Vietnam, Laos and back to Vietnam

We have figured it's about time we start writing our blog in English, as we have met a few non-Norwegian speakers who might be interested in reading it, and hope to meet more :)


Since the last time we wrote, we have travelled straight from Yangshuo down to Hanoi, Vietnam (we paid for a so-called VIP night bus and ended up changing buses several times during the night and sometimes had to sit on the floor), then for a couple of days to Sapa in the north of Vietnam, then crossed the border to Vientiane, Laos (where we also paid for a VIP night bus and ended up sitting on the floor, or rather on top of our bags which also sat on the floor), up to Luang Prabang and down again, and on another VIP night bus down to Pakse, where we actually got a VIP bus with air-con, pink curtains and real films on TV and not Vietnamese karaoke (see, that's because the Lao people are honest, as opposed to their neighbours).

So, at the moment we are still in Laos. After Vietnam it's a great relief to be here, people are genuinely nice and will happily talk to you without wanting your money! The atmosphere is so much more relaxed and laidback, the weather is lovely and the food is nice too! The only bad thing about Laos is that traveling here is very slow as the whole country seems to be under construction. There's a lot of work to do, and it's all being done by hand.


Here in Savannakhet there's not much to do, so we finally found time to update this blog :) We have only spent one night here, but feel that we've seen all there is to see and done all there is to do already! What was really nice though, was my (Liv Grete's) cooking class at Mama's Home Restaurant today. I learnt how to make Laap beef, Tom Yam soup and Sticky rice soup with coconut banana (the world's most delicious dessert) while Haakon made himself at home and watched a film on the sofa, just waiting for the food! In our opinion, this little restaurant makes Savannakhet worth visiting :)


From left: Mama's daughter, mother, Mama and me








We also went to the tiny Dinosaur Museum. This is Haakon, the curator and basically the whole museum!







Yesterday we travelled up from Si Phan Don (4000 islands) at the southern end of Laos. There we stayed on a little island called Don Khon, right on the border to Cambodia. On our way down there we met this really nice couple, Charlie and Justin from Devon in England, and we ended up spending 3 lazy days with them on this beautiful island that only has electricity from 6 to 10 in the evening. So it was really hot without fans during the night, luckily Charlie and Justin were patient and didnt go crazy while waiting for me showering.

Here we are in our favourite floating restaurant (dont think the owners liked us that much though, as they had to kick us out every night when they had to swich the generator off)..

After a meal, we simply jumped in the river for a swim :)



The food was good and cheap, but the best thing is, they had a monkey!










We went to see the rare Irrawaddy Dolphins as well, freshwater dolphins that only live here and they are nearly extinct. We did get to see them but only from a distance, so we didn't get a decent picture of them. We did take a photo of us and the funny Chinese woman though! She had everything in her bag vacuum-packed and ate chicken fried in Coca-Cola.



Cycling around was also great, we did get lost a couple of times but it was beautiful and we also found a little waterfall to splash around in.









Now this is proof that Laos truly is nature's wonderland :) Who needs electricity when your bathroom looks like this:

Our shower..











bathtub..












and jacuzzi!













Oh and just look at this..









Cute little girls waving at us while we were waiting for the bus.







Here we are in the Buddha Park outside Vientiane(the capital of Laos).







Fresh coconut milk, yammy. As we sat and relaxed in this little restaurant, a crazy cow came running in, stumbled and fell over with a bang, managed to get up and ran out again..









Haakon looks like a little God.. Outside Pha That Luang temple in Vientiane.











Also from Vientiane: hiring a motorbike was great!










Cycling around in Luang Prabang proved difficult with all the bumpy roads.. Some extremely friendly locals helped us out in the end, but Haakon wasnt too pleased with the situation.









This is from way back in Hanoi. Here, there are no traffic rules but one: honk your horn if someone's in your way! There are motorbikes and scooters everywhere, the pavement is so stuffed with them that you have to walk in the road, which isnt really safe as there are thousands of motorbikes there too.. We figured that if Norwegians are born with skis on their feet, the Vietnamese are born with a motorbike between their legs. They can easily balance a whole family on one motorbike, though we haven't seen more than 6 ppl on one yet..

In Sapa: Haakon has so many happy memories of his old Honda, and spent a few hours of happy nostalgia on this little beauty.










In Sapa we also got our first I Nearly Died story, or OK, at least a I Nearly Got My Legs Broken By a Crazy Guy story. We checked into the cheapest hotel we found, 5 US dollars including heater. When we got in the room and put our stuff down, this other guy came and said we had to pay extra for the heater. We just said we didn't accept that and wanted to find another hotel, which the guy said was fine. When we went out he suddenly said we had to pay this ridiculous fee for seeing the room (it was onlsy two US, but still).. When we refused to pay, the guy ran upstairs and came down with these crazy ninja sticks and threatened to hit us with them, shouting "you can not walk, you can not walk"! So we paid the 2 dollars and walked out on shaky legs but at least we kept our knee caps..

Well well, that's all for now, we'll write more soon :)