Merry Christmas from Ha Long Bay

This is just a short post to say a late merry Christmas to everyone who pays attention to this blog (feel free to comment any replies). This isn't in order, there is no detail and there is more to come in between Laos and Vietnam where we are now. Here are just a few pictures of how we spent our Christmas in Ha Long Bay.

Christmas Day morning on the deck of the Jolly Roger (3rd beer in hand at 8am)

 Some other travellers on the tour with us

 The private island out in the bay where we stayed all Christmas day

The type of view that goes on for miles: a surreal way to spend Christmas

Laos Part 1

We decided to enter Laos via a river crossing and then take the slow boat down the Mekong into the first destination we were heading for. This decision was based partly on the fact that it sounded pretty cool and partly on the fact 2 girls left taking the same route a couple of days before we were due to leave and it meant we didn't have to think or plan.

The boat trip took two full days in total most of which was spent chatting, drinking and listening to music (including a good few hours on 80s classics that seemed to win a few friends). To make sure we had good cold beer for the journey we bought bottles and polystyrene cooler (christened Coolio). After the first day on the boat we stayed at a small town on the bank overlooking the Mekong, not that we noticed quite how good the view was until the morning. 

 

 

The final destination of the slow boat was Luang Prabang in the North of Laos, as is our custom we went out and drank to much after the long time spent travelling (this way works better than doing it before journeys). The town itself was a nice place, though as with all of Laos there is a midnight curfew which meant drinking was forced into a pattern similar to the old days in England. Luckily a security guard in our hostel was willing to sell beers to us after this time for only a slight premium. The main attraction of Luang Prabang were the nearby Tat Kuang Si waterfalls, about a half hour drive in the back of an over sized Tuk Tuk. After the slight disappointment of the appearance of the falls around Pai we were hoping for something a little better here. As the photo below shows we got our wish.

The lower levels of the falls had pools where it was possible to swim and there was even a rope swing set up. At the top of the riverside path there was a huge waterfall that it was possible to climb over. The walk up took about half an hour through very steep jungle paths, when we eventually reached the top the path seemed to end. We figured out that we were supposed to paddle through the water along the top of the waterfall; about 30 to 40 meters up! Halfway across my flip flop decided now was the time to break leaving me to plunge into the water... camera in hand. Luckily the camera was off and by some miracle (and with the help of an overheating fuse box in our hostel) it dried off and started working the next day! I wasn't so lucky, managing the cut my toe and wrist, though the worst part was the view from the top was really not worth it.

After a few days we took a bus down to Vang Vieng - tubing town. Unfortunately the first day down there I developed a sudden sickness and had to take a day off from doing any tubing, opting for sleep instead. The day after I was ready and we got our tubes and went down to the river for just after midday. The river wasn't really as we expected, all of the bars were within 100 meters of each other and they were pretty much all seemed accessible by walking! This was confirmed by the fact that most people were tubing without tubes. We followed their lead after the first day as we only actually tubed for about 50 meters! The bars all have their own zip lines, slides and rope swings however a combination of hearing stories of death, witnessing bloody falls and seeing a broken leg occur meant that we steered well clear. We both agreed that though tubing was fun it is really no more than getting drunk in a different location and not the amazing life experience people had made it out to be!

Our next stop in Laos was the capital city Vientiane, really only on the itinerary as we needed to apply for Thai visas so that we could stay longer than 15 days on our return. The road there was fairly boring so the picture below is from the road to Vang Vieng. There really wasn't much to do in Vientiane and not many sights to see beyond a replica of the Arc de Triomphe. This was apparently built with compensation from America that was supposed to be to build an airport hence it's nickname the vertical runway. To say we actually visited would be a lie, the photo was taken from the taxi as we were leaving!

Pai

Our little trip to Pai was only short as it is only a very small place with not all that much to do. Pai was only 85km from Chiang Mai but took 3 hours on minibus thanks to the steep terrain in between the two towns. We didn't do too much on the first day due to a lingering hang over from the night before though we did manage to find an interesting place to stay; a small bamboo bungalow in the edge of the jungle right by the riverside. This seemed like a good idea in the day but after the sun had set it was ridiculously dark and inhabited with many insects and a whole load of ants.

The second day there we rented motorbikes as they were only £3 for a whole day including insurance, something we weren't expecting. The bikes were 110cc simple twist and go things but would be useful as the main sights of Pai were all out of town. 

The area surrounding Pai was beautiful and made for a very nice day riding. The main attractions we visited were waterfalls and whilst they weren't the most spectacular locations they made for a nice escape from the heat of the day. 

