Merry Christmas from Hà Nội!

Busy streets, Hanoi, Vietnam

Our very friendly and helpful hotel manager

Hanoi was a lot of fun and I'm glad we went there a day early so we had four days in total. It gave us an opportunity to have some downtime. For the first time we were able to sleep in one morning and it felt amazing, you'd think I was on holiday! The biggest contrast to Halong Bay was the difference in service. We got to our hotel but because we were a day early we didn't have a booking for the night and the hotel was fully booked. Instead of sending us back out on the street they went out of their way to find a solution, which ended up being putting us up in their more luxurious sister hotel for all 4 nights for the same price, paying for our taxi, and escorting us there!

It is actually not a very big city so the central touristy part including the French and old quarters of the city were easy to explore on foot which was nice, as long as you manage to avoid getting hit by the thousands and thousands of mopeds! The traffic was worse than anywhere I have seen before and they had no respect for pedestrians, none whatsoever. Don't expect them to stop to give you an opportunity to cross, you just have to take a leap of faith and do it. The way to avoid getting run over was to keep walking at a constant pace so the drivers could estimate where you'd be in order for them to drive around you - and not to suddenly stop, change direction or run! Also the honking was just as bad as on the drive to Halong Bay, so because I could hear it all around me near and far, left and right, I soon stopped reacting to any of it.

As you might expect from a city with this level of traffic, the air was extremely polluted. So much so that when it was sunny you couldn't actually see the sun through the cloud of pollution. As an ex-smoker I was very surprised at how much the bad air affected me; I actually felt I was running out of oxygen breathing in the exhaust fumes.

Christmas decoration in the Catholic Church, Hanoi, Vietnam

I am not going to lie, being away from home at Christmas did make me miss my family, the snow, the Christmas feel, and my mom's Christmas cooking a lot and I was quite sad to be so far away. Promised myself to make sure I'm home next year! Went to visit a Catholic Church, and they sure had made an effort for Christmas. Outside the church was a Belén in true Spanish style, but I think they had taken parts from different ones to make it as Baby Jesus was twice the size of the three wise men combined, and one of the sheep must have been a mutant as it was so big it didn't even fit in the shed. The church on the inside was full of Christmas props including several fully decorated Christmas trees! That was a first!

We met a couple of expats who explained that life in Hanoi wasn't very much fun. They said there wasn't much to do, bars closed early, nightlife was not exciting, and as a foreigner it was difficult to integrate so you end up feeling like an outsider. The only reason they stayed was because work paid well. One of them was working for a clothing manufacturer and at 26, he was earning more than double what he would have made in Germany. He was sent to Hanoi to run one of the factories in the countryside where the clothes were sewn and he was overseeing over 1,000 people most of them making about $100 a month. Apparently corruption is extremely widespread. The police will stop you on the road for no reason and make up a violation unless you pay them, and the same happens every month with businesses - they will revoke your business licence unless you pay the police when they do their routine visit.

I'm struggling ever so slightly with the various currencies and exchange rates. What's worse, I am actually finding it very difficult to get my zeros right. Having worked in finance for five years I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it but it's true, just the other day I offered to pay a ten-fold price for my coffee. Talking of which, gross coffee in Vietnam by the way and it is apparently one of the biggest exporters of coffee in the world! Who drinks it??

Street life, Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnam may be a poor country but people in Hà Nội look very happy to me. They seem to spend a lot of time socialising on the street. They sit on these small plastic chairs on the pavement (wherever they can fit between the parked mopeds) gathered around small tables nibbling on sunflower seeds, eating street food and having a seemingly good time. Seems like a good and comfortable lifestyle!

As much as I have loved the northern part of Southeast Asia, I am ready for my beach holiday now. Stay tuned, the pool and the cocktails are almost within reach.

Graduation ceremony, Hanoi, Vietnam

Scooby Dooby Doo, Where Are You?

