Day 11-12 Vientien, Laos, Day 13 Vietnam - Hanoi, Halong Bay

Day 10 (extras) Impressions.. very, very poor houses made out of woven thatch interseprsed with lots of new construction and expensive, empty looking houses Made with painted concrete and pretty wooden doors and shutters. Mechanics all have a rack of oil out front and tires everywhere. Many people squat when they are hanging around. Many, many babies and children everywhere. Our local guide told us with the mountain people a man can have 7 wives. Women carring babies in cloth slings, girls carrying babies, even occasionally men carrying babies. Not as much water as I was expecting. Dogs EVERYWHERE. Many baby animals, nursing dogs, etc. It's like their spring here. Green, and green and brown (rice fields).

Day 11, Road to Vientien: after breakfast we got back on the bus from 2 days before, at least it is pretty roomy and not cramped. Forewarned I took the front seat this time and was actually pretty ok since I was able to look out the front window the whole time. I took a few photos but none turned out spectacularly. Lots of the same type houses, the road this time, while bumpy was pretty straight and flat. Many temples. Here there is much decoration, beautiful, in the triangle between the top of the walls and the roof. (not sure what that area is called. One toilet stop, (1,000kip and squat toilets but very clean and well lit at least) and stretch our legs, and then we got to Vientien at 12:30) Dropped our bags at thre fanciest hotel we have stayed at yet, and headed off to lunch. (despite everything, this one ALSO had mosquitos and I got my first 2 bites this trip, grrr). While this is a city (the capital of Laos) and there are some beggars, it is still a pretty slow paced city compared to what I am used to. Lunch was chicken and noodles (ok) and a really good watermellon shake. Getting used to asking to see their ice before ordering things with ice in them . With a hole in the middle is ok, without NOT OK. Then after lunch Long took us walking past a temple/museaum with pretty statues and buildings, then we walked to their version of the Arc de'triumph. Which they put up after the french left. Same basic shape but that's the only similarity! Then back to the hotel, it's hot again. Ugh. Quick shower and we went back out at 5. Took a walk along the river, caught the tail end of sunset (though I didn't manage a decent picture) and the evening areobics. Saw a HUGE statue of the former king. Then a drink on a rooftop bar. On the other side of the river is Thailand, it's an odd feeling to be looking into another country.After our drink (and 4 flights of stairs) we walked to dinner and a little place Long likes. I got wide noodlew ith vegies and pork. It was ok. Kind of had a burnt flavor to it, and another watermellon shake which was also really good. Tim gor a whole fried fish (talipia it turns out) with lemongrass and it was fantastic. (he let me have a taste) and he ate the eyeballs. Eww. 

After Dinner D and I wandered through a little night market. I picked up a sweet tiny painting on homemade paper for mom :) from one of the artists, but nothing else was particularly impressive. Scarves weren't as pretty as in Luang Prabang and lots of junk. We actually mnaged to find our way back to the hotel first try! Yay go us, and bed. (Covered in bug spray first this time!!!)

Day 12 - Included breakfast! I got a fried egg, fruit (dragon fruit, watermelon, a tangerine, pineaple, and a piece of papaya) bread (sliced baguette) and tea and OJ (tang, *sigh*) with butter and jam. Not bad. Then we all met to go to COPE. (a charity Intrepid supports, stands for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise) and talk to someone about all the UXO (unexploded bombs) in Loas and what they do about it. We saw a video about disarming the bombs, and then a video of one of the cope people with no arms (@ elbow on one side, wrist on the other) and blind doing a really fantastic modern dance. We got to meet him, he was nice. Then back to the hotel, pack up and to the airport! 

