The adventures and shenanigans of three friends who are having randomly awesome times in Thailand and are hoping to be sober enough to remember them.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

From Laos, With Love

Hanoi, Vietnam

We're off to Laos in five hours! Woot! Drew's sad that we're leaving Vietnam, he's loved the shit out of it over here. I've had a mildly uncomfortable tingling in the back of my mind the entire time we've been here, and I'm yet to fathom why. When I have a few hours of contemplation and end up with an answer, I'll let ya'll know.

The last few days we've been out and about in Hanoi, and we did some cultural sight seeing yesterday. Drew will have to update you on those, since aside from seeing the distinctly wax-like body of Uncle Ho in his mausoleum, I didn't do the cultural things. I've come down with a shockingly bad cold, so I went off in a fogged up haze to find a pharmacy and dope myself up on some flu medication. 3 hours and 3 dollars later, I was a happy camper.

Hanoi is an interesting city, much like all the other cities we've been to. Each has their own character. It's not as busy as Saigon motorbike wise, but there are a lot more beggars/touts and that general miasmatic haze combo of pollution/bad sunlight. The one thing that you can safely say about Vietnam is that it's not a colourful place; they try their best with painting buildings randomly gaudy colours and jazzing up their temples, but in the end the city is just very dull on the eyes. Every morning I wake up, look out the window over the city and in my minds eye compare it to the shiny blue and gold of an Australian beach in the middle of summer...

The tour of Halong Bay was basic, but good. It's surprising how much we miss the water; everytime we go out on a boat, the four of us are like "Ahhhhhhhh..." and we just chill out and relax. The karst formations in the bay were the big hit; there were a lot of them, kinda like mini-islands of rock. We checked out the surprising cave (see the video! Youtube is wonderful).


After the spelunking, we went sea kayaking. I thought it'd be shite, but it was sooo good! We were paddling around towering karsts as the sun was setting, then made our way into a secluded (ie closed off) bay, surrounded on all sides by jungle, cliffs, stone, and silence. It was so quiet in the centre of the lake...damn fine serenity.

Back on the boat at night, we were up on the chilly deck getting our drinkity drink on. We were explaining to Joel, a schoolkid from Sydney out on his first big trip with friends, what a "moment" was. A moment is when you sit back, look around at the big picture, and realise where you are, what you're doing, and how freakin' random/cool it is. That night our moment was on the deck of a boat in the middle of Halong Bay, Vietnam with only the moon and stars above us, listening to quiet music and bits of silence, being with good people, getting your drink on, and just enjoying the whole experience. We've met some people who are always looking for that "one moment" that will make their travel seem significant and worthwhile, and they always miss out on the little moments like that night because they're expecting something big and flashy to take their breath away. If you do that, you're never going to realise all the little moments that you have every day. That's what a moment is kids. Don't miss them.

Last night we said goodbye to Vietnam in true style, by getting absolutely shitcanned. Had dinner, had bia hoi, visited the only jazz club in town and generally had a great time. I got the bartenders to make my new favourite cocktail from Australia Day! The jazz was sweet too, which was a surprise. The keyboarder/pianist was amazingly talented, as were the rest of the house band.

We're flying into Vientiene in Laos from Hanoi airport. This'll be the third time we've caught a plane (Bangkok-Chiang Mai, Singapore-Saigon, Hanoi-Vientiene). And each time it wasn't expected, so the budget is taking a bit of a shelacking. But the cost of the flight isn't just monetary, it's also about time. It'd take us 2 days to get into Laos for US$30 cheaper than it would be to take a flight for 1 1/2 hours. You work that one out.

See you all in Laos! Goodbye bia hoi, our precious little 15 cent beers! We'll miss you!

Edit: Hahaha...forgot to mention; last night at bia hoi, I helped some Vietnamese people move furniture into their apartment on the second floor. We had to get two big cupboards up there, and they wouldn't fit up the stairs. How did we do it? We all stood under it, lifted it above our heads, and the people on the second level grabbed it and levered it over. So damn random, and apparently there was one point where I was standing under the damn thing and it was swaying like a drunk man cos the people on the second floor were losing their grip. If it had dropped, I woulda been a bit el squisho'd. But I survived! It was so random, and fun! I felt very manly helping lift things.

1 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

oooooooooooh I love the Laos picture!


and the YouTube thing doesn't work for me... I blame all of you. :l

11:45 AM

 

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