North Vietnam – Sleeper Train, Sapa Trekking and the Ha Giang loop

Sleeper Train

We got the night train from Hanoi to Lao Cal which set off at 9.30pm and arrived at 5.30am. This was our second night train experience, you might remember the train we took in Thailand (if you don’t check out the blog here). This, however, was slightly different. It had cabins with 4 beds in, we were the first to arrive and thought we would be the only ones as our beds had snacks on and the other two didn’t. However, we were soon joined by a couple of locals. One lady with a 1 year old who was so cute (and the quietest baby), and then one man who snored (and we thought the baby would be the noisy one!). We set off at 9.30pm and were excited to pass Train Street from inside the train this time. We soon settled into bed as we had a very early arrival time, Chris took the top bunk which I was grateful for as it was so hard to climb up to. It took us a while, but we did eventually get off to sleep. Then I woke up to an alarm, I checked the time and it was only 1.30am, then the conductor came past the cabins knocking on the doors saying the name of a station, the two locals both got off that this stop. This panicked us a little as I thought maybe our stop wasn’t the last stop after all. So, I set an alarm for 5.20am to make sure we woke up and had enough time to get our things packed away to jump off the train. It did turn out it was the last stop, but it was great to be organised anyhow! 

Sapa Trekking

As we had booked a trekking tour for 2 nights in Sapa we were picked up by our tour operator from the train station and taken to their office in Sapa which was about an hour’s drive away from Lao Cal. I’m so glad we had this booked as when we got off the train we were immediately hounded by touts, so it was nice to be able to say we had transport booked. When we arrived at the office we took a shower and freshened up from the train, then were taken to a local hotel for a buffet breakfast. It was so cold when we arrived in Sapa we were both worried we would be very cold on the trek. We packed all the warm clothes we had (that we have been wearing the whole time in Hong Kong totally ready to do laundry!) into little bags as our main bags were staying in the tour office. We were then greeted by Mu our trekking guide for the 2 days. Mu belongs to the Hmong people, one of the minority ethnic groups here in Vietnam, she was dressed in traditional clothing and told us all about her culture and how the people live today in this area. We jumped into a mini bus and drove to a village in the mountains, as we had booked the tour on Trip Advisor we knew to expect the local women and their pushy sales techniques trying to sell us some handmade items. The problem is these ladies come in groups and if you buy something, the rest of the group want you to buy someone from them too. We were advised it’s best just to say no thank you, and they leave you alone (eventually). When the mini bus pulled into the village we saw two ladies on lookout jump up with such excitement, run to their friends and then follow the bus until it stopped. It was like a bunch of teenagers had just spotted One Direction in a bus or something. They actually left me alone as soon as I said no thank you and were more interested in Chris. Mu just lead us away and had a little giggle she explained to us that these ladies belonged to a different tribe to her and spoke a different language. 

We then started our 8 mile trek to our lunch spot. To start with it was very cloudy, Sapa town is actually at a higher altitude then Ben Nevis! We walked out of the village onto a mud road and then climbed over a stone quarry on the mountain, then followed the mud road around the mountain for a while. Even though it was cloudy the view was incredible, the pictures just don’t do it justice. I think to see the rice fields in their full glory it’s best to go in August and September, so you see the true green edged mountains. Mu pointed out to us that if it wasn’t cloudy we would actually be able to see the Chinese mountains and my phone actually at that point sent me a massage saying welcome to China. Also, I hadn’t realised at the time, but my phone kept changing time zones. 

A few hours into the trek I really needed to go to the toilet, so asked Mu if where we stopped for lunch would have a toilet, she just giggled and said everywhere is a toilet. So that was it, I let them walk on a bit, was at one with nature, then caught them up again.

We arrived at our lunch spot and Mu prepared our sandwiches, we sat on a massive rock making a natural table and enjoyed the amazing views. By this time a lot of the clouds had lifted and it was actually pretty sunny – we hadn’t expected that and got pretty burnt! 

We trekked another 4.5 miles after lunch to the village where our homestay was, we met another couple Victoria & Andrea with their guide, Su. It was great to spend the evening with them sharing our travel stories and getting tips of places we are traveling to. Andrea has just started vlogging and here is a link to his YouTube channel, we will be in the Sapa video he does, so when that’s done we will link the video in one of our blogs so keep an eye out for that! It was also interesting to stay at the home of a Red Dao tribe family. When we arrived the children were playing in the yard whilst the parents were working. Our accommodation was basically a shed in the yard with a bed in it! We had dinner cooked by the family which was lovely, they served tofu with tomatoes, pork with mushrooms, green beans with garlic, rice and new year pork. The pork was from a pig which they slaughtered at new year, it had the most amazing smokey taste, but was very fatty and chewy. Before (and after) the meal they served us some ‘happy water’, this is a rice-based spirit and is pretty harsh! I drank one before the meal, but couldn’t cope with a second and the mother of the house caught me trying to tip it away – luckily she thought it was funny and just joked I had to drink more. The family had made this themselves, and I then remembered advice from the foreign office to not drink unbranded spirits here as they have been very high levels of methanol…

The following day we all trekked together for about 8 miles to the lunch spot, again the views were amazing. The locals are all really friendly and are very welcoming to westerners. As we walked past a village school all of the little children came running out and were shouting hello at us, they were so cute! In the evening we met up with Andrea and Victoria for Pizza! Strangely, there is a lot of Italian restaurant in Sapa, so as Andrea is Italian we let him choose where to go!

We chose to stay 2 more nights in Sapa, mainly just to relax as we have had a very busy week with Hong Kong and then the trekking. So, we upped our budget slightly and stayed somewhere nicer with a balcony view of the mountain. We did get a bit of a view on the first afternoon/evening, but the following day was so foggy we could just see clouds. Every other shop in Sapa is an outdoor clothing store selling fake sportswear. So here is the place to get North face (or North Fake as everyone calls it), Nike, Adidas for a very cheap price, I picked up some Nike leggings and a Under Armour long sleeved top for £6. I didn’t really like Sapa town, it’s basically a construction site as the trekking in the area brings a lot of tourists so they need to build more hotels. Also young children dressed in traditional clothes sat in the cold for you to take pictures of them and earn their parents’ money, it’s so sad to see. However, it’s the hub for trekking, so my advice is just don’t expect too much here and don’t hang around long after your trekking. You could actually get away without staying in Sapa as there is night transport, however, we’re avoiding the night sleeper buses at all costs! 

Ha Giang Loop

We got a bus from Sapa to Ha Giang city through the trekking company for 220k VND each (£7.15), which included a lift to the bus station, which was out of town. The bus set off at 8am and arrived in Ha Giang at 3pm (with a couple of stops along the way). When I was looking into things to do in Ha Giang I soon realised you needed to either take a motorbike or hire a driver to get around the loop as the public buses don’t go everywhere, and it’s hard to travel in the area. The tours were coming out really expensive. So, I asked the tour company in Sapa if they had any recommendations and they gave me a guide’s details. After a brief WhatsApp chat we booked a non-inclusive 2 day loop tour. He also offered an all inclusive package but it was almost double the price. He helped us arrange accommodation both in Ha Giang city and then Dong Van where we would stay during the tour, and collected us from the bus station when we arrived. When we were walking around Ha Giang all the children we met along the way stopped and said hello to us, they don’t get many tourists in this area so when they do they really appreciate it. 

The weather wasn’t that great when we were high in the mountains, but when we were low we saw some incredible views. North Vietnam is well worth a visit in all weather, however, I’m sure as like with Sapa, the summer is better. Phong, our guide, told us about life for the tribes in this area. As it’s very mountainous there isn’t much flat land so have to be a lot more resourceful. Life is very hard for the people living on the mountains as they need to carry a lot of the resources they need up from the villages in the valleys. In the Hmong tribes they speak Chinese, so the parents often work in China as they can earn 600k per day rather than the 100k in Vietnam. The children stay with their grandparents and are sent out to work on the land or to get money from tourists. When we were stopped at one of the viewing points, Phong had to break up a fight between a couple of young boys who were arguing over some money that had been given to them when a tourist took a photo with them. It wasn’t enough to share so they were fighting over who gets it. Phong explained that these children would be expected to bring money home and give to their grandfather who would have just been at home all day drinking ‘happy water’ which is made from corn in this region (very strong like 40%). He said that as it’s so cold in the mountains the ‘happy water’ is drank in the morning by everyone (even the children) to keep them warm and make them happier! 