Halong Bay

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Taxi to hotel

On the plane to Hanoi we did wonder whether or not the car we had attempted to book would be waiting for us to take us to Halong Bay. We had pre-booked a hotel in Halong Bay, and since it is a good three hours drive away we thought it would be a good idea to organise transportation to our hotel beforehand, as we only landed at 6 pm and didn't know, even after trying to research on the World Wide Web, how to get to the famous Halong Bay (where do buses leave from, how often, are there trains, where do you buy tickets, are they reliable...). Pressed for time, we decided to play it safe. So whilst still in Luang Prabang we called our hotel in Halong Bay to see if they could arrange a pick up from the airport. All I got in response was a series of numbers read to me which I presumed were a phone number I needed to call. The phone call that followed was both hilarious and frustrating. At first all was fine; here's a recap:
Me: hello please taxi from Hanoi airport to Halong Bay
Person on phone: yes please send hotel and flight details
Me: ok please give email

This is when it all goes wrong, and the next part of the call took a good 15 precious minutes.

Person on phone: V-I-N.....????
Me: sorry, can you repeat please?
Person on phone: V-E-M-....????
Me: sorry sorry, is it V-I-N or V-E-M, and then what?
Person on phone: V-I-N-?-T (or possibly R) - something- 1982@gmail.com
Me: I am really sorry but I don't understand, can you please repeat one more time? V for Vietnam, I for India, N for Nepal, and then what?

Person on phone: V-I-N-???- A-N-1982@gmail.com

At this point the only thing I am sure about is the V at the beginning and I realise I am never going to get the rest right, so I call Aurea for back up and put the phone on loudspeaker. The same scenario repeats itself until we think we got it - or rather, had two versions. One of them had to be right, right?

I put my email together and send it to the two addresses, only for both to bounce back, much to my dismay. After some swearing out loud I figured a had one last way to try to get the email address, and that was to text the number. After all, not knowing whether the number was a mobile or a landline, it had a 50-50 chance of working. Glass half full and all that.

When I got a reply from the number with the correct email address I have to admit I did a little celebratory dance! As it turns out, from the whole email address we only got about three letters right
Our final version: vineran1982@gmail.com
Correct spelling: behntran1982@gmail.com

Even the one we were so sure about, the first V (which we confirmed to be V for Vietnam, as in, the country you live in!) turned out to be a B!

This time I did get a response to my email (yay!) but not to the second one I sent asking about logistics - so there was only hoping it would all work out.

You can imagine the joy when, in the arrivals hall, a neatly dressed Vietnamese man was standing holding a sign with my name on it!

During the drive to the hotel there was a moment when we did stop and think "we just got into a stranger's car." At the end of the day, what did we know? We had called a random number, spoken to a person whose name we didn't know, had no idea if this was a company or a private person, or whether we are even going in the right direction. Our driver hadn't said a word since he picked us up, for all we know he could be a member of an organ harvest association and we could wake up with our kidneys missing!

So not only did I have to worry about having my organs go missing, but the driving was also a little disconcerting. Honking is used to signal anything:

- I'm changing lanes: honk

- get out of my way: honk

- I'm turning left: honk

- I'm turning right: honk
- I'm about to overtake you: honk
- I'm overtaking you: honk

- I have just overtaken you: honk

And when everyone does it at the same time it is quite the concert.

Three hours later we got to the hotel with our organs (fully) and our eardrums (somewhat) intact.

The Hidden Charm Hotel
From the get-go there was something off about the hotel. The Tuan Chau Island where our hotel was located is a 10 minute drive away from Halong City where all the boats leave to Halong Bay. The Island is relatively big with several high rise hotels (some of which are closed down) all scattered around the island with wild vegetation in between. Our hotel with the very hidden charm was right in the middle, surrounded by...well....nothing but overgrown out of control greenery. I got the feeling that it was once upon a time a popular tourist destination but nowadays didn't attract many travellers (most visits to Halong Bay are organised from Hanoi and a part of the experience is to sleep in the boat rather than hotel).

View from hotel

The staff were waiting for us with our room key in their hand - we didn't even need to give them our name. We were excited to be in a 'real' hotel as opposed to a guesthouse but this soon wore off and quickly wished we were back in Thailand or Laos. Our room was impressive - the views were stunning and the room was HUGE! But that is where the positives end.

Hungry as we were, we headed for dinner at the hotel restaurant on the top floor (going anywhere was not an option, and there wasn't anything anywhere in sight). It was only past 9 pm but the restaurant was empty, and during the time we sat having dinner we saw nobody - even the waiter vanished into thin air. There was no music, just the wind howling outside and it was starting to feel really spooky. Oh wait, I'm lying now, we did have company - Aurea spotted a big fat rat on the beams on the ceiling! Grossed and spooked out we returned back to the comfort of our room.

