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I am aware that I owe you, avid readers, some pictures. Blogging without pictures is like eating a welldone rump steak without a glass of red. I confess with little remorse that I’ve been too lazy to work out how to put them up until now. Here are a selection of my favourites and I will try to get some more up when appropriate. I’ve decided to stay with low res. at the moment but may try and get some larger ones up if that makes more sense. Yay for my new camera! No photos of birthday debauchery however 
Thailand.
Malaysia
Laos
I’m in Hanoi at the moment relaxing in luxury in the Old Quarter. US$20 a night for some swank digs with a computer in our room – perfect for blogging!
Luang Prabang.This is a UNESCO world heritage town which is alleged to be the most picturesque city in Southeast Asia! Its long tree-lined boulevards bounded by Laotian Wats and French-influenced maisons. Luang Prabang is squeezed on two sides by rivers and the peninsula thereby formed is where the Laotian kings lived. Very slow place but very restful and ended up meeting two kiwis and two aussies (kiwis being very thin on the ground so far)! The drinking curfew that starts at midnight is only excepted in the bowling alley because it’s sport which means its healthy and what activity can be judged healthier than bowling balls sloshed at 3am? The only downside being having to turn down all the offers of opium and weed from hopeful moto drivers on the walk home. The big highlight in Luang Prabang was visiting the waterfall 1 hr drive away and lounging around in the lagoon about 50 m above the base of the falls. The mountain water was a shade of azure so inviting, we had to scale some treacherous path to paddle in its Blue Lagoon-like waters…
In any case, Luang Prabang is most suitable for honeymooning couples and those with a particular bent for architecture and building restoration techniques. You can also travel between Luang Prabang and Thailand via slow boat.
Luang Prabang to Hà Nôi.Our most epic adventure yet! By bus to Hà Nôi was an inspired move in order to save ourselves the cost/danger of a flight via Air Laos. Therefore we decided to drive via public bus to the border crossing of Na Xoi (Laos)/Na Maew (Vietnam) which our trusty Bible (Lonely Planet) appellated the most remote border crossing in Laos. Well. Leaving at 10.30am via public bus (not too bad actually, not many people on the bus but acts rather like a taxi where they honk in every village they go through and people get on and off as it proceeds, it being the only form of public transport in these parts, once a day) we drove northwest through some really beautiful highland rural areas where the villages cluster along the roadside, little bamboo huts on stilts from where they farm incredibly steep, misty hillsides for tobacco leaf and bamboo. We wound our way up the hills into some pretty rugged areas, rutted and potholed, and through a National Park where they still have tigers in the wild. We were the only foreigners on the bus and we shared the first leg with farmers taking their crops to market (three enormous bags of tobacco leaf – good for sleeping on I found) and people visiting their families from the cities.
We arrived in Sam Nuea (aka Xam Nua), a dusty and uninspiring provincial supply town at 1am and woke an innkeeper from his slumber to crash for a few hours. By 7am we were at the other bus station (one being for destinations west and the other north and east) to probably get ripped off by purchasing a US$35 bus ticket to Hanoi. This journey commenced at 8am and we drove alongside a twisting river towards the Vietnamese lowlands collecting an eclectic collection of fellow travellers. The border buildings were appropriately massive Soviet-style edifices with appropriately non-existent traffic. After being searched thoroughly by the Vietnamese border guards and our details taken down in a large leather-bound book (no computers here!) and temperatures taken (to check for H1N1 symptoms) we stopped for lunch of course!
The views were incredible with the bus travelling through another National Park through twisting gorges eastward with farmers tending their rice paddies using water buffalo to pull their plows, water wheels in the rushing river lifting water to the upper paddies and bamboo chutes delivering the water to paddies lower down. They were in a harvesting phase with rice fronds (?) being sickled and gathered ready for threshing. The detritus was being burnt and the rice being dried on large tarpaulins by the side of the road. Following some wonderful scenery and inspired bus driving (regular honking to drive cows off the road and warn oncoming cars as well as McCrae-esque swerving to avoid potholes) we arrived in Thanh Hoa where we celebrated with the bus drivers by chopping a mug of beer with them. This is also where the bus driver was delighted to find a live turtle left on the bus by a passenger (almost under my seat!) which he no doubt turned into a family feast that night!
The Bus of Doom. Abandon all hope ye who enter here. We switched buses for the last stretch, three hours into Hanoi. Without a doubt the most harrowing transport experience of my life. the shuddering bus horn noise still grates as memories of this mad trip subside. The driver I suspect had a point to prove by being the most insane driver in the fleet and attempted to drive the bus as if it were a supercar. I had heard that the stretch of State Highway 1 into Hanoi was a dangerous stretch but had no idea! He banked and swerved to overtake buses on a two lane road, (by the way it was pitch dark by this stage) riding the horn constantly, overtaking a truck overtaking a truck with a truck oncoming, avoiding potholes by swinging the wheel as if it weren’t chocka with white-knuckled Vietnamese, blasting ambulances out of the way, deciding two lanes really meant three and ducking back into the lane with the barest of margins. After all that he did in fact stop for 10 min to check the tires, safety first! A blend of skill and insanity. You take your life into your hands travelling on this stretch of road so we are taking the train next time!
