One of the things that I missed in South East Asia was cricket.  This is a sport that I have never played but I have grown to appreciate as I have got older.  There are three forms of cricket on offer for the public to watch, Test Cricket (up to 5 day duration), One Day Cricket and 20/20 (each team plays 20 overs).

My favourite form is the Test Match which most people find very boring and too long.  However, that is what I enjoy, the tactics, the commentators and the relaxed atmosphere.  The 20/20 format is quick and full of excitement, however I enjoy the Test Match where you can sit and enjoy the day, the game and the crowd.  I went to watch Australia vs Pakistan in the first Test Match and then a One Day game.

I had perfect weather and I was there for the National Anthems of both teams.

I am fully equipped with a seat cushion, binoculars and a radio to listen to the commentary.  I normally bring my own food and because I am a lady of leisure I was by myself for the first day.

The second day Niels joined me after work and we were in a different location and near the pool.  Yep, they built a pool beside the ground.

It was a great night and we witnessed a wonderful sunset. 

Niels and I went to the third day of the test and Craig and Tracey joined us too.  We had some gate crashers in the back ground of this photo.  

Australia won this match on the 5th day, however Pakistan gave them a good run for their money.  Here is some time lapse action of the game.   Timelapse

The next match I watched was the One Day match again between Pakistan and Australia and we had a couple of Niels’ work colleagues join us.  This one is a bit more colourful  with each team wearing their own team colours.  

The Gabba (ground) is sometimes in the flight path for the airport and we were lucky enough to see an A380 fly past.  You can see it in the sky if you look hard.

Dinner time is always great as they have competitions and kids on the ground. Dinner time fun

Again Australia won this match and we hung around to watch the presentations.

I enjoyed my four days spectating at the cricket.  Can’t wait for the next season already.

We were in the final parts of our journey and mine in South East Asia.  We walked around the town of Luang Prabang which was very French from the buildings to the food.  We visited the Presidential Palace and temples, had a foot massage, organised an elephant tour and our bus to leave afterwards and went to the Tamarind Restaurant.  It was great to have a relaxing day after lots of travelling.

Can you tell which is the statue and which is Niels below?  The guy on the right below is trimming his nails with a very large knife.  Not for the faint hearted.

The next day was an early start, 4:30am to watch the monks on their daily routine to acquire food.  So I joined in and sat on the pavement and placed rice in their containers. This was the best day of our entire trip, the monks and then the elephant tour, we were picked up at 7:45am and then another couple from New Zealand, Pip and Peter.  We spent the entire morning with two female elephants, 37 and 39 and a baby, 9 months old .  We heard the call of the Mahout, which are companions (keepers) of the elephants for life.  We watched them bath and even joined in and feed them their favourite, bananas.

Elephants bathing

We then followed them up the stream through the paddocks. It was an amazing experience, the front foot and the corresponding back foot land in the same place after it has been checked by their trunk and they move very quietly except for the baby who charges around.  The bond with their trainer is amazing and they are constantly talking to them.  This elephant sanctuary doesn’t allow riding which is great.  They also love mud, us not so much. 

Elephants

We had a wonderful lunch at the sanctuary and then we were dropped off back in town where we walked up Phushy Hill to another temple and great views.

We then had another massage and pizza for dinner and chocolate mouse.  You can see why it was the best day of the tour.  

The next day started early again being picked up at 7am for an 8am departure on a bus.  Now this was a VIP bus so what could do wrong I hear you asking. 

It was awful, very windy and of course I threw up! We arrived at Vang Vieng at 3:30pm, only 2 and a half hours late! We arrived at an old US airstrip, Lima Site 27 that was used during the Vietnam War (aka American War for my Vietnamese friends:)).  We found our accomodation after a little bit of difficulty, had a burger for dinner from a Japanese lady and organised a minibus this time to get to the capital in two days time.  

The next day was scooter day and we explored the wonderful place. About 5 years ago this was a humming tourist destination for drugs, alcohol and partying, but with an average of 28 deaths per year the authorities cleaned it up.  It is now quieter.  The scenery and driving was awesome.

We drove around and found the Blue Lagoon that had swings and fish that eat the dead skin off your toes.  

We then climbed a mountain and it was pretty step and we had flip flops on. 

We made it to the top and it was worth it for the view.

