Same same (but actually different)

"Sa-by-dea," is the way everybody greets you in Laos and they never forget the accompanying smile (can't quite always say the same for the Vietnamese).

As mentioned before, the sleeper buses are not designed for sleeping really but the journey was not as diabolical as I had expected it to be. Crossing over into Laos was as chaotic as one can expect, with EVERYBODY'S passports collected at once together with ALL the money for the visas and then returned by holding the pictures up to the window for the owner to recognise him or herself. I have to say, it was a funny (and crazy) sight.

After a 21 hour sleeper bus journey from Hanoi to Vientienne, one immediately notices the differences between the capitals of Laos and Vietnam. There are no horns, the traffic flows in an orderly and calm fashion and the people smile!

We arrived in Vientienne inthe mid afternoon and caught a tuk tuk into town where we were to look for a guest house. Armed with our lonely planets (seemingly the traveller's bible out here), we moved from hostel to guest house hoping to find a place for the night. We knocked on doors and were repeatedly told that there was no room in the Inn until an hour later we found our manger and finally were able to settle in what was supposed to be the capital of Laos. Vientienne isn't exactly known by travellers to be the most happening city and so most just use it as a point of transit.

I had arranged some interviews in the city and had to spend a few days there gathering material for my research. As expected, the evenings weren't particularly exciting, perhaps not helped by the state curfew of 12am (not enforced for tourists), at which time everybody is expected to be in the place that they are legally registered to be spending the night.

At this point, I was travelling with a Malaysian and British guy, whom I had met in my new hostel. Our most exciting night involved following the music in the streets (not that there's much in Vientienne), which led us to a party. We stood there for a second and observed what appeared to be some type of Laos celebration. In true Loas style, we were invited in, placed at a table and had a lady walk up to us, smile, and say "Welcome to my wedding." She then proceeded to bring out the Beer Laos (a Laos delicacy), which continued for the remainder of the night. As 12am hit, the band stopped and we were sure the fun police was on its way to end our joyful evening.

Quite the contrary, just because the band was gone, it did not mean the party was over. We all then sat around a huge table and continued to devour Laos food and beer. When somebody said, "When in Rome ...." they really should have added the appendix "but don't try and drink like them," a price we all paid dearly for the whole of the next day.

After a few days in Vientienne, we set off on what was the normal route for most, off to Van Vieng where Laos really doesn't sleep (in Van Vieng it really is curfew, schmurfew!). This journey was another four hour bus (I've become pretty immune to these), dropping us at a beautiful hostel, where we decided to stay.

The itinerary in Van Vieng seems pretty set for all that dare to visit. Start at noon, pay 50000 VND (approx. $2.50) for an inner tube, use the tube to float down the river, being pulled in by the young boys who work for the bars that line the journey. Stop at a few bars, don't forget the slides and the flying foxes along the way and just work your way down. You need to be off the river by 6pm, at which point you have visited your fair share of spots and are definitely ready to end this portion of the day. Go home, grab a shower, take a nap, then wake up a few hours later to start your evening. The evening may involve eating (but that could be classed as cheating) and then enjoy the party scene, which does not exist anywhere else in Laos, until the early hours of the morning. Som travellers have chosen to adopt this lifestyle for a few weeks, we stayed a couple of days and decided our bodies would probably punish us quite dearly if we stayed any longer. Van Vieng really is the Ibiza/Ienappa/Cancoon of Laos.

We then took an overnight bus to Luang Prabang, back to the serenity and calm that is the real Laos. Luang Prabang is a world heritage site and you really feel the history of the city that is alive around you. The night market was worth a visit, we continued to enjoy the hopsitality of the Laos people and made a trip to the Old Palace. It was a great point to relax, learn a little more about the country and also gather some morefor my research. I also did some elephant riding, some swimming in a natural waterfall and just continued to enjoy what really is one of the most amazing countries I have ever visited. It was a great point to recoup and prepare for the next part of my journey.

Rather than just stare, the people here smile, talk to you and really make you feel welcome in their country. Laos really is a place that people aim to stay for a week and find themselves trapped for a month.

However, I knew I had to leave and booked myself on the two day, one night bus to the Thai/Laos border to make my way to Thailand. Whoever told me that was a pleasurable joruney, I hope you are reading this and realising that it really was not. The boat was from 8am - 6:30pm, on hard wooden benches, for two days. It was fun for about ten minutes and then I realised this was a twenty hour ordeal. We stopped in Pak Ben (I'm probably butchering the spelling of some of these places), where I slept in a not so nice place, but I guess the benefit is that it was easy to wake up at 7am to catch the boat the next day.

That said, I eventually made it to the border, got my Thai visa, took the six hour bus to Chiang Mai and am comfortably sitting in my hostel, being bitten by something and writing this blog.

