Rockin' Out in Xam Neua

After sleeping for a solid 14 hrs and fully recovering from our crazy adventure crossing the border and getting to Xam Neua, we were ready to explore. We started the morning with a glorious cup of Laos coffee with sweet milk near our hotel and ventured around the small town to find breakfast. We crossed a somewhat sketchy footbridge and made our way towards the town food market. The market was beautiful, rows of tables stretched beneath a tent showing off all the bounty from local gardens and surrounding farms. Off to the right was the town meat market, we were warned that we may see animals here that we’d prefer to see running wild in the jungle, so we decided to hold off until we’d eaten breakfast in case the sight made us lose our appetites. By the afternoon when we’d returned, the selection was picked through although we saw lots of pig heads and a roasted dog!

"Mackenzie, stop rocking the bridge!!"

After seeing everything there was to see in town and eating a late lunch we decided to retire early to work on the blog while we had a good internet connection. However, on our way back to the hotel from the local cooler where we’d stopped to buy some beer, we were flagged down by a group of locals who’d been drinking beer by the river all afternoon. They saw we had beer and invited us to drink with them, after exchanging a couple ‘cheers’ and downing a glass or two of Beerlao, we realized that although most of the guys could understand English, they couldn’t really speak it. As is customary when we can’t communicate well in English, Mackenzie nudges Caitlin (dubbed our Lord of Language) to ask “Parlez vous Francais?” and to our delight the response was ‘Oui!’

Our new friends

Through some jumbled French and broken English we found out that we were hanging out with a Laos rock band from the capital Vientiane, here in Xam Neua to play a show that night. We were stoked when they invited us to attend the show as VIPs with them and we didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation.  We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon hanging out with them by the river, drinking beers and doing our best to get to know one another. At dusk the guys put together a makeshift BBQ, tossed on a chicken and asked us to join them for a real ‘Laos’ dinner and how could we say no! We started the meal with what looked like a large pizza tray filled with a blood red liquid substance, lots of cilantro and possibly mushrooms or liver? We were all a little nervous to try it, as they sat the tray down in the middle of our circle and handed us spoons but Cait braved the questionable substance with little reservation and Mackenzie and Sam soon followed. The dish was a spicy one, and tasted mainly of spiciness and cilantro. Sam and Cait liked it well enough and took another spoonful. Unfortunately for Mackenzie, she is allergic to cilantro – not in the serious sense, more so that it simply tastes like soap – needless to say, she did not like it. They heated up some sticky rice over the fire and passed us each a piece of the chicken and a ball of rice. Sam was just starting to get into her drumstick when it slipped from her hand into the dirt below, feeling like an idiot she picked it up quickly and continued to eat the dirt chicken. After a few minutes of laughing at Sam, Mackenzie came to the rescue and slyly tossed the dirt covered chicken over her shoulder. After we all finished up we jumped into the band’s van and headed off to the concert!

Cheers!

Part of Laos hospitality is to offer something to your guests: this tradition often turns out to be one killer drinking session, as usually you'll be served Lao Lao whiskey or BeerLao. When drinking Beerlao or Lao Lao rice whiskey, it is customary is to fill a small cup up for yourself, down it, then fill it up again and pass it to your left, until everyone in the group has had a cup and then it is the next person’s turn to be the pourer. We did one more round of this in the van prior to entering to the concert, just for good measure.

Sam's turn! 

When we entered the bar, it was completely empty with chairs still on the table, so we helped the guys set up until they forced us to sit down and drink a beer. While they set up and continued to pre-funk Cait decided to jump on the drums and give it a whirl. A little bit of liquid courage and a badass leather jacket made Caitlin look like a rock star. Mackenzie was in the bathroom when Cait started to play and thought the band was just warming up, she was shocked and super excited to see that it was really Cait rocking out on stage.

Out front before the concert

Cait looking like a total rock star! 

