Backpacking

...okay, so re-reading the sub-heading, I guess it wasn't that bad. But our arrival to Vietnam was pretty stressful.

We arrived at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport later on in the evening of October 17, 2007. We were immediately on guard, as we had read and heard time and time again from fellow backpackers that Hanoi was the SE Asia capital of scams on poor, unsuspecting travellers, especially those coming from relatively laid-back Laos. The most frequent scam goes something like this- you arrive at the airport, looking for a cab to take you into the city. You go to an official looking taxi stand with a sign with a quoted "set" price- maybe 10 USD, for example- to the city center. The guys working the taxi stand all have matching, official looking polo shirts and are uber-fake helpful. Looks legit, right? You tell them where you want to go, show them a map, point out your hotel or guesthouse. Of course they say they know where it is. You get in the cab, then proceed to be driven around in crazy circles for an hour and a half or more, and finally when you're beginning to feel like something is really amiss, they deposit you at some shady looking, generically named hotel (usually the sign says something like "welcome to our hotel!" out front) down some not-so-fun alley. Some dodgy character taps on your window, indicating that you should come into the hotel. You ask where you are, and the hotel tout, having already spoken with the driver, says you're at whatever hotel you named at the beginning of your trip. You get there, check in, it's a total dump with hidden charges, and you get ripped off, big time. Our guide book warned about this, but said that if we get an official taxi, and didn't go with the freelance guys working the area outside the airport, we should be okay.

We totally weren't. For starters, our guesthouse was supposed to send a driver for us, as to completely avoid aforementioned headache. Through an email miscommunication, they didn't, so we ended up waiting around the arrivals terminal for a good half hour at Noi Bai. Finally we realized they just weren't coming, and got the most "official" looking taxi from the matching polo shirt guys that we could find. The taxi driver was totally incompetent- or pretending to be. After driving erratically for ten minutes, he pulled off the highway to a gas station (stalling the car in front of the pump). We waited for an extended period of time in some dark corner of the parking lot while he used the gas station office to charge his cell phone. Back on the highway, we swerve all over the road until we start to get into familiar territory (for Megan, as she visited Vietnam on a business trip in 2005). All along we're showing him on the map where we want to go and he's indicating that yes, that's where we're going. Surprisingly, despite his assurances, we pull into a sketchy side street in front of a generic hotel. A sleazy looking Vietnamese kid opens the car door- "welcome to my hotel!" Last time I got a curbside welcome at a backpacker-type guesthouse was NEVER, so we knew immediately that we were falling victim to the predictable scam. We insisted that no, we weren't going here, and no, we weren't at our hotel. There are several people now trying to intimidate us to go into the bogus hotel. The cab driver got super pissed off and smoked like three cigarettes outside the car while we sat in the car, not sure of what to do. It was like a staring contest- who would break, first. Finally he stopped this random motorcycle driver and asked for directions to the real hotel we wanted- the "City Gate Hotel." We proceed to follow this random motorbike the wrong direction- BACK onto the highway and into a completely different section of Hanoi. At this point we're getting nervous because if this sort of thing happened in DC, it would be considered kidnapping and the end of the drive would be something worse than an attempted guesthouse scam. Catt- very patiently- tells the driver to pull off the highway and back to the Old Quarter. Again, the taxi driver gets out of the cab and smokes, yelling at us. Language barrier is a huge problem. He tries to kick us out of the cab in a sketchy looking area without taking us to our final destination. We insist that, no, we aren't paying until he takes us to our hotel, just as he promised back at the airport. Finally we make it to the hotel. We get out, and again he tries to overcharge us. We walk away as he's still demanding more money. To make matters worse, the hotel dropped our reservation and is now totally full- no rooms left. After almost 2 hours in a cab whose destination we couldn't control, and now no place to stay, Megan sort of had a miniature internal meltdown and just sat in the guesthouse looking at the floor for a few minutes. Laos was just so lovely, and our entire Hanoi experience was a rude awakening- like a "welcome back to Asia, sucker!" for us. Anyway, the guesthouse people at City Gate felt really bad, turned out to actually be very nice and ended up taking Catt on the back of a motorbike to see the manager's friend's guesthouse to see if we'd like to stay there. We agreed on the other place, and then Megan was loaded, packs and all, onto the back of this kid's motorcycle, just like that whizzing through the streets of traffic-crazy Hanoi, top speed, side-saddle on a motorbike to a guesthouse we've never heard of. In the end all ended well, but not without frustration. We seemed to be magnets for this sort of behavior all through our visit to Hanoi- the next day, we had a similar episode with a cyclo driver, who gave us quite a verbal bashing when we failed to pay him a tip on top of an amount we'd already agreed upon (and he drove us for less than the agreed-upon amount of time.)

