The Vietnamese U-Turn: Danang and Hoi An

DANANG
I really have been learning on this journey that there is no such thing as coincidence and all things really do happen for a reason. Danang had been cut off of my list of places to go yet because of my scooter issues I skipped Hue for Danang. I really did enjoy the city and all it had to offer even though I was only there for a short amount of time. As I stated in the last post the drive into the city was absolutely stunning. The city was a lot bigger than expected but it was nothing like Bangkok or Hanoi. It was surrounded by ocean and mountains. Perfect for someone like me! I met up with my friends at perhaps the nicest hostel I stayed at in Vietnam.

While in Danang I was able to find some good food, even a delicious quesadilla with Tabasco sauce! I spent my time driving around the mountain roads, exploring multiple temples on the hill and mountains, relaxing by the river, swimming at the beach  and spending time with friends. As always the beaches were nice white sandy beaches and surprisingly there weren't too many people around. Besides the ocean there was a large river running through town and at night we would sit along there watching their two main bridges (The Dragon Bridge and I don't remember the name of the other) all lit up while enjoying some beers and just each others company.

Marble Mountain View

I'll include pictures of the two bridges. At night we also walked away from the city at one point and I was able to see quite a few stars which surprisingly hasn't happened too much out here. I miss that about home in the mountains. One of the must do activities I was told to do is go to the Marble Mountains. As their name suggests they get marble from here and there are tons of places that try to sell you marble statues or figurines. The sight has 4 mountains with 4 temples. Honestly I wasn't too impressed and wasn't sure why everyone said to visit. The view of the city from another direction was also good though.

 The driving around was awesome with so many great views and sights to take in. The wind against your face to help block out the heat form the blaring sun is always a great feeling and when your hitting mountain curves enjoying the rides there's nothing better. On the hill of a peninsula outside of the city was a giant statue and a pagoda. While here we looked back at the city and saw a giant plume of smoke which you can see in the picture at the top. There was a large fire in the city and from the distance we could see the firefighters doing their work. We stopped by the statue on our way back towards town and went and saw some great craftsmanship, views of the city, and some very nice flowers as well. On the return I had one final meal before heading down south another hour to Hoi An and finally catch up with Matthias after a week of being behind.

HOI AN
Hoi An was also one of my favorite places in Vietnam. It is a very small town but with lots going on. Great nightlife with so many bars trying to compete and have great drink specials! It was real nice to meet up with Matthias once again and be back with my traveling companion. Our reunion was a fun but very long night. We stayed at a small guest house with out a lot of people but still were able to meet many so it was really nice. I also ran into a friend I had met over a month before back in Thailand and that was a really nice and random coincidence.

In Hoi An I did some shopping, went swimming in the ocean, had a Laos travel group reunion and enjoyed time with my friends and the local nightlife.  I got some new pants since I lost mine in the laundry, a nice little backpack to carry around daily, and two amazing tailor made suits and shirt. Now whenever I finally go home I can have some sexy suits to wear.  Surprisingly the beaches here were even more populated than the beaches in the large city of Danang. Even though it was still fun since we went with our Laos travel group. It was a fun reunion to get all of us together again. Four countries (Germany, Sweden, Hungary and the USA). It was a little hard to leave Hoi An and our friends but it came time to continue on our journey south in order to keep to schedule.

Vietnam Week 2- Ninh Binh, Vinh, and a hell hole

After recovering and leaving Cat Ba I began to try to play catch up with Matthias (my German friend). It took quite a bit of time to catch up. I headed first to Ninh Binh. It's an alright city but most of my time was spent in the small area outside of it called Tam Coc.  Here I met up with a few other travelers and did some exploring of the country side on my scooter. It was a beautiful area and after hiking up the Bich Dong mountain I was able to see one best views Vietnam has to offer, the sprawling mountaintops reminded me so much of home. I only spent 2 days here then continued on my way down south.

The desert like area

Riding the scooter down makes it so you can only cover so much distance in a day unlike in a bus where it can all be done in one day. I stopped in a city called Vinh and got my first taste of Bun Cha (a traditional Vietnamese soup with pork) which was amazing. After the one night there I continued onto my travels and had the hardest day of my travels on June 14th. I was making good time on my way to a city called Hue until I hit this crazy desert wasteland that I did not know could exist in Vietnam.  I was running out of gas with nothing around for miles. I luckily made it out and got a few bottles of gas from some locals.