Other than waterfalls there was a bridge known as the World War II bridge built by prisoners of war to allow Japanese forces to transport weapons into Burma. Apparently the war had finished by the time route was ready and so it was not actually used. (Not just a boring diary but also educational now too!)

Though we didn't really get up to much we both enjoyed Pai as it was very peaceful making a nice change from the nights we spent in Chiang Mai. One of the best parts about the town was the 3 course steak dinner available at a restaurant for about £2!

Chiang Mai

Though Chiang Mai seemed like it would be a nice quiet place after all the drinking and not much else in Bangkok it turned out not to be at all. We met a group of people on the first day and ended up going out with them nearly every night we were there. On the plus side we did at least do things (mostly animal related) during the day as well! The first stop of our animal tour of Chiang Mai was the Tiger Kingdom; a tiger sanctuary not far out of town where they let you get in the cages with the tigers. According to the signs the tigers aren't drugged they are just hand reared and well fed! They split the tigers up into different size groupings and as the smallest were most expensive we decided to go for the largest (to make sure we got the most tiger for our money). They really are quite docile though it did seem they weren't drugged as occasionally they would make a quick movement, luckily the trainers were well armed... with a short piece of bamboo!

On our way out of the centre we got a bonus extra animal as a guy from the snake farm down the road was there with a small snake. He took great pleasure in putting on my head and then trying to make it eat my face. Later in the day we headed to the zoo in town (yeah another zoo). Though the animals themselves weren't that special compared to everything else we had seen the completely lax safety measures were worth seeing as was the fact that most of the animals could have simply walked out of their enclosures if they had wanted to!

A couple of days later we spent a whole day visiting a nearby elephant sanctuary. As we arrived we were handed a set of clothes to wear for the day including a massive pair of tie on shorts, a tribal vest and a head scarf. We started by picking the elephant we would be riding for the day though somehow I missed that this was going on, as a result I was stitched up with the youngest and craziest who would not stand still for one second. After feeding them a tonne of bananas to gain some trust we were taught various basic controls and then after lunch headed off up a hill riding on the neck of our elephants. It turned out that though my elephant (celled Dee) was smaller, when she had someone riding her she calmed down, stopped dancing around and as actually the best behaved of all of them. Pete seemed to end up with the worst deal as his elephant just constantly wanted to walk off and eat. When it wasn't allowed to do this it just picked up a 6 foot tree branch and swung that around a bit! 

The culmination of the day was jumping off our elephant's head into a watering hole and then splashing around with them. Being young and a little mental my elephant decided to run straight in and roll me off into the water, at one point I did fear for my life when I was surrounded by 4 elephants with my feet stuck in the mud but I managed to clamber out with my foot only slightly trodden on!

The only downside to Chiang Mai was the amount of times we managed to pick a perfectly nice looking restaurant, only to realise we were surround by crass older white men either with or talking loudly about their various Thai girlfriends.

Oh yer and I called a girl a prostitute.

Bangkok

This will be a short entry as we were in Bangkok only as long as it took us to apply for our Vietnamese visas. Most of the time we were there was spent drinking or recovering from drinking or a mixture of the two. Apart from that we did make it to the statue of a 40m long gold reclining Buddah but it was the middle of the hottest day since we had arrived so our enthusiasm didn't last long. That night we managed to get a bus North to Chiang Mai which will make a much more interesting post when I get around to it, at least I'm technically only 1 country behind now!

Shanghai and Hong Kong

The train to Shanghai and onwards was interesting. To save some money we had picked the 3rd class sleeper train. This was like the trains in Russia but rather than 2 bunks there were 3. As we had booked late the only bunks left were the top which meant us being about 9 feet in the air and having about 2 feet of headroom for the journey. The journey wasn't too bad as we slept most of it until at about half 7 in the morning the TV came on full volume and stayed on for the next 2 hours!

 
Shanghai was a fleeting one night visit for us as the train to Hong Kong ran only on the odd days in the month and we had a flight to catch. We spent most of the time in Shanghai on the river front called the Bund which looked out over to the financial district of the city. It seemed we were like celebrities down there with many Chinese people taking sneaky pictures of us.

 
The train to Hong Kong was the same as the previous one, only this time we had the middle bunks with (luckily) empty beds above us. When we arrived we found a place to stay in the misleadingly named Chung King Mansions. This was easily the worst place we had stayed in but it was only for 2 nights and was relatively cheap. On our first evening we (finally) put shorts on and had an ice cream on the sea front. Here they have a version of the Hollywood walk of fame but for Chinese/Hong Kong stars such as Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

 
The next day we took a surprisingly cheap ferry ride to one of Hong Kongs surrounding islands to find a beach. After some lunch and a wander around the little harbour area we found a deserted beach and swam for a while; such a big change from the snow in Mongolia a few weeks earlier! 

