Hanoi

Where to start! I'm not sure I can praise Hanoi enough. My favourite city so far in South East Asia.

So to start from the beginning

After a pretty uneventful flight I arrived in Hanoi and found my hostel with little trouble. After my free beer, yes the hostel gave out free beer for an hour every evening, I went for a few St Patricks Day beers. Suffice to say a bumped into several people that I've seen everywhere since Chiang Mai!!

My first full day I spent getting my bearings and wandering around the fantastic french style old town.

Day two I got up early to head off to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum only open in the morning. So after dead communist number 3 and a trip around the museums I geared myself up for the main event of the day... Ha Noi ACB vs Becamex Rd, a classic 3 - 3 draw with a last minute equaliser for the away team!




That evening was spent searching Hanoi for somewhere to watch the Spurs match. I almost wish I hadn't bothered! So frustrating!

After another day of museums (Temple of literature was great) and watching footy in bars I set off for a day trip to Halong Bay:




It was a great day out and although the weather was a bit overcast, the scenery was great. The 5 hours chilling out on a nice boat was also worth the trip!

I found myself with an extra day in Hanoi as I couldn't book an onward train, so I managed to squeeze in a visit to the Water Puppet Theatre. I was really glad I did as it was will worth the £1.20 it cost!

Although I did a lot of activities while in Hanoi, I mainly enjoyed just walking around taking in the feel of the place. Not bumping into the same crowd of people everywhere was a bonus too! (although they were still to be found in the obvious LP recommended backpacker bars). There were some great little bars as well, so was easy to avoid the obvious.

Having picked up the trains again I booked into a hotel in Hue. I think I've had enough of the backpacker scene for a couple of weeks!

Other news: My ribs are still sore and I'm gutted I'm missing out on a trip to the Bernabeu (although looks like I wouldn't have had enough loyalty points anyway...)

Vientiane

Vientiane was another example of a places that i really liked in spite of people saying "it's only worth a day there's nothing to do". It's was definitely the most chilled out capital I've ever visited.

But to start from the beginning...

I had planed to book a bus to Hanoi but after some research, concluded it was called the 'Hell Bus' for a reason and so booked a flight!

I used the extra day to visit... The national (formally revolutionary museum) with plenty of mentions of the "American Imperialists and their puppets"... I also managed to fit in the national football stadium, the local Market, the national symbol temple and the Laos version if the Arc de Triomphe!

But the most fun I had was a back to the 90's trip to a Laos bowling alley! The picture says it all. (Superbowl Milton Keynes I'm thinking of you...)




Hanoi look great so far (in spite of the English temperatures and rain)...

As always we'll speak anon

Vang Vieng

Where to start with Vang Vieng!!! Well it's certainly a party town!

We (the guys I met in Chiang Mai) arrived after a pleasant-ish minibus journey from Luang Prebang early afternoon and pretty easily found the hostel that had been recommend. That sort we headed out to see what there was to do. The answer seemed to be either drink or watch family guy...

The first full day, against all advice, we hired tubes and headed up to the river for some tubing (floating down the river in a large inner tube). Suffice to say we spent most the time in the bars using and the rope swings and little time actually tubing...
and yes I managed to injure myself with a glamourous belly flop from one of the rope swings. Injuring my ribs :o(
(I won't even go into the falling through a bridge incident...)

Having only tubed a quarter of the river on day 1, day 2 I rested my injuries by floating the whole way down the river with a couple of friends. Very chilled out.

Vang Vieng is entirely full of travellers in town for the party, some of which never leave!! The party gies on all day at the river and all night in town, so it's pretty hard going....

To get away from the party the next day a few of us hired scooters and went out and about visiting caves, lagoons all along the worst gravel roads I've ever seen!!

Having had more than enough of Vang Vieng we decided to head to Vientiane (Laos capital). There was a simple bus but also the option of kayaking. Not thinking of my ribs I booked this version. The morning we came to leave it was pissing it down with rain. It turned out kayaking was quite painful on the old ribs, so I didn't have much fun.

Now a day or two in Vientiane before my flight to Viatnam. I'll post an update then.

Darts

Just stumbled on a darts based game in a random temple in Laos!!! You had to pop 3 balloons with 3 darts to win a prize... Suffice to say I showed the kids how to do it properly (well on my third attempt anyway)

Chiang Mai

After Bangkok it was a relief to be heading up to Northern Thailand and the beautiful city of Chiang Mai.

The hostel I was staying at (a little bird hostel) was one of the nicest and most social I've stayed at in Asia, which was another welcome change from Bangkok!

I spent my first day exploring the old town which still had the remains of its original wall and moat. Within this centre were numerous Buddhist temples and random little alleys and parks to explore.

An example of one of the stupas




I then did the usual trick of hiring a scooter for a couple of days and exploring the nearby mountain roads stopping off to visit the Doi Suthep a sacred Buddhist sight with amazing views of the surrounding areas.

Then came the silly mistake of booking a trek. Sounds innocent enough but didn't do my broken foot any good....

The trek was great fun though. Elephant riding:




A big trek up to 1200 meters before staying with a hill tribe and when I say up I mean UP I thought I was going to die!!

It could have been worse, one of the two lads I've been travelling with lost his wallet half way up... The local 17 year old took them back down (at a sprint)!!! They reached 10 yards from where they thought they'd lost the wallet when the guide suddenly sprinted past them the other way. At this point he shouted elephants!! Charging elephant's doesn't sound much fun to me. When they made it back to the camp I'd never seen two more tired people in my life!!!

Day two involved trekking back down (hence throbbing broken foot) and then white water rafting, before bamboo rafting, cracking trip.

The trip to Laos was a two day slow boat to Luang Prabang which involved drinking and er... Drinking

Now following the traveller trail through Laos. I'll keep you informed

Ooops

It's just dawned on me that I have only seven weeks to fit in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Malaysia and get back to Singapore....

Somehow I think it's not all going to happen

Bangkok

I'll start off by saying I wasn't overly impressed with Bangkok, I'll try not to moan in this post too much though...

I was staying in a small (pretty shite) hostel in Silom which is away from the old town and the Khao San Road but near all of the transport links.

For me Bangkok in particular seems to exist solely for the benefit of tourists and the worship of the King very strange.

The main evening entertainment areas were either full of two week hippies, or catering for sex tourists! Both of these groups seemed to be primarily English (never a good sign)

In the week I was there I decided my time between the sights, including a river cruise (just to upset my Mum), shopping and the usual trip to weekend markets and a football match:

Army United vs Sriratcha FC (3 - 1) to United:





Okay I have whinged a fair bit so far even though I promised not to. I did enjoy the Modern Art Gallary (I know, I'm grasping at straws), the footy was a good laugh and Arsenal did get beaten in the Carling Cup final while I was there.... And er, there were some good shopping malls....

The highlight of Thailand so far was the train journey to Chiang Mai. The train was the nicest I've been on since China really comfy and passed through some magnificent scenery. Trains are definitely the way to travel the world (India excluded)

Chiang Mai seems really nice so far. With pleanty of opportunities to get out of the town. Hopefully I'll manage to get in a bit of trekking (foot permiting of course)

I'm here for 3 days so I'll keep you updated as ever...