Fashion parade, Hoi An, Vietnam

Fashion and coffee in Hoi An, Vietnam

The charm and ancient beauty of Hoi An were not immediately apparent to us. Walking from the far end of town, feeling slightly worn out from another hot bus trip, we only noticed the endless succession of identical tailors, all looking like us : slightly worn out. For those not aware of it, Hoi An is famous for it's incredible concentration of tailors who can whip up anything from suits to evening gowns in a matter of hours. The quality can go from average to very good depending on how much one wants to spend and, in any case, it would always compare very favourably with western prices.

After a quick bowl of noodles, we found a cheap guesthouse where we dropped off our bags and set off exploring the town in search of a good tailor. We walked around for quite a few hours trying to get an idea of quality vs price. Even the most expensive places are quite reasonnable when comparing with Aussie price tags but it is worth looking for the medium range : good quality at a reasonnable price. In the evening, we had a pretty good dinner at "Miss Ly" restaurant (we were thinking of our own Miss Lee when we were there!) and enjoyed the winding streets, the old chinese wooden houses lit with colourful paper lanterns and a lovely breeze we have learned to appreciate.

The next 3 days consisted of a series of appointments at the tailoring shop we picked to get a few things made. The place was run by 3 very sweet Vietnamese girls who knew what they were doing while still listening to what we wanted. Chris had some very classic pieces in mind and picked some lovely materials for all of them. His perfect model figure meant that mostly everything came back looking very elegant and perfectly fitted. My pieces were a little bit out of their usual repertoire but with a few changes here and there, ended up looking great.

In between all of our fashionnable commitments, we managed to create a very nice life for ourselves consisting of lenghty coffees with delicious pastries at the Cargo club, baguette lunches from the market and dinners at our favourite restaurant on the riverfront where we enjoyed all the local specialties : Cao Lao, white rose and my favourite, friend wontons with vegetable and shrimp while drinking 25cents beer on tap.

At night, we watched re-runs of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows on our satellite TV which gave us a lot of inspiration for the photo shoot we had on our balcony before a post office worker came and packed up all of our beautiful new clothes. They are now on a long journey to Nice where they will arrive after travelling the high seas for 3 months. They should get there just before us.

Hue, Vietnam

Once the bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere (nothing unusual with that), we had a quick ride on the back of scooters into the centre of town. Judging by the frantic traffic, we knew we weren't in Laos anymore Todo and Hue isn't even a big city... A young man haggled us really hard to come and visit his hotel which turned out to be great, cheap and right accross from the best cafe/bar in town.

Hue is an old aristocratic city wich is organised around a fortified citadel of small colonial buildings, lakes and canals. Within the citadel is the "Purple city" which contained all the royal and ceremonial buildings. Unfortunately, the war destroyed most of it and even despite heavy restauration undertakings, it is hard to really grasp the grandiose density of it. The remaining temples and monuments reminded us of the Japanese shrines we visited, sharing a similar kind of serenity and harmony very different to the psychedelic exhuberance of Thai temples.

We also spent some time exploring the rest of the citadel, having coffee overlooking the river "Perfume" and walking around the market which we found to have more diversity than most others we have seen and generally enjoyed the cooler weather.

On one of the days we were there, we went on a tour of the DMZ or the Demilitarised zone which divided North and South Vietnam. Despite the impression of spending most of the time on the bus and the fact that the sites were not as interesting as the stories they possess, it was still good to just be there if only to see that life does go on, the trees have grown back, the no-man's land is now covered in rice fields and people live their lives. The past is still perceivable though. One area we drove through, although covered in forest, couldn't hide the huge craters making the ground undulate like waves. In one town, once a week, on fridays, land mine specialists come and detonate them all day long. The highlight of the tour was to visit a network of tunnels built and lived in by a whole village when the bombing got too bad to live above ground. As we walked through, slightly bent over not to hit our heads, it was extremely disturbing to imagine the kind of desperation that would lead anyone to adopt such living conditions. But life prevails and the 17 children born in the tunnels have all grown up and are still alive now.

First impressions of Vietnam

We were told many things about Vietnam and especially the Vietnamese in the weeks preceding our arrival here. They came from many sources, all well informed and based on experience which gave us reason to believe them.

Overwhelmingly, we heard that the Vietnamese are greedy, grouchy, sometimes deceiving and often dishonest. We were also warned that we might suffer from malnourishment and frequent harrassment. After hearing all that, it's a wonder we didn't pack up our bags and fly straight to Nice. Luckily, we did hear some great things about the freshness of the food, the wonderful scenery and the incredible cheapness which extends to everything.