Phong took us to a weekly market in one of the towns – all of the village & mountain tribes travel there to buy and sell goods for the week. You could buy everything here from meat to vegetables, phones to toiletries, clothes to chickens and pigs. I really didn’t like seeing how they treated the pigs in the market (they were tied up and shivering on the floor) and soon got out of that area. The rest of the market was so busy and like nothing we have seen before. We stopped for lunch in Yeh Min where we noticed they had roasted dog meat on the menu, apparently in the mountains they eat anything. Phong also told us about how they eat live monkey brains too, but I won’t go into the detail of that and lucky we didn’t witness it – I mean even China have banned this, so it must be bad! After lunch we joined Phong for some green tea and a few other people were smoking from bamboo pipes. A Vietnamese tourist offered Chris some and he had a go. Apparently it was very strong, it was only tobacco (but a strong ‘wild tobacco’), but the man did say make sure you sit down for 10 minutes after. 

We stayed the night in Dong Van which is a lovely little village, but it was so cold. We just ventured out for some dinner and then headed back to our hotel. The next day we were heading back to Ha Giang, but via Mai Pi Leng Pass which had a spectacular view. Although it was a long couple of days in a car and the weather wasn’t really on our side, it was a great experience to see rural life and the amazing views (when there wasn’t any clouds), and also some little towns and villages we just wouldn’t have seen otherwise. You can do a 4 day loop which would have bored me being in the car driving around for that long. Most people choose to take a motorbike around the loop, but for the unexperienced motorbike rider it’s a not particularly safe. You can go with an ‘easyrider’ where you go on the back of a motorbike, but for both of us this would have worked out more money than the car, and again so easy to have an accident on the mountain roads. 

We stayed an extra night in Ha Giang and Phong helped us book a bus back to Hanoi. We had an early start with the bus collecting us at 6.45am. We had booked the VIP bus which was a normal size coach, but with only 16 seats. It only took 6 hours rather then the usual 8! It was slightly more money 300k (£10) each but we saved by not having to get a taxi to the bus station in the morning. We had expected the bus to take us to the bus station in Hanoi so we could get another bus to Ninh Binh, however, it just parked up on the side of the street in the outskirts of Hanoi. As we were being ushered off a local overheard us questioning to each other what was going on, she explained to us that we were getting off this bus and transferring to a mini van. We told her we wanted to go to the bus station and she said she would talk with the driver to help us, the next thing you know the driver has grabbed a ‘Grab motorbike’ driver, told us he would take us to the bus station, and the doors to the minivan were closed. We didn’t fancy taking the motorbike (both of us with our luggage) so we opted to go to the nearest cafe, we got a couple of coconut coffees (I love these, they’re basically coconut cream smoothies with coffee poured into them) and used the WIFI to plan the next leg of our travel day. Chris found a train to Ninh Binh at 2.30pm and ordered a Grab (car) to the train station, the traffic was so bad and we actually got to the train station a minute late! The next train wasn’t for 5 hours! We decided rather then messing about going then across the city again to the bus station, we would just get the train tickets for the 7.30pm train and hang around until then. We’re now in our homestay in Ninh Binh, only a short 15 hours after we left the hotel in Ha Giang. Today was a long travel day, but we’re here now, it’s warmer yay! Chris is excited to be getting the vests out again.

Here is the map of where we have been so far, can you believe we have traveled as the crow flies 4,587Km so far whilst we have been in Asia.

Lisa & Chris xx

Hong Kong

I’ve always wanted to visit Hong Kong, so as it is a short flight from Hanoi we decided to head there for a few days, and what an eventful few days it turned out to be!

Chungking Mansions

Accommodation in Hong Kong is super expensive, so we knew we’d have to make a compromise here (usually we budget £10-15 per night with location/cleanliness as priority). Lisa found a guest house on Airbnb (located on Kowloon Island) which was approx £25 a night and seemed to hit the points above. The room was tiny, but modern/clean and very central.

Arriving at our accommodation, we had been warned to ignore the touts near the entrance. What I didn’t expect is for these touts to actually be inside the building, of which the whole ground floor is a massive indoor market selling counterfeit goods, SIM cards, street food and money exchange counters. We had to walk our way through this maze of a market ignoring people trying to flog us stuff and try to find the lifts for block E. This, I thought was strange, and not the usual entrance to a guest house! Arriving at the lifts, the next alarm bell rang as I noticed there were TV screens showing live CCTV images inside the lifts – what kind of place needs that! When we got to our floor and found the entrance to our guest house, I was a bit annoyed to see a sign saying reception was in a totally different block, and we’d need to go there to check in. Luckily, they had a CCTV doorbell and advised our room was actually on the 15thfloor in block C (also a bit annoying), and the key was in the room so we could make our way straight there. We made our way back down, through the market/maze to block C, and to our room (more alarm bells were ringing when I saw the private residences had metal gates locked in front of their doors!).

At this point I decided to google ‘Chungking Mansions’ and pretty much the first thing I saw was a BBC news article with the headline “Chungking Mansions: Inside Hong Kong’s favourite ‘ghetto’”, there were many more news articles not giving a favourable impression. I also found a book had been written about this building, it’s on Amazon and is titled ‘Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions’, with the following description: “There is nowhere else in the world quite like Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong’s tourist district. A remarkably motley group of people call the building home; Pakistani phone stall operators, Chinese guesthouse workers, Nepalese heroin addicts, Indonesian sex workers, and traders and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there—even backpacking tourists rent rooms”.

The building is made up of 4 blocks, with 4-5,000 residents in total. With the market downstairs, guesthouses and some businesses, at any one time there are approximately 10,000 people in the building. I spent most of the nights lying in bed thinking about Grenfell Tower (on 15thfloor with well over 1,000 people in the block and only two very dodgy staircases), and most of the days worrying about things getting stolen from our room. There was also a list of ‘fines’ up on the wall, for example leaving a towel on the floor or any electrical items on while you are not in the room – we heard a member of staff demanding money off the people in the room next to us at 11pm for a stain on a towel, which they were protesting wasn’t them. Although it was an interesting experience, I would recommend increasing budget if staying in Hong Kong!

Tai O fishing village

This is an old fishing village with stilted houses over the water, located on Lantau Island. It was a bit of an effort getting here (Star Ferry to Hong Kong Island, another ferry to Lantau, and then a bus across the island to Tai O), but so worth it! When I thought of Hong Kong, I just imagined big sky scrapers, I had no idea there were places like this here. We spent some time walking around the market where they sold lots of seafood, and in particular lot of dried fish and cuttlefish. Whilst Hong Kong Island and Kowloon feel extremely western, this place really did feel like a little Chinese village and I’m really glad we made the effort to go there. We found out later that you could get a MTR (the Hong Kong underground) to Ngong Ping and then get the bus to Tai O which would have been much cheaper and probably quicker!

We also took a small boat tour, I was expecting this to be a slow relaxing trip, but the little boat went out to sea bouncing over the waves to show us the long bridge which links the island to mainland China. It then took us into the harbour so we could see the stilted houses from the water. Although it was fun to go on the boat, I don’t think this is a must do as you can see the stilted houses well from the land, and the bridge isn’t particularly exciting.

We tried a ‘husband’, which is minced pork with lettuce, wrapped in a thin fried bread which was pretty nice, and also a local donut which was lovely – more gooey in the middle than what we’d have at home. We didn’t fancy trying any of the dried fish they had on offer here.

Before taking the ferry back, we also stopped quickly at Silvermine Bay Beach in Mui Wo.

Hong Kong Island

One of our favourite ways to learn about a place is take a walking tour, so we booked one of these on Hong Kong Island. It was interesting learning about the history of Hong Kong. The UK had permanent ownership of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, but only a 99 year lease on what they called the New Territories. This lease ran out in 1997, but the Chinese wanted all of Hong Kong back. It is felt the truth is not known about why the British voluntarily handed back Hong Kong, but it is thought that the Chinese said they want it back and will fight for it, so Maggie Thatcher agreed to hand it over. Also Hong Kong was financially independent from the UK, but they relied on taxes and sale of land from Kowloon and the New Territories, so if only this went back to China, the UK government would have had to subsidise Hong Kong & Kowloon. Additionally people would have moved from the New Territories to the already over populated islands of Hong Kong and Kowloon.