Took a van to the airport, 30 min of standing around while Long gets everything situated, grabbed a sandwich (tuna, it was really good though odd. 3 pieces of bread!, Bread, tuna salad, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, bread, Tuna, Cuc, Tom, Lettuce, Bread!) and then went through easy security to the gate. (there were 3). Short flight, 45 minutes, and they still fed us. Drink choices were beer, tang, pepsi and water. Food was a sweet roll stuffed with ham and cheese and a pistacio? bun. Arrival, security, baggage claim then off to the van. 45 min drive to the hotel, OH MY GOODNESS the traffic. This is the first real city we have been in. It's pretty insane, the van almost never "stopped" all the way, despite oncoming and cross traffic. YIkes. Scooters EVERYWHERE. Van took us almost to our hotel in the old quarter, we had to get out and walk about 3 blocks, and cross 2 intersections! (you just walk out, avoid the buses and cars, the scooters avoid you). Hotel is pretty nice, dropped off our bags and met downstairs to go out. We walked to the lake and looked at it for a few minutes then crossed the street AGAIN :) and headed to a 3rd story bar overlooking the lake and traffic. Watched accidents not happen for about 20 minutes while I had my first (expensive! 49,000dong, about $2.50) Vietnamese coffee in Vietnam. Strong! After hanging out for a bit we walked another few blocks to the restaurant where we ended up upstairs in this converted attic space? We started with "mixed spring rolls" which were tasty and very, very oily. About 2" long each, different. Then I got Fried pork with Seseme, which turned out to be slices of pork crusted with seseme seeds and fried. Tasty but dry. I ended up dipping them in the sauce from the spring rolls and it was better. I traded a piece of pork to Julie for a bite of "Five Tastes chicken" which was good but very cinamoney (word?) and to Tim for a bit of caramel squid, which was very good mini squids in a sweet glaze. Drink was jasmine tea @ 10,000dong ($.50). My meal was 60,000 ($3) so total when pitching in for the spring rolls was $4! Nice. Then we wandered a bit through shops and back to the hotel where despite comfy beds, it was too noisy for me to sleep. :(

Day 13 - Halong Bay - Woke after tossing and turning at 6am to rain, went down to breakfast at 7, Buffet, HB eggs, mini baguetts, fruit and really, really strong coffee. :( Also mini pastries that were very dry, regular toast, ham, sausage (hot dogs), french fries and rice porrige that I didn't eat. 8:30 met with an overnight bag to go to Halong Bay. 3.5hr van ride in a very uncomfortable van, new mercedes sprinter, but it wasn't roomy and the seats were hard. Hard to see the scenery (or photograph it) in the rain. We passed many scooters loaded down with stuff and people in ponchos on scooters. Houses are skinny and tall for the most part, it's a bit odd when you have an 10ft wide 3 story house in the middle of a field, though I under stand it in the cities. One bathroom stop at a place that sold tons of expensive junk, though I got a fun picture of a statue or two, then arrived at the dock. After some confusion with tickets we boarded our boat, cabins on the lower level, dining room area and bar on mid and a roof deck. Welcome drink of fresh passion fruit juice then LUNCH! Started with prawns (hot, heads and all) then sliced cucumbers, deep fried pork pieces, deep fried squids, deep fried fish cakes, rice, squid stir fry with onions and carrots, stir fried morning glory (tastes like spinach!) and watermelon for desert. Had some coffee then went up to the upper deck to enjoy the scenery despite the damp and cold. It had stopped raining but was still gray and really windy. Headed to the Hand Sung Sot cave. It was HUGE!!! Lots of rooms and CRAWLING with tourists. *sigh* pretty, all lit up with different lights, and happy to see us too!  After walking through the caves (note in the immense photo a small penguin at the bottom right of the photo, they were trash cans! Oh so cute) we headed back to the boat across a somewhat sketchy wooden walkway, love being able to see water through large holes and cracks. Back on the boat and along with 50 million other boats we headed off to a place to put down the anchor and swim. Even though it was still gray out and really chilly in the wind, I tested the water and decided to go swimming. It was way warmer in the water (and VERY SALTY). Didn't want to get out! Actually managed to convince almost everyone else to get in too! :) Came back onto the boat, dried off and hung out for a bit then it was time for dinner. Dinner Prawns with decorative vegi flowers (photo), stuffed crabs, fried squid, stir fried chicken with onions and carrots, a whole fried fish, shredded cabbage, and again watermelon for dessert. Karaoke (mostly in vietnamese from the crew) and card games, then bed. 

More in a bit, this is getting too long!