Getting taken somewhere against your will is far too common of an occurrence for travellers- budget, and top end, alike- in SE Asia, and has the potential to really ruin an otherwise wonderful cultural experience. We've had the same thing happen in Bangkok, too. It's scary, because you never know if they're attempting a garden-variety guesthouse scam, running up the meter, or really taking you into serious, dangerous trouble. Tips that we always heed that really help keep you in control: never put your backpack or suitcase in the trunk if you can help it. Keep it in the backseat with you. That way, the cab driver can't hold your luggage "hostage" while they try to get more money out of you. Also, never pay beforehand- this is just asking to get dumped at the end of the wrong dark alley. Finally, if using a meter, ask for a price, also, beforehand for "an idea". Many meters (at least in Vietnam) are cooked and rigged to overcharge. The best thing to do? Ask your guesthouse (or another trusted local) for the approximate price for a drive from point A to point B. If will give you bargaining leverage, and save you lots of headaches later on.

Apart from our initial negative impression of Hanoi, we ended up having an amazing time in Vietnam on a whole. We spent a few days checking out Uncle Ho's haunts, the Ho Loa Prison (that housed John McCain after he was captured during the War) browsing shops and evaluating bun cha and pho at various foodstalls in the Old Quarter before signing up for what turned out to be the best value tour of our trip so far- a three day, two night excursion to Vietnam's lovely Ha Long Bay. Before we get there, though, here are some pictures from our time in Hanoi:

swan boats in Hanoi... almost like Boston!

Vietnam's most famous resident... the motorbike

Hoan Kiem Lake in central Hanoi

Hoan Kiem Lake and the turtle pagoda

motorbike traffic in Hanoi

transporting bamboo

at the "Hanoi Hilton" prison

...and the next day it was on further east, to Ha Long Bay!

We left Luang Prabang the morning of the 13th en route to the small city of Vang Vieng, about 6 hours south of LP. We had planned in advance to meet up with Moniek and Sven, our Dutch friends from Turtle Islands National Park in Borneo, to celebrate our one year anniversary on October 14th by doing what one does in VV... floating down the river in an innertube, with intervals of drinking and rope swinging, of course.

We had read in our guidebook that the stretch of highway between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng was actually considered to be quite dangerous until recently due to Hmong rebel activity. We had heard stories of travellers riding buses accompanied by Lao guards armed with semi-automatic weapons on bus rides to fend off unfriendly fire. We encountered nothing of this sort- our bus ride was windy, uneventful and quicker than scheduled. The bus station is actually located on an out-of-use gravel airstrip, used during the Vietnam war by American planes. The entire thing is pretty surreal looking.

Vang Vieng is a study in bizarre contrasts. The town itself sits nestled amongst beautiful, soaring karst cliffs, their sheer, vertical faces plunging into the gurgling Nam Song River... and from afar appears to be quite tranquil. The town itself, though, has in recent years become a "must" on the SE Asia backpacker circuit for tubing, getting "happy," and watching hours and hours of "Friends" episodes over tainted pizza and fruit shakes. We weren't really into the happy scene (I saw that movie "Brokedown Palace,") but the tubing on the Nam Song sounded alright. We met up with Moniek and Sven at the guesthouse that night, had a few delicious chicken baguettes and charted out the next morning.

Tubing on the Nam Song is usually a pretty quick affair, as most backpackers opt for the short 4km circuit at the end. This section of the river is almost completely bordered by family-run, ramshackle bar-type affairs, selling cold BeerLaos, liquor drinks, and snacks. Being on the riverfront, many of the bars will try to entice- or even kidnap- tubers by hooking their tubs with long bamboo sticks, or throwing out a long rope. To visit these establishments, you simply dock your tube, climb up a (usually) rickety bamboo ladder, and you're at the bar. In addition to the drinks on offer, there are spots for jumping into the river, either from a bridge, dubiously constructed rope-swing, or ladder-type thing. Wikipedia warns (as do the guidebooks,) that it pays to exercise caution on the 10 meter high swing, as it's common to "perforate your eardrum and do permanent damage to your hearing if you land the wrong way." There are typically several backpacker deaths on the Nam Song River each year, due to drunken swinging, etc.