Most people in Hong Kong were worried about being ruled by China (who wouldn’t be, right!), so started to move out of Hong Kong, but were reassured when it was agreed it would be ‘one country, two systems’ and they would retain an independent government for 50 years. At the moment they feel this system is working well, and our tour guide was saying even in front of the Chinese CCTV cameras he can talk about what happened in Tiananmen Square, but he’s not sure how long that will last for and nobody knows what will happen in 2047 (the end of the 50 years). He did say ultimately the Chinese do rule, and although it’s meant to be two systems, they do overrule and change things as they see fit. For example, the Hong Kong people were promised a democratic election for their CEO (what they call their president/prime minister as Hong Kong is ran like a business), but then found out that only people chosen by the hierarchy were allowed to stand. There was a big street protest about this, and the government responded by dropping tear gas and arresting the organisers. They were found guilty and sentenced to ‘conspiracy to commit public nuisance’, ‘incitement to commit public nuisance’, and ‘incitement to incite public nuisance’. This went to the court of final appeal where they were found not guilty, until the Chinese government intervened and they are back under trial. It will be really interesting to see what happens in 2047, and although there’s a lot of worry at home with Brexit, it does make me feel lucky to live in a democracy.

In the afternoon we took a taxi up to the top of Victoria Peak (we found taxi’s in Hong Kong to be cheaper then Uber), this was a must do for me as most of the amazing pictures that had made me want to visit Hong Kong had been taken from here. We timed it so we could see the sights in the afternoon sun, follow the ‘Peak Cycle Walk’ and then see the city lights after sunset. The walk was amazing, with the views getting better and better the further we went. There’s not much to say about this, other than let the pictures do the talking!

In the evening we went to Yat Lok for some goose on rice which was delicious (they have a Michelin star!). We’d been recommended this restaurant in another blog, but were a bit unsure on arrival as the owner was shouting at some American tourists who were saying they’d already paid their bill, but she wanted more money. We spoke to the Americans and they said the food was amazing so they’d still recommend it to us. It was a pretty quick in-out affair, but I would recommend going here.

Kowloon Island

Although we stayed on this island, we didn’t actually spend much time here. We went to the laser show on the first night (it’s every night at 8pm) and although was pretty cool (they play music and all the sky scrapers light up in different colours in time to it), it wasn’t really that impressive (it was pouring with rain which didn’t help).

I tried a traditional Chinese breakfast on the first morning here. It was rice and chicken which I though was a fairly safe bet. It was actually rice with a boiled chicken wing inside and a sauce which I have no idea what it was. I really didn’t like it, I had one bite and then at half of Lisa’s western breakfast! As much as I want to try the local food and avoid western wherever possible, breakfast is the one meal I find the hardest!

In the evening we headed deeper into Kowloon on the MTR once we worked out how it worked (apparently its easier then the underground!) and went to a restaurant called ‘One Dim Sim’. This was awarded a Michelin Star in 2012 and is apparently the place in Hong Kong to go for Dim Sum. It was actually amazing, the best meal of the trip so far and the best Chinese I’ve ever eaten. We had loads to eat and the whole bill only came to about £16 so I’d thoroughly recommend it!

After this, we stopped at the night market. It just seemed to be full of tat to be honest and didn’t have the charm of the markets in Thailand and Laos. We bought a banana and chocolate bubble waffle and sat on the kerb eating this before heading back to the ghetto for sleep.

VISA nightmare

As UK residents we are allowed to enter Vietnam for up to 15 days with a VISA waiver. This can only be used once in a 30 day time period, so we needed to get VISAs for our return to Vietnam. To get these it’s just a case of completing a form online, uploading some pictures and paying your $25, the website says it takes up to 3 working days to process. We applied on Sunday 3 March, so plenty of time before our return to Vietnam on Tuesday 12 March. Lisa’s VISA was approved on Thursday 7thMarch, so although over 3 days, still plenty of time and we presumed mine would shortly follow (as I applied for mine 5 minutes after Lisa’s). It didn’t.

By the time the weekend hit, I was getting a bit worried, so sent them an email. They didn’t reply. On Monday (the day before we flew), I still didn’t have my VISA approved. I tried calling the number on the email, but they never answered. Quite often it would ring and then the tone would change to busy, on one occasion they did answer, then hung up when they heard me talk. The VISA was due to start the next morning, so deep down I did think they’d process it before the end of the day. They didn’t.

I was actually quite worried the morning of my flight. Should I board the flight and hope it gets approved before we land? Maybe we could land and I’ll just hang around in immigration until it’s approved? What if it’s not approved? What if I get refused entry and deported back to Hong Kong while Lisa is stuck in Hanoi? But if we don’t get on the flight we need to pay for another flight and will miss the overnight train to Sapa and the Sapa 2 day tour we have already booked. I did a bit of research and found out that airlines are liable if they take you somewhere you do not have right of entry, it’s their responsibility to take you back and I think they also get fined. So when they swipe your passport, it’s linked up to a database and tells them whether you need/have a VISA.

Sure enough, when we arrived at the airport I was refused check in and I’d have to wait and keep my fingers crossed it was approved before they closed check in. They did say I could apply for an emergency VISA through an agency, but it would be $200 and no guarantee it would come in time (we definitely weren’t doing that!). With 5 minutes until our boarding gate closed, we were sure we weren’t getting on the flight and started researching other options (we could stay in Hong Kong for a bit longer until the VISA was approved, or maybe just fly to the Philippines for a week). A lady from the airline came over and asked if we had any luck with the VISA as they are closing check in, and then said she thinks we can use the VISA waiver again as we were entering from a different country (last time we entered from Laos). I thought that doesn’t seem correct, but if the airline are responsible and advising that, I’ll go along with it! She swipes my passport and gives the thumbs up – we’re going to Hanoi! One minute I am certain we will miss the flight, the next we are sprinting through the airport to our gate. I think she’d given immigration a head’s up as when we came running down they diverted us straight to a fast track queue.

We had to get a shuttle train to the gate, so I quickly checked my VISA application (we were still hoping for it to be approved before we arrived so we could have 30 days, rather than the 15 the waiver allows) and it had been approved!!! I saw it had been approved at 14.17, so 18 minutes before our gate closed. I think that is actually why I was allowed to check in when my passport was swiped. I still cannot believe we made that flight!

Chris and Lisa x

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay was the main reason we decided to add north Vietnam to our itinerary, the pictures online looked like something out of a movie set. We decided to do a cruise (2 days, 1 night) in the bay and I’m so glad we did as we loved it, just wish we had done 2 nights! To plan what we are doing I tend to tell Chris about places we should visit, then he looks into the detail and researches how we should do it. This is working really well for us as he’s a lot better at taking his time than I am – I just go for the first thing that looks ok! He found a company on Tripadvisor that had really good reviews and mid-range pricing, so we decided to go with them – La Paci Cruises. We paid just over £100 each for the trip. We are on a lot of travelling forums and had heard mixed reviews about the standard of the boats and the experience, so didn’t really know what to expect.

Day 1

We knew we would be getting picked up from our hotel between 9 – 9.30, so decided to go and get one more xoi xeo for breakfast (the sticky rice and mungbean street food dish we told you about in the last blog). We got up early and walked the 1km to the street vendor, as it was earlier then we had been before they were busier. She was making them so quickly, it was so impressive to watch them all work. We then headed back to our room and to check out and waited for the bus. We didn’t end up getting picked up until 9.45am, we were a bit out of their usual pick up area in Hanoi so were the last ones to get on the bus. Haon (our guide for the trip) welcomed us onto the bus with some water and told us we would get to the dock at about 12.15pm. The weather in Hanoi was cold and foggy and looking the same for Ha Long Bay. Some people were asking him what the weather would be like in Ha Long Bay, he explained that the weather there is like a woman’s mood – it changes very often from one day to the next haha, but was quick to point out the people of Vietnam say this, not him (good recovery Haon!). We arrived at the dock and boarded a small boat, this took us to the boat we would be sleeping on. We were taken to the restaurant where Haon gave us the keys to our room, explained that lunch would be served at 1pm and then at 3.30pm we would arrive at our first destination to go kayaking and swimming. The boat could hold up to 22 people, but we were only a small group of 9 which was a nice size. We checked into our room and it was so nice! It had big windows, a big comfy bed and a massive bathroom – easily the nicest place we have stayed so far, we were so impressed! At 1pm we went back to the restaurant for lunch and was served a 5-course lunch with knifes and forks (this is the first meal we have eaten in a month that you needed a knife and fork for – such a novelty!). After lunch we explored the rest of the boat and went onto the top deck taking some photos, I embarrassed Chris a bit as I was shouting out lines from the film Titanic, I think I got a bit carried away. It was pretty cold so didn’t stay up there too long. We headed back to our room and got ready for the kayaking and swimming (I wasn’t really that keen on the idea of going swimming as it was cold, but after getting wet from kayaking, thought might as well!). They used the little boat to take us to a little floating village. This was my the first time at kayaking and what a great place to do it, it was a two person kayak with Chris at the back (in control of steering) and me at the front. Once we got the hang of it it was pretty easy to control. We kayaked through some of the bay and into a cave, such a great experience. After we then cruised on the small boat to a different area and went swimming, jumping off the top of the boat into the cold water, it was so much fun. We then headed back to the main boat, showered and got ready for our ‘sunset party’. There was no chance of seeing the sunset as it was so cloudy. Haon told us how to do a toast Vietnamese style he poured us a shot of wine (it was more like port) and told us in Vietnam they ‘cheers’ themselves, their family and their friends, so they say “mot, hai, ba, yo – hai, ba, yo – hai, ba, yoooo” translates to (mot is one meaning themselves, hai is two meaning family , ba is three meaning friends, and yo is the cheers). After the toast and a few happy-hour cocktails we then headed into the restaurant for another meal, this time 6 courses! We haven’t eaten this much the whole trip but did build up quite an appetite from the kayaking! After dinner we attempted squid fishing, but were unsuccessful, then had some egg coffees and played Jenga. They did have karaoke but due to the early start the following morning no one took this up!

