Trip to South East Asia

Apparently this is Lasagne?????

Emma and I in SAPA, what a view!!

Cu Chi Tunnel: Trap the Viet Cong used in the ground.

Ok a lot has happened since the last blog so I will do my best to dot point what a travelling nightmare (mainly bus related!) it has been these last few days...

1. 22nd of June was Jim's last day with us in Vietnam, we did some last minute trinket shopping, loaded up his bag with all our gifts to take home too and found a Beer Hoi (tap beer on the street for only 15 cents a pot!) It was sad to see him go, infact he must have been a minature buddha because our luck seemed to run out when he left for the airport.

2. 23rd June, trip to Halong Bay. This had the makings of a great 2 day trip on the South China Sea. Things started off kind of shakey when Emma woke up hung over as a goat, and spewed into all that she had at the time in the bus....a zip-lock bag, nice! Soon all the passangers around were offering her their own remedies ie. tiger balm on the temples from one lady, a lemon to smell from another lady, and some motion sickness tablets from some Vietnamese guy. Such lovely people!

3. We then waited around in scorching dry heat about 40 degrees waiting at the dock to get onto our boat. The tour guide didn't know what the hell was going on as I'm guessing all the tourists book through separate travel agencies and this one guy has to figure out who is going on what boat.

The boat was quite cute, reminded me of Pirates of the Carribean and lunch was provided so all looked quite promising. Our first stop was the limestone cave which was amazing. the only thing that was dissapointing was they lit up different parts of the cave with bright coloured lights or green, pink and orange...very kitch.

We actually tapped into some random tour guides group and got shown different rock formations that had supposed significance, yeah right! There was the two dragons, a lion, a couple kissing and a giant mothers breast, go figure?!

The afternoon option for the day was kayaking which Em and I jumped at the chance to do. It was lovely surrounded by limestone mountains/caves and little floating villages throughout. Em and I accidently went into this cave and there was a woman squatting out of her canoe, it was embarrassing for both parties!!

Then on the return journey we pulled up to the dock and the room key was resting inside the boat on the rope to pull us in. The lady grabbed the rope and our key fill into the murkey sea!! With no apology and a white rice bowl thrown in to mark the spot she just started shouting 100,000 Dong to retrieve it! We thought this was an outrage and went back on the boat to tell the crew what happened. Of course they spoke limited english and they guy simply looked away, shook his head and said no spare key. Most helpful! We got some other passengers to help us try and explain that we had to go back and get the key or maybe give us a spare key. But nothing would compute!! He understood what we were saying, but didn't want a bar of it. Em started getting upset cos if we couldn't get in our room then we had no way of getting our stuff or somewhere to sleep. We even threatened to kick the door down - didn't blink an eye-lid!

So we checked the windows and broke in that way. This action seemed to communicate to them and all of a sudden a SPARE KEY emerged in our door!! This wasn't the only thing that eluded us to their didgy-ness. The next morning one of the girls left her phone in the room after she'd locket it. Again the same guy didn't want a bar of it and after about 20 minutes of weird engrish/viet convo he opened this cupboard and pulled out her phone, sneaky bastard!! There was also more phones and cameras in there!! They didn't even think to ask anyone if we'd left a phone behind, just pocketed it!!

4. The trip home was another story all together....
After 3 different bus exchanges for what seemed like no reason, just tourguides telling us, "you go this bus" we could've been going anywhere. Then we kept picking up more and more people, a total of 18 in a 15 seater mini bus. Then we stopped and picked up boxes covered in black plastic, and other bags which were all stuffed between our legs and in the isle. Talk about black market trade!

5. We finally got back to Hanoi, which is the main city that we were to catch a 20hour bus into our next country Laos. Now this bus looked ok, it was no sleeping bus, but seemed to be doable for the over night trip. Well we boarded at 6pm drove around over the next 1.5hrs picking more people up and loading everyone's bags on top of the bus. Yes on top, just tied on with rope, I'll post a pic soon it was insane!! Then after the 2hour mark we realised that we were back where we boarded! There was trouble with the air con not working, so they tried to fix that for another 20 mins. So we were already far behind, with still 20hours to go!!

We started off and things seemed ok, then the lights started flickering, the air con went off again and they stopped AGAIN. In the end they gave up and we set off in the 35 degree heat with about 30 people in a bus! Then as we went along, the bus kept stopping every 30-60mins to keep picking up people and their luggage and what seemed like more black market goods!! The bus absolutely overloaded, it would not pass any regulations here in Australia.

I had a big sack of what smelt like horse poo and grass on the isle to my left, people in the isles on plastic chairs (including a woman and her baby) and the spare drivers in hamocks attached to the bag racks on the roof above my head! We were so heavy that the tyres made this screeching noise everytime we stopped and had to go again, and yet they still kept piling people in and more stuff on the roof which was now almost as high as the bus!!

6. Finally in Laos!!!! Will continue in next entry....

I have finally found a better place with FAST internet to write a blog entry and send some pics, but now my camera has decided to die. There is no zoom function and the battery craps itself almost every day, ahhhhhhhhh. So will have to pull resources with Emma's camera and hopefully post some soon!!!

We have been staying in Sapa, a beautiful mountain village where we're surrounded by clouds and rice paddies, marijuana plants and tea leaves. Last night we stayed with the Zao tribe, which involved living in their quarters upstairs in a stable like scenario with 10 other westeners and learnt about their way of life.

A lot of the time this involved trekking through bamboo rainforest, mountain terrain and drinking rice wine, eating traditional food and Jim and Michael wrestling with the kids!! There are soooooo many babies here too, babies of every animal!!! I'm so over being clucky every 2 seconds, there are baby dogs, cats, humans, chickens, pigs.... you name it and it has a baby. And not just one or two babies but 5 or more! Contraceptives must NOT be an option here!! Whatever it is I'm not drinking the water regardless!!!

Over the time here we have seen how the tribes make and dye their clothes with indigo plants, we have learnt about their traditions of marriage, which is usually arranged by the parents and if the couple do not like their chosen arrangement there is a poisonous plant they can eat in the mountains which the Zao tribe quite often do together in protest and commit suicide.

We have trekked over 20km in 3 days, with very steep vertical mud slides, rice paddies galore, mountins surrounding us and butterflies as abundant as pigeons in the city! And still we are hassled 24/7 by tribe people selling us jewelery, scalves, bags, belts to name a few.... Michael has given in the most, he's a sucker for the kids!!!

Our tour guide Hao is an absolute legend. Yet again we have killed it with a great guide, teaching us about the local traditions and showing us a card game or two. Bullshit is a personal favourite! Did you know that for the working class people in Sapa, blind dates take a whole new meaning. At the local market, the males plays and sings sweet love music in hope of finding a mate. Once he has spotted his bride to be he KIDNAPS her, yes takes her away against her will to a room in his house and locks her up there for 3 days. Here she has to contemplate whether or not she will marry this man, but ultimately it is up to her parents. Not cool!

Ok, too much talk and not enough pictures, sorry again the connection is hopeless here and will have to wait until we are back in the city. Love you all. xoxo

BBQ restaurant in Nha Trang, here you get served all different kinds of meats and vegies raw and then cook your own food on this cute coal barbeque. It was smokey but satisfying, prawns included!