Luang Prabang

A different (more wealthy) typed of tourist destination here... but really nice. Old french colonial town set in a beautiful place. Rode bikes around the place, visited the Wats and headed out to the Kuang Si waterfalls that were ridiculously picturesque and insanely blue. Even saw a few grizzlies...

A-top the hill in the center of town overlooking all of the temples.

Awe ...one of the Asiatic Black Bears we stumbled across

Jarrod ...swinging

One of the picturesque waterfalls

Kong Lor Cave

AMAZING!! We missioned off the main tourist trail and headed out into the mountains. Even the tuk tuk rides there were cool. The place was great, although a little cold, and on the brink of the tourism boom... so it was nice to catch it before it flipped. The cave was a 7km long beast and too unbelievable to describe. Riding through in long tail boats, clambering out to get it over rocks, wandering through stalagmites and stalactites, echoing through spaces reported to reach 100m high..... just so very cool... and very dark.

Pictures don't really do this place justice. It was such a surreal place.

Entrance to the 7km long cave.

Happy Birthday Sam!

We had to make do with the limited supplies.

4000 Islands -Don Det-

Stayed with a crazy German on Don Det Island, one of the '4000' on the Mekong at the bottom of Laos. Such a great place and just so chilled. Had a great time riding bikes, visiting waterfalls, jumping off rocks, swimming in the Mekong with snakes, sleeping in hammocks, eating great 'Laap' and curry and generally having an awesome time.

Boarding our long-tail on the Mekong river.

Swimming in the Mekong.

Sam's sleeping arrangements for the 5 days.

Cruising round the island of Don Khong.

Laos

We have done plenty of hellish journey's in our time.... jammed packed sleeper trains with mice in India, sauna buses in Turkey, a 10 hour over-nighter with an obsessive air-horn blower where the air-horn was inside the bus in Egypt..... but nothing compares to the ONION BUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left Vietnam to all our relief and caught a dodgy bus to the border 3 hours away. It took 9 hours just to get to the Vietnamese side of the border due to the insane packing and loading that took place. None of us could believe the amount of stock that was loaded on, our bus literally doubled in height and the already crammed inside became an impossibility! We had hundreds of bags of onions, garlic, limes, noodles, roof tiles, rice, live pigs, boxes and boxes of who-knows-what, and 28 people in a space with only enough places for 12. It was an experience for sure. The only consolation was the fact that there were two other stupid 'falangs' on there with us too!!!!!!


In high spirits getting on the half empty bus.

The first load up of goods. After this stop we stupid 'falangs' thought this was full.

Then the onions arrived and took over the bus.

Almost double its height.... with still a little more to be piled on.

Ha Long Bay

From Hanoi we headed back out to the coast to Ha Long Bay, the 'Thing to see' in Vietnam. It was spectacular although a little marred by the millions of tourists and the 5000 boats that joined us on our journey. Still, an absolutely spectacular place and a lot of fun with 8 of us. Enjoyed the beautiful scenery, a little bit of kayaking around the Islands at sunset, hiking up hills and visiting the 'Disco caves'.

Sitting on the roof top of our boat overlooking the amazing view that is Ha Long Bay.

Sunset over the bay.



The highest viewpoint on Cat Ba island.

Delicious street food in Hanoi. Especially the bbq soup.

Hoi An

Arrived to the very cold and wet north of Vietnam... not expecting that at all... to celebrate Joel's birthday and then to check out the My Son temples. Quite a cool little colonial town by the river that was full of suit makers.


Looking for a restaurant on the flooded streets.

Delicious birthday cake.... mmm!

Jumping.

The My Son temples. An hour or so scooter ride out of town in heavy rain and with literally thousands of cyclists to pass on the way.


Fiona, Alexis and Kia... the 3 English/Swedish girls we were traveling with for a while.

Mui Ne & Nha Trang

Headed from HCMC to Mui Ne on the coast. Not such a great beach but we scored a place with a pool so it was all a little luxurious. Spent a few days here relaxing, visiting sand dunes and waterfalls.... and the AMAZING red canyon (hmmmm). Still a nice place though.

Left Mui Ne on a bus with a chronic spewer in front of us which was pleasant and arrived in Nha Trang, the Mt Manganui of Vietnam. Again the beach wasn't that great as the monsoon had trashed it completely.... dead rats, snakes, syringes!!! Grrreeeeaat!!!! Met up with our English and Aussie buddies however and so spent a few good days with them including a great one over on Vinpearl Island's water park. So much fun, one of our best in Vietnam.


Amazing sunset view from our place.

Jarrod the model laxing out in our pool.

Fishing village. They fish in these big floating baskets ...really cool.

Sam and his old tricks.

Getting ready to slide down the hill.

Walking through a mini canyon to a mini waterfall.

The crew outside the waterpark preparing for some 'unique and exciting moments and constantly changing speed and direction'!

Swinging!

Vietnam

After a long bumpy tuk tuk ride in the pouring rain to the Cambodian border, we arrived into Vietnam and immediately got screwed over by a dodgy scam!! Go Vietnam!!! The scam involved lies about buses to Ho Chi Minh City from a guy with scraggly long whiskers..... speed racing on the back of scooters in monsoon downpours to catch up with the 'only bus to HCMC', insanely inflated prices..... arguments amongst rice paddy fields and Joel heroically hailing down a passing van to get us out of there!! A great entry, but not as bad as others we've heard since!!

Checked out Ho Chi Minh City for a few days, quite a cool city. Visited the war museum that's was both a little biased and also completely disturbing. You realise instantly how screwed up the whole place is because of the war. Visited the Cu Chi tunnels which was an underground network to escape from the Americans. Watched a propaganda film from the 70's that included lines such as ' She was awarded a medal for being an American killing hero' that was a little hard to take seriously....

Sam in a Cu Chi tunnel.

Jarrod squeezing into one of the entrances into the tunnels. Completely camouflaged once your in and its covered over.

An American fighter jet at the war Museum.