The mechanic that made things worse!

When I tried to drive away the tire would not turn. I could not drive. Luckily for me the guy I got the gas from was a mechanic and he replaced the timing belt for me which was the issue. Earlier that day I was stopped by shady police and I had to bribe them (that's how it is here sometimes) so I did not have any money to pay for the repair.
I had to go to an atm yet the closest one was back across desert area about 45 mins backtracking.  On my way through the desert for the second time the belt broke again! I was hot and in the middle of nowhere. Luckily some guys stopped and loaded my scooter into their truck and took me to a mechanic. I then went to get money and had the belt replaced again. I tried to explain that I just had it repaired yet the language barrier made this difficult so it was just a simple replacement. I eventually made it back to the original mechanic and shortly after getting my back and continuing on my way the belt broke a 3rd time! I walked the bike back to the mechanic and had to stay the night at a hotel in the middle of nowhere. In the morning I was able to get the scooter to a bigger mechanic shop and with the help of the local guy I communicated there was a bigger issue and was able to get the complete repair I needed. This was a very stressful and expensive couple of days.

Once I finally was able to travel again I decided to skip Hue and meet up with some friends in Danang as I wanted a familiar face. This ride from the area around Hue to Danang was the most beautiful and my favorite drive of the entire country. There was fun curvy mountain roads with green forests covering the hills on your right and then suddenly the ocean appeared on my left. I was able to just forget about all my troubles and enjoy the beauty of Vietnam. It was here that I began to enjoy the country once again.

Hello Vietnam- Hanoi, Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island

Well Vietnam definitely had its ups and downs during its first week. I was so happy to finally be in Hanoi after such a long journey to get there (10 hour bus ride followed by an hour walk in a city who's name I cannot and do not wish to remember, and then another 2 hour bus ride on a sleeper bus we just happened to stumble upon!) It was quite the journey though a fun one with fun people, I also did my first boarder crossing by land out here.

Hanoi was great and I liked it so much more than Bangkok. Its quite a large city and all the noises and people reminded me of home; though on a whole nother level of busy and crowded. The street there were crazy and I had a blast driving around on them with my new motorbike I bought from a fellow backpacker. The first few days were spent exploring, shopping, drinking and meeting new people. The hostel I was at offered free beer during certain parts of the day so I took advantage of that. It was a beer called Beer Hoi. Its very cheap as it is brewed fresh everyday and you have to drink it quick or it loses the alcohol. Im not quite sure how that works.

I had my first challenge and downside of Vietnam when my phone was stolen so that was very frusterating. I got a new one the next day but pictures were lost and it was just one more added expense. After that I was pretty ready to get out of Hanoi. Another big part of the city and the country is so many people try to rip you off and you must barter for everything. Even water at times! With all this it was time to move on to the next destination. It should have been an easy drive up to Halong Bay on the scooter yet we were unaware that we could not take the scooters on the main highway so we had to go off course. After about 1.5 hours I also lost my buddy and had to find my way to the bay myself. What should have been a 4 hour trip maximum turned out to be 7hrs and I stupidly did not eat and only drank 1.5 liters of water all day. When I finally did get food it did not agree with my stomach and I spent all of the next day in bed.

Upon my recovery we went on an overnight cruise on the bay which started out poorly but we made the most of it and ended up having quite a good time. We got to kayak, tour a cave, fish for squid and just enjoy the beauty around us. Once we got back from the cruise we got out stuff, loaded it on the bikes and caught the ferry to Cat Ba Island. Here was another beautiful place and I met up with a Hungarian girl I had met in Laos. Its always fun when you see old travel buddies and get to meet up again. Cat Ba City was a small city so we saw it all very quickly. One of the coolest things I did was deep sea solo climbing. This means you free climb (no ropes) up the rock face and just jump off into the waters below. It was such a great time, but it was a lot more intimidating than cliff jumping. Unfortunately that night I had some bad beef and once again was stuck in bed all of the next day. Luckily for me the Hungarian girl put on her mommy mode and got me snacks and water and helped me with my recovery. Because of this I was unable to explore the island further but what can ya do? Gotta stay healthy. The next day it was time to go. I drove away to my next location after taking 2 ferries back to the mainland. It was quite fun.