The food did not improve during our stay, it was instant noodles and questionable meat and vegetables all throughout, but with no other options around we had little choice. And yes, more rats joined us for dinner the next day, too, and still no signs of other guests. Ugh.

There's an episode of Scooby Doo where the gang spend a weekend at a haunted, rundown hotel after the bridge leading to the island collapses - and I could just see that happening to us! The surroundings were also just like from a Scooby Doo episode, as Halong Bay is nearly always wrapped in a grey mysterious mist, with the limestone cliffs dimly outlined in the distance. What made our stay at the hotel even weirder was that later we actually realised that we were the ONLY GUESTS IN THE HOTEL!

Halong Bay

Cave

We made it into Halong City and took a boat around Halong Bay, including a visit into one of the famous caves inside one of the cliffs and yes, it was all very impressive. In my personal opinion however, I do think it is overrated as there is literally nothing else to do around Halong Bay but to see the Bay. People were very unfriendly and quite frankly the buildings and the city were some of the ugliest I have seen in my life. To add to the negatives, for the first time during this trip we had difficulty in organising our day trip as people didn't seem to speak much English which I don't mind (when there's a will there's a way) but what is worse is their interest in helping us was close to non-existent. I do think that is a shame as due to the sheer amount of tourists who flock to the Bay I think it could be beneficial to clean up the place and there could be potential for attractive business opportunities.

With feeling creeped out, uncomfortable, hungry yet disgusted, and with nothing to do we decided to cut our stay in Halong Bay short and go to Hanoi a day early - the best decision we have made!

So long, Halong!

Ahoy, Hanoi!

Pearl of the Orient, aka Luang Prabang, aka I ain't leaving!

The moment I set my eyes on Luang Prabang I was sold! There is something about this town that makes you want to stay, and then stay a bit longer. Lonely Planet lists it as one of the must sees in Laos: "Luang Prabang is the pearl of the Orient and arguably Southeast Asia's most romantic city: mystical temples, tasty cuisine, and Indochinese architecture."

The name of the city literally translated means "Royal Buddha Image" and it is right on the Mekong river. It is a tiny town, with only one main street, and it is on this street where most important temples are, as well as the night market and the alms ceremony in the mornings. I think what makes this town so special compared to what I have seen up until now is the architecture - a mix of traditional Lao wooden houses and buddhist temples, and French colonial architecture. Next to a golden roofed Wat is a beautiful French style house with its balconies and 19th century shuttered windows. Being a UNESCO World Heritage City they have done a spectacular job at protecting and restoring the old buildings.

The Night Market

In terms of quality of products sold, the night market in Luang Prabang is the best, most impressive market I have ever been to! I wanted to buy everything! If only I did not have to carry it all around with me because let me tell you there isn't much free space in that backpack of mine, and between jumping on and off boats, trekking up the hills, and walking the streets in search of accommodation with one bag on your back, one on your front, and miscellaneous objects hanging from your shoulders, neck, and hands, the idea of adding to the load is anything but welcoming. Still....if only. I did give in to temptation and bought a few souvenirs; a couple of pure silk scarves and an impressive painting of Buddha which is just made for my living room wall (getting it all the way home in good shape will be another story)! I don't think there was anything I didn't want to buy from the selection of goods offered; exquisite textiles, ceramics, antiques, quilts, pillow cases, paintings, silver, bags, spices...

Night Market

When you buy anything at this market you are also contributing to helping the local community (see how you just can't resist..?). I improved my bargaining skills too, as the vendors apparently expect you to make a counter offer. It was all good fun and all interaction between vendors and tourists happened quietly and with kind smiles :)

Tamarind restaurant

In the afternoon we decided to climb the 328 steps to mount Phou Si (oh yes, indeed pronounced 'pussy') to watch the sun set behind the mountains whilst overlooking the town. As we were there admiring the view we bumped into a Scottish couple we met on our three day journey to Luang Prabang. We got to talking and they happened to mention this restaurant called Tamarind, which apparently does very good Lao food, and since we were looking for a place for dinner and are both big foodies decided to give it a go - a decision we didn't regret! Not only is it a restaurant but it is also a cooking school for tourists who want to learn about Lao cuisine. The restaurant offers a tasting menu for 120,000 kip (£12) where they explain the dishes to you (what spices were used, how it was cooked, origins, etc) as they serve them. At this restaurant I also had my first glass of wine of the trip! Sweet Baby Jesus it tasted good, I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms.