Day 2

The day started with a 6am Tai Chi class on the top deck for sunrise, again the weather was foggy so no chance of seeing the sunrise but although it was early I thought it was still worth getting up for the experience. Chris got up and then decided it was too early for him and went back to bed. Two other people joined me – Monika and Rueben (a Spanish couple who actually live in London) for what was the strangest experience, trying to copy the moves from the teacher. I’m sure we looked hilarious and not graceful like he did. We then had breakfast at 7am and the boat moved to a different area for a rafting trip into a cave. We docked near a floating fishing village and the fisherman took us on their boats around the bay and then through a cave into a still area which you could only access via the cave, it was so still and quiet. After this trip we then got back onto the boat, checked out of our rooms and went to the restaurant for a cooking demonstration. Hoan taught us how to make Vietnamese spring rolls and we all had a go at rolling them. He explained that when a man meets a woman and introduces her to his family, she joins the lady of the house to cook a meal, and the rolling of the spring roll is a way of the family telling if she will be a good wife and if she is ready for marriage. Hoan said he would score our rolling ability and let us know if we are ready or not. I can confirm myself and Chris both got top marks. We then had lunch (another 5 courses), after this we headed back to the dock and then got the bus back to Hanoi. As we were flying to Hong Kong the next morning, we arranged for them to take us to our hotel near the airport.

We both had such a good trip in Ha Long Bay and so glad we did it, there’s a little highlights video below. Our next stop is Hong Kong for a few days and then back to Vietnam to explore that more. We have so much to look forward to all of the time, we are really trying to enjoy the moment and not think too far ahead.

Catch you soon Lisa & Chris xx

Hanoi

We landed in Hanoi at 8.15 on Saturday evening and took the bus into the city centre, which conveniently has a stop around 200m from our homestay (although this was more of a guest house). By 9.30 we were wandering around some dodgy back alleys trying to find our accommodation as maps.me had it in the wrong location – luckily a Vietnamese man noticed us looking a bit lost and helped us find it. As it was late, we headed straight to bed so we could get up early and make the most of the next day.

Day one

The first thing we did was try some xoi xei, a traditional Vietnamese breakfast. We’d found a street vendor selling this not far from our accommodation thanks to The Best Ever Food Review Show (a great YouTube channel if you’ve not seen it, this is the video with the xoi xei). It’s basically sticky rice covered with sliced mungbean, chicken fat and fried onions. We both really liked it (so went back twice more during the week) and it was only 30p per portion! It’s amazing how entrepreneurial and hard-working the Vietnamese people are, the lady was making these so quickly and even had someone stood at the edge of the pavement taking drive-through orders!

We then strolled up to Hanoi’s old quarter past Hoan Kiem Lake. It was a nice walk with the picturesque lake on one side and big modern buildings on the other (including a big shopping centre). This road was closed to traffic and was full of young children driving electric cars and older children doing dance routines, we presumed there was an event on, but apparently it’s like that every weekend. There were also a few older children asking us if we could speak English, we ignored them as had been warned that if anyone is friendly to you in Hanoi they are probably trying to scam you. We later found out they were actually children trying to improve their English, so I felt a bit bad about that! We also felt all the scam warnings were a bit OTT as we have not had any problems here at all.

At the top of the closed street is Hanoi’s old quarter, there’s a really nice buzz and vibe around this area. It’s exactly how I expected an old Asian city to be. The pavements here seem to be used for motorbike parking, so most of the time we found ourselves walking through the roads, dodging hundreds of motorbikes as they come flying through. The roads are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, to cross you just need to walk between the motorbikes whizzing around you (there’s no point waiting for a gap, you’ll be there all day). It took Lisa a few days to get used to it, but I actually quite enjoyed it. Best tip is to keep walking slow as they will expect that and ride around you, if you panic and run or stop, it will just confuse them. Once used to it, I actually felt it was quite calming and therapeutic as everyone just gracefully glides around you!

From here we popped to a cafe called Giang, famous for its egg coffee. Egg coffee sounds a bit gross, but is actually delicious! It is made from egg yolk whisked with condensed milk, then poured over coffee so has quite a creamy/custardy taste. We also stopped in later in the week for an egg beer, which tasted a bit like a creamy shandy. Nice for the first few sips, but the novelty wears off quickly.

We then walked to Ho Chi Min’s Mausoleum via train street. Train street was really cool and you’ve probably seen something like it on TV. It is literally a street that has a train line running through it, and every time a train comes everyone has to stand to the side and all the bars move their tables out of the way.

It was interesting to see Ho Chi Min’s Mausoleum and walk around the area he lived and worked. You can go into the Mausoleum in the morning to see Ho Chi Min’s (or Uncle Ho as the locals call him) embalmed body if you want, but we were too late and the queues are big.

To end the day we went to a bar showing the Watford V Leicester game and had a couple of drinks. Luckily there was one other Watford fan in there, so I wasn’t the only one screaming when Andre Gray’s last minute winner went in!

Day two

We started the day with another xoi xei before heading to the Vietnam Women’s museum. Here we saw how women’s lives have changed in Vietnam over the years, and what pregnancy, marriage and the war etc is/was like for women here. Some of the fashion trends were interesting – up until the 1950’s some tribal women used to blacken their teeth!

For lunch we had bun cha, which has been one of my favourite meals so far! It is some grilled pork in a very rich broth, and on the side you have noodles, herbs, salad leaves (which you mix into the broth yourself) and a spring roll. It really was so delicious and extremely filling.

In the afternoon we had another stroll around the old quarter and checked out Dong Xuan market, which was full of suspiciously cheap designer goods and pretty much anything you wanted.

We also tried some yoghurt with pandan leaf jelly, which included a variety of fruits topped with condensed milk, coconut milk and ice (also recommended by the Best Ever Food Review Show). It was such a nice and refreshing desert!

We decide to get an early night so headed back to the hotel, but on the way spotted some people playing a game which appeared to involve volleying a shuttlecock to each other. We stopped and bought one of the shuttlecocks (not sure what it’s actually called, but it’s weighted with a rubber bottom) and played the game with the locals for a little while. We researched after and found out the game is called ‘Da Cau’ and is very popular here.

Day three

As much as we loved the xoi xei, we thought we ought to try something different this morning, so bought a banh mi from a street vendor. This is a Vietnamese baguette, smothered with pate, then sliced meats and sausage, pickles and sauces. It was soooo tasty! It’s not what I’d expected of Vietnamese food, but I think is an influence from the days Vietnam was a French colony (a lot of the architecture here is also very French).

In the afternoon we went on a walking tour around the old quarter, with a guide named Huyen who is a student from just outside of Hanoi. One of the most interesting parts of the tour was learning about her life. Nobody in her village could speak English, but a monk arrived and taught her, now she is at University in Hanoi and goes home each weekend to teach of the children in her village English. She also told us how every family has a shrine in their house which they use to remember their ancestors. If they think their ancestors need something, they buy fake clothes and money which is then burned (and in turn is passed to their ancestors). She showed us all around Hoan Kiem Lake, the cathedral and then took us to a really cool hidden bar where we had another egg coffee. After the tour we went to a water puppet show, I’m glad I saw it as it’s a traditional Vietnamese show, but I think Lisa enjoyed it more than me (although at least I didn’t fall asleep like the man next to me)!

