Originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

We visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum today. It's Sunday so it is also a popular day for Vietnamese people to pay their respects.
The queue is long, and you cannot take ANYTHING into the mausoleum, bags, cellphones, cameras are all put into lockers. Then you stand in line, gradually weaving your way through the grounds, until 45 minutes later you enter the FRIDGID building. They have the AC so low - I guess a body needs to be kept cold!
The actual time in the mausoleum is short - and you are kept in line and marched through the 'viewing room' by some very efficient guards.
It does look a little like Madame Tuassads have been involved in the preservation.
A very surreal experience.

A short video of the river at the Perfume Pagoda today.

It's the start of the Perfume Pagoda Festival for 2007, so the place was packed with Buddhist pilgrims. The pagoda itself is a series of shrines in a limestone cave, at the top of a mountain. To get to the pagoda you take a boat up the river, and then climb up the path to the top of the mountain. The river was packed - visiting the pagoda during the festival is especially auspicious.

We arrived at the boat landing and decided to take the cable car up to the pagoda - it was raining and I was in flipflops! The queue for the cablecar was sooooo long, and there was lots of crazy pushing involved. Needless to say I made it to the front before Michael - who patiently waited until he was carried through by the masses. I am a professional queue pusher.

Originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

We just returned from a trip out to Halong Bay. The scenery is absolutely spectacular - massive limestone karsts rising out of the ocean.
We left Hanoi in the early morning and headed off to Halong City to board our Junk. The boat then left port and proceed to cruise slowly around the bay.
In the afternoon we were able to get off the boat, and into smaller boats! Kayaks, to be precise. Michael and I were soon zooming through tunnels, paddling into lagoons and checking out beaches.
We spent a night on the boat - and then did much of the same the 2nd day.
After a night on Cat Ba Island we returned by boat to Halong City and then to Hanoi.

What can be better than a glass of Bia Hoi? Not much.
It's freshly brewed every day and delivered to street vendors throughout Hanoi. 2000 d buys you a glass - that's a whopping 12c (or 6p). So for a dollar you can... Well, you get the picture!

5 hours sitting on a street corner, in a mini plastic chair, watching the world go by.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi (Happy New Year!)

We're in Hanoi.

It's Tet this weekend - Vietnamese New Year. Today I bought silly string, and bags of glittery stuff to throw. I can't wait for the party to begin.....

Originally uploaded by m_hagen.

This morning we woke early - 6am. It was still dark in Luang Prabang and very quiet. Hedda and I quickly dressed and snuck out of the guesthouse. We started walking towards the old city area where most of the Wats are located. We actually weren't exactly sure where the monks would walk by and for a moment thought, "I hope we don't miss them by ending up on the wrong street!" Of course as we later discovered this would have been pretty much impossible. As we got closer to the Wats we saw a few other tourists, so we headed down a side street to a quieter Wat. We sat down on the curb and slowly but the surely the city began to wake up. A few older men and women set up mats and chairs along the road and patiently waited for the monks to arrive. We thought there would be a slow trickle but when they arrived it was amazing. Literally a couple hundred monks lined up, each receiving their daily meal from the townspeople. It was a really beautiful moment to observe. So quiet in the morning... It wasn't some kind of big production. It was so simple, the monks need to eat, so the townspeople feed them. I imagine Luang Prabang's mornings have been passing like that for centuries with little change.

You go all the way to Laos, and you meet - people from around the corner.... That's right, on our kayaking trip down the river were these Long Beach residents.....

Shit kayaking is exhausting, all that sun, all those rapids. Shoulda gone tubing instead. Maybe tomorrow.

Originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

That's right - we took another cooking class. This time on the menu - Lao food.
There were only 3 of us in the class - which made for some quality cooking time... Maybe too much cooking time. We were all exhausted at the end of the day.
The food was great. Michael can make sticky rice now - thank the Lord. I was worried he'd have to go without when we left Laos. But no excuses, now he can cook the stuff himself!

Originally uploaded by m_hagen.

The guy wearing these shoes actually spoke better English than anyone we'd met in days. We were on the bus travelling to Phonsavan when it made one of its many stops to drop each individual person off at their respective house when this guy comes over to ask where we're from, where we've been and where we're going. Really nice, friendly guy. Gotta pick up a pair of Cons...

The trusty motorbikes took us out in the other direction today. To some Hot Springs. Aaaahhhh.
We scrubbed and bathed ourselves from top to toe. It felt great. The minerals in the water are going to cure us of our ailments. Really.
We feel great.

I got to ride a motorbike again.... The thing was great. Nothing on it worked - no speedometer, no fuel gauge, no odometer, and changing gears was a crap shoot. Sometimes you'll get the gear you want, sometimes you won't. But I loved it!
We rode out to the small town of Vieng Xai to visit the caves. The Pathet Lao (communist rebels that became the government) lived in these huge caves for nine, yes NINE, years while the US military unloaded over 2 million tons of bombs on the Lao countryside. We ate noodle soup with spoons made from leftover scrap metal.

Holy crap. You should see what they are selling at the market here.
If you are squeamish you may not want to click. Don't say I didn't warn you...

Today was travel Laos style at it's absolute worst.
The sawngthaew left Vieng Thong at 7am headed for Sam Nuea - a total of 7 hours travel. We were traveling through mountains, on winding roads, up and down for hours and hours. I counted a total of 20 people on board, in a truck made for hmmm, maybe 13....
It was bitterly cold. Sitting outside with the wind in my face was not a pleasant experience. It would have sucked for 30 minutes. After 7 hours it really was getting old.
Everyone in the truck was cuddling their neighbor for warmth. I was sat with my feet on a bag of rice, knees around my ears, and some dude's butt ON TOP of my feet. But guess what, I didn't care - because it was warm. The lady next to me had her arm around me and her head on my shoulder. Opposite Toby's neighbor was drooling on him.
The only way to endure was, as Michael suggested, by finding our very own 'Happy Place'. Somewhere in the mind where all external factors can be ignored.
Favorite moment: The lady with her head on my shoulder leans over and clears both nostrils onto the dirt, then follows this with a MASSIVE spit ball phlem thingy - 3 inches from my ear.
Happy Birthday to Me!

Originally uploaded by ladyhedda.

We're heading East to Sam Nuea.... No more boat travel for a while - just the good old sawngthaews, and buses where we can find them....
The first section of the trip took us a couple of hours by sawngthaew. It was pretty uneventful - we left Nong Kiaw at 11ish and arrived in Vieng Kam in time for lunch.
The next aim was to make it to Vieng Thong - for dinner. We asked around town about busses - no luck. There is a night bus that passes through between 11pm & 1am everyday, but we had decided we wanted to travel by day and see the scenery.
A couple of local Lao kids with a truck offered to take us to Vieng Thong, for a fee. We settled on $7 each, and finally set off at 3.30pm (after doing a couple of trips around town looking for extra passengers.)
The dude was driving so fast around corners on switchbacks I closed my eyes and held on. After only a hour or so we heard a clonk and pulled over to the side of the road. Flat tyre. After grabbing some wood to help jack up the truck they changed the tyre and bearings in 15 minutes. Unfortunately the spare was flat too!! So we all sat in the rear corner of the truck and trundled into the next village where we borrowed another tyre.
2 tyre changes, 1 bearing change all in 40 minutes.
The remainder of the ride was uneventful. Just cold. It was dark, and windy. I pulled just about every layer of clothing available out of my backpack. Toby (our fellow traveler) was stuffing plastic bags inside his fleece jacket to keep the wind out.
We pulled into town after 8pm. Freezing cold and miserable, but still laughing!