DMZ

The guys in our group got lucky and were able to schedule a private tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated North and South Vietnam between 1954 and 1975.

Our entire group, which now consists of ten members, left Hanoi on a night bus with the intention of going to Hue. There was a little confusion leaving the city because we all bought 'Open Tour' bus tickets. These tickets originate in Hanoi and stop at every major city down the coast of Vietnam, allowing tourists to get on and off the bus at designated places. There are three classes of tickets, essentially three kinds of buses, so we bought the middle class, but there was no way to make sure we were on the appropriate bus.

That being said the bus journey was alright. We had a DVD player on board, so the first couple hours we watched the comedy movie Anchorman staring Will Ferrell. After the movie finished, we made a rest stop just south of Ninh Binh and changed to another bus for unknown reasons.

The other bus was comfortable, but there was no DVD player, and didn't look as luxurious. Everyone just slept, listened to music, or read a book. I found it easy to sleep on the bus because I was still tired from the previous night.

In the morning we made another stop for breakfast at a small cafe just south of the DMZ in Dong Ha. The staff of the cafe also ran tours around the DMZ, so our group decided to jump at the chance. We unloaded all our bags off the bus, and told the girls in our group we'd meet them later that night in Hue.

We loaded up in an air-conditioned mini-bus with an English speaking guide who gave us a brief history lesson about Vietnam as we headed north on Highway 1 back towards the DMZ. He told us about the French colonization efforts that started in late 1800s and lasted until the Geneva Convention in 1954 when the DMZ line was drawn around the Ben Hai River.

The first place our guide, Hoa, took us was just south of the river to what he called the 'New Jungle.' Evidentially, during the 1960s many communists from the north were running arms through the DMZ along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, using the jungle for cover, to rebels in the south. When the Americans caught wind of this, they clear cut the jungles using Napalm and Agent Orange just south of the DMZ to expose the hidden trails. The area is newly planted and now being used to grow Rubber Trees.


Rubber Tree

There were acres and acres of Rubber Trees planted in straight lines. The locals cut the trees to bleed the sap in order to make rubber products. According to our guide one of the major products made from the harvested rubber are condoms. He claimed the nickname of the 'New Jungle' is the 'Condom Jungle.'

The next place we went was a short walk through the rubber tree groves, with scattered remnants of sandbags along to the way, to the Con Tien Fire Base. It was a bunker used by top ranking American military officials because of it's secure location. It was situated in such a way the that they could see all the surrounding areas around the DMZ. According to our guide, most military bunkers have now been destroyed, but this one was left preserved because of it's importance during the war.

The third place we went was the Truong Son National Cemetery.


Truong Son National Cemetery

It was made by the communists after the completion of the war to commemorate all the North Vietnamese soldiers that fought and died during the war.



Each grave stone was marked with the persons name, birth date, rank, and the date he/she died. We looked at several grave stones and noticed one boy who joined the army at age nine and died at age twelve. Unbelievable.


Grave stone

Next, we went to one of the original Ho Chi Minh Trail spots where the communists used to sneak across the Ben Hai River. There has been a bridge built on the spot now, but years ago it was used because of the narrow river crossings.


Ben Hai River crossing spot for the original Ho Chi Minh Trail

We then headed back to one of the Rubber Tree groves to see several old bomb craters. The biggest one was more than ten feet deep and wide enough for several people to walk around in.


Andy, Enda, & James in a bomb crater

We also went to a reconstruction of the Hien Luong Bridge. After the Geneva Convention in 1954 there was one, and only one, bridge that crossed the Ben Hai River. In 1968 Americans destroyed the original bridge which marked the immigration point between North and South Vietnam.


Hien Luong Bridge

Our guide then took us into Doc Miu to see an abandoned US military tank left at the side of Highway 1. I can't remember the make of the tank.


US Military tank next to Highway 1

Last, but not least, we went to Vinh Moc and took a tour of the intricate tunnels used by the North Vietnamese to hide from the Americans. Originally, there were three layers of tunnels; First Level 6 meters deep, Second Level 16 meters deep, Third Level 23 meters deep. Due to rain and erosion the first layer is no longer, but the second and third have been left in tact.


