Vientiane & Vietnam

Vientiane - and Doug's 65th birthday dinner in a beautiful city - the capital of Laos. It was also the end of Buddhist Lent so everyone was partying big time! Soon (our beautiful Thai leader) arranged a western dinner - we were all craving for something other than noodles, rice and spicy stuff- and cake with the immortal words Happy Birthday Duckless on it - so needless to say that is what he was called for the rest of the trip... After dinner we fought our way down through the throngs of people to the Mekong to light a flying lantern and also to send an offering of marigolds and incense down the river with a wish. We paid a small boy to take it down to the rivers edge for us as we couldn't get through the crowds thinking he would gently place it in the river and that would be it. No way, in he jumped and disappeared under the water leaving us thinking we had drowned a small boy for the princely sum of 50p!! Happily he popped up again laughing - obviously something he had done before to foreigners!

Visited Victory Gate in 38 degrees and melted. Also lots of temples and markets, great places for people watching. A very nice city, pity we didn't have more time (as ever...) Next stop was Lak Sao which was a one-horse town not worthy of a visit but was on the Laos/Vietnam border so we stayed one night before moving on.

The boarder crossing into Vietnam was pretty painless if tediously long. One of our group had problems with a visa but a $20 note seemed to clear things up nicely.

So now in Vietnam - where I have been gaily saying Xin Jaw (Sinchow which means hello) only to find that I have been asking for noodles every time. Some kindly soul put me right after a couple of days...

Vietnam then - our trip from the border took over 13 hours with a puncture along the way. This was an opportunity for the boys to stand around the minivan with the Vietnamese drivers, scratching heads and talking tales of wheel-changing woe - whilst the girls disappeared across the road to the nearest bar!!! Some poor bloke was sitting in his shop front, watching TV and just happened to have a crate of beer with him - don't actually think it was a bar but he was more than happy to accommodate us!!! We finally arrived in Hanoi at the Victory Hotel absolutely knackered - a horrid long journey all I can say is thank God for air conditioning as we both fell into dreamless sleep, for once not noticing the hard board beds....

Next morning it was off with Soon to the markets to buy silk - learnt a very good trick for discovering real silk - take a thread and burn it, if it smells like human hair it is real silk. Trouble is you need the balls to walk around the markets with a lighter in your hand setting fire to threads - not something I think I am ready to do just yet, still have trouble haggling over the price. Getting used to being hot and sweaty but can't say I enjoy it all that much and shopping bring it on big time. Sheila is our champion shopper though, already sent home 2 boxes of stuff!!

That evening saw us all at the Water Puppet Theatre - what can I say - it was unusual. This was followed by the final dinner for the group before we all went out separate ways - another excellent meal of rice and veggies, they really haven't quite got the hang of vegetarians yet but everyone else had wonderful meals.

I like Hanoi, for a city it is small and easy to get around although incredibly noisy and dirty. The horn is the favourite bit of every car and moped and used frequently. Loved wandering around, everything here happens on the street exactly as it does in India. The sights, sounds and smells are amazing and very hard to describe - sorry. I am always amazed that there are not more accidents here but everyone seems to avoid each other and pedestrians, you have to remember to step into the road with confidence, don't look drivers in the eye and for Gods sake keep moving, they flow around you. Hesitate and you are like a rabbit in the headlights - chaos. Clothing here has also got smaller - for most of this trip we have had to wear t-shirts with sleeves and knee-length shorts to conform to modesty rules (although a lot of young Westerners don't) but here in Hanoi girls climb on mopeds and scooters in amazingly high stilettos and micro skirts and zip off - especially like the pink scooters with matching pink face masks!!

Ended up in Harlong Bay our last destination.

More to come ... watch this space!

Annie & Duckless xx