So here is a recap of what we ate, and an intro to Lao food! Our first dish was a bamboo soup, a dark green broth with baby bamboo, mushroom, pumpkin, bitter aubergine, holy basil, spring onion and local herbs. It was delicious but I am not crazy about the basil as it gives food a kind of 'anisey' taste...The second dish was my favourite. It was actually more tapas style several little plates of different dips and tasters. There was a roasted eggplant dip, a sweet tomato dip, a pork sausage Luang Prabang style (errr whatever that is), a garlic chilli powder paste, buffalo meat (aka paradise meat), and Mekong weed (nono not the kind you're thinking but actual river vegetable that apparently is only harvested once a year). Clear favourite of them all, Mekong weed! Everything was delicious but the weed took the points home. It always does. The third and I suppose main dish was lemongrass stuffed with chicken, slow roasted pumpkin salad, and fish in banana leaf. The fish was a winner of this round, anything steamed inside a banana leaf wins hands down.

Desert was a good one, for anyone who has a sweet tooth which I don't unfortunately. It was sweet purple sticky rice with shaved coconut and for someone who is not a dessert person it went down pretty nicely!

Amazing food, amazing experience.

I general Lao cuisine love using holy basil and dill in their food, and apparently rice is central to all meals - is what I have learned in the past 2 days!

Here's some more I have learned: burping isn't going out of fashion anytime soon! When we checked into our hotel (Liberty Guesthouse, deserves bonus points for the comfy beds and the peace and quiet), the family who run the hotel were having dinner and it was all I could do not to laugh, as mid sentence any one of them could belt the Lao alphabet with no warning! And seems it is a common habit everywhere else around town too - as is spitting. But spitting like you mean it! I have never, not even in the meanest gangsta' movies, seen anyone spit with such a passion or frequency as the Lao people. Watch your back, is all I say.

Street market

Let's finish this post with a funny one - you didn't expect me to leave Mount Phou Si jokes at that, did you? To be perfectly honest it is more of an anecdote, or a 'Terhidote.' As we were walking down the hundreds of steps I noticed there was a hole next to the steps going deep into the mountain (first of all- I want to know what's in there!! And also, could be dangerous, someone might trip and fall into it), so I took it as my duty to inform Aurea who was walking ahead of me that I LOVE HOLES AND THERE IS A BIG DEEP ONE IN THIS PHOU SI MOUNTAIN WHICH I'D LOVE TO EXPLORE.

As soon as I said it I heard myself, and the giggles that followed lasted all the way down, although having realised an elderly couple had heard me made me want to crawl into my Phou Si hole and hide.

Thank you, Luang Prabang, for the most fantastic memories. Merci beaucoup, until next time!

That's it, next stop Halong Bay - where we may or may not have arranged transport to, we will find out tomorrow!

Sunset view from Mount Phou Si

The Alms Ceremony, Luang Prabang, Laos

I had heard that one of the highlights of Luang Prabang was attending the alms ceremony, which is when hundreds of monks from over 30 monasteries walk down the streets collecting alms. It is an ancient, religious tradition and we heard a guide say those who give alms earn merit in the next life, especially significant for women as they are not allowed to become monks.

Seeing this ceremony was put on top of our to-see list, so we decided to get up bright and early on our first morning to experience it! We got to the main street close to one of the big monasteries at around 6 am when it was still dark outside and the only people on the streets were other tourists, locals lined up on the sidewalk preparing their foods baskets, and a handful of street vendors selling breakfast as well as sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf to give to the monks.

Once it got lighter people settled down and kneeled, taking their shoes off to wait for the monks. Shortly thereafter the monks appeared in the distance, all wearing their orange coloured robes (although there was a difference in the tone of the robes as well as the colour of the belts, depending on seniority I would think), and it seemed the oldest or most senior monks of each monastery were in the beginning of the line and the younger ones at the end. We were also kneeled down on the pavement next to the locals, and were lucky enough to get to hand out the rice we had purchased a moment earlier to the young monks who walked by.