When we returned to the city we decided to take a night time ride up the peak tram to the top of the hill behind Hong Kong city. They absolutely pack you onto the tram meaning I didn't get a seat, though it was a good way to experience how steep the route actually is. After a bit of time at the top admiring the views of the city we went to get the tram back down, however the queue was crazy so we decided it would take longer than walking down. We were wrong. We ended up walking down crazily steep, pitch black paths through jungle-like areas around the back of Hong Kong. After about 40 minutes of jumping at random noises we finally made it back to the safety of the city!

 
At Hong Kong airport the next day me and Pete accidentally decided to test the security enforcement. I left suncream in my hand luggage and Pete a cutlery set including a knife; of course with the world wide threat of terrorism neither of these items were discovered...

Beijing

Due partly to a mistake by us and partly a mistake by a stranger from the internet we would be spending quite a lot of time in Beijing rather than elsewhere in China. Our first experience wasn't great; a taxi driver (not having much luck with them!) tried to massively rip us off though we luckily managed to dodge his advances. We ended up staying on a really nice little street; a good balance between local restaurants and people with the occaisional hostel.

Since we arrived quite late we ended up just going for a walk and then out to an R 'n' B club called Mix in the grounds of the local football stadium in the evening with a group of people we had met earlier in Mongolia. With our first full day we visited the Olympic park which was very impressive except for the constant attempts to sell us kites and other tourist crap. 

The second day we visited some of the markets around the city and discovered how crazy the bartering is here! For example we were first quoted about £37 for one fake Beijing football shirt and ended up paying £15 for 2 shirts and 2 pairs of shorts. We also witnessed a lot of what appears to be the number 1 past time of Chinese people; clearing their throats and spitting... EVERYWHERE. The worst example of this was when a man actually got up and spat on the floor of a restaurant we were eating in! China was weird in so many ways; a simple example being the regular subway vents that appeared as mushrooms dotted all around the city.

 On our fifth day in Beijing my degree results were due to be released, though due to the time difference and the usual efficiency of Manchester University I was expecting this to happen at about 5pm Beijing time. Luckily I checked just before we left the hostel in the afternoon and discovered them already there (for anyone who didn't already know I somehow managed to swindle a Distinction). That made for a very happy Nelson so we decided to visit Beijing zoo the highlight of which was the Pandas though they weren't as giant as the name suggested and I didn't see any of the fall over all day.

The next day we decided to tick off a few easy must do's in Beijing since we were hanging from celebrating the night before. We had a leisurely walk around the Temple of Heaven park and located an acrobatics theatre to visit that night. The acrobatics was really as amazing as you could imagine with human bodies flying everywhere on various ropes, poles and other obstacles. The skill in controlling other props; such as drums with their feet and throwing hats was also impeccable and made the whole show well worth the money. Afterwards we decided to continue the theme and visited a restaurant for some Peking duck from it's home town. Though the price somehow managed to largely increase during the meal we were still satisfied as it was easily the best duck any of us had every had. Overall the food in China was really good and a nice break from both the expense of Russian and the blandness of Mongolian cuisine. 

 On our final full day in Beijing we finally made it out of the city to visit the great wall. To make sure it was a little more interesting and quieter we were heading for a section that was a few hours from the capital but had not seen any restoration since the 1500's. The views from the wall as it ran along the tops of the biggest hills in the area were truly stunning and Carl Pilkington was right it really does stretch out as far as you can see, just like the M6. Certain sections where we were we also almost vertical and required climbing using hands as well. The only thing was missing from the day were the Mongolians attacking; they must have been having a day off.

On our final morning me and Pete visited forbidden city and whilst impressive neither of us would recommend viewing it from inside. It is quite expensive very samey with the more interesting run down sections hidden from public view. Instead the best way to see it is from the top of a man made hill at the North end. Entry to this little park worked out at about 20p and from the temple on the top of the hill there were perfect views of not only the forbidden city but also Beijing as a whole. We also spotted a few older Chinese women dancing in time, with fans amongst the parks features. 

Before leaving the city we made sure to donate some of our winter clothes to a group of homeless people we had noticed not far from our hostel, they seemed very happy though quite confused to be receiving gifts from strange foreigners!