Moniek and Sven had already tubed once, and were true veterans. They bargained out a deal where we got to tube not 4, but 17 kilometers- the first 13 being completely rural, surrounded by cliffs. The whole thing cost us 80,000 kip per person- or about 8 bucks- for transportation, the tube and a lifevest. Not bad! It was relatively safe, too- we'd hit the ocassional rapid, snake, or rock in the bum, but for the most part we were alright. Not a shabby way to celebrate one year of marriage!

One year anniversary!!

soaking up some sun on the river

keens should endorse our trip for this...

Catt and Sven

Catt and Meg floating down the river with the dramatic cliffs of Vang Vieng in the background

Moniek

Megan going it skeleton-style

Moniek riding calm

snakes on a tube... in attack mode

Moniek and Sven on the river

Catt dreaming about tubes... on his tube

sometimes there were rapids

Our tubing took up almost the entire day, and by evening we were tired. We went to dinner at an empty (but atmospheric) Lao restaurant on the riverside, and dined by candlelight. Thanks, Moniek and Sven, for helping us celebrate! Many of the pictures above from our time on the river are from their website, too.

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we said farewell to our friends, and started the last leg of our Lao journey on towards the capital, Vientiane. Vientiane is really more of a gigantic village than a capital city- with only 200,000 residents, it is by far the smallest Asian capital city. The pronunciation of Vientiane, is "Vyen Chen." Here is a little bit of background on its evolution, both in meaning and spelling:

The name of the city is derived from Pāli, the literary language of Theravada Buddhism, and its original meaning was "The king's grove of sandalwood", this tree being prized for its fragrance in classical India. It is also believed that the original name of Vientiane (Viangchan) means "City of the Moon" in the native Lao language. Modern Lao pronunciation and orthography do not clearly reflect the Pali etymology. The romanized spelling "Vientiane" is of French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the hard "ch" syllable of the Lao word; a common English-based spelling is "Viangchan", or occasionally "Wiangchan".

We had heard that the French food there would be delicious, and we were not disappointed- it was absolutely amazing value. We decided to celebrate our anniversary with our tastebuds, and had two amazing dinners- the most outstanding being the meal we had at French Bistro, La Cave des Chateaux. Perhaps most unforgettable was the smoked pear and camembert cheese appetizer. I still have dreams about it. They also had a fairly decent selection of French wines, at very good prices.

We only had a few days, but we took in some sights, especially the famous Wat Si Saket temple, built in 1818 and home to over 2,000 silver and ceramic Buddha images. Here are some pictures of Wat Si Saket, and our time in Vientiane:

I love Laos!!

Wat Si Saket... check out the hundreds of tiny Buddhas sitting in the wall

Broken Buddhas

Vientiane tuktuks

Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end... and we had a pre-booked flight from Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam on October 17th. As if you couldn't already tell from our entries, Laos has definitely been our favorite country so far. Every experience we had there was positive- from the locals, the food, the beer, the accomodation, the scenery, the culture, even the fellow travellers we met on the road. It is an amazing destination for those willing to get off the beaten track a little bit. We are hopeful that the tourism industry there will continue to develop on the right path and it won't go the way of, say, southern Thailand. It's one place where genuine interactions with locals and culture can still quite easily take place. Go now!

That night we took our flight to Vietnam. A whole new set of adventures were just around the corner...

Luang Prabang, Laos is a very special place. Special, as we anticipated, because the entire place is a UNESCO World Heritage sight, and home to some of the most spectacular, atmospheric, and well-preserved Buddhist temples in the whole of Southeast Asia. Also special, as we would learn, because it is randomly the gathering place for cool travellers from the Americas. For the first time, we were surrounded entirely by new friends from the States, Canada, Mexico, and South America. A little taste of home in the middle of Asia. And a little taste of France, too. God, the food here is incredible.