There was a sign that asked people to stand at least three metres away from the procession and not to use flashes on their cameras - a request most people either didn't read or decided to ignore. Even though admittedly I was one of the many tourists there wanting a picture first hand (trying my best to be respectful of course), I again felt ashamed as it felt intrusive even being there, I felt as if we were disrupting something that is meant to be peaceful and sacred. In hindsight I wish I had not taken my camera with me and instead downloaded one from Google images where I am sure there will be plenty.

After their morning round the monks returned to their respective monasteries to begin their day.

I loved having seen and been part of this special ceremony, yet another memory to cherish for many years to come. With each new experience not only do I learn new things about other cultures and traditions, but I feel I can also learn to become a better, more respectful person. By observing others you become aware of certain behaviours which I hadn't thought of before but can be rude and disrespectful, not very positive characteristics to be associated with. Hopefully we can all live and learn - I know next time I won't be one of those annoying tourists showing a lens in your face. Illegal plagiarism of Google images is the way forward.

Fancy a swim in the Mekong river?

Mekong River

And off we were to Luang Prabang! That almost makes it sound like we got there quick but that was most certainly not the case. In fact, it took us longer to get to our destination than the amount of time we spent there! The journey from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang using a combination of buses and slow boats takes nothing less than three days and two nights.

Day 1: bus to Chiang Khong. Overnight at a guesthouse

Day 2: cross border over to Laos, board long boat. Arrive in Pakbeng Village in the evening.

Day 3: leave village early in the morning, arrive in Luang Prabang late afternoon.

I didn't know much about Laos before including it in my travel itinerary. As it turns out, Laos is still one of the world's 20 poorest nations but with a GDP growth of 8% this may possibly change in the next decade or so. Unfortunately in the attempt to spur economic growth Laos willingly sacrifices a lot of its nature and wildlife to logging and slash-and-burn farming, which neighbouring countries, foremost China, are more than happy to exploit. 10% of Laos is original-growth forest; a hundred years ago this number was 75%.

Laos, or kingdom of Lan Xang (meaning the land of a million elephants) as it was known from the 14th throughout the 17th century, hasn't been a sovereign nation state for very long; it was only in 1953 that the country gained its independence from France. Before this, Laos was a collection of disparate principalities subject to wars, invasions, prosperities and decays. The country has a very diverse ethnic make-up, with 132 different beliefs and traditions. The one thing they all have in common is the laid-back attitude and 'doing good in order to receive good' mentality (this is a little conflicting considering the number of common scams we have heard about).

I should tell you at this point my facts come from a combination of sources including Lonely Planet, locals, tour guides, and other travellers, and I don't guarantee the accuracy of any of it! So please don't hold it against me if I get my factoids wrong and tell you Buddha is Jesus reincarnated in the reverse time order or anything else that may be untrue.

Day One

Anyway, day one went smoothly before you knew it the seven hour bus ride was behind us and we had arrived at our guesthouse! A little unsettling was finding mosquito nets with holes in them in our room, knowing this is a malaria infested area - lucky it wasn't the rainy season!

Day Two

Broken mosquito nets

Day two began with big bags under our eyes. The night we spent at the guesthouse in Chiang Khong was a little on the uncomfortable side, mostly because it got VERY cold. To begin with, as the pictures demonstrate, the room wasn't exactly on the luxurious side. Worse than that, after sunset it got seriously cold; so cold that eventually at 3 am without having slept at all Aurea and I decided to join forces and sleep in the same bed with doubled blankets so we could get at least some shut eye.

The bathroom in our room

We had left our passports at the reception desk and overnight the hostel had arranged visas to Laos for us which was nice and convenient. So in the morning we picked up our passports and visas and boated over the river to the border where we crossed over to Laos. After we had passed immigration we were picked up by the travel organiser who took us to a rinky-dink shop where we waited, and then waited some more (without actually quite sure why) until we got own our long boat and sailed away!

This very funny and friendly travel organiser who guided us from the border to the long boat gave us 'an introduction' to Laos's dangers and annoyances and heads up as to what to expect from the next couple of days. He told us about some common scams that are known to occur in Pakbeng; for example, the police and the guest houses collaborating in robbing tourists. He also told us about other travel options if we wished to shorten our journey time to Luang Prabang all the while making the long boat seem like a very bad idea! Whilst I appreciated the heads up about the various dangers I was disappointed that even this chatty and smiley travel organiser was trying to milk us dry by first recommending we change our pre-paid means of transportation by paying just a little extra, and then by telling us it was a good idea to book accommodation through him as he can recommend a reliable and safe guesthouse without overcharging (ha!). He actually said he was "just watching out for his guests' best interest." Another dodgy thing he did which we still haven't been able to figure out why (but whatever it was, happened whilst we were waiting and waiting again in the rinky-dink shop) was he took our passports and went away with them for about an hour before returning them to us. He said he just wanted to take them back to the police so they could check they had been stamped correctly at immigration... Hhhmmm....possibly?