Mongolia: 2 Viruses and a punch in the face

The train journey to Ulan Bator/Ulaanbaatar was pretty hellish thanks to the train pretty much being a mobile market with Mongolian and Chinese traders dragging stock backwards and forwards all night. On the first morning we went out to find a massive computer market called Computerland so that Pete could replace the lost mp3 player. We managed to find an apparent bargain for only £10 but it came bundled with a lovely virus that infected the laptop and everything that touched it. It was eventually healed but I suspect it had already infected Pete as he had to spend nearly all of the next day in bed. There is a chance that it wasn't the computer that infected him but the vast quantities of very cheap "meat" dishes we had been eating... Either way he made it out of bed to watch Spurs at quarter to 5 in the morning!

The next day we took a trip to the Terelj national park where we would be spending the night in a Ger, a traditional Mongolian Nomad tent that was surprisingly comfortable and (whilst the fire was going) exceptionally warm! Unfortunately the fire went out at night time when the temperatures dipped below -15°C; waking up in boxers in that weather is not nice when you went to sleep in what felt like a sauna! On our second day there we went on a horse ride for a couple of hours, unfortunately a bit of an anticlimax after waiting all day for the horses to return from the vast surrounding nothingness!

On our return to the capital we decided to have a night out at a Mongolian club (they do exist!). A group of about 10 of us from the hostel went and half of us ended up exceptionally drunk thanks to cheap drinks prices. Pete had set off home a few hours before me, still recovering from the food poisoning, so me and a girl from the hostel and John, a Spurs fan we had been travelling with since Ulan Ude got a taxi back at the end of the night. This seemed fine until we got back and the driver started demanding more from us. We all went to get out but there was no handle on my door so by the time I had climbed across the driver was blocking the door leaving me trapped. In the end I barged past him but he grabbed my coat at the chest and would not let go, repeatedly shouting “5000, 5000!” in my face. Me and John tried to fight him off me for a while as we had no money to give him but he was a big guy and we were out muscled. Eventually an American guy we had been out with earlier in the night heard the fuss and came over to pay him, the driver finally let go but then took a swing at me, glancing my cheek. All of this took place in a children’s play area in the snow, certainly one of the more surreal experiences of my life! 

One more thing from Mongolia; we finally caught a train on time thanks to a lift from the hostel!

Ulan Ude

This was probably the stop we were least looking forward to as it was 3 nights in a place with very little to do and the hostel sounded pretty nasty. Things didn't start well, we arrived at about 6 and after failing to find a tram stop we decided to walk. The instructions seemed simple enough; turn left at an obelisk then turn right 500 meters later.... so obviously it took us 2 hours 3 strangers and a taxi (who had to phone 2 people) to find it! Turns out the Russian idea of a street is quite different to ours...

The next day we decided to visit a nearby Buddhist monastery, apparently the centre of Buddhism in Russia. The place was quite impressive, 35km out in the middle of nowhere, with chanting audible from quite a way off. We had a walk around the outside spinning prayer wheels, went into a temple and general felt out of place. The plan had been to spend the night at the monastery but it wasn't possible as it seemed to be some sort of special occasion and there were a lot of people around. We returned to the city and visited the other major attraction of the area... the worlds largest head of Lenin. The day was recovered by a meal at Happyland, our cheapest in Russia accompanied by beer for only £1.20 a pint.

The second day in the city we spent visiting the natural history museum. We had seen posters advertising a special Gobi desert dinosaur exhibit so for less than £3 it seemed like a good deal. When we got in there it turned out the special exhibit was just some dinosaur bones stolen from Mongolia and put up in front of an old exhibition covered with black sheets. There were also a few other rooms with exhibits that literally hadn't been updated since either of us were born. Taking photos was not allowed but some stealthy moves meant that I got a few.

The next morning we set off for our train, again determined not to cut it fine. We got to the station with plenty of time (enough time for Pete to realise he had already lost the gloves he bought in Irkutsk) but still ended up boarding with only 5 minutes to go. It turned out the board was broken and wasn't updating with platform numbers and the train we had spent about half an hour staring at in platform 1 was ours. Oh well; to Mongolia.

Irkutsk and Olkhon Island

Irkutsk only gets one sentence here; it is boring and expensive and not worth hanging around in.

It is good however as a stopping point to get to Olkhon island on lake Baikal. After our second night in the hostel we caught a minibus at quarter to 8 for the 6 hour drive to the island. It turns out the paved road on the route didn't last too long so it was gravel tracks for about 100km. After a short and freezing cold trip on a tiny open car ferry we arrived on the island where the road was even worse for the last 40km. At the hostel on the island we were given an individual room in an all wooden buildings, ours even had a log burning stove to heat it.

The island was a rediculously picturesque place with perfectly clear, clean water and surrounded by mountains. On the day we arrived we took a walk up the coast and back through the town/village. A very strange experience as there were more cows and stray dogs roaming around the streets than people. The hostel provided full board accomodation and was certainly the best food we have had in Russia. Omul, a fish unique to the Baikal featured heavily on the menu's in soup, fried and plain forms.