Laos in a Nutshell

Plain of Jars Site 1

It is becoming that time in the trip where it is harder and harder to be aware of the world around you. As you can see I am behind on this blog, I have not been able to keep up with TV shows back home and did not even know the NBA finals were going on. Therefore I am going to make this one quick.

After Luang Prabang and meeting some great people I went down south to a city called Vang Vieng. This is known as quite a bit of a party city yet I was able to get my fair share of other activities cone as well. We went tubing down the river, visited some caves and a place called the Blue Lagoon. They had a rocket festival which brought in the rains to begin the rainy season (it actually did start raining the next day). I got to finally rock climb which i had missed so much so that was absolutely wonderful. Because we were so active, and sometimes had a little too much free whisky (yes FREE whiskey) we had a few rest days in there as well.

Upon leaving Vang Vieng we traveled to the central part of the country where i learned much about the effects on the Vietnam war on Laos. They were heavily bombed for many many years and they are still having repercussions from that today. I wrote a long facebook post about it which you can go check out. I don't remember all the city names but we went to a place that has the Field of Jars which was a major war zone area.
 It was a bus ride from hell getting there and I do not suggest anyone takes a bus in Laos ever again. The next place we went to we took a bus as well yet after 1 hr of driving in circles the bus mysteriously broke down and we were dropped off on some dirt road outside of town. We had to wait another 7 hours until the next bus. I was very angry about this but it ended up being okay because this is when i learned a lot more about the hardships the Lao people still face today from unexploded bombs. When we finally got on the bus to go to a place where people lived in caves for 9 years to escape the bombings it was another bus ride form hell. So long and you cant sleep from the bus jumping up and down constantly on these shitty ass roads. The caves were cool though not as much as we were hoping for.

Overall it was nice but if I had to do it again I would've stayed up North with another girl I had met while traveling. Her way seemed more fun and easier. We finally got to Vietnam but that was a struggle too though luckily the roads weren't bad so you could sleep a little bit. The bus took us to this smaller city in mid-east Vietnam and there was no bus station. No one could speak English and it was a struggle. We walked around with our heavy packs for about an hour until we saw a bus all lit up and asked if it was going to Hanoi. Luckily it was and we were able to catch a ride!

There is Laos in a nutshell

   

Luang Prabang-Welcomed to Laos

I was very sad to leave Thailand as I have grown to love it and the people I met there quite a bit. On the flight in though all my worries and sadness was gone. The landscape here is amazing! I looked out my window and saw mountain covered with jungle all around. It made me feel right at home with the mountains. The first stop was a very French influenced city of Luang Prabang. It was a small city with not too much to do but I still spent quite a few days there and met some great people through my new travel mate Matthias.

The first day there I sat by the Mekong River watching sunset over the mountains and it was quite beautiful, just like home. I spent a lot of time walking around the city exploring and taking in the sites. I loved all the brick and the French influence on the buildings. Here I was able to get my Vietnam visa which was very convenient. I also met a girl that went to school at UNC and I was able to talk about Colorado, she even knows a few people I know! It was fun and once again comforting being in a new place. After 2 days my travel mates arrived and we began to explore outside the city more. I went to an amazing place with the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen.



Its called Kuang Si waterfall.  It had so many tiers and we were able to swim and dive in four of them. Once we finally got to the waterfall it was gigantic and so much fun to swim at. There was also an Asian black bear conservation park there as well which was pretty cool and fun to see the bears playing around. Besides this and a temple on the hill of the city (which gave a nice view) there was not too much to do in the city but with great company and new friends (6 countries represented; Japan, Sweden, Hungary, Canada, USA and Germany!) it was still a great time. These people became one's that I grew close to and spent quite some time with a couple of them. The next stop is a city called Vang Vieng. It was a 5 hour bus ride getting here on very shitty roads but the views along the way were breathtaking! I’ll let you know more about it soon.