We had a little accident on the way down with Niels slipping and cutting his knee, and he got a lot of sympathy from me. This is a view of the town by the river, you can see why it is so popular. By the time we got back it was time for dinner so we went to a Thai-German Restuarant and talked with the owner. We was of Thai descent however had lived in Germany most of his life, had come here and loved the place and opened a restaurant.  However, it is best here, communist country, to blend in so he took a wife who has a daughter and dog.  So one week earlier he was single, now he had a family.  It seemed to work. 

We were lucky enough to also have a super moon so we went to the old airstrip to view it.

We returned our bikes and had a great sleep. We organised a mini bus to Vientiene and it left at 9am and we arrived at 1pm.  I sat in the front so there were no dramas.  We checked into our hotel and visited the National Museum which was interesting and then walked around and watched the sunset while trying to avoid getting a pedicure.  There were ladies riding around on push bikes who would do pedicures and they were very persistent.

We went to the night markets, had Indian for dinner and went to a candle festival that only happens once per year, so we were lucky. This is where people make donations and on the right they put money into each of the containers. They take candles and walk clockwise around the temple.

I then had my daily massage and we headed for bed.

This was the day to hire push bikes and our first stop was a monument that we climbed up into.

After that we went to the land mine museum.  This was very sad and sobering.  The Americans dropped more bombs on Laos than any other country has ever experience and this was to try and stop the Ho Chi Minh Trail.  The areas in red are where the bombs were dropped.

We went saw The Presidential Palace, went to a French Restaurant for lunch, visited the gold palace and after a hot day in the sun returned the bikes and had a well deserved ice cream.  This is the capital of Laos and it is small but I loved the place.  

The next day we flew out of Laos and back to Ho Chi Minh so I could pick up the rest of my gear, which was quite a lot and say good bye to some amazing friends:(.

After over a year in Vietnam and South East Asia, it was time to say goodbye.  I will remember Vietnam for the people and scooters, Cambodia for my friend Ang and dust, Malaysia for Desiree and Penang, Singapore for rainforest park, Hong Kong for dumplings, Myanmar for curries, monks and temples and Laos for the elephants and French food.

Till the next time South East Asia!

Dates: 11th November 2016 to 20th November 2016

So we were now on our own and heading to Chiang Rai, Thailand via a transfer in Bangkok. At the Yangon Airport I bought my Ruby Ring, Myanmar has about 90% of the worlds’ deposits in rubies and sapphires.

We had a very quick transfer through Bangkok, unfortunately our checked in luggage didn’t make such a quick transfer but we had it by the time we went to sleep that night.  We arrived in Chiang Rai which is pretty close to the border with Laos and had one night there to explore.  There are two main attractions there, the green buddha and the white temple.  We explored the city; green buddha, food and markets.

We found a bubble tea place so I had to partake in that and they had an awesome shaker.

Bubble tea shaker

We had had a long day travelling from Yangon so we had a good sleep.  The next day we had worked out what time we had to catch the bus that would take us across the border so we had time to take a tuk tuk to the white temple.  This temple has only recently been built and it is beautiful and scary at the same time with weird sculptures .

Also getting into a bit of the time lapse which I think this is very cool.

The White Temple

We then decided to get the local bus at 10am, yes I know you are wondering if that is a wise choice with my track record on buses, well it went surprisingly well, 2 hrs and no A/C.  We got dropped off on the side of the road near the border where there are Tuk Tuks waiting to take us to the border.  We then had to wait for another bus to take us across the border and the Mekong River to Laos.  Once there, I got a visa and then walked into Laos and we caught another Tuk Tuk to the border town of Houy Xai in Laos. Yes a lot of transport for about 100km. We checked in then had a walk around the town, late lunch and checked in for the Gibbon Experience.  We had dinner at the hotel and watched the sunset and this is where we would be departing in a couple of days on our Mekong cruise. It was fascinating watching them squeeze their boats in and you will notice they have pieces of wood to protect their boat.