Next post will cover Hà Nôi, Halong Bay and Cat Ba (perhaps with a little Sapa thrown in too!).
Crackle pop! I’ve been traversing Laos via Vientiane then Vang Vieng – the party capital of Laos and a significant destination for dissolute Aussie and English lads and laddettes as well as the usual grab-bag of Israelis, Dutch, Americans and Canadians. Finally rolled through Luang Prabang like a demon and am now soaking up moto fumes in Hanoi, Vietnam!
Laos.Whenever people want to talk about obscure Southeast Asian countries, Laos inevitably comes up. Deservedly so because it is small (population of ~5 million), landlocked and is the least economically developed due to its relative lack of natural resources for Western companies to exploit and its Communist government. Laos is a former French colony and this is shown via architecture (wonderful old moldering French mansions), diet (a baguette is common breakfast food and Laos coffee is incredible –some of the best I have ever tasted, that includes Wellington ha!) and the French language which is still spoken by older Laotians. It is also very much a rural, agriculturally based economy with rice grown everywhere. The landscape is studded with limestone karsts and rugged looking jungle. Truly beautiful! Also, the most bombed country in the world (US Secret War in the late 1960s, early 1970s), according to Wikipedia!
Vientiane. This is the capital city and the one we flew into. The most laid back capital city I have ever seen. It nestles alongside the mighty Mekong River which forms the border between Laos and Thailand till it punches out to sea via Cambodia. Get this – the capital city is built on the border and you can see Thailand from the riverside! The people are very welcoming and nowhere near as pushy (in terms of wanting you to buy whatever) as in Thailand. We stayed near a black stupa (Bhudda relic) called That Dam. We promptly took the opportunity to indulge in the famous Beer Lao, a truly wonderful beverage that comes in large (640 ml) bottles and is sold everywhere for around 12,000 kip a bottle which is about NZ$2.40. There is very little advertising in Laos except for the omnipresent Beer Lao and there is very little other beer available (Beer Lao claims a 99% market share in Laos).
The National Museum was similarly mouldering, but entertainingly castigated the imperialist Yankees and the guest book was chocka with comments by outraged American tourists suggesting changes to the translations of the exhibit explanations! Laos also has a curfew for most of its bars of around 11.30pm which was a nice change for the abused liver. In short a delightful backwater!
Vang Vieng. The aforementioned town is situated on the Nam Song river, a tributary of the Mekong. The scenery is spectacular with massive limestone cliffs looming over the river and mist wreathing their heights till the sun burns it off. It is now a backpacker mecca with a small slice of Bangkok’s Khao San Rd transplanted here. What draws us? Booze, adrenaline highs via rope swings, tubing and drugs!
Happy Menu!!! Fruit shakes with weed, opium and mushrooms, mushroom omelettes, opium tea, opium coffee, lassie with mushrooms, ‘happy’ garlic bread, pizza and of course the perennial bag o’ weed and joint. Suffice it to say we stayed safe. Tubing whilst sporting mushroom eyes is not recommended. Ditto smoking without knowing which bar has paid off the police can lay you open to a large USD fine. Having sex in public resulted in a couple US$500 fines each just after we left!
We met a couple of Aussies (including a transplanted New Zealander) on the bus and tagged along as they met another Aussie who had been in Vang Vieng for 6 months. Doing promo work for a local bar and having all food, booze and tubing paid for. Heaven? So long as you can hack it! In a sad finale to her stay she took out 800,000 kip (NZ$150) from the local Western Union and had it stolen the day before she left by a Laotian friend cracked up on Yaba.
Tubing in Vang Vieng was incredible fun. Synopsis – get a rubber tyre inner and float from bar to bar while making the most of rope swings at each bar. We were a little concerned when the river rose about 2 metres overnight due to monsoon rain, however all for the best as it meant a faster river and more/less danger (deeper river means no danger of dropping onto the rocks at the base of some of the swings)! There were rope swings, a hydroslide where someone apparently died a fortnight before and a flying fox! Of course the rapid rise of the river had washed away three bars on the river and two bridges so there were about five bars left. In addition to practicing debauchery on the river, we went to visit some caves (unfortunately somewhat lame – went to the wrong caves) and watched the muddy river flow past our breakfast spot with pieces of bar, bridges and logs. Most excellent fun and highly recommended for drunken adrenalin junkies!
Following a couple of days in Vang Vieng we took a 6 hour minibus to Luang Prabang.