Mekong River

The boat ride was kind of what I was expecting. The scenery sailing down the Mekong river is stunning. The landscape changed as we sailed deeper into the forest, from plain terrains with a few trees scattered here and there to dense forest. The type of vegetation also changed to more jungle like greenery. The seven hours on the boat went by relatively quickly I though which was good since I had eight more hours of sailing fun lined up for the following day. Just looking at the beautiful rural villages and jungle covered hills glide by put me in a relaxed trance-like state where time didn't matter. Also, I slept. A lot.

The village where we stayed overnight, Pakbeng, exists solely for the purpose of providing overnight accommodation for travellers to and from Luang Prabang. It is anything but luxurious but it serves its purpose just fine. We survived without being robbed or even scammed (that we know of!) and had a decent dinner and sleep for the equivalent of £5.

Day Three

After yet another COLD night sharing beds and blankets with my travel buddy Aurea, off we were on the boat again! Still cold and mountains covered in thick fog, I was wearing every warm piece of clothing I owned.

Having a beer on the boat

This leg of the journey was the same in every possible way as the previous day except for one thing - we must have stopped at least seven times along the way in various villages to pick up more passengers, locals this time. It was a little uncomfortable if not even embarrassing I thought that every time we pulled up at one of these villages everyone pulled out their cameras to point and shoot like they were taking photos of attractions at a zoo. By the end of it, we must have had an extra 60 passengers on board. With no extra seats on the boat however, these additional people managed to somehow fit into the back of the boat with the loud engines (with smoke coming out of them) - not a pleasant experience I'm sure.

Although the second day on the boat went smoothly, it did feel long. I think both Aurea and I were ready to take a swim in the Mekong river just to have something to distract us from the endless sitting.

We arrived in Luang Prabang just after sunset, and fell in love with it at first glance. Can't wait for the exploring expedition to begin!

Blackfast anyone?

Chiang Mai Conclusions

Laid back and relaxed Chiang Mai was a place definitely worth visiting, especially after the craziness of Bangkok. Exploring a few of the hundreds if not thousands of temples, going on an all day cooking course, and the couple of day trips we tried have left me with many beautiful memories I will cherish for years to come. I wish I had had the opportunity to stay a little longer to try some of the activities recommend to me by so many, such as meditation courses and yoga classes. Oh well, next time!

The guesthouse we stayed at, Bow Chiangmai House, deserves to be praised as it provided us really amazing quality accommodation for a mere £4 a night per person! It is run by Bow, a lovely woman who does the most amazing job at keeping her travellers happy.

The highlight of the whole trip was without a doubt (and I'm sure this comes as a real shock) food related! There was a special dish at one of the restaurants we had dinner at, Peppermint Coffee House, that must have been one of the best dishes I have ever tried. They prepare this dish called Khao Soy which is uses noodles that are characteristic of this region, cooked in coconut cream with spices and served with either chicken or beef.

What makes travelling in Southeast Asia such a pleasure is how easy it is to organise travel and trips. There are travel agents EVERYWHERE capable of getting you transported ANYWHERE without you having to do any of the hard work, research, or booking tickets separately. Included in the 1,600 baht (£32) that we paid for the three day journey from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang were bus and boat travels, border crossing transport, overnight stay at Chiang Khong, dinner, breakfast, and packed lunch for the boat ride! The only research we did was deciding which method of travel was best suited for us. We could have chosen between slow boat, speedboat, or bus, and after reading about the various options on several travel blogs we found out that Lao buses more often than not break down on the road, and that getting on a speedboat means having a death wish meaning we were left with the slow boat option - which I really didn't mind actually.

Goodbye, Chiang Mai!

Next stop: Luang Prabang!

Day trip to the Golden Triangle

At the Golden Triangle

We signed up for a day trip to the Golden Triangle, a point in northern Thailand which borders with both Laos and Myanmar.

