We have been exploring the north the last 2 weeks, both in Vietnam and now in Laos. Poverty is more apparent in Laos than it was in Vietnam. But let’s first round up the last days in Vietnam.
After visiting Phong Nha National Park we took a train to Ninh Binh in order to visit some sites around there, especially Tam Coc. Paddling through the karst mountains of Tam Coc was one of my highlights so far. It is just a beautiful sight. Not sure if you recognize it on the photos but the boats are rowed by legs! That looks strange in the beginning but surely one can last longer that way.
Same day, we visited also the biggest Buddhist temple (pagoda) in Vietnam. The area and the buildings are really huge but for me this is not beautiful. Actually, I always think it’s a waste of money…
However, I found one Buddha statue funny and fitting my spiritual attitude quite well 😀
We were not sure if we could do everything we had planned for the last days but found an agency with whom we organized a stay on Cat Ba island and a cruise along the Halong Bay, including all the transportation. The island itself is not that big. We rented a scooter for the afternoon the day we arrived and I would say the highlight was if we would arrive with the gas we had 😉
I had high hopes/expectations for the cruise. Although, I am not a cruise person it looked great in the videos I saw beforehand. However, reality can be different, quite different. Wintertime is weather-wise not the best time to travel. It is quite foggy or smoggy, however you wanna look at it. Maybe I should have looked at the ship before booking but I was missing the jacuzzi 😜
The last step in Vietnam was Hanoi for us, since we had to delete Sapa from our travel dreams. Time was running out as the 17th of February was our last day. So, for Hanoi we had only one night. Since Peter wasn’t feeling so great I was mostly by myself. The city itself seems interesting, as long as you stay in the Old quarter. But it’s also buzzing with life.
Not even an hour later we landed in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. But it’s one of the most laid back cities of Asia I have seen so far. There is not a lot of traffic and it’s located right at the Mekong river, in fact, you can see Thailand from here (the Mekong river is the border for much of Laos).
However, the most impressive sight for me was the COPE visitor center. It’s about the secret war the US fought against Laos, dropping more bombs on this country than on Germany and Japan during WWII combined. And not normal bombs, no, cluster bombs! FFS! Even 50 years later they are still kill and cripple people, especially children as they think it’s a ball they can play with 🙁
Plus, don’t get fooled by any propaganda, ups, news 😉
From Vientiane we took the newly opened train northwards. It’s called the Laos China Railroad and was financed and built by China. Not for free of course. It cost about one third of Laos’ GDP in loans. Making the country dependend of China, which is their strategy also in Africa.
However, as a tourist it is a blessing. Trips that previously took over 12 hours are now done within 3.5 hours.
Our first destination going north was Vang Vieng. Previously known as a party town where tourists tubed down the river while slowly (or fastly) getting drunk. We also wanted to get down the river, but in a kayak. Kayaking is fine for me but always after some time it gets boring. The trip was broken up by 2 cave visits. In the first one I managed to get myself completely drenched 😀
Next stop was Luang Prabang, the old capital of one of Laos’ kingdoms. I didn’t do much there other than one day strolling around the city.
And now we are just coming back from Luang Namtha. But, that was not our target. Our target was Nam Ha National Protected Area and a jungle trek there. We decided on a 3 days trek that would involve camping somewhere in the jungle and the other night in a small village. It was great to stretch the legs again and not just go from one city to the next. The hike itself wasn’t strenuous at all but I managed to get stomach sick. Nothing I couldn’t manage but I could go without it.
We had a great group and I enjoyed massively chatting with the different people. Maybe I will take some up to their invitation 😉
If you do a tour and that involves local dancing don’t expect it to be an original thing. It’s more of a tourist thing but it was bearable this time. On one side because children did the dancing and on the other side because I was a bit drunk by then anyway 😀
That’s enough for this time. Leave some comments if you enjoy reading this post and also if not 😉
Hold, why the title? During the winter season it’s quite foggy as I mentioned. But in my opinion most comes from burning rice (fields) and whatever will burn. No wonder it’s called the burning season. It reminds me of my time in Thailand around the same time, same thing.
Love,
Matthias