Again, this is longer than I had hoped, but in my defense, my internet access has been a lot more scatty and I have been meaning to write it for a while. I'm in Thailand now, for what is definitely going to be quite a different place from where I am leaving. I immediately recognised this fact on the other side of the border when I was confronted with a McDonalds and a KFC (completely non-existent in any of the places I visited in Laos), this place is a lot more developed.

I really did love Laos; the people were the nicest I have encountered in Asia thus far and it was a very welcomed break from the craziness of Vietnam. There really is something about the place that I can't quite put into words. The people here like to say "same, same," but Laos really holds something quite different.

So anyway...wish me luck in Thailand!

Discovering the North

So to start on a negative, I've spent the last three days suffering from pink eye (Conjunctivitis); all jokes aside, it's a simple eye infection that is very contagious that I probably caught from my time in the water at the beach in Cat Ba Island. It's the first time I've ever had it, it's very annoying and was pretty painful. Luckily however, there was a doctor in the last hostel I stayed in (purely by coincidence) and he gave me something for it, so it has cleared up by now. I can tell you:
1) I will never make fun of somebody with pink eye again.
2) If you are ever in the vicinity of somebody with pink eye, STAY WELL AWAY (you will truly appreciate this advice)!

That said, it didn't completely ruin my trip for the last few days but I guess I'll start at the beginning.

After some initial reading, I started some actual contact time, interviewing three organisations on Monday and another three on Tuesday that are all engaged in victim assistance and rehabilitation work with regards to aiding victims of human trafficking. These interviews were particularly insightful and although my plan had been to approach the practitioners rather than the victims (recognising my own limitations), I found more and more often that those engaged in this type of work were actually former victims themselves and this work as part of their own recovery, something I had not completely expected.

I have become accustomed to using the motorcycle as my normal mode of transport when trying to navigate the city, aiming for a good enough helmet every time. Motorcycles seem to run this city, with the piercing sound of their horns best compared to the serenity of the sounds of the sirens that fill the streets of East London. The heat can be pretty dire with the humidity not much help either (quite the opposite to the drizzling summer of London that I left in June). It is this fact that means my desperation sometimes leads me to pay 50p for a 1.5l bottle of water, when I know it should only be costing me 30p (I guess it's all about sacrifices).

Probably one of my favourite moments of these first two days was being walked back to my hostel, quite late in the evening, after asking for directions from a lady old enough to be my grandmother. She went completely out of her way to get me back, acting as if she had done this all before; i.e. returned the lost child to his nest. She was testament to how much my sign language continues to improve and although our walk home was pretty silent, we did enjoy each others company for those 20 minutes.

After some work, I set off on Tuesday for a three day, two night, trip to Ha Long Bay, which is supposed to be one of the nicest parts of Northern Vietnam. By this stage I'd met another group of travellers at my hostel and we decided to undertake this trip together. Despite being warned, I booked myself on one of the cheapest trips down there, hoping to have the experience of a lifetime. As you can imagine, it was quite the contrary. My trip was gifted with the tour guide from hell, a Vietnamese man who hated his job and was sure to share this distaste with those on his tour. He took us to the "Amazing Cave" and where others received amazing tales and stories of the history behind this Natural Wonder, we were endowed with the knowledge of what the different rocks looked like; a "jellyfish" or "horse" for example. We spent that first night on a boat, cruising down the river and the beauty surrounding us was the only thing that made up for he poor attitude of our host.

Nonetheless, he was as glad to say goodbye to our group as we were to see the back of him when he handed us over to our next guide for the second part of our trip to Cat Ba Island. This next guide was ten times better and the island was a great place to spend the night. The beach was exhilarating and with all of the Vietnamese schoolkids off for the holidays, there was a mass of Vietnamese families out for the holidays. The beach was full and it appeared that I was quite a strange sight for most. My visit received a lot more attention than I had hoped, with families asking for photos and others even paying a third party (a photo company that took beach photos for families) for my picture. Those without the funds decided to sneak a picture on their phones when they thought I wasn't looking. It was quite an interesting experience overall.

Next day saw us take the bus back to Hanoi, arriving at 4:45pm, catching the 5pm (or so they say) sleeper bus to Sapa, where Dickens described the mountains as "awe-inspiring" (ok, he didn't say that at all, but I didn't know how else to reflect how phenomenal these mountains are). Sapa is an area frequented by travellers and a lot of people book tours out here. After my mixed experience with Ha Long Bay, I decided to just set off to Sapa and work the rest out when I got there. It was a ten hour "sleeper bus" (at least that's the idea), designed for individuals no taller than 5'6", so not much sleep was going on. I guess the whole sleep thing wasn't helped by the blaring Vietnamese music at the back of the bus where they shove all of the Westerners and the Antarctic style air-conditioning. This was also when my pink eye was at its worst, so it was never going to be the most pleasant journey.

