout the morning or minivan back at 13:00. The problem being that if the minivan wasn't full they wait until it is. If it doesn't fill then they drop you back to the guesthouse to stay another night. We had a boat to Thailand to catch so we ambled on in to see what was available.

My worst fear which we had so far avoided was a cramped smelly local bus, bags on the roof and livestock inside.. Now I realise some of you reading this will have had worse journeys - so have I, but this time we were more flashpacker than backpacker. Swallowing 4 sleeping tablets and passing out during a bus ride doesn't do it for me anymore, I am too old and decrepit for all that and need a VIP option. A local truck with a roof and flat bench seats was leaving in 30 minutes, we decided to brave it. The seats had near enough no padding and it just looked like a big Tuk Tuk to be honest, bags went on roof and we climbed aboard. The front seat in the cabin was bagged by a German lady, who was decidedly smug until a local told her to budge up as it sat 2!!

The bus seated 15 locals but 10-12 westerners was more realistic. There were 5 westies and 3 locals, we were just about to go and 2 Germans turned up on their tandem and it looked like they didn't fancy the ride back. Bike went on the roof and they climbed in so up to 7 and 3 and we were all fairly comfortable. Off we set along a very bumpy road, I knew it wasn't going to be the comfortablest 4 hours but I had little idea of what was to come. We stopped for fuel and then continued on our merry way. I was hanging off the roof bars to stop my spine compacting to half its size as we bounced along the potholed road. 2 questions sprang to mind - Why don't they repair this road? Why has this bus thing got any suspension? both remain unanswered to this day.

We started slowing down and stopped, I wondered why? 2 ladies were waiting, it looked like that it wasn't going to be as comfortable as it had been. With them they bought 4 sackfuls of god knows what and various buckets and other bags. The sacks were chucked in with us and the ladies got aboard. We were up to 12. 5 minutes went by and we stopped again, my heart sank as a lady got in with her little boy, 13.5 and it was getting cramped. With her she bought a cardboard box full of live chicks, I could hear them tweeting away. So now as well as getting chucked about everywhere, I couldn't put my legs out. The cool breeze had ceased and now it was like a fan oven in the back. We stopped again and couple got in with their little one, 16. They also has assorted bags, and sacks which after flying off the roof and recovered were stuffed in the back with us.

I wasn't happy and could see Karen's face didn't have her usual smile either!! At least we were now so cramped that we had to refuse 2 ladies who had what looked like to be 3/4 ton of luggage and sacks with them, phew no more could fit. Wrong! we pulled over and a couple jumped in with motorbike helmets and squeezed in. Now we were 18, they put their helmets on, did they know something we didn't??

We pulled over and 1 guy got out of the front and the lady with her child moved into the front next to the German lady, ha!! 17 and it gave me precious inches of leg room for about 5 minutes when we pulled over again and another guy jumped aboard with us, sitting on top of me - back to 18. So on we went, I noticed as we drive on the right hand side of the road, the driver when going around left hand corners was hitting the apex's like Schumacher. To do this he went across to the wrong side of the road on blind bends. My fear being that if something else was coming the other way. I now christened it the Loas death bus co ltd.

Stopping again and a girl got in the front seat behind the driver, now 19. The local guy next to me tried to push me to get more room, he was never going to win the battle of the bulk and retreated after a 10 minute battle of wills.

Victor Meldrew winning the battle of the bulk!

The death bus fan oven torture chamber continued its journey, with the German cyclist couple waving to many cyclists who they obviously knew when we overtook them. My mind was on overdrive by this time and I was thinking in my best Jim Royal voice "Lazy buggers, you should be out there with them, give us some bloody room in here".

Even though I had dehydrated myself, 2 hours in and I had my legs crossed to add to my agony. My back felt like someone had stabbed it and left the knife in place. The only way we were going to stop was for more passengers or in a twisted tangle of burning wreckage after a head on collision with another death bus. Time started ticking backwards and I was considering offering the Germans a hire fee for their Tandem on the roof and cycling the last 50km in the burning heat. I heard the chicks tweeting in their box and felt sorry for them, then decided that they had more room than I did.

20km and 30 minutes to go and we stopped for the loo!! Why?? Over 4 hours had passed and another 30 minutes wasn't going to help. I couldn't bloody well go anyway!!. We arrived at our destination hot, cramped and grumpy but in one piece.

There is nothing like a comfortable bus ride and that was nothing like a comfortable bus ride!!

