Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Xin Chao
Hey everyone,
Well I thought its time to write another update now that we are over
half way! We arrived in SE Asia on the 26th of May and made our way to
northern Thailand where we spent a relaxing few days in Chiang Mai,
and a couple of days with Tobz cousin. Chiang Mai was a fantastic
place for Thai culture, food, handcraft shopping and we also managed
to go to a Muay Thai Championship tournament that included a NZ
fighter. We then took a couple of buses heading North East staying in
some small towns on the way to the Laos border. The scenery was just
amazing so I loved every minute of being in the rickety run down dusty
buses with doors that couldn’t close 
We started meeting fellow backpackers once we got into Laos, a number
of them (Dutch, Swiss, Irish and Canadian) that we spent the next 10
days travelling with. We took a slow cargo boat overloaded with
backpackers 2 days down the river on hard wooden seats to a gorgeous
french town called Luang Prabang where we spent a few days eating a
wandering through the town. Laos has a 11:30pm curfew where all locals
have to be at their homes otherwise they are in deep poo but the
falang ("foreigners") don’t have to abide by these laws so everyone
goes bowling!?! Needless to say, bowling is very interesting in Laos;
imagine 200+ backpackers drinking Beer Lao, yelling as loud as
possible and attempting to bowl. Its a sight in itself. I’m glad none
of the locals get to see or I’d be very embarrassed for the whiteman.
We headed south more through the mountains where some of the most
poorest communities in Asia live, many World Vision communities - it
was amazing scenery and a really eye opening trip. One of my
highlights. Funny thing is at the end of the 7 hour bus journey
(incidentally our bus we had originally booked never existed which is
our 17th time we’ve been scammed thus far but thats another story in
itself) we arrived in a small town on a river that exists solely for
tourists. Its like a small Las Vegas in the middle of one of the
poorest countries in the world. Picture this: neon lights, Beer Lao
signs everywhere, a surplus of guesthouses, restaurants that have not
chairs but benches with squabs on them to lie back and watch Friends
or Family Guy and fake audience laughter blaring all down the street.
But best of all, when you are given a menu at one of these restaurants
you are also subtly passed a “special” menu (by subtle i mean face
down) called the “Happy and Fun For You” menu where you can partake in
the local specialty (either “happy” which is marijuana, or mushroom or
opium tea/coffee/shake/pizza or just a joint or bag). - No mum I’m
still an angel but I was impressed with their Marketing The best
part about Vang Vieng was the tubing; hundreds of mad tourists
floating down the Mekong river in a tube with a beer or “bucket”!
We we’re very ready to leave Vang Vieng though and headed for the
capital where we took a flight to Hanoi… hello Vietnam! Hang on, I’m
not quite ready for you. We had to wake up the minute we arrived and
guard ourselves from the many touts and scammers - they don’t hold
back here. The place is frantic as the Chinese cities only with
another million motorbikes spitting black exhaust fumes and honking at
you as you as they almost run you over. We are off to beautiful Halong
Bay in a couple of days to meet up with an irish/korean couple we met
in China. Hopefully the bus we have booked turns up!
Okay everyone, thats enough for now - hope everyone is well, love your
emails, keep ‘em coming.
Love Libs
xxx
PS. Hope to have some pics up very soon - will let you know.