Enda entering the Vinh Moc Tunnels

The tunnels were about 150cm tall and just wide enough for one person. There were multiple entrances and exits along the coast and covered by vegetation. Inside the tunnels was very humid, damp, and extremely dark. There were small indentions in some tunnel that were used for meeting rooms, maternity rooms, and schools for children.


James in the tunnel


Andy & I hiding in an exit

The tour was very interesting and a good history lesson. In my mind flashbacks of Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Apocalypse Now are ablaze.

Around Hanoi

The past few days have been spent exploring the city of Hanoi.

A large group of friends and I woke up early and went to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The mausoleum is only open from 8am to 11am, so we got up about 8am and hung around the guest house waiting for everyone to slowly trickle down to the lobby.

We decided to walk which was interesting because we had to walk around a giant military base that sprawled over several city blocks.

To actually get into the Mausoleum was a chore as well because there were several armed guards that would not let us take the most direct route and cut across the courtyard in front, so instead we had to walk a few blocks out of the way and enter the grounds from the opposite side.

No cameras, bags, or anything else of the sort was allowed inside. We passed through metal detectors and a brief pat down.

There was a long line to enter the building with guards standing by physically pushing people if they stopped or stepped out and broke formation. The line moved very quickly and constantly. Entering the mausoleum we were greeted by a gust of cool air rushing outwards that felt great after standing in the heat for about 30min.


Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

We circled around the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh. Very spooky and surreal. He kind of looked like a small and feable Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon. His lower body was covered in a black blanket because, so we've heard, his body is slowly decaying from the feet up.

After seeing his body we took a brief tour of the grounds where he lived in a very simple house on stilts. We also walked by and saw his office, but it was incredibly hot so we didn't linger.

From there we walked back to meet James and Nick at the Kangaroo Cafe. We ate lunch and then James, Andy, Susan, Michele, and I went to the Ho Lan Prison.

The Ho Lan Prison was originally built by the French and used to hold Vietnamese rebels, but during the 1960s it was used to hold American prisoners. The most notably prisoner of Ho Lan was Senator John McCain. We saw his flight suit and pictures of other American pilots that were held with him.


James & Andy in lockdown

I found the prison interesting because it made the French out to be very brutal towards Vietnamese prisoners, but Vietnamese were very considerate towards American prisoners. Possibly propaganda.

Later that night the English Premier League soccer season started, so a majority of our gang (especially Nick) were chomping at the bit to watch the Tottenham/Liverpool game. We went to an Irish pub that televised the game. The game was a draw much to the delight of all the Tottenham fans.


After leaving the pub, James went incognito

James and I left just after halftime to meet the girls of our group and go see a water puppet show. Very entertaining. There was a pool of water instead of a stage with a very ornate Asian house set as the back drop. To the left of the stage were several musicians that played traditional instruments and narrated the puppet show.


Water Puppets


Water puppet holding a bong during the show

We then walked back to the pub to meet all the other guys who were playing pool and watching more soccer. Eventually we left and took taxis and scooters to a river boat that had been converted into a bar called the Titanic. It seemed to be the late night hang out in Hanoi with a very diverse clientele. Russians, Europeans, Americans, and Vietnamese. It was kind of a sleazy place, but we had such a large group it didn't matter.


The Fellowship: One Love

Today I spent most of the day walking around the Old Quarter and shopping for pirated DVDs. I bought a rough copy of Will Ferrell's newest movie Anchorman, another movie called Elephant that's supposed to be paraphrase of the Columbine High School shootings, and a comic book movie called American Splendor. Each DVD cost about $1.

Tonight we are heading south to the city of Hue by night bus. We plan to visit the demilitarized zone that separated north and south Vietnam and take a tour of some of the tunnels used during the war. It should be interesting.

Halong Bay & Catba Island

The past few days in Halong Bay were very relaxing and serene. We had a great group of people and stunning scenery.

Our group, which now consists of nine members (Olly & Enda, James & Nick, Andy & Emma, Susan & Michele, and myself), woke up early and had light breakfast of bread and jam in our guest house.

Our guide for the next few days came and met us at the guest house. I never caught his real name, but he told us to call him Dragon. Go figure.

We took a short walk through the Old Quarter to our mini-bus, which couldn't pick us up at the guest house because traffic was too heavy at 8am to get to us.