Lazing in Laos

We flew into Luang Prabang and headed to our pre-booked room. As it's South-East Asia it wasn't pre-booked at all, our room had been given away and the man on reception laughed as we trudged off into the dark with our 40kg of luggage to find an alternative ... we didn't laugh!
After this slightly stuttered start we found good accommodation and fell in love with this French colonial style UNESCO heritage town. We explored by bicycle, complete with baskets, a jivemobile you wouldn't be seen dead on anywhere else but it's the thing to do and all that's available. A town so laid back you can't fail to relax here. There is a wat (temple) on every street and corner and therefore monks in orange robes everywhere. The people are lovely, freindly and welcoming and the town is full of fantastic restaurants, cafes, bistros, art galleries and nick nack shops in a dark hardwood French colonial style complete with shutters.
On our 2nd day we spent the morning negotiating a price to the Kuang Si waterfall, 45 minutes out of town. After much haggling this was settled and we were off. Not expecting much as we have seen many waterfalls on our travels we were pleasantly wowed and surprised by clear aquamarine pools and bubbling waterfalls in a peaceful forest setting.

We swam in the pool, so freezing that the only way I knew I would be able to enter the water was extremely quickly and all or nothing. If I'd even dared to dip a toe in there is no way I would have got in! So I braved the rope swing (reached by a precarious branch and having to hang off to reach the rope in the first place!) and fell, not very elegantly, into the cold waters which immediately turned my skin red, my lips blue and made me gasp for breath! John declined the rope awing as he felt it would have been like a hippopotamus climbing a twig! He was far more nimble 10 years ago when we did this in Australia!

They even had some rescued bears at the entrance to watch while we warmed up in the sun.
The next day we decided to go and experience the rural life, so we travelled north  for 3 hours by minivan to a small village by the Nam Ou river callend Nong Khiaw.

Nam Ou River at Nong Khiaw

We found a bamboo bungalow on stilts to stay in across the bridge. Pure luxury we thought as this hut had electricity and a hot shower! We then realised what the Laos PDR (Aka. please don't rush!) is all about. We spent the rest of the day trying to book a trip for the next day. We only wanted to give them a job and some money and it seemed like the hardest thing in the world! After our 3rd visit to the tour office in the baking heat we eventually managed to book a half day trip on the river to go tubing. All the villages in this mountainous region rely heavily on the river. Some villages can only be reached by boat as there are no roads and boats are used to import and export goods as well as fishing in the river for their livelihoods. Unfortunately being a very poor country the government is corrupt. The Chinese have been given free reign to rape the jungles for wood and there are plans to dam the river to provide electricity for China. In return they build roads and bridges and kindly relocate villages! Well, certain villages immediately effected but goodness knows what will happen to the hundreds of smaller villages in the surrounding hills.

After a slight mix up the boat picked us up and we speedily headed up the river with two French girls in a small boat. After lunch on a sandbar the guide taught the girls to fish with a small net while we jumped into our tubes and into the river to begin our 2 hour down river adventure back to the bridge where we began. Again the water was freezing but luckily the sun was out to keep us warm. We were the only two people tubing on this river much to the locals amusement. Most travellers tube in the touristy Vang Vieng but this wasn't for us. This was a true lazy river and we relaxed back and admired the scenery and wildlife.
We shared the river with local fishermen, bathing water buffalo, snakes, water geckos and many unseen fish.

The water buffalo

Lazing on the river

Now and again we hit small rapids which sped our process up, passing banks and sandbars which wild boar and their tiny offspring lived on. We floated as close as we could but the territorial wild boar faced us in a Mexican stand off, so we kept our distance and floated past. The guide on the boat passed us now and again as did other river traffic and after an hour and a half I was so cold I had to admit defeat and get out but John made it back to the bridge where we began.

You can just see John heading towards the bridge

We found a local restaurant to eat in with cheap and tasty food. We also visited some nearby caves that the locals hid in during the second Indochina war on our rather fetching bikes.

The keepers of the cave

After 2 days it was time to head back to Luang Prabang as much as we would have liked to have stayed. This probably sounds easy but don't forget we were in the middle of nowhere in South-East Asia so I'll let John describe the journey back!

North Vietnam - Hanoi

As we had a relatively short amount of time in Vietnam we decided to leave the resorts of central vietnam for another time and fly straight to the capital in the North. Immediate thoughts on arrival - FREEZING!!! After the 30 degrees plus heat of everywhere else in Asia for the last 4 months this was quite a shock! It was probably around 10 degrees or just under for the first couple of days (I had to join the locals in buying, hat, scarf and gloves to survive!) and then luckily it warmed up as the days went on to a reasonably comfortable 20 degrees.
As a city it seems much more Chinese influenced but was also full of motorbikes (only 3 million this time!) and our road crossing skills came in useful again. In fact an older couple from the UK desperately requested our help one day in order to cross a road safely in the mayhem - and we thought that was a quiet day!
We went on a 2 day, 1 night trip to halong bay which is a UNESCO heritage site. After seeing this on Top Gear it was a must do on our list. It was very picturesque and the cold mist added an eerieness to the limestone karsts. We saw the floating village and playforms that Clarkson, May and Hammond had finished up on. After a trip to view a nearby cave we returned to our Junk for dinner and slept overnight in the bay before returning the next day.