So far, all of our experiences have been incredibly positive. Maybe, it is lucky we arrived in Hue rather than Saigon or Hanoi or maybe when one expects the worse, the only way is up. It's true that we have to haggle harder and be a bit more aware of how much things should cost and learn to tune out from the constant solicitations for taxis, cyclos, clothes, food etc... But at this point, Vietnam is looking like it could become our favourite destination in South East Asia. Most people we have come accross have been very helpful and charming, the food has been splendid and so affordable and we have really enjoyed walking around the streets, bustling with scooters and rambling colonial architecture. It was even a bit chilly in Hue which was such a relief from the constant heat.

So, so far so good and let's hope it lasts. We are not dellusional though, we know we will experience some setbacks but good first impressions do wonders and when someone snatches money out of our hands or refuses to give change back, we will try and hold on to them.

Vientiane, Laos to Hue, Vietnam in 17 hours

It turns out that it's not that easy getting out of Laos. No matter which way you look at it, it seems to involve some sort of ridiculously long bus trip. Well, either that or buying two adorable old Minsk motorcycles for $350 with all the appropriate paperwork to make it into Vietnam. Sounds pretty good ? Only problem with that plan is that neither of us can drive these little beauties so back to the bus...

This was our longest bus trip yet and was only bearable thanks to our brand new inflatable neck pillows and the abundance of empty seats around us. On the other hand, it was one hell of a bumpy ride and the floor at our feet was quickly occupied by sleepy vietnamese people as soon as the night fell, including one who borrowed (without asking) Chris' fleece jumper to use, first as a pillow and later, as a blanket. I suspect he drooled on it a bit.

We arrived at the border at 5am and were made to wait for two hours until the crossing opening time. In that time, I enjoyed a bitter green tea, a bunch of Vietnamese men making advances to me and finally a swift case of extortion by a fraudulent wannabee border official who demanded all of our passports, loaded with a small sum of cash and collected a hefty little bundle. The only thing that made it better is that Vietnamese nationals were expected to do the same.

The actual border crossing was fine although we did notice that all the locals had reloaded their passports, maybe to get through quicker, that waiting in line is not a national past-time and that the bus driver smuggled countless boxes of pharmaceutical goods into the back of our bus.
The remainder of the trip was nothing remarkable and we arrived in Hue around 11am.

Vientiane, Laos

We stayed in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, for 6 nights which is one more than Tonsai and only a few nights less than Niseko. This extended stint was the result of multiple coinciding factors, some more fun than others.
First of all, we had to organise our Vietnamese visa as unlike every other country so far, they do not issue them on the border. That would have been fine, apart from the fact that we arrived on saturday and therefore, couldn't get anything started until monday morning. The process of getting a visa was very much as one would expect : boring, expensive and a waste of time. For what seemed like an inflated price, we could come pick it up two days later, just before Laos New Year celebration kicked in, the second reason for staying a few extra days.

When I asked one of the staff at our guesthouse how to say "Happy New Year" in Laos, he looked at me blankly, then his face lit up and he declared "water! water!" and indeed, water was the main event for the 3 days of celebrations that ensued. All over the streets, people of all ages started running around armed with anything that can contain water and release it promptly, namely water-guns, buckets, bottles etc... and everybody went to war, ourselves included. Armed with decapitated water bottles, Chris was my first victim but not my last. We attacked children, mothers, Falangs (westerners), people on scooters, people inside cars, people on the back of trucks. You name it, we splashed it! It was awesome fun and oh, so refreshing after weeks of exhausting heat.

We had planned to join in for one day and then hit the road but that was not to be. On the morning of our departure, as we hung around the internet place waiting for a free computer, a very familiar looking falang, tall and blond followed by another one, with dark hair and glasses came strolling down the street. Marcin and Rose were in town! In order to celebrate properly, we changed our ticket to the next day and promptly got into more water fighting, followed by many a beer Lao and a good noodle dinner in town. That was the life. By complete coincidence, we managed to meet up with them in a third country (after Cambodia and Thailand) and are now planning a fourth by adding Beijing as a potential meeting point in a few weeks.
That evening, a huge storm broke out and it rained all night. The sound of rain was something we had forgotten in these dry times and the cool air it brought with it was so delicious, we just wanted to go dance in the early morning light. It rained for the whole morning as well, and the electricity supply for our area must have been struck by lighting as the whole neighbourhood was deprived of water and power for most of the day which caused a slight shortage of fresh baguettes and some not so clean toilets.