Our LP odyssey began at the bus station in Luang Nam Tha with Laura, our Irish friend of trekking and leeching fame. The bus ride was about nine hours, remarkably uncrowded, with hair-raising sharp turns on mountain roads, incredible views, and friendly children and villagers in tiny hill towns. It seemed as if we were in a race with every other public Lao bus making the journey. Luckily we are completey immune to terrifying driving experiences- enough time on mountain roads in Asia and Latin America will do that to you. We would have slept well, except at every turn we'd slide off the bus seat, and practically onto the floor- there were no seatbelts (or "bus leashes," as we referred to them... it's been a while since we've seen one, and the terminology got scrambled.)

We arrived in Luang Prabang at night time and set about finding a guesthouse. We settled on a small place, which at $10 per night was actually pretty fancy. Most of our friends were in $2 per night dorm beds. Our place was at the end of a quiet lane practically smack-bang in the center if a small Buddhist monastary. The grounds were incredibly peaceful, and orange-robed young monks could be seen at all hours shuffling across the courtyard and studying English in the afternoons. We spent our first day wandering the alleyways of Luang Prabang and taking in some of the wats. Here is a quick blurb on LP, thanks to our trusty pal, wikipedia:

Luang Prabang, or Louangphrabang, is a city located in north central Laos, on the Mekong River about 425 km north of Vientiane, and the capital of Louangphrabang Province. The current population of the city is about 22,000.
The city was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name. Until the communist takeover in 1975, it was the royal capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of Laos. The city is also notable as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

...and some pictures from our temple sight-seeing...


child safety seat

Megan helping young monks with their English

monk studying

paintings inside a wat in Luang Prabang, Laos

English lessons

careful! Dogs in Luang Prabang snap!

wat detail

monks receiving morning alms in front of our guesthouse each morning at 5:00 AM

reclining Buddha

Tree of Life painting

practicing English with the monks

Mekong River

Luang Prabang night market... the best in SE Asia...

tasty 50 cent baguette sandwiches

LP fruit market

fruit smoothies in a bag... an SE Asia classic...

a Lao lady

Luang Prabang, like most cities in Laos, has incredible, affordable Lao and Western food, $4 per hour full-body massages, and enough atmosphere to calm the most frazzled of travelers. We met up with Gabi, again (our friend that we first met in Chiang Mai,) and indulged in some fruit shake therapy and massages after a difficult day of wat-seeing, and great conversation. We miss you, Gabs!! That night a huge slew of us went out for drinks and bowling (for some) at a really flash looking bar, by Lao standards. On the walk home through darkened, silent streets, Catt and I were propositioned for drugs not once, twice, but thrice. Luang Prabang is the most innocent Asian city we've visited, so this was a little strange (and a lot funny.) A motorbike would come zooming from the darkness, and would slow next to us. A faceless driver would say at lowest volume some variation of "maree-wana, maree-wana, maree-wana??"or "you wan somseeng, you wan somseeng, you wan somseeng?" When we kindly declined, he'd zoom away again into the night. He was almost like Batman or something. Apparently, everyone, we look like junkies to the Lao. Guess it is time to launder my wrinkled backpacker rags...

Our third day we made the decision to go on a white-water rafting trip on a river a two hour drive north of Luang Prabang, through beautiful countryside. Before we put in at the start of the rapids we had the chance to play with some of the village children and their turkeys. We all agreed that Lao children are the most beautiful in the world. They are so cute!! The village is on an unsealed road far from any tourist center, so we were a real novelty with our strange, inflated red rafts, helmets and bikinis. Hopefully no one was offended by Catt's bikini. Kidding. Anyway, we ended up using Green Discovery Laos, the same company we used for our trek in Luang Nam Tha for our rafting trip. We highly recommend them if you are headed to Laos to do adventure/outdoorsy activites: www.greendiscoverylaos.com

On the river we met two great American couples- Bobby and Diana from Cali, and Mike Murphy (and later his wonderful wife, Nadia,) from DC. We were so pumped to meet some fellow Washingtonians... our first in three months! Murph and Nadia live in Tenleytown, a quick two metro stops from our haunts back in Dupont. We need to meet up again when we're all home from our respective adventures.