Day four

At 9am two local university students (Tien and Sam) arrived at our homestay to give us a private tour. This is a ‘free’ private tour we booked online, with a no-obligation tip given at the end to cover what you think the tour is worth. It was interesting to hear about university in Vietnam. For men it is mandatory to either go into the army or university, and the first year for all university courses is identical – learning about Karl Marx and communism.

First stop was the Vietnam War museum. It was very interesting learning about the war and the guerrilla warfare tactics the Vietnamese undertook to beat the much stronger French army (and then later the Americans!). They dug 100km of underground tunnels to take the French by surprise, and also sneaked thousands of men with all their equipment through the jungle totally unnoticed by the French who were waiting in a valley for them (thinking the Vietnamese would have no choice other than to face the much bigger French army head-on in the valley). Outside the museum there were some fighter jets, tanks, and a chinook helicopter to see up close.

Next we headed to the ‘Hanoi Hilton’. This is in fact a nickname for the prison which was first used to hold political prisoners and then POWs during the Vietnam war. It was very harrowing seeing the cells in death row and the huge guillotine in the big room at the end. Lots of French and American soldiers were held here (including John McCain). Apparently the American soldiers were treated much better than the French, although I’m not sure if that is true (some Americans there certainly didn’t believe it). Soldiers not on death row were held in big rooms, sat with their feet cuffed to the floor (only one foot if they were good). If they were not well behaved, they were put in solitary confinement with both their legs and arms cuffed to the floor in a very uncomfortable position.

At the end of the tour we stopped for some banh cuon with Tien and Sam for lunch. Banh cuon is a pork and mushroom mixture wrapped in a soft rice pancake, and like all Vietnamese food so far was delicious. Like many Asian restaurants, this is a family restaurant with the banh cuon being made by the grandmother

In the evening we decided to try some bun dau mam tom (yes, a lot of our Vietnam trip has revolved around food!). This dish is fermented shrimp paste served with a selection of meats and tofu. On the side is some lime and chilli which is mixed into the paste and then used as a dip for the meat and tofu (the paste stinks and goes frothy when you do this). It did not taste good at all, in fact, it was easily the worse thing I’ve eaten so far in Asia. Luckily we were expecting this so had ordered one portion to share, we ate enough of it to not be rude and then headed down the road for a tasty Pho!

Next stop Halong Bay 🙂

In the meantime, here’s a montage of our first month’s travel.

Chris & Lisa x

Nong Khiaw

Nong Khiaw is a small village on the Nam Ou River in the north of the Provence of Luang Prabang. As Chris mentioned in our previous blog the journey up there was pretty hairy, making our decision to fly to Hanoi rather than endure the 24 hour bus even more justified. Accommodation was a lot cheaper in Nong Khiaw as our guest house was only £7.50 a night for a private room with private bathroom. After checking into our accommodation ‘Sythane Guesthouse’, we realised we (well, Chris) had lost our bankcard (we have plenty with us just in case but our main card the ‘Starling’ card is the only card we have unlimited fee free cash withdrawals whilst abroad, so our cheapest way of getting cash). We froze the card on the app and realised we (Chris) must have left the card in the ATM back in Luang Prabang. We used google earth to find the ATM we had used, found the name of the bank and emailed them. The next day they confirmed they had the card and luckily we were going back to Luang Prabang anyway. We got it back so no harm done, but we will be more careful and remember they give you your cash here before you get your card back! We spent 3 nights in Nong Khiaw and both loved it, you could easily spend more time there just chilling out. The scenery is beautiful and there are plenty of adventures to be had.

On our first day we decided to go to the Phadeng Peak view point. We arrived at the start of the trail, paid our 20,000Kip entrance fee and read the warning about keeping to the route because of unexploded bombs in the area (great way of keeping tourists in check!). There are a lot of unexploded bombs around Laos, as it is the most bombed country per capita in the world. This is due to the Americans trying to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail which the North Vietnamese used to supply weapons etc to their supporters in South Vietnam during the Vietnam war. The hike took us about an hour and half to get to the view point on the mountain. It was a really tough climb in the midday heat (not our best idea!), so when we got to the halfway sign I was ready to give up, but we ploughed on taking plenty of little rests along the way. We finally reached the top and it was worth it, the views were stunning! That evening we had the most incredible Lao ‘do it yourself’ BBQ with raw chicken, beef, pork to grill on the top of the BBQ and then stock, eggs, glass noodles and loads of veg for the soup around the sides and this amazing nutty tamarind salsa the BBQ was 100,000 Kip so about £8.50 so little on the pricy side but worth it after our climb!

The following day we had a tour booked to do the ‘100 waterfalls’ hike, this was 200,000 kip each but was very good value as there was only 3 of us in the group. Pet our guide for the day took us down the river bank to get the boat up the Nam Ou River. After an hour, we came to rest and we climbed up the riverbank to the tiny stilted-house settlement of Don Khoun (which is only accessible by boat), where we were joined by an additional village guide. Pet explained to us that in Don Khoun there are about 35 families and they don’t speak Lao, they have their own language, but due to the funding they are getting from tourism there is now a primary school open in the village that is teaching Lao to the children. We had a 45-minute hike through flat jungle terrain, along the edges of rice fields and fields of buffalo and goats. We then arrived at the first of the waterfalls and soon realised where it got its name 100 waterfalls! We were climbing up through waterfalls for about an hour before we reached the final one where we had to hike up the side of it along the mountain, the view was incredible! The local guide chopped down some banana leaves and laid these out as table clothes and they gave us our lunch of noodles wrapped in banana leafs, a battered banana and some sticky rice bean thing (which I didn’t like, when we had this is Thailand it was sweet, this wasn’t). After our lunch they invited us to shower in the waterfall, had there been a pool to bath in I would have, but didn’t fancy getting wet for a ‘shower’. After lunch we walked back to the village, the route followed a dry and pleasant jungle trail away from the waterfall. The local guide made some bamboo walking sticks for us all. The path initially skirted the top of the canopy, offering extensive views of the Nam Ou valley below, before once again dropping into the shade of the jungle, providing welcome relief from the intense midday heat. For a little over an hour we followed the trail as it wound through the trees, crossing the occasional stream before arriving back in Don Khoun where our boat was waiting for the return journey to Nong Khiaw. Before getting back to Nong Khiaw we stopped off at a cave and explored inside, the people of Laos would use caves like this during the war to shelter from air-raids. When we got back to Nong Khiaw we were both shattered. I think two big hikes in two days was a mistake, we just napped for the rest of the afternoon and popped to the Indian restaurant next door for dinner. Which was delicious!

The journey back to Luang Prabang was only 3 hours this time but the minibus was a lot smaller then the one we had taken there. With next to no leg room, I was on a little end seat that only had half back support, so although the roads were better this was the most uncomfortable I have been! Thank god for our Tempur travel pillows and Netflix to keep me entertained!

Back in Luang Prabang we have had a couple of chilled days. We tried a Lao massage yesterday, we went to L’ Hibiscus Massage & Spa and these were only 60,000 kip for an hour. Chris had a full body, I just had a foot massage as I woke up with a crick neck. The foot massage was better then the Thai one but she used this weird stick thing at times and I didn’t enjoy that being stabbed into the arch of my foot! Chris said the Lao massage was different from the Thai as it didn’t have the wrestling type stretches in and was more just a hard massage. Then today (2nd March 2019) we found a hotel with a pool and paid to use it, it was only 75,000 kip each and this included a beer and a snack. We tried the Mekong riverweed, I expected to it be like the crispy seaweed you get in the Chinese restaurants, but it was deep fried sheets of weed covered with sesame seeds and was really nice actually.

We’ve really enjoyed Laos, to be honest a lot more then we had expected to. The scenery is fantastic, the sunsets breathtaking and the food very similar to Thailand. We were considering skipping Laos in favour of Myanmar, but decided as we traveled through north Thailand quicker then expected we could do both, so we will be adding Myanmar to our itinerary at some point.

We have now arrived in Hanoi, so looking forward to exploring the city and a Halong Bay overnight cruise we have booked later in the week.

Lisa & Chris xx

Huay Xai to Luang Prabang

Slow boat

The slow boat takes two days to travel down the Mekong River from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang, it’s about 6-7 hours each day on the boat, with an overnight stop in Pakbeng.

We booked the slow boat via our hotel, and they arranged a tuk tuk to take us to the boat at 8am. The boat didn’t leave until 11, but we were happy with this as had read you need to be there early to get a decent seat (or risk ending up in the engine room!). When we arrived we were surprised to be given a ticket with a seat number, so wondering what we were going to do for the next few hours, found a cafe overlooking the river and had our first Laos coffee (wow, they like it very sweet and very strong!). At around 10.30 we walked down to the boat to find that everyone had ignored the seat numbers so we just had to sit wherever, luckily we got an ok seat!