Finally, after a final day in town, there was no escaping it and around 5 pm, we started a long and reasonnably painful journey to Hue in Vietnam. We waved goodbye to Laos, a country we enjoyed throughly, and once again to our friends who we will see again and continued our adventure toward Vietnam with mixed feelings of fear and anticipation.

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Vang Viang

Vang Viang is the kind of town that Australian bogans seem attracted to and never want to leave. It is enjoyable for a very short time, and once the few attractions have been ticked off, run, run as fast and as far as you can. Well, this is what we did anyway.



We only spent a full day there and paid our dues by floating down the river for the afternoon on old tractor inner tubes. To be fair, it was pretty enjoyable even if the river flowed at a mostly inert pace and Chris paddled us out of there for a good chunk of it. Most people seemed happy to hang out at the multiple bars along the river, swinging off trapezes into the water, narrowly escaping the shallow rock outcrops and basically getting hammered all day. As a result, we were the only ones actually floating down which allowed us to have a very peaceful time enjoying the magnificent limestone cliffs surrounding us.



We actually did stop at one of the bars a bit further along the river. This one was particularly underpopulated which was due in part to the fact that it was only accessible by floating and that the swings were at least 3 times as high as at any other point on the river. We decided to stop there for a quick lunch and just before our sandwich arrived, Chris decided to try one of the swings. A rusty flying fox starting from a 12m high rickety platform over the river. Coming out unscathed, he also tried the trapeze like swing which projected him high in the air and inflicted a look on his face mixing both fear and ecstasy. And then, in a completely unlikely turn of events, triggered by feelings of cowardice and Chris' encouragements, I decided that I would also try the flying fox... Determined that I would only go up the stairs and come down the only other available way, I took a deep breath and flung myself in the air, holding on to that stupid thing as hard as I could. Worried that I wouldn't have the strength to hold on, I was surprised to realize that holding on was easier than letting go and once I did, the feeling of flying through the air waiting for the unavoidable crash filled me up with pure fear. I landed heavily into the water, thinking I might be dead and numbly swam back to the bank. I was in total shock and started crying like a little girl, from fear rather than pain, while Chris watched like a parent, with a hidden smile under a look of tender compassion. Anyway, the deed was done and unusually found that it was actually worse than I expected. I will never do it again but now I know why. As soon as we started floating again, an absentmindedly driven elongated dingy nearly ran us over. Luckily we started yelling at the half-asleep driver in time for him to avoid us. As we got closer to the end, our tubes got hijacked by three children between the ages of 5 and 10. They were infinitely intrigued by our "five-fingered" shoes and endlessly fascinated by Chris' unfathomable hairiness.
The rest of our time in Vang Viang was mostly uneventful, thank goodness!

Luang Prabang

We loved Luang Prabang instantly, if only for the fact that it marked the end of our boat trip. A former imperial city and current UNESCO world heritage site, the town has an instant charm. As Chris summed it up, it ticks all the boxes : Great food, great coffee, great pastries, great baguettes... For people who don't only think about food, it also has great monuments, great markets and great colonial architecture.
We stayed only a couple days but enjoyed them immensely dividing up our days between Chris' priorities and mine. Mainly we went from Breakfast to morning coffee with almost no interval, and occupied time with short strolls before heading for the night food market where we feasted on barbecued pork and noodle and rice buffets.



On the second day, we went to the nearby waterfall, a highly popular activity on account of the heat and there, were amazed with the surreal turquoise natural swimming pools formed by the cascading waters. In fact, we weren't the only ones enjoying this magical place since Jude Law and Sienna Miller were also there, snuggling by the edge of the pool. The trashies were right! I made eye contact with Sienna and it took about 5 minutes standing right next to them for Chris to understand what I was frantically whispering and gesturing about.



Our days in Luang Prabang went slowly, following the rhythm of our digestive system and we were a bit sad to leave our guesthouse, run by a very charming old man who could speak perfect french. Nevertheless, the time had come and we moved on to Vang Viang, a renown party town, quite unsure we would love it nearly as much. Well, they had better have some good baguettes at least!