On the mini-bus we met three other groups that would join us on our tour of Halong Bay and Catba Island. The first group was three older but very jovial French people (Gills, Chantel, and Ann Mari). The next group was an American newly wed couple (Ian & Kate). And last but not least two very interesting Indian friends from Bangalore (Suneil & Kaushal). A grand total of sixteen people.

The mini-bus ride from Hanoi east to Halong City took about three hours. Most of the time was spent sleeping and listening to music, except for one rest stop where everyone got out and ate lime flavored ice cream pops.

After arriving at the Halong City harbor, our group was led by Dragon to the docks where we boarded a Huong Hai junk boat. It was a wooden, three story boat that consisted of many twin share sleeping cabins on the first level, a dining room on the second level, and a hard top for sun bathing on the third level.


Huong Hai junk boat

The boat immediately pulled the anchor and took us out into the emerald green waters of Halong Bay. We had lunch (rice, fried vegetables, corn soup, fish, and shrimp) as the boat was puttering through the Bay and weaving around the myriad of small islands with steep rock faces and a little vegetation and floating village.


Venturing into Halong Bay


Our junk boat captain


Floating village

The first stop was at Surprise Cave. It was an absolutely massive cave hidden high inside one of the islands. It was cleverly light with different colored flood lights concealed at the base of stalactites which provided a nice ambient feel and gave the impression of walking around the moon. So surreal it felt like walking through an attraction at Disney World.


Mouth of Surprise Cave


Inside the cave

There was a superb balcony at the mouth of the cave which gave a spectacular aerial view of the bay, and a great place to sit and drink a bottle of water.

Once aboard the boat again we went to Catba Island to make a quick stop and pick up some dinner supplies before heading to a nice quiet cove for swimming.

Everyone took turns jumping off the the various levels of the boat. The French women just floated around while Gills performed graceful high dives. A few people pulled off forward flips, but I just did can-openers from the top level and tried my best to splash all the on-lookers on the boat.


Nick, Olly, & James relaxing

We then ate dinner on the boat (rice, tuna fish, fried vegetables, and pork), and settled in drinking beer. Eventually the party moved up stairs to the hard top where we rigged up a CD walkman to a small portable speaker and listened to reggae. We drank beer and played drinking games until late in the night under the stars. Enda and Michele slept on the top, but everyone else gradually went downstairs to their own sleeping cabin.

The next day we woke up about 7am, had a brief swim, and ate a light breakfast of baguettes and jam. The boat went back to Catba Island where we changed to a smaller boat and went back out into the bay.

The smaller boat took us to a small island where we got off and went for a two kilometer walk to a small village. Nick, Susan, and Ann Mari stayed in the village playing cards and relaxing while the rest of us went for a three hour hike up a mountain.

The rocky mountain trail went straight up. We made many stops because everyone was sweating profusely in the heat and humidity. I can safely say I've never sweated so much in my entire life.

At the top of the mountain we had an amazing view of the bay and a long rest to drink more water.


Aerial view of the bay

Walking down the mountain, James and I began chatting about Jack Kerouac books the 'On the Road' and 'Dharma Bums'. I told James about the character Jaffy Ryder running down a mountain screaming as he hopped from stone to stone thinking about jazz. Very similar to our own decent.

Back at the village we had a much needed big lunch in the shade and did our best to rejuvenate after the strenuous climb.

We then walked back to the small boat and went to little sand beach for swimming and sea kayaking. I was so tired I spent most of the time floating in a life saver ring, but eventually teamed up with Enda for a paddle around in a sea kayak.

The boat then took us back to Catba Island where we checked into the Catba Island Plaza Hotel. Everyone got cleaned up and then met in the lobby and hoped on a bus which took a few kilometers down the road to eat dinner.

The dinner was okay, but it got overshadowed by a variety of strange bottles resting on the bar near our table. Each bottle contained wine with different fermented animals inside. Seahawk, gecko, snake, etc. Very strange.


Fermented wines

The Indian guys (Suneil & Kaushal) with stomachs of steel surprised everyone by ordering a few different fermented wines.


The instigators: Suneil & Kaushal

After dinner everyone went walking around the town looking for a bar. We found one place with drink specials and a free pool table, but it was too hot and the pool table was not in the best condition, so James and I went walking around looking for another place.

We came across Suneil, Kaushal, Ian, and Kate sitting outside the restaurant where we had eaten dinner. They were sampling more fermented wines and convinced us to sit down and try the "Ghost Wine."