The schedule of this day trip was hardcore, considering the distance covered! In addition to the Golden Triangle we got to see several other places of interest, such as the hot springs, the White Temple, and the Long Neck Tribe Village.

The schedule for the day was as follows:

7.30am Leave Hotel

9.00am Hot Springs

10.30am White Temple

1.00pm Boat to No Man's Land and Laos

2.30pm Lunch

5.00pm Long Neck Village

9.00pm Arrive back at hotel

Hot Springs

We were picked up from our hostel at 7.30am sharp by an air conditioned minibus with our driver, guide, and the rest of our tour group on-board. Our first stop was the hot springs, just over an hour into our morning drive. Now this site I found hilarious, as these so called 'hot springs' were a tiny ponds of a sorry excuse for yet another tourist money trap, trying to induce my kind to buy more and more junk. Now, I shouldn't be too harsh; not everything could be classified as junk. In addition to the knockoff Barbie dolls and fake Rolexes you can make real finds. Sterling silver and semiprecious stone jewellery are bargains waiting to be picked up! I happened to glance at a pair of sapphire earrings and before I had the chance to blink a sales lady had swooshed over and was offering them to me for a very special price of 1,500 baht (£30) which in all fairness is already less than I would pay anywhere in Europe. With no intention of purchasing them in the first place I politely declined, which to her was a cue to lower the price - just for me, naturally - to 1,200 baht. This went on until the price had dropped to 500 baht (£10) at which point I think she understood I wasn't going to show her the money.

White Temple - Wat Rong Khun

Back in the car and on the road again, after about an hour and a half we arrived at the White Temple.

Our guide explained it had been built in 1996 by Thailand's most famous artist, and that it wasn't quite ready yet but was to be finished 60 years after the death of this artist.

My vocabulary doesn't contain the words necessary to accurately describe this spectacular and unconventional building, all I can say is the sensation of awe at first sight was overwhelming . It is difficult to find a description that would make it justice and help someone else to visualise it.

I'll have a go anyway. The temple is white - shocking, huh? Admiring it from afar the temple seems to glimmer in the same way water does when the sun is reflected off the surface. It is only once you get closer that you see that the walls and the statues are decorated with tiny pieces or mirror that reflect the sunlight, and this is what gives the temple it's fantasy-like glimmer.

The temple is surrounded by shallow water (home to beautiful goldfish of all sizes) and there is a bridge connecting the outside garden with the path leading to the entrance. Beneath this bridge on both sides are hands and arms reaching up towards the bridge, some holding human skulls, as if they were begging to be saved - from what that I don't know. The devil? Death? These obscure hands and skulls are made in a noticeably darker shade, which stands out against the whiteness of the bridge and the rest of the temple. Apparently crossing the bridge to the path leading to the temple is the walkway to heaven.

The White Temple

As always when entering a temple we removed our shoes and stepped in to explore the inside. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it sure wasn't this. There was only this one room in the temple, and it was about 8x5 meters in size. Directly at the far end was a big golden statue of Buddha, and in front of the statue was a waxwork of Gautama Buddha the monk itself wearing a very traditional orange robe, sitting down in prayer. As I turned 180 degrees to face the door again to see what the Buddha was directing his prayer at, there was a huge painted face of the devil or demon covering most of the wall. Above the demon was a skull and scattered around sporadically all over the wall little reminders of everything evil in our world. So far so good. This is where it gets weird. Each of the devil's eyes has a person painted in the pupil; on the right is the face of Osama bin Laden and on the left is - guessed it yet? George W Bush.

When I said the wall has images of everything evil in this world here are a few of the images I remember: Goku, twin towers on fire, superman, Michael Jackson, a bottle of alcohol, the red bird from Angry Birds, Darth Vader, Spider-Man, man and woman having sex, Kung-Fu Panda, Freddy Krueger, Keanu Reeves in Matrix...you get the idea. Unfortunately pictures were not allowed so I can't show you the artwork in images.

The Golden Triangle

Again back in the van, we travelled for another hour and a half or so and arrived at the Mekong river. Here we climbed into a slow boat as they are called, an set off to explore this historic site.

