The 'Nam

Right....so after the arduous trek in Luang Nam Tha, I got pretty sick. We journeyed east across Laos into Northern Vietnam. Now, if you look at a map, that doesn't seem too bad. I looks like it should be maybe 10 hrs. Actual time it took = 3 days. Yep, sick, tired and crammed into a small local minibus on the very bumpy, curvy, inconsistent roads of rural Laos. Driving here is absolutely nuts. People go in every direction all at the same time and I seriously don't know how we haven't witnessed a fatal accident yet. Going around the sharp curves of the mountainous highway through Laos, the driver would merely honk (a.k.a I'm coming, make way) and continue on. There were a couple of close calls. On our bus across the Laos-Viet border, our driver was definitely falling asleep. *Cringe* Alas, there is not much you can do. My favourite moment of our 3 bus ride was again with Mr. Sleepy. We stopped for no apparent reason and the driver's helper said "Road block, peepee time" Now, pee breaks on these journeys are few and far between and you never really know if there is going to be a toilet, a hole in the ground, or just a bush. But we had just stopped for lunch so we knew something was not right. Upon exiting the bus, we see the road ahead is blocked by huge piles of dirt and two diggers proceeding to add to the piles. Awesome. It ended up being not so bad....we only waited about an hour for the road to be cleared.

ANYWAY...Vietnam...Our first stop was Dien Bien Phu which actually wasn't very nice at all. It was where the French were defeated by the Vietnamese in 1954 so I was a bit surprised at how little there was to see. I didn't really care -still sick, I retreated to our guesthouse and slept for about 20 hrs.

Next on the itinerary was Sapa. It was a really cute (albeit slightly overtouristed) town to the North West of Hanoi. There are many hilltribe /minority villages around the area and May, Andrew and Tom (our Brit friend) did a trek to see a few. I stayed in the hotel room. :( Another GREAT thing about sapa was that it was the first time in about 10 days that there were proper restaurants with DELICIOUS FRENCH...and vietnamese cuisine. :)

After Sapa, we took an overnight train down to Hanoi. Enter crazy traffic. Basically, to cross the road you just have to walk at a slow and steady pace and hope that the hundreds of motorbikes go around you. Its mad. To turn left, cars turn into and block oncoming traffic and then just proceed to plow through the sea of motorbikes until they are more-or-less going with the flow. (*see comment above about surprising lack of fatal accidents -at least that we've witnessed)
I took Hanoi as an opportunity to finally let myself recover -I went to an international clinic which was actually very nice (a nice that you had to pay for) and an American doctor prescribed some antibiotics...wooppeee. After about 4 days stuck in a stuffy hotel room, I treated myself to a not-so-backpacker-priced cruise in Halong Bay...it was AMAZING! After which, I trained down to Hoi An to meet up with the others. Vientam is suffering from some pretty major floods right now. As a result, my overnight train ride (which was supposed to be 14 hrs) took 26. It wasn't so bad. At least I wasn't stuck on a bus.

Hoi An is a really charming town full of tailor shops waiting to take all your money. Its pretty impressive actually. You walk into a shop and point to a picture in a magazine and the next day they've reproduced a pretty exact replica tailor-made to fit you. I spent a lot of money in Hoi An. We also rented motorbikes (I know we're crazy) and went for a ride through the outskirts of the city to China Beach (where American troops landed during the war) and a place called Marble Mountain -you guessed it- marble shops EVERYWHERE....but actually a pretty cool Pagoda and some very cool caves to be explored coupled with exquisite views of Danang and Hoi An.

Now we're in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon in the South of Vietnam. People here are sooooo friendly (even compared to N. Viet) and we're having a pretty good time just exploring the city.....