the raft

on the river

rocking the geeky helmet

beautiful northern Laos

That night Bobby and Diana and Mike and Nadia met up with us, Laura and Gabi, again, and we headed out to the only disco club (we think) in Luang Prabang for dancing from 10:00- 11:00 PM (yes, those are the dancing hours. Before that, it's a weird cover band and creative karaoke.) We grabbed a tuk-tuk to the outskirts of town, and set out for what ended up being an incredible night. All these guys we'd met on the river earlier that day turned up, and at one point it felt like we knew every booleh (Westerner) in the place. Which isn't actually saying that much- I think this is usually a strictly locals-only haunt. The decor was fun-house-cum-hotel conference room space- a vast wooden dance floor encircled by high tables and folding chairs, with black-light childish looking cartoons on the curtains, a disco ball, and flashing neon pink lights. At the far end of the dance floor was a DJ box above the floor with the tiniest Lao woman inside (with the loudest voice, ever.) Once the dance hour started, she would interrupt every song at top volume to let out a "YESSS, everyone, sexy, sexy noooow!!!" or something along those lines. She was dancing like crazy with her little headphones on, completely absorbed in the music (and sort of resembling a Charlie Brown Peanuts character with repetitive motions, etc,) and the rest of us were slam-dancing/interpretative dancing like crazy to weird, old remixed-to-techno-rap hits (think Mystikal, or worse, Petey Pablo). It was definitely an experience. Here are some amazing pictures:

en la discoteca

with Laura and Gabi

Catt and Mike Murphy

Megan, Gabi, Nadia

our raft, partying Lao style

After all that fun, six of us hailed down our tuktuk guy (who had just been waiting out in the parking lot the whole time) for our ride back to town. Technically there is a "strictly enforced" midnight curfew for all foreigners in Laos. This is rarely enforced (and when it is, the friendly cops just escort you back to your guesthouse,) but the streets are silent. Half-way through the ride, though (with Gabi hanging off the back of the tuktuk,) the thing almost shot off the road when we heard an ear-popping explosion. We had blown a tire! Luckily another driver took pity on us and we were able to pile into his tuktuk. Pics:

busted tuktuk tire

"this is NOT what we paid for..."

Megan and Diana... what the*#&%#%??

big moneeey

kippionnaires... Bob and Catt

Gabs hanging off the back of the new tuktuk

The next day we bid farewell to Gabi and Laura who were moving on to Vientiane, and prepared for Bobby's birthday dinner. Mike and Nadia organized a dinner for a bunch of us at Tamarind, a very nice Luang Prabang restaurant. The meal was set, and delicious... we had an incredible appetizer of dried and salted buffalo skin with eggplant, a watermelon liquer apperitif, and tender fish, prepared jungle-style for the main. Desert was an array of tropical fruit (star fruit, pommelo, tamarinds, mangosteens, melons, etc.) Happy birthday, Bobby!

Appetizers at Tamarind... buffalo hide with sesame seeds and eggplant puree

Group at Tamarind in Luang Prabang

fish in palm leaves at Tamarind

Catt loves peace

We tucked in early to prepare for our journey to Vang Vieng to celebrate our one year anniversary, and reunion with Moniek and Sven from Borneo the next morning, but were sad to leave Luang Prabang and our new friends, too.
All in all, Luang Prabang was one of our favorite cities in all of Asia (and I can say that now, because even though we're terribly behind on our travel blog, we're writing this from Australia and our Asia chapter is in "real time," finished.)

Perhaps the most wonderful aspect of our days in Luang Prabang was the community we shared with all of the friends we met there... it seemed as though every day we had a coffee, dinner, or late night date with a different group of people. The vibe there really epitomizes all that we love about travelling in general- the willingness to be open-hearted with strangers, trust your gut, and let go of preconceived notions or anxiety when meeting new people. Relationships made "on the trail," I am convinced, mature at about 10 times the rate of those made at home because you're already work from such a common baseline of understanding and values. It's a beautiful thing. Another wonderful thing about Luang Prabang was the relaxed atmosphere. There was never the pressure and hustle that characterizes so many Asian cities. Things were slow-paced. The night market was so peaceful that you could hear the crickets chirping, and many sellers worked by dim light, or even candlelight. The food was exquisite, too. We definitely recommend it for all!