Halong Bay



The floating village

Our junk we spent the night on

John tries a new job - captain of the junk

Again we persevered with walking around the city on our return and covered most of the old quarter on foot. We visited the military museum and had fun climbing into the old planes, vehicles and helicopters.

I had a go at flying a plane

John tried his hand at another new job ...

We saw Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum although it wasn't open the day we were there. It was Tet while we were here also and there was a fantastic 15 minute firework display over the lake which we watched from our top floor hotel rrom. Although esentially a new year celebration and the start of the new finacial year it sems much more like our Christmas celebrations. People travel to spend the holiday with their families, everything closes down (the one time in the year), people buy gifts right up to the last minute and it is also traditional to buy a blossom tree or kumquat tree for the house to signify the coming of spring and new beginnings. Gifts of money are given in red envelopes, traditional foods are eaten and locals visit the temples to burn incense and pray.

The street we stayed on decorated for Tet

Our favourite Vietnam dish was the local Pho which is a beef noodle soup based on the French dish, Pot au Feu. The word Pho is pronounced feu but with a slight o sound on the end. The Vietnamese seem to eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and it can be bought very cheaply on eery street corner. There is even a very good Pho fast food chain called Pho24. It's all about the stock and you can add your own fresh herbs and chilli's to taste and we loved it. Baguettes and pate were also available everywhere as was good wine, mmmm! At least the French had some good lasting influences!

A street food stall

John finally finds the right job!

South Vietnam - Saigon (Ho Chi Minh)

Motorbikes!!!! Wow! As soon as we arrived in saigon this was the first sight that struck us. There are more motorbikes that you've ever seen before and considering we've already been travelling through Asia (the motorbike capital) for four months it's amazing that this stands out! To put it into persepective there are 10 million people living in Saigon and 5 million motorbikes!!! They all seem to be on the road at once! Crossing the roads becomes an art form that we had to quickly master or die trying. The technique is to cross very slowly, no sudden movements. They will always try to avoid hitting you but they need to see you first. John became so good at this that he even escorted an elderly Vietnamese lady across the road after she had already failed and returned to the pavement.

Motorbikes, motorbikes, everywhere!

The city is hot, humid and polluted and as usual in Asia walking is not easy as pavements are usually taken over by other things - food stalls, parking bays, extension of a shop, an extra lane for motorbikes, etc. We did persevere though and managed to do some sightseeing by foot. We visitied the Notre Dame Cathedral, the city post office which is a fine example of French architecture, the Opera House, the riverfront and generally explored the streets.
We did a private half day tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels with our own guide and we made sure we left earlier than the rest of the group tours. This orked out well as it was not so busy. This was an experience not to be missed and provided a good insight into the underground war the Vietcong waged against the Americans. We saw examples of the booby traps used and I even tried a real tunnel entrance for size! John refused as there was no local crane available to extract him!

Trying a tunnell entrance for size

A nasty looking booby trap being demonstrated

We walked above ground following the trails, looking at living quarters and sunken kitchens. Then it was time to experience the tunnels for real. Even though they are widened for Westerners they are hot, stuffy and claustrophobic. John sent me through first to test them out and ensure the waywas clear for him to get through as quickly as he could. We went through two sections and their underground rooms in both. A fair few people refused to go and some turned back after 2-3metres. Amazing how the Vietnamese people braved these conditions day in day out.

John looking surprisingly at ease

We went on a 2 day, 1 night trip to the Mekong Delta the next day. It was a good trip but a little too toursity for us, although amusing. The scenery and life on the Delta was interesting but unfortunately glimpses of this were interspersed with being dragged round to honey making, local restaurants, rice wine brewing, rice paper making, coconut candy making, tropical fruit farms, etc. We enjoyed the scenic boat rides, cycling through local villages and the floating market.

A boat ride through the backwaters

The floating market

Cycling through a village

Me looking fetching in a local hat!

We also stayed overnight in a homestay which was a highlight. It was very basic accommodation with a family and we helped in the kitchen to prepare dinner. The whole family live together and they still use a fire to cook on. The guide for our trip was hilarious although I don't think he realised it, particularly when he tried to play one of the local folk instruments!
On returning to saigon for a couple more days, the city was in full preparation for the upcoming Vietnamese new year celebration, 'Tet.' Thousands of people (on motorbikes obviously) were leaving the city, mass exodus style, to spend the time with their families. It's amazing what you can carry on a motorbike - up to 4 people, luggage, food gift hampers, blossom trees, even a fridge! There were beautiful lights at night throughout the city, gifts in the shops, trees for sale and a general atmosphere of excited antricipation.