After spending a few hours drinking beer, dancing and listening to some awesome Laos rock we decided to call it a night. It was only 10:30, but we had a big day ahead of us as we planned to rent motorbikes and drive 30km through winding mountain passes to the city of Vieng Xai, in order to visit the cave town that was built during the American War to protect the Laos PDR leaders. So Cait told our new friends “allons-y!” and after a confusing conversation of French, English and Spanish (because any time Sam tries to speak French, Spanish comes out instead) one of the band members jumped up and ended up driving us back to our guesthouse, even though it was only 1km away. Thanks for the great night guys!

"rock on"

"The Big Boss" aka the bar owner

The DJ and our awesome driver - Thanks again for the ride!! 

Na Meo; Vietnam- Laos Border Crossing

It's an interesting point that the entire reason that we decided to go to Vietnam was to avoid the reportedly very sketchy border crossing between Cambodia and Laos. We had heard that transportation was inconsistent, bribery was rampant and that after crossing the border you may be left in the middle of nowhere and forced to ride in the back of a local truck with chickens and other cargo. Our 'genius' plan we came up with in Ho Chi Minh City was to break up the Vietnam to Laos journey into stages (cutting the horrendous 24hr+ bus ride from Hanoi to Luang Prabang into more manageable 4-8hr rides). At the time, it seemed fool-proof. We sat there laughing about why no one else had thought of this before...little did we know that the border crossing we had chosen was even more obscure and in the middle of nowhere than any in, possibly, the whole world. And transportation?? Literally non-existent.

Looking at a map of SE Asia, we determined that our most direct and interesting route was to go; Hanoi- Mai Chau, Mai Chau- through the border at Na Meo- Xam Neua, Xam Neua- Nong Khiaw, Nong Khiaw- Luang Prabang. From what we read, our longest bus ride should be about 8 hours (Xam Neua - Nong Khiaw) and all the others should be anywhere from 1-6hrs. We made sure there was at least one daily bus so we wouldn't get stranded and from our research each ride should be $5, max. The only piece of the journey we didn't entirely figure out was Mai Chau - Xam Neua, but we thought “there must be a bus, we'll figure it out when we get there”.

"Super straight forward"

Once in Mai Chau, when we told people that we were planning on crossing at Na Meo border, they would have one of two responses: either “where is that???”, even though they lived less than 150km away, or “you can't do that – go back to Hanoi and take a tourist bus.” Nevertheless, we decided to continue on our journey as planned.

After numerous hours of rigorous independent research, we established that there may be a bus... maybe... but to catch it, you have to travel 60km along a winding mountain road to a junction in the middle of nowhere, then hope to all things holy that you've made it in time to flag down the one bus per day that traverses the route, which may or may not stop for you, depending on how many people it has already picked up along the way.

So, we took a taxi-- and opted to spend the night at the border in Vietnam. There's no town on the Laos side and if you cross too late, you'll be sleeping in the dirt with nothing but your backpack and your pride--

We paid 1,800,000d ($85) to get to Na Meo but the price was well worth taking the road less traveled. We were able to see Vietnam in its most authentic form. Our taxi followed the paths of rivers which wound their way through limestone mountains covered in pristine jungle and valleys of emerald-green rice paddies. Then up over a huge mountain range and back down again. The villages that dotted the countryside seemed untouched by the 21^st century; most were just groups of stilt houses that we could see from across the river or at the bottom of a ravine with no visible roads leading in or out. Every village we actually drove through, people would wave and sometimes point and laugh at the sheer absurdity of seeing white people driving in a taxi this far out in rural Vietnam.

