Sabai Dee Laos

I hope I didn’t let you wait to long for my next update.

Sabai-Dee means hello or how are you in Laos.

Unfortunately the internet connection in this country is very poor everywhere, even in so called “High Speed Internet-Café's”. But anyway I use my time mostly to relax in the sun or having fun with all the people I meet on my travels. So you can see that I'm busy with more important things than writing my Blog ;)

First of all I want to say I’m sorry if I was talking about some serious themes about China which not really influenced my travels. But after I knew all this stuff, I just wanted to make it public again, even if there is already enough information in the internet. It doesn’t influence my view of China, as a very nice country with nice people.

Some of you are maybe wondering; “Hmm didn’t he say in his last post that he entered Vietnam?”, and you’re right. I entered Vietnam over Lao Cai (the Vietnamese border town) and drove with the bus to Hanoi to relax and plan my next steps. 


Unfortunately it was really cold in Hanoi, what I didn’t expect. Only the first two days it was warm enough. In these two days I bought a Honda Win motorbike to drive south, but I changed my mind after another two days of freezing weather and seeing the horrible traffic in their capital city. As I still had to learn how to drive a manual bike, I decided to sell it again and buy one in a quieter region of Vietnam to practice.

So now there was the question; "What to do next?". In Hanoi itself you cannot really do more than visit some temples and the grave of Ho Chi Minh. In fact that was very interesting to see, the Vietnamese people are going there on Sundays and cry at the grave of their beloved leader. 
 
The only other things to see are the great water-park (not really nice in cold weather) and the old town. But as I lived in the old town for five days and saw the other things already, I decided to leave the city on the next day. And because I had caught a cold again (my 3^rd in three months -.-), I shortly decided to take a sleeper bus to Vientiane the capital of Laos.

                           

I left the city at the same time as
my new Japanese friend from Tokyo and I will meet him for sure when I visit his city.  By the way, I can highly recommend to stay at Hanoi Backpackers (http://www.vietnambackpackerhostels.com/) if you are looking for a fun stay. Its a massive hostel with loads of people and things to do!

On the way to the border I met a cool guy from Holland (named Bart) who was heading for Vangvieng to meet a friend. 

When we arrived at the border, the officer there told me I cannot get a visa on arrival like everybody else (one month for about 30$), I can only get two weeks and have to pay 1$. On one side a good deal but two weeks is a very short time to see a country. And as I now know how nice it is there, I definitely have to come back someday.

Bart told me some stories about the place he was heading to; it is like a Mecca for Backpackers to make party in the middle of the jungle. After one night in Vientiane and drinking with some people from England, I decided to join Bart for a few days up in the north of Laos.

Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of this beautiful place in the middle of the rain forest and with stunning scenery with the surrounding mountains.. sorry about that!

I really love the rain forest, it’s the most beautiful place I've ever seen. But I also saw a lot of deforestation. I know maybe the people here need the land for acres or to build up something but anyways I don’t like seeing it being destroyed.

The first day in Vang-Vieng we went to the riverside where the tubing starts (for those who don’t know it, a tube is a plastic ring, like the thing you have on a boat to rescue people who fall in the water, but just bigger). 

This place is like four kilometres north of the little village and actually there are just bars along the river where you get free shots of lao lao (horrible local whiskey) and some hippie armbands for free. The cool things there are some self-made slides and swings to flow and jump into the water. I really enjoyed swimming in the warm river water. I think that’s normal if there are temperatures around 35-40 degrees :) 

The other days there I spent with relaxing and a motorbike trip to the blue lagoon. It’s a very nice place with deep and very blue, cold water coming out of a cave next to it. We climbed the mountain and into the cave, it was a great adventure. I never saw a cave of this size before and I think you could walk for hours in there.

After four days I decided to leave the place and heading south to the 4000 islands. I didn’t really like Vang-Vieng too much. Too many tourists, and all the local people you see are involved in the touristy business. I think this place was very nice a few years ago but now the tourist industry has destroyed it. You only see guesthouses, bars, restaurants and shops and not really a normal local city.

After I left Vangvieng in a little bus to Vientiane, I had to change to a sleeper bus there. The Bus looks pretty cool and nice but the ticket guy gave me the bed in the back which meant I had to share one bed with three other guys… 

When we stopped for dinner I met some German people and a Swiss girl. After they knew I was Swiss they started to speak German to me. I told them I won’t speak German with them and for some strange reason the Swiss girl was angry about that.

I don’t know why people can’t accept that I don’t want to speak in my language while I’m travelling but I think it’s the right thing for me to improve my language skills. 

At the beginning of my trip everybody could recognise me as a “German” because of my accent and now people tell me they would rather think I’m from America. I’m happy about that (in some way - not really about the 'merica thing but at least I don't get confused with Germans anymore).

Anyway, shortly after I arrived on one of the small islands in the Mekong River, I met some other people I knew from Hanoi, Vientiane and Vang-Vieng. With these guys I walked around the island and we went for a swim in the Mekong. 
It was a great feeling to swim in this famous river but I wasn't to sure if they had crocodiles there, or some other predators. 

I think I could swim from here to Cambodia without a problem, We are here in the borderland between these countries, and Thailand is not far either. The famous golden triangle.

Tomorrow, I will head back to Vietnam, and then hopefully I can get a motorbike to drive the rest of my trip...

You will hear from me again after I finished my Vietnam trip. 

I just really hope I'll find a good internet connection somewhere to upload my pictures on Facebook and Flickr...

!!!CLICK FOR FLICKR PHOTOS!!!