The next day was the Gibbon experience, this is where you walk in the forest, zip line and hope to see Gibbons (monkeys).  This was started by a French guy who wanted to save the monkeys as the locals hunted them, so instead of hunting he has turned the Gibbons into tourist attractions with the locals as guides and support, a great idea.  Our group got into the back of a Toyota for 1.5hrs, 68km on the road and then 1 hr on dirt roads.  We had 9 people in our group, 3 French who smoked constantly, 2 Austrians,  and 2 from Hong Kong.  We hiked to a waterfall and then zipped lined to our tree hut.  Yep, we got to stay in tree huts and the only way in and out was zip lining. We had curries for dinner and hot water for tea and coffee with the kettle full of hot water being zip lined in too.  Now that is what I call a toilet with a view. We slept on mattresses under mosquito nets and went to bed very early.

You can see in the right hand picture below where the platform is that you take off from. Niels is giving us a great example of how it is done.

The next day we woke up and waited for our guides to arrive with breakfast.  We then zipped lined out and hiked for 2 hr to tree house #3 and then zip lined.  One of the other guides had a 1 year old girl that he brought along.

I need say no more.  The second line of the day was over 600m long and I got some footage of Niels.

Niels zip lining

One of the skills with zip lining is getting enough speed so you don’t have to pull yourself at the end, well I think Niels got that part right!  We had a great day zip lining and went on about 10 of them in total.  We ended up at our second tree hut and the bathroom was very scary, the squat toilet was right beside the edge! We had another delicious meal zipped in and at 1:40am it rained and we got a leak where we were sleeping and then the tree rats came out to play!  There are a couple of kitchens located around the forest and that is where are meals are cooked and then zipped to us.  Pretty amazing .

After the eventful night it was time to walk out to the village where we started from.  Overall we did about 6km of zip lining and we think we saw a Gibbon on the last day high in the trees.  Niels showing us how it is done and even looking at the camera, professional.  We got into the 4wd and headed back to town.  We rested back at our hotel, had dinner and got ready for the next day.

We were going to be on the Mekong for 2 days, 1 night to get to Luang Prabang. We started at 9am and didn’t arrive in Pakben until 4pm.

It rained most of the day so we didn’t stop anywhere.  One of the things I will remember this boat ride for is finding out the Trump became President of USA!

Docking in Pakben we saw elephants. We had Indian for dinner and a great view over the river.

The next day the weather was better and after lunch  we stopped at a village on the river. Niels again was a hit with the locals and I bought a scarf, 50,000 kip ($8.12 AUD). 

I made a donation to the school as most families can only afford to send one child to school.  Just before we reached our destination we stopped at Pak Ou Cave which has hundreds of Buddha Statues.

We arrived in Luang Prabang and took a minibus to our hotel, walked around the magnificent town, had a massage and dinner.

Dates: 4th November 2016 to 10th November 2016

We landed in Mandaly for a boat trip and we started off with a tour of the local fresh produce markets in the morning.  It is a great way to see what the local produce is and all the little treats you can get.

We also saw some monks and nuns in action with their morning routine of getting food.

It was an action packed day and our next activity was on the ferry at 7:30am to Mongon, the trip took 1.5 hrs.  We saw the largest unbroken bell (I am going to say in the world?) and one of the largest temples in Myanmar which was only a 1/4 finished, if it was finished it would have been 400m x 400m.  That is a lot of bricks.

Looking at this photo, it looks like I am being attacked my double chins, apparently this is what happens when you do a selfie in front of a very big bell.  I bought a traditional skirt that was tailored while I waited for 7000 Kyat ($6.80).  We got back on the ferry and had a buffet lunch of curries back in Mandaly, it was fantastic and they had air con.  

We then had free time till 3:15pm so Niels and I went ruby hunting but with no success.  We then piled into two taxis and visited a Teak Monastery.  The most interesting thing about this monastery was there was a mastabating monk, no joke, he had his hands under his robe and there was movement.  Anyway here are some pictures of the teak.

We then went to visit a gold leaf manufacturing business for putting on temples.  The gold leaf has to be beaten by hand and they get 720 leafs out of 1 gram of gold and this takes 6 hours of beating.  It is a 6kg hammer and they earn about $150-$200 USD per month.

Here is a video of this hard, hard work.

gold leaf manufacturing

We then went to a temple which has the big book, all on stone. It is amazing the detail that they get on each tablet. Apparently there is a monk that knows the total book off by heart.

The last destination of the day was Mandaly Hill for another temple and view of the city.