The journey itself was long and not the most comfortable, but it was relaxing and nice looking at all the scenery along the Mekong. Top tip is to bring food and drinks with you, as they charge 2-3 times the going rate on the boat.

Pakbeng

Pakbeng heavily relies on the tourist trade from the slow boats, so as soon as we got off there were swarms of locals trying to sell us rooms for the night. Luckily we had pre-booked a room and the hotel had sent a mini bus to collect us, which is always nice when carrying heavy backpacks!

Our hotel was about 5 minutes from the centre and overlooked the river. The views were amazing so the first thing we did was sit back and watch the sunset. We walked into to village centre for some dinner, this is the first place I have visited that felt like there was no western influence. As we walked along the dusty road, we could see people living in shacks made of corrugated iron (or whatever they can get hold of), sat on the floor watching TV on one of those big old-fashioned TVs you’d never see in the UK anymore (maybe when you visit your grandparents!). One shack had a family sat outside it BBQ’ing a rat for dinner!

We found a nice restaurant for dinner and had some Laos food (I had rice with pork) and a local beer, then headed back to the hotel for an early night.

View from our room in Pakbeng

Luang Prabang

The slow boat drops all the foreigners off a couple of miles from Luang Prabang (I think the locals get to stay on until the end), so we had to get a tuk tuk (yes, it conveniently drops you off at a place where loads of tuk tuks are waiting!) for the final part of our journey to the hotel.

It was early evening when we arrived, so we dropped our bags off and headed to the night market which was about a 5-10 minute walk from our hotel. I was quite surprised how big the night market was here, although there’s not so many food stands as in Thailand markets. We found a stand selling local alcohol with snakes and scorpions in the bottles and the lady said we could try some. They had whisky (they call this lao lao, I’d call it paint stripper), rice wine and sticky rice wine (these were just about palatable). The lady got quite angry when we didn’t buy any, so I don’t think I’ll try free samples from any other vendors! Lisa also found some BBQ bat she wanted to eat, but nobody else fancied it (we’d bumped into Maria and Pedro – some friends we made on the tour in Pai).

The next day we met up with Maria and Pedro and shared a tuk tuk out to Kuang Si waterfall. It was about a 45 minute ride and the driver waited for 3 hours for us, we managed to get it down to 180,000 (around £17, you also have to pay 20,000 to get into the park each which is about £1.80) this is less than a fiver each so pretty good! There were a couple of smaller waterfalls which we went swimming in (watch out – the fish bite, well nibble!) and one big waterfall which was incredible! We arrived about 2pm, and thought we’d do a hike to the viewpoint first as the swimming areas would be quieter later in the afternoon, but strangely when we got back they were busier. It was quite a short hike, probably about an hour with a nice view at the top. We did get lost on the way, and got rather worried about the size of the poos on the path (they were the size of bowling balls and it’s next to a bear sanctuary…), so made a hasty retreat back to the path (thank god for google maps!). We did look around the bear sanctuary while we are there – they had been rescued from a local bile farm, as the Chinese use this for medicine.

On our final day in Luang Prabang we hiked up to the local view point – Mount Phousi. It wasn’t a long hike, but it was quite steep and so hot, so was pretty hard work. At the top, the views over the city were amazing! I feel like I’ve spent a lot of time walking up hills over the past 3 weeks, but the views are always worth it. At the top they had little birds in tiny little cages for sale, we weren’t entirely sure why, but saw it again on the way down with a sign saying that if you buy one and set it free, it gives you good luck…

After this we walked across the city to Phosy Market – I’d seen this on Mark Wiens YouTube channel, so wanted to check it out as it’s a proper local market – we were the only westerners there! We wanted to get some lunch here, but this market seemed to sell everything apart from food (lots of ingredients including live toads, but no meals). After a while we found one place tucked away right at the back selling noodle soup. It was difficult to order as they couldn’t speak any English, but it was one of the best meals we’ve had so far! Lisa then bought an iced coffee, I had one sip and couldn’t drink any more as it was so thick and sweet – it was like drinking coffee flavoured condensed milk. This was probably a good move by me as Lisa finished it and has had a poorly stomach since (not ideal when most of the toilets here are holes in the ground! As Lisa wanted something gentle for her stomach for dinner we went for pizza – this is the first western meal we have had so far, it’s pretty much rice and noodles every day otherwise.

From Luang Prabang we took a bus to a small village in the mountains called Nong Khiaw (which is where we are now – we’ll write about this later in the week). The roads in Laos are pretty horrendous, so although google maps said this was a 2 hour journey and the bus route said it would take 3, it took 4. It’s hard to judge what the roads will be like here as they build them very cheaply in the dry season and bits of it get washed away in the wet season. It did mean most of the journey was either going through roadworks (it’s not like the UK where you get diverted, you just drive over the rubble here), or over bits of destroyed road – it was pretty bumpy! We were originally going to go south to Vang Vieng, but decided to change our plans and head north as it’s a bit less touristy and had heard the scenery is beautiful. We will head back to Luang Prabang later this week, then fly to Hanoi (we were tempted with the 24hr bus ride, but have read that it’s absolutely horrendous). We’ll spend a week in Hanoi (including a couple of days in Halong Bay) before flying to Hong Kong for 3 nights, then back to Hanoi where we’ll start our journey down through Vietnam.

Chris and Lisa xxx


Pai, Chiang Rai and journey to Laos

After hearing great things, we decided to travel up to Pai for a couple of nights. We took a 3 hour mini bus from Chiang Mai to Pai (150Bhat each). The views on the journey were supposed to be amazing as the road travels through the mountain. But with 762 curves in total, and after feeling a bit nauseous on the previous journey to the Elephant sanctuary, I decided to get some motion sickness tablets from the 7-11. Turns out the tablets here are pretty strong, I was only 10 minutes into RuPaul’s Drag Race before falling fast asleep! At least I didn’t get sick hey, but I totally missed the views. We didn’t really know what to expect from Pai as had heard its bit of a ‘hippies’ paradise and that it would be easier to get a burger then Thai food, but the mountainous views and laid back atmosphere are what encouraged us to head there.

We arrived at the bus station in Pai knowing we only had a short walk to our accommodation just across a bamboo bridge from the town. There aren’t the tuk tuks or buses shouting at you the minute you get off the bus here, however, there were a few signs for taxi’s if you are staying out of town. We stayed at the ‘family huts’ and from the outside they looked amazing, little individual huts with verandas and hammocks lining the river, however, they were very basic inside, and the mosquito net smelt bit funky but what do you expect from £15 a night accommodation. We both felt pretty rough after the journey, but put this down to our lack of caffeine during the day so we dropped our bags into the room and headed to the ‘Pai River Restaurant’ for some iced lattes. This soon became our local, with views of the mountains in the distance and river that runs through Pai away from the busy streets of town.

We found a tour to do the following day which appeared to hit all the attractions around Pai and only 500Bhat each a right steal! It had a full agenda also including lunch. The first stop was the White Buddha, so I covered my knees and shoulders and we climbed the 353 steps to reach the top – the views were worth the climb. The next stop was Kit Lom view point, which again gave us some great views over Pai and the mountains surrounding it. Then onto the Lod caves where we explored the caves with a guide who mainly just pointed at rock formations saying what they think they look like – we saw popcorn, elephants, broccoli, leaning tower of Pisa and a boob – after a couple this just cracked us up! We then got on a bamboo raft and they basically punted us through one of the caves which was pretty cool. Then we stopped for lunch and onto what we had all been looking forward to – the Hot Springs. Here we got to relax in the warm pools for an hour or so. We then made our way to the Mor Pang waterfall, this was a very underwhelming waterfall! I think in wet season it could be epic, but it was only a trickle. We ended the day watching the sunset at the Pai canyon. This gave us some great views – we stayed on the main platform, however, a lot of people did venture on the narrow ledges to different areas (so dangerious and just not worth it in my opinion). We met some great people on this tour too, sharing stories of our travels so far and our plans, apart from the crazy driver it was a great tour. I think, however, we will look to ensure were in a mini van rather then a songthaew next time as road safety doesn’t seem the highest of priorities.

Pedro (a guy from our tour) told us about a rabbit cafe in Pai, so I made sure we gave that a visit too. The rabbits were so cute, well that was until one did a wee on Chris’ rucksack! Also in Pai there was a walking street (basically a street where in the evening food vendors, people selling arts and crafts etc. set up stalls). It was little sad to see the bigger queues were for the ones selling western food. We did however find an amazing stall selling banana & coconut egg cakes (which were amazing so sticky sweet and tasty!) and a banana spring roll coated in Nutella, so a little western influence on the Thai foods isn’t always a bad thing.