Taxi on a dirt road

As rural as it gets in Vietnam

View from the taxi

It took us around four hours to drive about 120km. And when we arrived, we found nothing but a dirt road lined with shops that had a border crossing station at the end. Our driver, who spoke not a word of English, dropped us off at the border thinking we wanted to cross right then and that presumably we had a driver lined up waiting for us on the other side. Instead of trying to mime “guesthouse?”, “we sleep here tonight”, we just grabbed our stuff, said 'thank you' and walked 30 seconds to the other end of town to the first of only two guesthouses. We quickly checked in, dropped off our bags and went in search of cold drinks and some much needed food. We found what appeared to be the only restaurant in town, sat down and immediately realized we didn't want to eat there-- imagine the aroma of rotting chicken and foul milk. So we had a beer and played a few card games then headed back to our guesthouse, where we hoped they could feed us or at least point us in the direction of somewhere that could.

Border Crossing Station

The other end of town

After waiting for 20 minutes for the family who owned the place to finish eating dinner themselves, the nice woman who checked us in walked us a few stalls down to the local Pho joint and explained to the cook that we needed food. Our last night in Vietnam we ate traditional, truly authentic, delicious Pho Bo (beef noodle soup). Yum!!

Though, before we even got our food we were joined at our table by a Ho Chi Minh lookalike who offered us a glass of the rice whiskey which they were brewing in a barrel in the back of the restaurant. One glass, as is always the case, led to many, and then on to beers and Vietnamese karaoke in a nearby bar-cellar. It was a memorable last night in Vietnam, to say the least.

Our new friend Kip showing us how to eat Pho Vietnamese style a.k.a SUPER SPICY

Kip "This rice whiskey, you drink", Sam "umm...no thank you. I don't like hard alcohol" Kip "yes. You drink."

3 shots later; Kip "Now you drink with my friends", Sam "OK"

Sam at the table behind us taking shots with each person

Having a great time!!

8pm and time for Sam to go to bed

Mackenzie singing Vietnamese karaoke while Cait gets her dance on

Cait singing the 'Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh' song.

Left to right; Mr. Ho Chi Minh, Cait, Kip andThanh

The next morning we were all feeling more than a little rough, but we had read that there should be a songthaew (pick-up truck with benches in the back) that leaves the Laos side of the border for Xam Neua at any time between 9:30 and 11:30am and waits for no one. So we were up far earlier then we would have liked :( We arrived on the Laos side at about 9am and found, like we had read, nothing but a single restaurant.

We went in hoping to have a cup of coffee, some breakfast and to inquire about the songthaew that should be leaving in the next couple hours. After serving us the most disgusting cup of instant coffee known to man, the woman who owned the place explained that it would cost us six billion dollars to get to Xam Neua. Well, 600,000 kip, but for us it was practically the same, because we knew that the journey should only cost 24,000 kip ($3) per person. In an attempt to get across the point that paying more than 10 times the actual cost was slightly unreasonable, Mackenzie went as far as inscribing “the price is very high” in Laotian on a piece of scratch paper, but the lady (who is quite possibly the rudest lady in Laos) just laughed in our faces. So we paid for our coffees, walked out to the street and waited...

And waited.

We asked every person who drove through the border if they were going to Xam Neua, but to no avail.

Waiting

The mythical songthaew never arrived and we had resigned ourselves to waiting until 5pm, when the bus from Vietnam was rumored to be passing through. It was hour 5 of waiting, and we were just settling into a game of cards and a bottle of Beerlao when Sam mustered the energy to ask one last pick-up truck driver if he was going to Xam Neua. By some miracle, he was! Before he had a second to say anything else we were gathering up our things to throw in the back of his truck. He kindly explained that he was hired by two Korean men and that we should probably ask them if they would mind giving us a ride. Thankfully, they didn't mind! Not only did we get a ride, but they refused to let us pay anything (in your face, 600,000 kip lady)!

We jumped into the bed of their pick-up truck and away we went. The scenery was beautiful and the cold mountain air was much welcomed on our haggard faces.

Hitching a ride!

It was a truly exhilarating drive and two short hours later we arrived in the small town of Xam Neua. Thankfully, our Korean friends Mr. Son and Mr. Mun were kind enough to drop us off in front of the only guesthouses in town so we were able to find accommodation without any headache or hassle. Thanks again guys!!! We got some food, then headed straight for bed.