The next day was a bus ride to Kawlaw.  We stopped many times to look at a teak bridge, marble carvings, and saw an elephant dancing.

Where we stopped for lunch, I went to the toilet and this was it.  I thought that it was quite interesting.

We had a quick tour our Kawlaw once we arrived and saw the railway station, we were all pretty gun shy of trains by then. 

The next day was our trekking day, but due to very heavy rain, the walk was changed a bit.  We left at 8am and saw ginger, oranges, tea, and Jack Fruit and had a home cooked lunch in one of the villages.  I started looking at the clothing that was on sale and I was interested in a colourful outfit so they asked if I wanted to try it on, it was a bridal outfit.  The other lady with me was a member of our group, Katja from USA. 

These are some of the vehicles we saw out and about, like the Chinese tractor in North Vietnam.

We rested the rest of the afternoon and had a great dinner at the Noodle Place with a couple of Poms, Phil and Jade.

Our bus the next day to Inle Lake was not until 12pm, so I decided to get my hair washed and a massage.  It is great getting your hair washed especially since I had fallen off my motorbike in Northern Vietnam so the arm above the shoulder was not fun.  On our bus ride we visited umbrella making, a railway bridge and another Teak monastery.  This time all the monks behaved themselves.

Of course I had a bit of a spit on the windy roads in the bus, so nothing unusual there.  We made it safely to Inle Lake and had an orientation walk.  We then split up and Niels and I sat outside a pub drinking and eating pizza watching the world go buy.  On the way back, I got a shirt mended and the lady was not going to accept any money.  Niels also bought a skirt, yep, the traditional male clothing in Myanmar.

The following day was the day for the lake, Lake Inle.  We started off by going through channels which opened up into the lake.  We witnessed foot paddling, they stand on the back of their wooden boat and use one of their feet to move the paddle while casting and pulling in their net.  It is very skilful.

Our first stop on the lake was a walk around a traditional village and then the second stop was silver jewellery manufacturing.  It was 98% silver, 2% copper. We then had our group photo and went for lunch.

After lunch we had three more stops before going home, weaving fabric, boat making out of Teak and a blacksmith.  It takes 1 month to weave the material and it takes 1 year of training.  The blacksmith was using scrap metal to mould into new items and there are only two teak boat makers on the lake.

For dinner we went to a local house that was advertised on Trip Advisor.  It is owned and operated by a single lady who has her 85 year old mother as the waitress.  The food is delicious and she will cook to your taste.  We had a wonderful night there with Mel, Phil and Jade. 

The last full day of our trip had optional activities, so we chose the biking and the hot springs with a Pagoda.  We started with the group and then we were left to our own devices.  It was too hot for the hot springs so we visited a pagoda and found one with lots of puppies.  We also walked up a very steep hill to a pagoda on the top of the hill and it had its own “Hot Air Hole”.  Basically it was a steam vent from geothermal system.  We had lunch and met Phil and Jade and they told us that the Teak Monastery that we had previously visited but had missed the Buddha Temple which has thousands of Buddhas in it, so we biked there.

We had our farewell dinner and prepared for our flight for the next day.

We got on the bus at 7:30am to go to the airport at Heho to Yangon.  Not sure what happened, this bus ride was brutal on me and had a few up chucks.  Our boarding passes at Heho were hand written and they didn’t require any ID and flight time was 1.5 hrs and then we had a 1 hr taxi ride for 10km to our hotel in Yangon.  I wasn’t feeling too hot so I rested and Niels went to the National Museum.  We had a last dinner with a couple of  the tour group and then bid farewell.  It is always sad.

The highlight for me was Bagan and all the temples and I was surprised how modernized the country was and there was an Indian feel to the place with the food, clothing ad chaotic tendencies.  Well worth a visit.

Dates: 28th October 2016 to the 3rd November 2016

So the first day of our tour started in Yangon with a walking tour which is great to have a local take you around and explain the local customs, food and why things are the way that they are.  Yangon use to have lots of water drinking stations around before bottled water became popular and there are still some around

We were then left to our own devices and a small group of us went off in hunt of a restaurant we had been told about.  Niels took the lead of our group of about 6 people and I knew right from the get go that we were going in the wrong direction.  Of course unlike me, I held my tongue (not) and came up with all these crazy bets.  So it was with much satisfaction when I was proved right.  I have found that with my year in Vietnam I have become quite good at navigating myself around.  To add to the heavy traffic and endless taxis are the buses that look to be from the era when the British had control, but the best thing is the wooden block that has to be place under the front wheel every time it stops.  In heavy traffic on a slight incline, the driver’s assistant works up a real sweat.

