What happened before, during and after Earth Hour...

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Having fun in Vietnam...

It's been a very intensifying 2-week tour of Vietnam with three girls. Packing in Hanoi, a 3-day cruise of Halong Bay, visiting ancient ruins of Hue and going crazy with tailoring clothes in Hoi An.

The drinks and food are flowing freely most nights. So much fun, so little time.

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Hello hello!

Sapa in northwest Vietnam is a mountain resort bustling with tourists. I didn't expect to see more rice terraces here. It's a squeaky clean and more developed version of Yuanyang in Southern China.
There are many ethnic minority groups living in the surrounding villages outside of the main town. Many women, young and old, come into town selling their wares. I was astounded at their very good grasp of English. They all crowd around tourists chatting happily away.
Monica and I were approached one morning outside a cafe/bar by a young woman. She was very friendly and asked where we came from, our names and how long we were staying in Sapa. We found out that she was 25, married at 15 and has 2 young children already! She laughed when we told her we were both unmarried and had no children. She then progressed to sell her handicraft to us. It wasn't long before another woman approached us too, carrying a really gorgeous baby on her back; also from the same village of Lao Chai. We ended up buying a purse from each lady.
We were hounded endlessly on the walk to a nearby village. Cries of "Hello hello!", "Where you come from?", "What you name?", "You buy from me?"(mostly in that order!) followed us. I fired my responses back just as quick: "Australia, Angela, No thank you!". They also had the "Maybe later you buy? Remember me, OK?" response. There probably was a compulsory crash course in business English in town.
View more pics here.

Running out of time...

...on internet! It's sooo slow here.

So here is what I've done in a nutshell:

* Luang Prabang - enjoyed the beautiful waterfalls and great company

*Vang Vieng - tubing down the river, twice! First time was lame was we'd only made it a 100m; the bars along the river got in the way. Seriously!

*Vientiane - actually did some sightseeing, instead of lazing around. Saw weird Buddha sculptures in Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan) and went to a gleaming golden stupa Pha That Luang.

Next, Vietnam!

Photos here.

Lazing in Lao

From being hand-fed, fussed over and drinking up a storm in Malaysia, I am now on the move again with my dear friend Monica. We're taking in the beautiful lush green jungle of Laos and discovering its slow and laid-back culture, and its delicious sweet fruit shakes.
So far the highlight has been a 2-day trek through the Nam Ha National Park in Luang Nam Tha. The heat made the trek a little more taxing but the beauty of the park made up for it - climbing steep trails, admiring the ancient trees and bamboo forest, learning about the medicinal use of plants and crossing multiple streams and bamboo bridges.
There were 8 altogether in the group: an Irish couple (who were amazingly fit considering they were in their 60s!), a Swiss engineer, a Canadian studying in Kyoto and a German with a French-Polish girlfriend and us. It was a really great group to hike with. Many travel stories were swopped and lots of laughs were shared.
The village we stayed at was called Ban Nalan and the people are of the Khmu tribe. The kids were gorgeous and very intrigued by the "falang" (foreigners). They enjoyed having their photo taken and playing games with us. I saw very young girls, from about 4 years old, chopping wood with a maschete for fire, pounding rice to remove the husks, and feeding the farm animals. The boys just seemed content to play and annoy them! The girls certainly work hard including looking after the babies too.
The simple fare we ate in the village and on the trek was delicious. A typical Lao meal includes sticky rice, which you take a little handfull and roll into a ball, then dip into laap (a cold salad of minced meat or fish) and vegetables. Over the two days, we sampled a spicy eggplant dish, fish laap, pumpkin soup, duck and sticky rice. And 'lao lao', a potent rice whisky, was being passed around generously. By the end of it, I was totally over sticky rice, and haven't touched it since!
Next destination was Nong Kiao, a little town by the river. We only stayed a night as we wanted to head to Muang Ngoi, a more rural town accessible only by boat. Not much sleep here as the chickens were at it early and the thin bamboo walls didn't shield out the trucks and motorbikes driving past or the really loud snoarer from the next room!


Muang Ngoi was beautiful and really chilled out. Our 3 days there were dictated by our stomache and thirst. Really slow living here: the meals we ordered took forever (recommended to bring a book along). Lucky the Beer Lao was always quick at hand. Electricity only runs between 6-10pm each day (actually was shorter some nights!) so getting an ice cold drink was difficult. They must also kill the chickens freshly for each meal ordered!
We spent each night in our hammocks, reading until the sun set and we got drowsy. We did have a little swim in the river and a bit of a walk. But not much else. Such is life!
View more photos of Luang Nam Tha and Nong Kiao/Muang Ngoi.