Where I took my "swim"

On the second day we took a tour in an old Russian 4x4 minibus to the North of the island stopping at several of the more interesting parts for photo opportunities. During one of these stops I managed to fall through the ice of a little pond behind a beach; thank God for waterproof boots! When we reached the very North you could really apreciate the scale of the lake with it stretching out much further than the eye could see. On the way back from the North we stopped at another beach that had a much larger expanse of ice just behind it. Everybody on the tour was soon sliding around on it, even after my earlier failure! 

On the way back the minibus broke down in the middle of a forest, though this was obviously not a rare occurence as it turned out the driver had a host of spare parts ready in the bus.

When we got back to the hostel we went for a Banya, a traditional Russian bath. This was quite a strange experience involving the hottest sauna I have ever been in followed by mixing a tub of water and pouring it over your head with a big ladle. After that evenings meal a musician with a Balalaika played a selection of Russian folk songs and some great covers of music from around the world (including, Gillis will be glad to know; Europe – The Final Countdown!). After this the evening was spent hammering straight vodka in our room with the other people who had been on the tour with us in the day.

The journey home took the same amound of time as the journey there despite a 1 and a half hour wait for the ferry. This was made possible due to our crazy minibus driver keeping a constant speed of nearly 150kmph (when he found tarmac) and making some "interesting" overtaking manouverers! 

The next day we were hoping to improve our record on getting to the train station and so we set off an hour early to get the tram. After a wait of 15 minutes with 4 trams going the other way and not one heading the way we wanted Pete suddenly remembered he had left his glasses back at the hostel (I count that as another loss for the list). During his 10 minute run back the hostel there were still no trams heading our way so we admitted defeat and tried to hail a cab. After 10 minutes of shaking heads we finally go one to take us, even if the price was pretty crazy! We made it for the train with just under 10 minutes to spare... another stressful journey.

Krasnoyarsk

We caught a train at just after 1 in the morning, heading for Krasnoyarsk another place no one has ever heard of and yet has a population of about 1 million! When it got light we found ourselves in completely baron and dead looking countryside (where the background photo was taken). We made another Russian friend on this train and though she spoke no more English than the murderer attempting to talk to her was much more comfortable! Pete's great luck struck again as we made Russian pot noodles for lunch. We got them back to the compartment and before he could take a bite he tipped the entire pot across the table, his bed and his (white!) jogging bottoms.

There are no hostels in Krasnoyarsk so we stayed with a Russian family in their flat. Their place was right on the edge of the city in a crappy apartment block surround by crappy apartment blocks. After a scary ride in the smallest lift I have ever been in to the top floor we discovered that the inside was actually nothing like the outside and had been recently renovated. We went for a look around the city and met our first English person since Moscow; Charlotte, a girl 6 weeks into her year abroad for a language degree. We arranged to try and meet the next day for a night out at a DJ competition, a bit difficult when we have no phone and access to the internet only in internet café's.

On the second day we went to the Stolby nature reserve, located around some massive granite rock formations. On the bus journey there a local woman (rocking Nelly-style grills) asked us if we were going to the nature reserve and helpfully told us when to get off. As we were trying to work out where we had to walk (the bus stops 7km from the rock formations) she grabbed two Russian students and told them to help us! So we had a couple of tour guides for the day! At the top of one of the rocks it snowed really intensely and we both ended up with frozen hair for the rest of the day. The weather did clear eventually and we found some amazing views after climbing to the top of some scarily icy rocks. We went around quite a lot of the different formations and must have walked over 25km by the time we got back to the bus stop. We even had a snowball fight with some Russia school children and got the in trouble with their teacher! 

When we got back in the evening we had a quick change and went straight back out to meet the English girls. The night involved plenty of vodka and actually some very good DJ'ing. However the night took an unpleasant turn when we went to leave as Pete discovered he could not find his passport! He managed to get back in the club and searched for a good half hour to no avail. When he finally returned we were pretty stressed as this would probably spell the end of the trip! I put my hands in my pockets and found something there that I didn't expect... the passport had been in my pocket all along! Neither of us have any idea when, why or how I ended up with Pete's passport but we were glad to have found it!


Overnight it snowed quite heavily and in the morning our hungover bus ride to the train station was taking forever and we quickly realised we weren't going to make it. We jumped out at the next stop and managed to get a taxi that got us there with 5 minutes to spare! So we have nearly missed 2 out of 3 trains so far, both whilst hungover... I'm starting to see a pattern.