"Ghost Wine"

James and I each downed the mysterious ghost wine before we asked what it was we drank. Evidently, ghost was actually a mispronunciation of goat. Much to our disgust, it was fermented goat penis. We saw the bottle to prove it.

With the worst behind us, we decided to sample a few other wines for the fun of it. We tried honey wine, made from fermented honey comb.

Eventually other members of our group walked by, so we slyly talked them into trying the 'ghost wine'. Before the explanation was given, Nick said it tasted familiar. Kind of nutty, like walnuts. Everyone exploded in laughter.


Nick: the aftermath

We continued to try the snake and gecko wines. Each was very strong and needed a water chaser directly after.

Everyone was very tipsy and the restaurant closed on us, so we set out to find a karaoke bar to continue the fun. We asked three young local guys, who led us on a wild goose chase around town before we abandoned them and walked into a very chill bar with real rose peddles hanging from the ceiling and scattered all over the floor.


Hanging roses

We then hiked back home late at night, trying our best to find our way back to our hotel. Under normal circumstances, it would probably not be a good idea to walk back, but we had a group of eleven, so we felt quite safe.

The next day everyone woke up very hung over, ate a light breakfast, and boarded the big junk boat again for our return to Halong City.

Rain clouds began blowing in as we crossed the bay and brought very cool weather for the first time in days. Many people sat on the hard top of the boat and enjoyed the strong but cool winds until the torrential downpour came.

Suneil and Gills didn't come into the main dining cabin with everyone else, but stayed on the bow of the boat and danced jovially in the rain. Hilarious.

We arrived at the harbor after dropping anchor briefly and waiting for the rain to pass and went to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

Then we boarded the mini-bus again and drove three hours back to Hanoi. We said our goodbyes to everyone on the side of the road in the Old Quarter and got in a taxi that brought us back to our hotel.

Everyone was exhausted, but all nine of us got cleaned up and went out to eat pizza at a place called Pepperoni's. It was the first western food I'd had in a while and it tasted pretty good.

We came back to our hotel and went to sleep in an air-conditioned room. So nice.

Hanoi

Hanoi is the busiest city I've been in since Bangkok. Maybe even more so. The most scooters honking horns than I've ever seen and heard before.

Yesterday morning I slept in until 11am. Just couldn't be bothered trying to wake up early after the bus ride from Vientiane.

My hotel in Hanoi has free, fast internet, so I spent most of my morning posting a few pictures to some previous entries. It's a smidgen of the photos I've been taking, but at least it's a glimpse into what I've been seeing and doing. A big thank you to my friend Stiles for helping me get them on the net.

Once everyone else was awake we went to the Kangaroo Cafe for a light lunch of western food. It was a restaurant/adventure tour shop, so we began looking into boat trips around Halong Bay and Catba Island.

James and Nick had to head off to the airport to meet a couple old college friends that were flying in from Bangkok, so Enda, Olly, and I went off exploring the city.

We walked past the first ATM machine I've seen in over two weeks on our way to the Temple of Literature. It was a very Chinesey courtyard in memory of influential Vietnamese poets, teachers, and philosophers. Very impressive.


Front gate of the Temple of Literature

The Temple of Literature is divided into several courtyards full of ancient trees and lots of greenery. Each courtyard was slightly different in decoration.


Enda in the courtyard


Old man taking a rest in one of the courtyards

Maybe the third of fourth courtyard down had a short concert by some Vietnamese women dressed in traditional clothing playing a variety of bamboo instruments and singing songs.


Vietnamese traditional instrument

For a finally to the 15min concert the women walked through the audience and placed large straw hats on certain members. My friend Olly was one of the chosen ones. Pure comedy.


Olly wearing a lampshade

After the show the women invite all the guests to have a look at some CDs and other souvengniers at a small table next to the stage. One of the women got a bit fussy with me when I didn't buy anything, but I didn't let it get me down.

We walked back to the Ho Hoan Kiem Lake for a cold drink at one of the many sidewalk cafes, and afterwards we met the two Irish girls (Susan & Michel) that were on our bus ride from Vientiane.


View of the Thap Rua (Tortoise Tower) located in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake

The five of us went walking through the Old Quarter of the city shopping around for different boat tours. It was difficult because there are many travel agencies offering similar package tours, so we consulted the Lonely Planet Guide Book. That made thing even more complicated because if the guide book recommends one agency by name, all other agencies in the area change their name to capitalize on the publicity. Scam after scam.