The Golden Triangle, the place where Thailand borders with both Myanmar and Laos, was once upon a time the main trading place for opium and heroine. Our guide tells us that the main factory was in Myanmar (Burma), from where a private army then helped transfer the drug to the border or rather the no-man's-land of the river crossing between Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos. Here there was no police and no law to prevent trade, and easy access to China (3 days up the river), Vietnam and Cambodia. The opium traded here was the best and purest quality, and price was extremely high- 1kg opium for 1kg gold- and this is where the Golden Triangle gets its name.

On our way to Laos

Thailand banned opium 60 years ago but a lot of illegal trafficking still goes on.

Laos

After a tour of the no-man's-land we got off the boat in Laos. As we stepped out we were greeted by a number of orphans, age wise anywhere from nearly newborn to early teens, begging for money. We were advised not to give them money upon entry as they will then single you out as 'the generous one' and will surround you until you get back on the boat. Rather, if you wish to give them anything we were advised to do so when leaving. I was torn trying to decide whether or not to give these children anything - on the one hand it is usually not encouraged but at the same time it is heart breaking to look into their eyes and just walk away. I couldn't help myself and ended up handing out my change between them.

Orphan holding his sibling, Laos

Lao-Lao

The village we visited in Laos was nothing more than a market for tourists - yet again. The one thing you could try if anyone dared to were the animal rice whiskies, called Lao-Lao. These are animals such as snakes, scorpions, armadillos, or tiger penises sunk in rice whiskey and meant to give you strength and cure illnesses. I thought I was strong and healthy enough so didn't feel the need to try - just looking at them close up gave me an enormous burst of strength to make my way out of there.

Long Neck Tribe

After the triangle business and lunch we headed to visit the Long Neck Tribe. These are the people you have seen in National Geographic magazines where the women wear gold or brass rings around their necks. Apparently they get their first six rings when they are 5 years old, and then a ring per year until they are 25 or get married. The rings are worn their whole lives and according to our guide the women are not bothered about them at all but can do everything wearing these. Originally they were worn as protection from tiger attacks. Tigers attack by sinking their teeth into their prey's throat, and the reason only women wore them was because men were seen as strong enough to fight the tiger. Also originally they used to be made of gold but these days it's brass. I held one in my hand and let me tell ya, I wouldn't want to be wearing one of those everyday! It weighs about one and a half kilograms I'd say. Originally based in Burma/Myanmar, due to political conflict many of these tribes fled to Thailand and are very happy here.

The village itself was like a page straight out of a National Geographic book; the most rural village you can imagine with the most basic living conditions possible. Everyone was incredibly happy and friendly and more than willing to take pictures with the tourists. I presume tourism is their main source of income, selling handcrafted scarves and jewellery to visitors.

There, that was our VERY long day and now I am siting at a chill out bar relaxing with a beer in my hand, waiting for tomorrow's jungle adventure :)

Loving Chiang Mai and Thai Cooking!

Monks in Chiang Mai

Loving Chiang Mai! This town has a village feel to it, and it's the total opposite to Bangkok; everything is done at a slower pace and life is just chilled.

Someone told me there are 3,000 temples in this town which is the same amount as in Bangkok, except the population of Chiang Mai is 150,000 compared to Bangkok, which is approximately 8.3 million. So no wonder it feels there is a temple around every corner!

Eating our own cookings!

We did a cooking course the other day up in the mountains - so much fun!! As it turns out, I'm really good at cooking Thai food! We all had to choose five dishes to cook, and I decided to make Tom Yum soup (prawns with veg and chilli), a Thai green curry, a chicken, cashew, and dried chilli stir fry, a phad thai, and to finish off a banana in coconut milk dessert. It was all amazingly delicious and we even got a recipe book to take home. The place itself was stunning; located up in the mountains surrounded by rainforest, Wowzas!

Our hilarious teacher

Our teacher was hilarious. She would make jokes and then laugh hysterically at her own wittiness. When we were in the garden learning about thai herbs, vegetable and fruit, more often than not what she would pick up from the ground was, according to her, 'good for your maaaaan! Make them strong to work in the fields harder!' (Hysterical laughter)

All in all, a fantastic experience made even better thanks to our lovely group- an Australian girl traveller from Canberra, a Canadian couple on a mission to escape the icy winter, a Dutch couple on their first holiday together, and an Australian couple who were on their way back home after a six month tout of Africa and Eastern Europe. Great stories, even better cooking!

A Treat!