Mai Chau

Our trip to Mai Chau on the public bus was interesting to say the least. We boarded the bus at My Den station, about 12 km from the Old Quarter, an hour early and snatched up seats in the back of the bus. Thank god we did this, as by the time we left the station a little past 1:30pm, our bus, meant for 26 passengers was already carrying 30. The late comers were seated on short plastic stools in the aisle between the seats. Every 25 km or so, our bus would stop to pick up a few locals flagging the bus down from the side of the road. By the time we neared Mai Chau village we were carrying a whopping 50 passengers, only then was our driver forced to turn other locals away who were attempting to jump on our bus as well. Considering how much money we saved by taking the local bus (70,000d for the local bus vs. 350,000d for a tourist bus), we were quite happy with our decision; however we would not recommend this option for anyone taller than 5' 8", or suffering from closterphobia. We were the only white people on our bus and understood why the travel agents in Hanoi kept telling us that the local bus wasn't 'a good for for you'. It was small, hot, smelly and cramped but we felt quite pleased with ourselves for saving money and having a truly local experience.

(The start of our journey, notice how there is an appropriate amount of people?)

(Us feeling quite pleased with ourselves)

(50 people on the bus! Yep, it's possible)

We had to walk a few km from where the bus dropped us off to our guesthouse in the nearby village of Cao Loc 2, but we didn't mind. About 1\2 away from the bus station (if you could call it that), we were surrounded by rice paddies, mountains and locals riding bikes. On our way to the guesthouse we passed through another village selling all sorts of handcrafted goods; scarves and skirts, bracelets and purses and interesting looking instruments.

("I hope this is the right way... I gotta pee!")

After walking across a bridge and down a dirt road, we arrived at our wonderful guesthouse, Mai Chau Nature Lodge. We were told that dinner would be served at 6:30pm and would cost 150,000d ($7.50) per person, we were a bit surprised to hear the price, as it was quite higher than we'd become accustomed to paying but we were tired and hungry from our travels and agreed to have dinner there that evening.

(view of our room from courtyard garden)

(our room)

(view from our balcony)

We were floored when the local staff placed a spread of food in front of us that was fit for a king. BBQ pork to die for, a vegetable soup with potatoes and carrots, rice galore, grilled veggies, spring roles and even buttered sliced potatoes with garnish. We ate and drank and laughed until our bellies were full and our spirits were high, in our blissful state we vowed to eat dinner here every night. Each night the spread changed slightly and each night our taste buds and bellies were delightfully surprised and satisfied. Despite the slightly elevated price, the food and variety were well worth the few extra dollars; and our bodies much appreciated this filling break from noodle soup!

(dinner)

(dinner Day 2)

(Lunch)

(so happy and content after a great meal and cheap drinks)

On our first full day in Mai Chau we set out on bikes for a journey through the valley to explore the expansive fields of rice paddies and hike to the top of 'The One Thousand Steps Cave'. We set out from our guesthouse confident and excited for our journey; however, about 4km later we were doubting our physical abilities as well as our directional ones. To our dismay, we had been headed the wrong direction for at least 3km and our legs were already burning, so we turned around and headed back towards town. After asking at least 10 locals, “Cave? Steps? Mountain?”, pointing and making confused faces, a nice lady smiled then nodded, and hopped on the back on Caitlin's bike to direct us there herself. To Mackenzie and Samantha's amusement, Caitlin looked absolutely terrified as she attempted to peddle her bike down the road with this nice lady sitting on the back. Quicker than Mackenzie could get out the Camera, this woman sensed that the situation was going nowhere and fast and jumped off the back of the bike as they swerved slowly down the road. To our surprise, she then parked herself on the front the bike and helped Cait jump on the back, peddling the two of them all the way to the steps. Caitlin still looked completely terrified and looked to Mackenzie and Sam for comfort but all they could do was laugh, despite her fear Cait made it to the base of the steps with out a scratch!

