Sapa

You can do treks gallore form almost any hotel, cafe even internet cafe's and resturants, but from the information I have most of the agencies give the local tribe people a raw deal, in terms of how much money they get. So I went with a suggestion from www.travelfish.org .I got speaking to a local H'Mong woman in the market who offered to be my guide for a day, which was great as there was only me, Very knowledgable about her customs and the land she worked on with great english. H'Mong women get married between 15 and 18 on average, at 20+ many H'Mong men consider them to old. There is a picture of my guide who is 27 and has 4 children. She also cooked lunch for the family which I was invited to. You can also see her youngest son playing in a pile of corn cobs, when would eventually end up feeding the families pigs, chickens etc.

In the morning we went around the market getting food for lunch which is when I took the pic of the dog, mind you it had seen better days. Sapa is famous for tiered rice paddy's which are abundent around the area.....

Halong Bay

These are the pics you have been waiting for..... I can sense it. As one of the most famous tourist attractions in Vietnam, I was really looking forward to this one, and it did not disapoint, the weather was as good as it could have been, hot and sunny with a slight breeze, after the first hour or so on the boat I had about a hundred photos of the limestone karsks, they are just stunning and made even more so with a glorious sunset. The pic with me in it is in front of monkey island on the third day of the cruise when we did a bit of kayaking, after which we went swimming, which was toasty warm. Mind you we did the same on the boat the preivious morning at about 06:30 for 15 mins when the crew stopped us, becuase of jelly fish, the longest of which was 1.5m.... proper badness in the stingy sense. Oh the vid is quite cool as well.

Hanoi

Good morning Vietnam, you had to expect that.... Hanoi is a fab city the old quarter is a hive of activity. Motor bikes as far as the eye can see. So crossing the street makes for some great entertainment. If you waited for the traffic to stop then you would be there for ever and a day. The pics show a typical street vender transporting her goods. Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and a classic view of Comunism meets Capitalism. An American fighter from the Vietnam war in the military museum, I'll let you come to your own conclusions regarding this little gem of a picture.

Muang Khua

This is the place that I tried to cross into Vietnam, but was denied by water, there had been so much rain the land slides had blocked the road, and the but that goes to the border had not been seen for 3 days, or the day I arrived or the day after that. So I had to turn tail and mack my way back down south.... arse.

Anyway the picture taken is from where the bus should have been going from had it been there, this town is 70k from the border with Vietnam, so I have had to double back quite a long way. The bridge is in the town where I stayed, and is kinda falling to bits slowly, mind you motorbikes still use it despite some really big holes appearing in it.

For those of you I have not told yet I have been using www.travelfish.org as the uber guide to my travels so far, it's like a Lonely Planet but better by at least the number of stars I mentioned earlier.

The other images are from the boat trip I took to get to this town, kids running down the beach as far and as fast as they could waving frantically, a small fishing boat with it's days catch, and one of many small village at the top of the river bank, it's easy to see that the river is the life blood for people in this region, a much slower pace of life, harder in many ways, but happier and healthier in many many more.......

Muang Ngoi

These place names get more special each one I visit. This place as far as I know can only be reached by boat, but it is quite well visited and as most of the places I have been in Laos is stunning. There were only 2 Falang (westerners) on the boat to Muang Ngoi the rest were locals and beer. Thought I'd post the picture of the little lady I spent the night with, although to many legs for my liking, also a sunset over the Nam Ou river, and one of my favorite photo's I have taken so far with the three fishing boats in oh and a view straight down the main street in the village where I stayed for the night. Electricity is only on here from about 18:30 to 23:00 or just before so there are no fans in the rooms, which means having the windows open to have some sort of fresh air..... mossie nets are provided.

Nuang Khaw

Another small place, and the last one I was at for a while that had 24hour electricity The views from the bridge were stunning as was the walk back at night, as there was very little in the way of light pollution, I counted at least a squillion stars. The view off to the right of the bridge is the boat station, unfortunatley I miss understood the time of departure. I got there at 7am it left at 11am. Along wait but at least it was the right way around. An old lady seen carrying Beer-Lao down to the boat for the Falang. The night we arrived after a beer we went for some food (we = 2 Dutch people I met on the way to this village) and gate crashed a locals party, on a works afternoon out as it was the boss's birthday, it finished early as Laos people go to bed early and get up chuffing early. The last pick is a woman going about daily life on her boat.

Vientiane

The capital city of Lao PDR, a small place but also enough to keep you busy for a few days, The victory arch as yet unfinished but from this distance you cant really tell and a cool pic with the refection from the fountain. Also a pic the Buddah park about 25K away from the city. getting a local bus from the station in front of the morning market is by far the bast way to get there and the cheapest. On the way out of town going to Vang Vieng, there was a wee bit of drama a truck had left the road and ended up at the bottom. Locals had started to salvage what they could from the wreck. Don't know if the guy with the gun over his back was police/ army or private militia eith way you don't wana piss him off. The rest of the drive proved uneventful, with the exception of a few on-coming trucks in the middle of the road.

The mountain pic I was on about & UXO pix

The locals in Phonsavan have been quite adept at using UXO shells for decoration walls almost anything you can think of, it's unfortunate that my camera failed on the bus into Phonsavan. But I have found a couple of images from the internet to give you an I idea of what it's about. The guest house I stayed in had it's sign hanging from a Napalm shell. Also as I forgot to up load the video clip of the Slow boat see attached.

Luang Prabang

A gerogous town on the Mekong well relaxing with a fantastic night market, these pic's show the view from the temple at the top of a hill in the middle of town, a waterfall that we went to visit, a bunch of french people that I met on the way to the waterfall, the most batterd tuk-tuk I could find in Luang Prabang and the last shot I took with my old camera before it failed, cloud in the mountains on the way to Phonsavan.

The Plain of Jars, the most heavily bombed region in the most heavily bombed country in the world. An estimated 30% of all ordance dropped still lies exposed or just under the surface waiting take the lives of Children, Men & Women trying to make a living from the land.

http://www.maginternational.org/laopdr/

Cut and paste the link into your browser for more info

On our way to one of the Jars sites we passed a mine clearing team of about 8 working only 20 or so meters from the edge of the road. Those that do survive a blast can often end up with horrific injuries preventing them from farming the land making an already difficult life even more so.

Into Laos

As soon as I get to an internet connection that is reasonably quick I'll start adding some photo's again, The border crossing from Chaing Khong to Huay Xai was quite easy and busy. In my whole trip through Thailand I did not see such a concentration of Farang in one place. The two day boat trip down to Luang Prabang was some of the most beautiful I have seen so far, although you couldn't get any more people on the boat you you tried, you'll see what I mean when I get some pics uploaded with a video clip to boot.

Luang Prabang it's self was a very relaxing french colonial town with some great views over the Mekong River, and of the whole city from the temple on top of the hill. The bus trip to Phonsavan cost 75,000 kip and was about 7 hours of bendy mountain road.

After getting back from a trip to the plain of jars, (we also saw a chap carrying an AK-47 over his shoulder walking with a boy who must have been no more than 8, nice guy gave us some fruit as he passed us) we went to the dog restaurant. Yep it served dog, steamed and bar-b-q. An interesting flavour to say the least which came with sticky rice. Lao-Lao (is a strong drink at about 50-60ish % depending on how long it's left fermenting) its clear but bloody potent stuff.

Anyway next post should be from Vang Vieng, the tubing capital of Laos. :o)

Right then new pics added, 6 of us in the boat crossing the border from Thailand to Laos, Looking back at Thailand from the same boat, somewhere down the Mekong on the way to Pakbeng