We decided to stay in Pai an extra night so booked a hotel with a pool just outside of the town. We had a mini ‘holiday day’ here and the best thing about the hotel was it came with 24 hour free Oreos! Oh and the fact it had a windmill was a total sales point for me! We have loved Pai but would properly recommend visiting it in the rainy season as visibility / air quality wasn’t great because of the burning the locals do. Burning season usually starts end of Feb / early March when the farmers burn the fields to get them ready for next seasons crops, but they seem to have started a bit early this year. Also we found Pai slightly more expensive then the other places we have been so far.

Pai is our favourite place we’ve visited so far on the trip, the nature is beautiful, although the main street has become very westernised which is a shame. I’d love to have visited Pai 10 years ago as imagine it would have been truly amazing.

From Pai we needed to get to Chiang Rai however you can’t get a bus directly there, you need to go via Chiang Mai. You could buy a ‘tour’ but these are more expensive then doing it yourself. We traveled with Prempracha back to Chiang Mai (150bhat) then booked a VIP bus (258Bhat) with Green Bus Thailand, such a fancy bus however the toilet experience was one I won’t forget, I was swaying from side to side, banged my head as I got in and then the door flung open luckily it was in a little room at the back so now one saw! We arrived at Chiang Rai, found our hotel, headed out for dinner to the night bazar and found a food court. We had this meat grill/soup thing – it was amazing! This and a couple of smoothies was only 260Bhat (just over £6)!

We only stayed in Chiang Rai for the one night to break up the journey to the Laos border, but we needed to see the White temple so got up early took the local bus (20Bhat each way) to the temple (50Bhat entry). The white temple is actually privately owned and has been designed and built by a millionaire architecture. In 2014 it was badly damaged by and earthquake and the owner was going to demolish it, but after an an engineer advised it was structurally sound, decided to refurbish it to it’s previous beauty, so I feel lucky I got to see this! The buildings was beautiful, the pure white temple is meant to show the purity of buddha and glistened in the sun. You’re not allowed to take pictures on the inside and to be honest there’s not much to see in there, but the grounds of the temple is worth paying the 50bhat to get in.

We then got the 12:30pm (there were bus’s every 30 minutes from 6am – 5pm) bus to Chiang Kong (65Bhat) took a tuk tuk to the boarder (50Bhat) crossed into Laos on another bus and then took another tuk tuk into Huay Xai. It’s amazing how much information is online about how to do this it was very easy because we knew what to expect, we found a great guide here. Tomorrow we are getting on a slow boat that will take us down the Mekong river, but tonight we enjoyed the sunset at a river side restaurant. Thailand has been amazing and looking forward to coming back and visiting the south and the islands later in our travels. Catch you soon.

Lisa & Chris. xx

Chiang Mai – Cooking class, Elephants and Waterfalls.

Cooking class

We had lots planned this week, starting with a Thai cooking class! Lisa had really wanted to do a cooking class, and we both love Thai food so this was definitely on the hit list. We decided to do a half day with Smile Organic Farm Cooking School as this was recommended to us by Brite at our previous home stay. Thank you to Lisa’s Uncle Darren and Auntie Julie for our Christmas money which we used to pay for this!

They picked us up from the hotel first thing, taking us to a farm in the Thai countryside. On the way, our host (Pukky), stopped at a local market to show us some of the ingredients we’ll be using and told us a little bit about Thai cooking.

During the day we got to pick a dish from each of the following categories (plus spring rolls), and Pukky showed us how to make it – Soup / Curry / Stir fry. I made a khao soi, pad thai and chicken & sweet basil soup, Lisa made masaman curry, fried rice and hot & sour soup. We got to eat it all after (well, there was so much we took some home and microwaved it in our hostel for dinner), and I’d say they were a success!

    Monk trail

    Brite had also recommended this hike to us, so we thought it would be a some nice exercise after eating all the food we had cooked. It starts on the edge of town near the zoo/university, and goes through the jungle up the side of a mountain to a couple of temples (hence the monks trail). We’d been told there was a great view from the top, so timed our hike to arrive just before sunset.

    I was expecting a nice gentle hike, but this was actually pretty tough – my legs were burning by the time we’d reached the top! I guessed it might not be too easy when a local gentleman walking down the mountain drenched in sweat wished us luck to make it to the top.

    The view at the top was certainly worth it, although the air quality in Chiang Mai isn’t great at the moment so was pretty smoggy! We had about an hour up there, so grabbed a smoothie and watched the sunset.

    Karen Elephant Experience

    Firstly, thank you very much to my amazing generous work colleagues and Lisa’s (also amazing and generous) friends Amy, Sam and Luke – as we used the money you gave us for our travels to pay for this. Thank you!

    This is obviously a bucket list experience, and a must do in Chiang Mai. There’s so many sanctuaries to choose from, but we chose the Elephant Nature Park as felt confident they treated the elephants well. If you want to go to the actual sanctuary it’s best to book up in advance, as we didn’t and there was no space left! We did a bit of research and luckily they also run other projects in the area, so we booked on to the Karen Elephant Experience (and I’m actually glad we did this rather than the sanctuary, as was nice to visit the village they live in). For this project, the sanctuary work with a local Karen tribe, supporting them to use their elephants ethically, as there has been a lot of mistreated elephants in the past (google elephant crushing and you’ll see what I mean).

    It took about 90 minutes to reach the village in the mountains where these elephants live. The first thing we did was to feed the elephants, it’s important to do this first as it helps them to feel comfortable around you and know you’re not a threat. We then followed them through the jungle as they foraged for more food. It really was amazing to see these animals so close up. I was in awe of how big and powerful these animals are, yet so warm and gentle. They gracefully smash their way through the jungle, taking out any trees in their path.

    We then took a mud bath with them. The elephants loved rolling around in the swamp as we massaged mud into them. Again it was amazing to be so close to them, but even though they are so gentle, in the back of mind I was thinking one of them could quite easily kill me by complete accident without even realising it!

    Finally it was time to clean all of the mud off. We went into the water falls with the elephant and splashed water over them to cool them down and remove the mud (although the were filthy again 5 mins later). There’s a video below showing some of our experience, I know it’s a bit long, but we really loved so much of this day.

    Bua Tong (sticky waterfall)

    On our last day in Chiang Mai we visited the sticky waterfalls, which are set in a national park. We really wanted to see these, but they are about a 75 minute drive from the city so we weren’t sure how easy it would be. Luckily we found a company called Chiang Mai Easy Drive Tour & Transportation who offer private and bespoke tours. To have a private car take us the 75 minute journey, wait at the waterfall for 2.5 hours and then drive us home, cost about £30!

    The waterfalls were much bigger then I expected, going up over 3 levels. The one thing that really makes these different, is the ground is limestone, meaning the floor is grippy and you can easily walk up over the water. We played in the waterfalls for a little while, then had a chicken roasted in thai herbs for lunch which was absolutely delicious.

    Catch you soon

    Chris and Lisa x

    Sleeper train to Chiang Mai and Home Stay

    Sleeper Train – Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai

    We took the 21.07 over-night train (train 13) from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai (arriving at 8.40 the next day). We didn’t really know what to expect, however, had watched a few YouTube videos so we weren’t totally in the dark. We arrived at the train station and it was full of westerners like us to catch the train. They were well organised at the station and spoke English to let us know where to stand to get the right carriage. When we got on the train the beds were already made, so it was just a case of finding which one was ours. When we booked (almost 3 weeks previously) there was limited availability so we had to have top bunks (the lower ones are more roomy and have a window). The beds were surprisingly comfortable but very small, especially as we were sleeping with our day bags to protect our valuables. We both settled in for the night and I caught up with some Netflix before calling it a night. They leave the lights on (I guess for security) and one of the drawbacks of being on the top bunk is that the light shines straight over the privacy curtain. Luckily, I had an eye-mask so this didn’t bother me and I got a fairly decent night’s sleep. Chris didn’t have such luxury. Also, it got very cold in the night which didn’t help with being able to sleep well. We arrived just after 9am and considering the Thai rail service has such a bad reputation we can’t complain at all about the journeys we have taken so far. 