We embarked upon our journey up the 1000 steps laughing and feeling lighthearted, thanks to that wonderful impromptu tandem bike ride. However, we quickly discovered that this hike was not to be taken lightly, 1000 steps may sound like a lot, but it feels like a whole hell of a lot more. By step 540-something we officially declared that our trek in Nepal was completely out of the question. Mackenzie and Sam struggled hard, wondering why in the hell we decided that this would be a good idea. Caitlin ran ahead to take pictures of Sam and Mack as they struggled below, all the while hoping to hear a shout from ahead that the end was near but to their disappointment, the stairs seemed to go on forever. Finally, after about 1,200 steps (despite the misleading name), we made it to the top!

(off to a good start)

(dying...)

(but we made it! and look at that view..)

The steps lead down in to the mouth of a giant, stunning cave. We spent a few moments catching our breath and taking in the splendor of the huge cave in contrast to the birdseye view of the entire valley below. After a brief respite, we descended a set of stairs into the main cavern for some cave exploration. We hiked as far as we could into the center of the cave and were relieved not to find any spiders here, only huge stalactites and shining quartz inlaid in the old stones. Caitlin even climbed so high on the back wall of the cave that she couldn't get down, and had to resort to sliding down on her butt which made for some dirty pants!

(we told you it was big!)

(can you see us?)

After our eventful journey getting lost in the valley, hiking and cave exploring we were absolutely exhausted and headed back into town for a nice steaming bowl of noodle soup. Here we discussed what a fools errand our hope to trek in the Himalayas was. First off, we own zero trekking gear. Our warmest clothes are a leather jacket, a jean jacket and a waterproof windbreaker and the only useful footwear we have are some old running shoes. Although the lack of gear poses a problem, we could easily purchase more appropriate gear for relatively cheap anywhere in SE Asia. The real issue is the fact that we have been hardcore vacationing for the past month and a half; drinking beer, eating, drinking more beer and eating some more and we were out of shape to begin with! (Well at least Mackenzie and Sam). Fortunately, we have been offered jobs back in Phnom Penh, although we don't have any details yet, the prospect of settling down and starting our lives in Cambodia makes it easier to accept defeat on the Nepal front. Despite all this, Nepal and the Himalayas are still a goal of ours and we plan to train and acquire the correct equipment over the next year or two to make that dream come true.

After a few weeks of travel and some serious physical exertion we ended up spending the remaining 3 days in Mai Chau just relaxing. Part of the full service package that our guesthouse offered was a traditional H'mong dance show, performed by locals every day in the communal stilt house above the dining area. Because of Sam's love for dance she was particularly excited to attend. They asked the crowd to get involved a number of times and she was more than happy to join in and practice some new dance moves.

It was really interesting to hear the introductions to the dances because they always referred to themselves as the 'Thai people'. After some research we learned that there are many types of H'mong ethnic groups scattered around northern Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Mynnmar. Here in Mai Chau many families actually speak Thai as their first language, although they are all fluent Vietnamese as well.

Apart from eating delicious food at our guesthouse, perusing the local markets and drinking beer, we spent most of our time here researching how to make the seemly short journey from Mai Chau to Na Meo in order to cross the border into Laos. We fully enjoyed the chance to kick back, relax and reflect on all we have seen and done over the past few months. Mai Chau is a beautiful place, full of warm and friendly people who work extremely hard, day in and day out to provide for their families and despite the complicated border crossing we were about to experience, we are very happy we decided to visit this quiet corner of Vietnam.