In the end we walked back to our guest house to meet James, Nick, and their two friends Andy and Emma. We all had a chat and decided to go with the package tour offered by our guest house because it was the easiest option.

Our group then went out for a few drinks and some good eats. We ended up in the Jazz Club that had a really hot local Vietnamese jazz band tearing it up on stage. I had a nicely prepared meal of stir-fried shrimp with cashew nuts and dried chilies and some spring rolls to boot. Very tasty.


Jazz Club by Quyen Van Minh

After dinner we all headed back to the guest house to get a good nights sleep and prepare for the next three days around Halong Bay and Catba Island. Should be very nice and relaxing.

Good Morning Vietnam!

I arrived in Hanoi late last night after a marathon bus journey from Vientiane.


Vietnamese Flag

The bus ride was so bad and uncomfortable it's become total comedy to me at this point. Thank God for books, music, and sedatives.

When my friends and I booked the bus from Vientiane to Hanoi we repeatedly asked the travel agent two questions. Is it a tourist bus meant for foreigners? Is there AC?

The answer to our questions was a resounding yes, but nothing is as it seems.

The bus came 30min late to pick us up from our Guest House near the Mekong River. At the time, aside from two other Irish girls, we were the only ones on the bus. We were able to pick our seats with lots of leg room and everything seemed hunky dory.

Then we drove to a nearby bus station where loads and loads of local Lao and Vietnamese people boarded the bus bringing with them every household appliance imaginable. Rice cookers, TVs, radios, electric fans, toilets, and even three wooden doors were hoisted to the top of the bus. I didn't see any kitchen sinks, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was one somewhere on the bus.

It took us two more hours to leave town because the bus stopped every couple blocks so people waiting on the sidewalks could load up more appliances and God only know what else.

Once we started moving it was smooth sailing. I took a 10mg Valium that knocked me out for most of the night. We made one stop on the border near the city of Vihn around 2am or 3am for food and to wait for the border to open.

We crossed out of Laos and into Vietnam around 7am. It took us more than two hours to cross the border and I've never seen such blatant government corruption in all my life.

Getting out of Laos was easy. All passengers from our bus crowded around one window clerk and threw our passports in huge bundles through to him. He never looked up to see who or what he was processing.

Then we were told to walk through the no-man's land to the Vietnam entry point. Upon entering the building we were told to fill out a Medical Quarantine form and submit it with our passport. The government official demanded 2,000 dong or 2,000 kip or 2 dollars before he would give your passport back. The funny thing is that none of these denominations are even closely equal. (2,000 dong = .15 cents/ 2,000 kip= .45 cents/ $2 = 32,000 dong). Not to mention all the money went straight into the offical's pockets.

Once we got our passports back we were told to go around the corner to receive and fill out another official customs form and give our passports again. This time the a separate official demanded $1 before he would stamp your passport and allow you to enter the country.

After that debacle we all boarded the bus again and continued north through the mountains and some serious road construction that halted the bus for another couple hours in the searing heat of the afternoon sun. No AC whatsoever. It was hot. Damn hot! Africa hot!! You could open a widow, but it wouldn't do any good because it was HOT!!!

We made a stop for lunch at a small highway shack around 2pm that provided some comic relief. I ran out of cash and had no money of any kind to pay for lunch. My friends were all running low as well, but my Irish friend Enda said he would lend me a couple bucks to eat.

When the waitress came around to take our orders I jokingly told her I didn't have any money. She laughed, but she still took my order. Plain rice and fried vegetables. When she delivered my food she again asked me if I had money and I said no. I told her I'd wash dishes in exchange for my food, but she didn't really understand.

The time came to settle the bill and she asked me for $2. I told her again I didn't have any money and I started helping her clear the table. She just laughed and told me where to go with all the dirty dishes and used chop sticks. The ladies in the kitchen squatting next to the soapy water basins laughed even harder when I placed all the dishes next to them on the ground and offered to give them a hand.

In the end everyone was laughing so hard at the thought of a foreigner cleaning the dishes that they just let me go without paying anything. I got a few cheers from my companions and even got some laughs from the locals aboard the bus.