We left two hours late and thus arrived much later than we hoped and were greeted to a storm (both heavy rain and a storm of Vietnamese hotel owners asking us to spend the night at their place). I stayed somewhere around the corner from the bus station and took another nap, waited for the rain to cool down and then met a travelling French Canadian who I decided to share the room with to save some money. He and I later took his motorcycle out to discover the beauty that is Sapa, a trip that was well worth it. We just rode around for a few hours, stopping at the mountains, a village and a waterfall. Sapa is filled with different ethnic-minority groups to Hanoi and so it was interesting to observe the difference. The second day was pretty similar, spent on a motorcycle exploring the mountains, devouring some good Vietnamese food and even managing to get some material for my research. It was then back on the sleeper bus to the city (just as uncomfortable as on the way there). The displeasure of this journey was made worse by England's poor performance that evening (something my American friends were quite happy to rub in). A draw to the USA, really England?

I arrived back in Hanoi this morning at 5am with most things closed, found somewhere to store my bag and grab a shower and am waiting for my next sleeper bus (25 hours) to Laos for the nest part of my journey (some research, some tubing, something different). I've heard some very good things from other travellers about the place. Northern Vietnam has been enjoyable and I have loved travelling here. The reality is, travelling alone, you're never really alone, as I have met some interesting people at every part of my journey. As always, some things have been frustrating, but all part of the learning experience. I hope I've got enough money for my visa to Laos and any hidden costs this may involve and look forward to some different challenges ahead.

I'm pretty hot and pretty tired so hope this has been a little bit understandable. It has definitely been a longer blog than I had expected. Well done for making it this far. I'll try and blog a little sooner next time.

A Whole New World

I arrived last Thursday, armed with my $200 and ready to settle into the world that is South East Asia. After quite an impressive flight on the world's number one airline, Cathay Pacific, I took a taxi into Hanoi City which was going ot be my first stop for the trip. It was the smells of Asia that greeted me, a reminder of the great times (and food) to come. Upon leaving the terminal, taxi drivers ran towards me, acting as if we were long lost friends with everyone attempting to pull the dumb foreigner into their cab for a ride. "How much to To Ngoc Van" I asked, and a different answer from all. However, I knew it was 250 000 VND to my first destination and I was determined not to pay a penny more. The reality is, I don't know what a lot of things cost in Vietnam, and I conned yesterday when I was charged 2000 VND (7p) for the toilet when I should have only paid 1000 VND, but I guess that's something I can live with.

As some of you already know, I will be travelling the region for two months and am doing most of it solo. The primary goal of my trip is to do some research, which I start tomorrow, and the other goal is to discover this world that is pretty new to me. Living out of a backpack is going to be interesting; I'm not exactly known for my ability to pack lightly. Being alone is going to be an experience, but the reality remains that you are never really alone when travelling. I meet a lot of people every day, travellers from absolutely everywhere (USA, Scandinavia, Germany, Australia, New Zealand etc.) and some Vietnamese, although the language can be a little more of a barrier than I had hoped.

If my memory serves me well, it's always an interesting experience being a black guy in Asia. These societies tend to me a little more homogeneous than the streets of Newham in East London so my face is definitely a weird face. People here don't mind staring and this is something I'm just going to have to get used to, so far returning a smile has been a good tactic. What I've seen of the Vietnamese thus far has been great; Hanoi is a city full of living culture and history and it's great to be here. If I can survive crossing the roads in this city, then I really will have achieved something in my life. The first few days have entailed using an old lady as my guard and crossing beside her, this seemed the best method as nothing here stops. My guidebook says "maintain a steady pace and just keep going," a technique that I have grown the confidence to use now. There is no 'stop, look, listen, think' here, just "Go!"

It's exciting being somewhere new. I am a different face around the place and am enjoying the challenge. The heat can be pretty killer, the sweat unbearable, but it's all part of the experience. I have grown to the motorcycle as a primary mode of transport, it's the default here but I'm not quite brave enough to rent. It's pretty interesting watching the young guys and girls zooming through the streets on their bikes, some carrying their babies or even goats on their laps. Apparently Vietnam has helmet laws, so you do see them around here, but some of these guys will put a piece of paper on their heads just to "abide" by the law.

It seems when it hit's past 6pm, the normal order of the day is to head somewhere where they serve Bia Hoi (a Vietnamese beer) and to drink the night away; at 4000 VND (15p) it's not a bad deal. I was in a club yesterday and the sounds of Jay Z, Rihanna and Jason Derullo have reached the deepest corners of Vietnam, which I guess is no surprise.

So, that's the beginning of my journey and some of my first impressions. I guess there's a lot more to see and do. I went to the Mausoleum to see the body of Ho Chi Minh yesterday, have been to a water puppet show and have just been exploring the city of Hanoi. I have plans to visit the Sapa region next week, Halong Bay next weekend and then eventually make my way to Laos next weekend (very tentative). I guess I'll keep you posted.