Cat Ba; Day 3-- Halong/Lan Ha Bay

We have been accused before of over-using the adjectives “amazing” and “awesome”, which is unfortunate because there really are no other words to describe Halong Bay. Our final day on Cat Ba Island was spent aboard a boat cruising through Lan Ha Bay and onwards to Ha Long Bay. The journey took us all day, departing at 8am and not returning until 5pm and was jammed packed with adventures. Our ride through Lan Ha Bay was absolutely beautiful and yes, AMAZING :) The clouds were thick that day and the numerous islands in the distance were coated in a white/grey mist that made the whole bay look majestic and prehistoric. We past through fishing villages, made up of small houses afloat on rafts made of styrofoam boxes and bamboo poles. It seemed as though each raft had at least one or two dogs clambering along the narrow walkways of bamboo shafts and twine connecting the large nets, meant to keep the catch alive before taking it in to the village to sell. We shivered atop of our boat, amazed that people were able to sustain themselves out there during the winter.

Freezing on the top of the boat

Daydreaming about pants and a dry, warm jacket

Fishing village

Lan Ha Bay

Halong Bay

After passing through the fishing villages, we found ourselves floating alone amidst hundreds of islands of karst limestone; each island home to thousands of trees, bushes, birds and insects. After dropping off about half of the people on our boat to go kayaking we continued on our journey to venture through a 3 room cave on the side of an island. The first room we entered was well lit and spacious, when we reached the back wall we found ourselves rather disappointed, feeling as though the cave was rather plain, however behind us our guide shouted for us to watch our heads and continue onward. We bent down to find a little opening on the back wall, we squatted and crawled through the opening to find another beautiful cave overlooking a small lake on the island. As we explored around this second cave, we found yet another opening and our guide once again motioned us through. The last room of the cave was pitch black, thankfully we had flashlights on our phones to light the way. We saw beautiful pillars shining in the darkness as our lights flickered over them, the salt from millions of years of water trickling through the cave lingering there as a testament to times gone by. Unfortunately for us, we also encountered quite a few cave dwelling creatures, we'd prefer to have gone without. Our guide kept explaining lucky we were, and yet 'lucky' was far from our minds. Two large cave spiders the size of your hand crawled along the walls and pillars of the cave, while a bat slept on the celling (despite our guides continuous attempts to wake it). As we were about to depart from the cave Mackenzie fearfully spotted what appeared to be the largest spider known to man. As the whole group quickly spotted their lights on the creature, we finally agreed with our guide, and felt lucky to see that it was just a crab.

Inland lake

Inside the cave

Cave spider. It may look small in the picture but that's because no one was brave enough to get close to take a picture...this is from about 10ft away. Literally the size of your hand!

Huge stalactites

Once we departed from the cave we returned to the boat and ventured off to pick up those we left behind to kayak, and to feast on a family style lunch together. After lunch we set out on our own kayaking adventure. Mackenzie and Caitlin took a kayak together, while Sam went solo. We paddled away from the safety of our boat, toward a tunnel cave to explore the other side. Even though it was quite a journey, once we passed through the cave the scenery was absolutely beautiful. Sadly our phone died and we weren't able to capture the gorgeous backdrop of our kayaking experience, but trust us, it was a once in a life time experience! The cove was completely untouched and the loudest sound you could hear was the chirping of birds and the occasional howl of a monkey. We saw tons of fish of all shapes, sizes and colors, coral, sea urchins, and some oddly shaped rocks that Cait mistook for turtles :)

Entering the cave tunnel

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Our experience was somewhat marred by the intense oil sheen that covered the mouth of the cove and the tons of dead fish that bobbed around our paddles as we entered. Thankfully, not all the wildlife was affected but from what we've seen, it's only a matter of time before tourism has an extremely detrimental effect on the habitat of Halong Bay. We had mixed feelings about being there because as it stands, the boat tours around Halong Bay seem to perpetuate these negative effects. Since Cat Ba's only real industries are fishing and tourism (and because we learned that there is not a single English teacher on the island), we thought that it would be really cool to be able to come back to set up an English school that focus' on environmental awareness and eco-tourism, as well as the English language!