Back in 'Nam...

We spent the last 2 nights in Luang Prabang, Laos. The bus ride from Vang Vieng was very scenic and quite enjoyable, even though it took about 7 hours to travel 230km. The jagged mountain ranges in the North of Laos are just so beautiful. We were lucky enough to meet up again with our dearest travel buddies in Luang Prabang, which made the place even more fun. There is an amazing bar on the riverfront called Utopia, and, unlike other 'Utopia' bars we've been to on this trip (there seems to be one in every town..) it wasn't seedy at all! Darts, foolsball (spelling?), beach volleyball, giant Jenga.. all under a giant thatched gazebo with landscaped tropical garden. You can probably tell that I'm in love with the place! Megan and I were talking to the manager the day before Aus Day and convinced him to have a big Australia day party and put up flyers around the town, which he did! Smart man.

On Australia Day, Steve & I + our dearest Melbournite travel buddies, Megan & Lewis, plus Stu from Manchester, our token English buddy who we trained to say "I'm from Sydney" in an Australian accent for the day, all met up for breakfast and then headed out to Kouang Si Waterfalls. THE MOST amazing waterfalls I've been to! They were so gorgeous! There was the main huge waterfall, and then many tiers of small waterfalls spilling into turquoise swimming pools. The place looked like a landscaped very-flash tropical resort's swimming pool. PLUS to top it off.. there was a rescue centre for Asiatic Black Bears there, so we got to have a look at them too. Afterwards, we all met up for for drinks and nibblies in the courtyard of our hotel, and then went to Utopia. The manager let Megan and I 'DJ' for the night + we got a couple of free drinks, because the whole Aus Day party had been our idea! Unfortunately there is a Laos-wide 12AM curfew so Utopia shut, but we found a bowling alley on the outskirts of town that stayed open until 3AM... so that's where we finished off the night! An amazing Australia Day, even if we are in Laos!

We all woke very tired this morning, met for breakfast, and said our goodbyes to Megan & Lewis. We were all a little heartbroken. We do get to keep our token Englishman, Stu, for a bit longer though, as he flew with us to Hanoi in Vietnam this afternoon, where we are currently. We decided to pay the extra and get a flight to Hanoi rather than taking the 3-day bus trip, as we are quickly running out of time! Our plane was tiny and even had propellors, but the view was absolutely gorgeous, and despite it only being a 1-hour flight, they fed us! :D

We'd heard a lot of stories from people about Hanoi being a bit unfriendly and full of scams, and within an hour of arriving we'd already found that to be true. The airport is waaaaaay out of town, so you have to get the bus or share a taxi. As there were 3 of us, we decided just to share a taxi. We agreed with the 'taxi pimp' (the guy who organises the taxi fare, and then takes us to the taxi) that we would pay a total of 250,000d between the 3 of us, but when we got into town, the taxi driver demanded another 20,000d. As he didn't speak a word of English, we couldn't establish what the hell the extra fee was supposed to be for, but despite our protesting, we were made to pay it anyway. On top of that, he didn't take us to the hotel we had asked to be taken to (which had been recommended by Meg&Lew), but another hotel in a parallel street. The hotel guy then tried to tell us that his hotel was in fact the hotel we had wanted to go to, despite being on the wrong street, and having a completely different name. When we pointed this out, he tried to tell us that it was owned by the same people, which is a load of crap, so we made the taxi driver take us where we had originally intended. Sheesh.

The recommended hotel was full, but we found another really nice one with amazing customer service. Our hotel guy spent ages with us helping us go through the different companies that offer boat tours around Halong Bay and then booked it for us (he used to be a tour guide apparently), + he gave us a free drink each, free breakfast in the morning, and is making sure that they have a room available for us when we get back from Halong Bay. Oh and we get to keep our increasingly heavy luggage here, and just pack a backpack with a couple of changes of clothes. He also recommended a Vietnamese restaurant for us, which was AMAZING. Mmmmmm! Cost us about $13 between the 3 of us. Such good value.

Anyway, very tired now so I'm going to bed; just thought I should do a bit of an update before we leave tomorrow. We'll be in Halong Bay on a 'junk' boat for the next 2 days doing kayaking, caving, hiking etc etc. It's going to be amazing! :D

Amiee x