Our bus kept trucking down the highway for what seemed like an eternity before we finally arrived in Hanoi about 10pm. A full 28 hours after we left Vientiane.

A hotel employee named Spring boarded our bus and gave us a pitch about her hotel and offered to give us a taxi ride to the center of town if we agreed to just look at her hotel. She was nice and polite and said her hotel had free internet, so we all agreed.

The taxi wasn't big enough for all seven of us, the two Irish girls (Susan & Michel) also agreed to come along, so I was the odd man out. Instead of piling into a van taxi, I got to ride on the back of a scooter for the 11km trip to the center of town. Fun but very scary.

Traffic in Hanoi is chaotic. Scooters, scooters, and more scooters. There are no stop lights, so everyone just cruises through intersections, honks their horn, and avoids everyone in their way. If you're walking across the street, just walk at a steady pace, and the cars and scooters will avoid you. Don't run because the drivers can't judge which way to swerve around you and never ever stop.


Scooters


More scooters

Anyway, we arrived at the hotel and it was nice and cheap. We all checked in and then went for a walk to find some food. After walking all around the lake in the old quarter, we finally stumbled upon a great night market with cheap food.


The night market


Steve (a short lived addition to our group), James, and I chowing down.

We ate well and then came back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Vientiane

My friends and I took a VIP bus from Vang Vieng to the Laos capital city of Vientiane. The bus ride was okay, but not exactly VIP.

The rumors I'd heard about Vientiane being an average city with nothing too special have held true. I'm not impressed.

After arriving and checking into a Guest House near the Mekong River, we went walking to find a travel agent to schedule a bus to Hanoi. It was a little more difficult than usual because we were trying to pay by credit card and Laos still operates on a cash money system.

We finally booked our tickets, but my friend James and I had get a ride to a nearby hotel to run our credit cards. Everything worked out okay in the end.

Last night we went in search of a night market to eat some cheap ethnic food, but nothing looked very appealing. We ended up eating fried rice in a sidewalk cafe and then walked down the Mekong River and sat in a TexMex restaurant that served BeerLao on draft.

We discovered that Vientiane is the only place in the country that serves BeerLao on draft, so we did a bit of a pub crawl and found a nice beer garden to hang out in, but a massive rain storm blew in and ended our pub crawl very quickly. We got rained in at the bar and stayed there until the owners closed down and asked us to leave.

In the rain we all sprinted back to our Guest House and crossed one street that resembled a small river of rushing water. Needless to say we all got in okay, just soaking wet, and went to bed.

Today we woke up and walked through a morning market that was too dirty and cluttered to be satisfying, so we then went in search of the BeerLao brewery to kill some time before I bus leaves later tonight.

On a hunch we walked to the Arc de Triumph because we were told the brewery was nearby. We circled the Arch in the hot sun, but did not see any BeerLao signs, so we asked a tuk-tuk driver.

He drove us about twenty minutes out town towards the brewery. We almost broke his taxi because we weighed too much for the small cab, but we made it. Unfortunately, the brewery was closed because it was Sunday.


The locked gates of the Beerlao Brewery

Our cabbie drove us back to town and dropped us off at the Lao Bowling Center, so we decided to kill some time in the AC and bowl a game for the fun of it. I came in second place with a 130 only because James rolled three straight strikes on the last frame and beat me with a 150.


Olly throwin' rocks

I'm now trying to gear myself up physically and emotionally for a mammoth 20 hour bus ride from Vientiane to Hanoi. James and I each bought one Valium from an over the counter pharmacy in preparation for the journey. It might help ease the pain a little bit, but no matter how you look at it, this will not be an enjoyable ride.

Hanoi hear I come.

Vang Vieng Video

It's been raining for the past few days, so for the most part I've been lounging around Vang Vieng in the open air restaurants watching DVDs and relaxing. Each restaurant has at least one large CaseLogic filled with pirate DVD videos.

My friends and I have been catching up on all the newest releases. The past few days I've watched Shrek 2, Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2, Fahrenheit 9/11, Starsky & Hutch, and many others. It's been very lazy, but much needed down time.

However, we did take a great kayaking trip down the Nam Song River. We met about 9am in a downtown restaurant and had breakfast with some other people that were going to join us. Most notably another British couple and two thirty something year old Italian ladies that had just arrived in town.