View at top of the falls

Chiang Rai- Goodbye Thailand

Well Chiang Rai did not go as planned but that tends to happen while traveling. Originally I had planned on doing a lot of hiking in the area yet unfortunately was not able to get any in at all. I stayed with a young college student outside of the city for a few nights that I met through couchsurfers. She was a little further out of the city than expected and it took about 30-45 mins to get into the city. I explored the city the first day and went to this interesting museum which went into detail about the hill tribes of Thailand. That was pretty interesting though it was a small museum.  I only stayed with her for one more night after this due to her being so far. I ended up going to a really nice hostel in town which ended up being a great decision as it was the nicest hostel I had in Thailand and I met one of my current travel mates which I have been with for over a week now and will probably be traveling with for quite some time. I visited a lot of temples in Chiang Rai and had a personal tour guide from another girl that I met on couchsurfers. It was nice to have things explained to me which I had been seeing all month long. There were some amazing temples there my favorite one having a blue theme and it was like an ocean inside. The colors included red, blue, purple, and green. This is very different than all other temples. Another amazing one is called the White Temple. It’s huge! It is a very famous temple with lots of tourists around at all time. Besides that I did not do too much in Chiang Rai and relaxed a lot for my final days in Thailand. 

Finally getting on a plane

I left on the 14th when my visa ran out.   Unfortunately I can be an idiot at times and missed my flight on the 13th thinking it was the next day. Luckily its Asia and things are a lot cheaper out here. I actually paid less for buying the tickets the same day as the flight than I did when I originally booked online! That is unheard of back home, it would’ve cost me at least three times more! Also everything really does happen for a reason because if not then I wouldn’t have met my travel mate. It’s funny how things work out but it was costly unfortunately.  

Pai

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin with this amazing city. On my return to Chiang Mai I met a few people (Kiwi and Luke) at the hostel who were also going to Pai the next day. Little did I know that this was the start to a whole new mindset and part of my journey. I took a van up to the little town. It was a 3.5 hour drive on a very curvy road (about 706 turns I believe) which can make many people sick. Luckily I was not one of those people and no one threw up in my van. Upon arrival I went and rented a motor bike which was a great call even though it is a little town. You have so much more freedom! I drove up to the hostel (Pai Circus School) which was a very interesting place. So many interesting people there. It was a diverse group with people from all over Europe, the most Americans I’ve ran into, lots of Canadians and even a few from South America.

There was always something to do in both the town and at the hostel. They had a pool, yoga, fire shows, quiz nights, beer pong and many other activities. It was an open hostel with lots of room to relax. I don’t believe I’ve ever been more relaxed in my life than in Pai. This was one of the reasons it was so hard to leave. But anyways back to the group of people. I ran into Kiwi and Luke and actually met their friend Gioia (Joy) before I even knew she was with the other two. It’s great how things work out like that. This was the first time I was with a group of people for more than a few days. Before this I had started to miss home a little bit because of this. Everything changed once I met them and an amazing Australian girl named Hannah. I explored the town and area around with the three of them the first few days and after they left I was with Hannah almost all the time. She was the main reason I stayed for as long as I did. The other reasons were because the town was great, I met so many friendly people, there was a great inexpensive café which I went to everyday, and fantastic street food. The night life was pretty fun as well though it meant spending more money (it was worth it!).

Giant Buddha

In my explorations I went to a great waterfall, a giant cave called Lod cave, drove around and enjoyed all the views, visited a giant Buddha on the hill, and learned the town almost by heart. There were street dogs everywhere and I became friends with quite a few of them! It definitely fulfilled my missing of our dogs back home for a while. Those dogs were so kind and will be missed. Hopefully the remember me the next time I am there.

My camp in a mango tree!

I stayed at three different places while in Pai. The second was a small hostel in town which was very convenient as it was so close to everything thing. The third place was Valhalla Campground. This was a very chill and relaxed place and I camped in a Mango tree for four days! Finally got some use out of my hammock!

Well to finish this off since I could go on for a while about Pai as it is a great place and by far my favorite place in Thailand, thus far. It was so hard to leave but I finally managed to get myself out of there. I really understand why so many people get stuck there. I cannot wait to go back later in life and enjoy the small town life once again. I was very disconnected from technology for the first time since I got a cell phone nine years ago. That will be missed. 

Do you see the gecko?