    Home Stay with Brite

    We booked our first week of travel when we were back home in the UK and had thought after the hustle and bustle of Bangkok we’d be ready for some down-time when we arrived in Chiang Mai. We decided to book a homestay via booking.com and found one that came with some fantastic reviews – ‘Home Stay with Brite’. The home stay was out of the city, but Brite was waiting for us at the train station and drove us back to his home. Brite and his family (Mum, Dad and Grandmother) were there to greet us, giving us a sweet treat of banana and sticky rice which had been grilled in banana leafs (they eat rice with everything here). Brite helped us plan and arrange our next few days in Chiang Mai, giving us advise on dishes to try, how to arrange transportation and things to see. Brite then invited us to join him and his family for breakfast (sticky rice, green Thai curry, crispy bacon & scrambled eggs with we think oysters). It was amazing and such a lovely welcome to their home. In Thailand they use their right hand to eat (not the left this is seen as a the dirty hand) using sticky rice as a scoop  by making a small ball and then flattening it with the thumb to make a scoop to get the rest of the food, Chris tried this, but they kept giggling saying its ok for him to use a fork and that he didn’t need to eat with his hands just because they did. We then spent the rest of the day just hanging out and then got a Grab (Asia’s version of Uber) into the city. On Sundays, Chiang Mai has a big walking street market and we were shocked at how big it actually was! We walked around for hours just window shopping at all the amazing crafts. I saw so many things I wanted to buy, but soon realised that carrying it around for 6 months just wouldn’t be possible. I did however, buy a hat after trying a lot of different ones on (I have had a few headaches from the Sun so have been needed to get a hat for a while now!) and also a cute elephant keyring which we will use as a Christmas decoration. We tried loads of amazing street food and some not so good ones! A few to note was the Chiang Mai sausage (with a spicy sweet chilli sauce), this was different to the one we had in Ayutthaya as the texture was a lot closer to what we would usually have in the UK. We also tried a deep fried egg in shell, luckily the lady gave us a spoon and told us to scoop otherwise I think we would have just tried to eat the shell. We bumped into Jolene, a Chinese girl staying in the same guest house as us. She had bought some bamboo worms and let us try some – they tasted like Wotsits so we’ll be buying those next time we see them (my brother did tell me after us not liking the bee lava we just haven’t found the right insect yet! He was right!). We then decided to end the night with the smallest portion of durian fruit we could find… now we have heard all about this and some of the people on YouTube we follow have described it as the smelliest fruit but with a creamy vanilla custard flavour. It’s very expensive (£4 for a small piece) and seen as a delicacy. Also, we have seen loads of notices in public places saying ‘no durian’ in the same way it says ‘no smoking’ so was expecting the smell to be pretty bad!  Watch the video below of how we got on trying it. 

    The following day (Monday 11th February) we decided again to have a chilled day. Brite’s Mum made us an amazing Pad Thai for breakfast and we were chatting to Brite & Jolene about Thai and Chinese cultures and showed them some of the typical foods we have in the UK (toad in the hole confused him a bit, as they do actually eat toad here). We did a load of washing in the village, picked up some beers and chilled out whilst we waited for it to finish. Brite had told us he had a washing machine, so when he pointed across the field and said it was behind a car we were a bit surprised, but it was an American style machine so easy to work it out and it was only 33 Bhat (75p) for the machine and the washing powder/fabric softener. We then walked 30 minutes to the local pool (Mu Ban Wang Tan Pool) and had a dip in the water. It was only 60 Bhat each to use and we had it all to ourselves!  Brite had recommended we try the ‘bingsu’ dessert (a Korean dish) in the cafe near to the pool which was amazing and did not disappoint. Then in the evening we stayed at Brite’s for dinner, his mum is a great cook! She made us a coconut soup (which was mushrooms, onions, chicken and chilli in a great gingery spicy coconut sauce) followed by some melon. After, she bought us some spicy ginger tea she had made and told us it was great for our tummies! We said how lovely it was so she showed us how to make it and gave us two big roots of ginger to take home as a gift. We were torn between accepting the gift and telling her we were traveling for 6 months and that two massive roots of ginger would not last until we got home. We have really enjoyed this home stay its been great to see how Thai people live. This has been the cheapest place we have stayed and also the best by far the ‘free breakfast’ was more than just toast and the ‘free toiletries’ was more than a bar of soap, the room and bed were comfy and hosts were so welcoming – a must stop if you’re in Chiang Mai!

    We have just had a pork & rice soup for breakfast and are chilling out for a couple of hours until we head into central Chiang Mai to stay a few nights. We have some great things planned for the week – elephant sanctuary, cooking lesson, a hike and trip to the famous Bau Tong (sticky waterfall).

    To see more from our stay in Chiang Mai so far check out our instagram story

    Catch up soon Lisa & Chris xx

    Ayutthaya

    Bangkok to Ayutthaya train

    This morning we took the train from Bangkok to Ayutthaya. 3rd class travel is free for Thai people (and 35p for this 2 hour journey for foreigners), so we weren’t expecting much and headed for the station after rush hour once all the locals had finished their daily commute.

    We were pleasantly surprised by the train. We managed to find seats easily enough and sat back ready to enjoy the countryside views. Leaving Bangkok was interesting; one minute it’s sky scrapers, the next shacks at the side of the river with children playing in the water!

    The views didn’t last long as the Thai man opposite closed the shutters to stop the sun getting in his eyes. This was a bit annoying, but we’re visitors to his country so can’t complain too much! Luckily he got off after half an hour so we got to enjoy nice views the rest of the way (and the odd fire in the middle of the track!).

    Note: contains swearing!

    Historic city of Ayutthaya

    Ayutthaya used to be the capital of Thailand, until 1767 when it was destroyed by the Burmese. As you’d expect, it was full of amazing historic ruins to visit, and it now a UNESCO world heritage site.

    The historic city was a river crossing (20p) and a short walk from our hostel. On the first day we had some street food near our hostel, and then started to explore the city. There were so many Wats (temples) to see, we spent all afternoon walking around the historic city & park exploring and found a nice place to visit for a smoothie, which became a regular stop for us! As there was so much to see, the next day we rented bikes (from the smoothie shop!), which made it so much easier to get around (and the breeze felt amazing – it has been so hot and humid!).

    Chinese New Year

    In Ayutthaya the New Year Celebrations were continuing both nights we were here, with carnivals, street food and performers.

    I’ll start with the food, as this is one of our favourite things! On the first night I picked what we ate. This was a mistake as I (without knowing) picked skewered chickens bums and sausage. The sausage was nice, but the consistency was very different to what we’d have at home, the meat was very soft, almost like raw sausage meat at home. The chicken was interesting, I put a whole one in my mouth and there were some crunchy bits in it. At first I thought it was bone, but realised I could chew through it. To be honest before I knew what it was, it tasted ok, a bit fatty and crunchy, but the flavour was nice. Once I knew, I couldn’t eat another. On the next night, Lisa chose bee lava (she can’t be trusted either!). We only know this for sure because of google – when I asked the lady what they were she just flapped her arms and made a buzzing noise! She put a bit of salt and soya on them and they weren’t too bad to be honest. Crunchy on the outside and soft (but not gooey) in the middle. They weren’t horrible, but not nice enough that I wanted to finish them off…

    They also had a magician (who caught my eye as she was stuffing loads of shredded paper into her mouth which reminded me of my cousin Howard ha!), other street performers, and one of those big dragons you always see during Chinese festivals – the organisation around that was immense, with loads of children running around behind unravelling the electric cables!

    Muay Thai

    We booked a 1 hour beginner’s Muay Thai session, which is one of the best things we’ve done so far! First we learnt to jab and swing, then to kick. My coordination isn’t the best so it was quite hard getting the technique right, remembering exactly what to do with each leg, arm, body movement etc. Also I don’t think the instructor understood that my body doesn’t move in the same ways his do, he kept telling me to bring my leg higher, and grabbed it to show me how high – I thought he was going to snap it off!! Then we got to put all of the movements together into combos which was great fun (again i struggled with coordination and remembering the order of things so nearly hit the instructor a few times – not that he was particularly worried about me making a connection!).

    I have also been on best behaviour after seeing Lisa kicking and punching the instructor to bits!

    River boat cruise

    The historic city of Ayuthha is actually an island, surrounded by rivers. So on our last evening we took a 2 hour river boat cruise to see some of the Wat’s that we didn’t get to by bike/foot. I have to admit I was a little bit templed out by now, but the last one was incredible (Wat Chaiwatthanaram) and we got to watch the sunset behind it before taking the boat back to the peer near our hostel.

    After the boat tour we popped back to the hostel for a shower, then had an incredible massaman curry and some Thai beer while we waited for our over-night train to Chiang Mai.

    Until next time

    Chris and Lisa x