After breakfast we all piled into a tuk-tuk taxi and drove about 20km north up the riverside. In a large gravel parking lot, we unloaded and got a very brief lesson in how to paddle a kayak. Then, we paired up ( I paired with Enda, an Irish friend) and got into our kayaks. They were really more like fun-yaks than proper kayaks, but it was still fun.

We paddled down river about 30mins splashing and being splashed by our guides before we stopped off at Elephant Cave. It's properly named because there's a strange, natural rock formation that looks exactly like an elephant just inside the shallow cave, but over all it was not interesting to me. Our guide, named Nuan, gave everyone a short history lesson about the cave and how Lao people used it has a hiding place during the war. There was even an old bomb strung up next to the entrance that's now used for a bell to signify lunch and dinner time.

After exploring Elephant Cave for a bit, we walked through a Hmoung Hill tribe village to Water Cave. The entrance to this cave was a small hole in the mountain located in a small lagoon. We each jumped into the lagoon and held on to a rope to work our way inside the cave against the strong current rushing out. The water was cold and there was no light once we entered the cave. Everyone just tried to stay together while we hung onto the rope and slowly inched along deeper into the cave.

About halfway into the cave our guides gave everyone candles to light our way. Several times the water was too shallow and we had to crawl between boulders and under low over hangs, getting extremely muddy in the process and trying our best not to let the candles go out.

We explored the Water Cave for about an hour and then returned to a riverside shack for lunch. Our guides prepared fried rice, beef & veggie kabobs, bananas, and we each got three shots of Lao Tiger Whiskey.


Goofing around outside the water cave

After lunch we paddled for a couple more hours through some small grade 1 and grade 2 rapids and stopped off a two places for jumping into the river. The first place was a wooden scaffold with two make shift diving platforms. The lower platform was about 4m high and the highest platform was about 8m high. Everyone took turns jumping and watching our guides show off by doing flips. A couple guides even dragged their kayaks up and went off while in the kayak. Just good fun.

Once back in town, everyone got cleaned up and gathered at our guides' restaurant for free cocktails. They gave us some strange but sweet concoction made of coke, Tiger Whiskey, and Red Bull. We all sat around drinking and talking about our day's adventure.

That was my most productive day since arriving in Vang Vieng. One other day we did go swimming in a great little blue lagoon at Vang Vieng Resort, but it was raining a little so we didn't stay long before going back to town for more movies.


Swimming lagoon at Vang Vieng Resort

I have to get out of this town before I waste any more time, so the plan is to take a VIP bus to Vientiane tomorrow morning. I've heard Vientiane is not a very exciting place, but it's the best place to catch a bus to Hanoi.

Next stop is Vietnam.

Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

Yesterday mourning I took a minibus about five hours south to the small town of Vang Vieng.

It was hard to leave Luang Prabang because I really liked that town. It had a great atmosphere in the downtown area with many comfortable restaurants and a great night market down the middle of the main street. There were also many cheap food stalls down a back ally to buy authentic Lao dishes and cheap beer.

I did a bit of shopping and bought a handcrafted, standing paper lamp for about $35. It's just over a meter tall and about 30cm wide. I can't wait to assemble it in my house once back in Japan.

The day before I left I discovered a fantastic tea house that bought and sold used books. It was a great place to lounge around and rest while you read. Twice a day they showed artistic movies in an upstairs chill out area where people would congregate across pillows all over the floor.

Anyway, the minibus ride to Vang Vieng was much more comfortable than public transport and probably a little faster. The road wound around through the misty mountains which were kind of teton-esque. Occasionally we saw uniformed guards carrying AK-47s and in many places there were mud slides caused from recent rain and the occasional fallen boulder that partially blocked the road. After looking over the edge of the road into a mountainous abyss, I'm very glad we had a safe journey.

Vang Vieng is a small backpacker's town. It's only a couple of dirt roads lined with restaurants showing pirated DVDs 24 hours a day. It's also interspersed with bicycle and scooter rentals and various kayaking shops to take trips down the river.


Cliffs of Vang Vieng


The plan was to rent a intertube and float down river checking out some of the caves along the riverside, but it's raining today, so it looks like I'm going to sit around and catch up on newest movies I've been missing. Most restaurants are already playing SpiderMan2, Shrek2, and Fahrenheit 9/11.

Maybe tomorrow I'll make it down river.