Houay Xai to Luang Prabang : 2 days on the Mekong

There is a bus that goes from Houay Xai to Luang Prabang in about 4 hours and costs $10 but that's not where you will find us or any other authentic-experience-seaking backpacker. No, instead, we chose to catch the slow boat down the Mighty Mekong which takes two full days with an overnight stop in a single dirt lane town, costs double the price and is solely furnished with narrow wooden benches which reminded me of the classroom in "little house in the prairie". The Lonely Planet describes it as a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience and I guess they mean it's really great but I also think that you won't catch me on that boat again anytime soon.



As we set off, about 40 min. after schedule, the spirits are high and the boat is quite full with some people opting for the floor rather than the pews and congregating in groups, chatting about the night before or the trip to come.



The Mekong is pretty quiet and we hardly pass a few people fishing in the river. Their villages are hidden in the hills surrounding and the only traces of people living there are some bamboo fishing lines sticking out of the rocks and some herds of beige and grey water buffalos, enjoying a refreshing swim, in their perfectly matched surroundings of light coloured sand and dark grey rocks.



All the hills around us are ablaze and smoking. It is by now a pretty familiar landscape since we have reached the north of Thailand. Local farmers burn off everything on the hills to use for dry rice culture and other crops. Some hills are so steep and the quantity of burnt land is so incredible that it just seems totally wasteful and even dangerous. In the dry season, we have barely seen a drop of rain but in the wet season, these hills would just turn into avalanches of mud. The smoke in the air also makes photography quite a challenge, covering everything up with a thick blanket of dullness. Even the sun looks like a really orange moon.



The overnight stop is quick and fine. In the morning, we load ourselves up with bananas, cookies and some filled baguette sandwiches for lunch. The baguettes in Laos are one of the best things the French could ever leave behind. The trip goes very much the same, except the boat is about half the size and everything in it seems to have shrunk in proportion. Still, we know the drill and we all settle down while the seconds tick away slowly. Nothing much happens, the landscape just keeps on going by, a few fishermen, farmers and some water buffalos. It strikes us that this landscape and its inhabitants must have barely changed since the French were exploring the Mekong a hundred years ago. Even the burning hills were mentionned then.



It's true that this trip wasn't quite what I expected. With a mixture of images from the boat to Battambang of leaping laughing children and floating villages, I had assumed that the Mekong would be a bustling artery of markets and fishing nets. It wasn't. It was really quiet and isolated. A world where the passage of time seems to have little impact and once again, I got this now familiar feeling in South East Asia of not only travelling through space but also through time. Time immemorial.

Chiang Rai

We used Chiang Rai as a staging post for our escape from Thailand into Laos. After a bit over three weeks in Thailand, we were excited to move on and also felt like we had to have as many Pad See ews as we possibly could before it was too late!

We liked Chiang Rai well enough and made the most of our day there. We hired a scooter and went scouring the country side in search of an intriguing temple called Wat Rong Khun. As we drove further out of town, the english tourist signs stopped appearing and we went way too far which turned out to be great since we ended up following signs to a waterfall instead. When we got to the carpark area, we were faced with a staggering 1400m walk between our beloved scooter and the promise of a refreshing swim. After weighing the pros and cons mainly cold flowing water versus physical exertion in 40 degrees heat we decided that it was worth it and, actually, it was. We had a lovely swim and felt much better for it. The walk itself was really nice, surrounded on both sides by vertical corridors of bamboo forest.

After a bit more looking and enquiring we finally found the temple and that was also worth the trouble. Wat Rong Khun is the love project of a local artist who has dedicated his life to creating a complex of 9 buildings dedicated to his vision of Buddhism. So far, one building is well under way and the completion date is planned around 2070. What makes this temple quite unique though is that it is entirely made of white stucco adorned with small pieces of mirror, ressembling a big snow flake in the sun. And although quite traditional in many aspects, it has many interesting contemporary touches including an arresting sculpture at the entrance with dozens of hands sticking out of a pond as well as an usual mural in the stuppa mixing traditional representations of buddha with various action heros and depictions of futuristic cities.

We then spent a great evening at the local night bazaar which is full of touristy things to buy as well as a large food court popular with Thai people where they serve hotpots, a meat and vegetable fondue dish which we enjoyed very much. To top it off, we even enjoyed some interesting live entertainment which reminded us a lot of Priscilla queen of the desert.

The next morning, we set off on a very local bus for the border town of Chiang Khong where we waved Thailand goodbye and crossed the river into Houay Xai, Laos. There, we spent a night before embarking on a two day boat trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang which deserves it's own entry.

Photos of Cambodia

We have finally found fast internet so here is a gallery of photos throughout Cambodia.