Now comes the most extreme part of the whole journey, the train journey from Yangon to Bagan, 627km, his number will seem more important soon. We left the hotel at 2:30pm and stopped at a supermarket to buy water and food for our trip.  I thought this was a bit weird, you can buy food on the train.  We then arrived at the station and this first picture sums up the entire train trip.

Now our guide warned us that it shook and that we had to take all our food and water for our 18 hour trip and not to pee while the train is in motion, I have done lots of trips in Indian and Vietnam, so I was prepared.  At 4pm we boarded into cabins with 4 people per cabin.

That was the last contact we had with the outside world for the entire 18 hours, yep, these were separate rail cars, you couldn’t move between carriages.  We settled in and thought to ourselves this isn’t too bad, well did that change, as soon as we moved, it started to shake, worse than jelly and the noise was deafening.  The four of us looked at each other and then we all looked out the window and thought what the f&^k.

It was the worst train ride of my life, and I lay awake on my top bunk bed wondering what you would do if there was an emergency.  Being on the top bunk, I got thrown around, it was crazy and then in the middle of the night I had to go to the toilet, screw that we weren’t stopped, I was about to take my chances.  After using the squat grate toilet I climbed into Niels’ bed and it was too hard to make it up the laddar in the dark.  Things normally seem better in the morning, but no not this time.  Our average speed for the journey was 35km/hr and we were all sick of it.  We arrived in Bagan at 10:45am the next day which was ahead of schedule and our tour guide told us it could have been so much worse, we could have had a breakdown.

We checked into our accomodation, had a shower, lunch and then we did our own thing for the afternoon and then just before sunset we met up and visited our first temple of Bagan near our hotel. 

We then all gratefully went to our stationary, quiet beds to recover from the train ride from hell.  We found out later that China had given the second hand carriages to Myanmar so they must have been bad if China got rid of them.

Today was suppose to be the day those who chose to went on a dawn balloon ride, 4:30am departure, however we arrived at the site and it was raining so was cancelled.  Very disappointing as it is one of the highlights of the trip.  We went back to the hotel tired and went on the group bike tour.  This was fantastic, Bagan has over 1000 temples so we obviously didn’t visit all of them but saw enough to get an appreciation of the magnitude and beauty of them.

We had lunch and then spent sometime exploring ourselves on our bikes until we met up again and went to one of the temples for a great view.

At one of the temples an old lady of 85 was selling some sweets so I bought some, she was gorgeous.

To finish off our bike tour, we watched the sunset from the top of one of the temples, it was very steep to get up and down.

The view was amazing and there were lots of tourists, look at the buses below.

The day was finished off with a dinner puppet show which was hilarious and the puppet owners very skilful.

The next day was another early start, 4:30am on the bus to the ferry leaving at 5:30am to Mandaly.  This was a full day trip on the Ayeyarwady River.  It is a wonderful way to travel and see the country and how life revolves around the river, much the same as in Vietnam.

We arrived at 4pm and were taken to our hotel, freshened up, had a walk around and then had Thai for dinner.

Dates: 24th October 2016 to 28th October 2016

So after over 1 year apart, it was time for Niels and I to reunited and what better place than Yangon, Myanmar.  We have done the long distance thing before, early in our relationship, and I think it is very good for couples to go through this at least once in their time together, it makes you independent again, more resourceful and you appreciate each other more.

We had half a day to explore Yangon (formally know as Rangoon).  We did a bit of research about Myanmar and decided to go with a travel group (Intrepid) due to the political climate and only recently being open to tourists.  On hindsight I don’t think that was necessary, in the 2 years it has been open and under the pseudo leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, it is quite modern and most importantly, safe.

So we checked into our hotel and walked into town, got a little bit lost, had lunch, curry, visited the central temple, the first of many, the many colonial buildings, central market and the number one tourist destination, Shwedagon temple, a temple covered in gold.  It has 2 tons of gold and is over 100m tall.  No I didn’t try and take any of the gold, karma people.

The next day our first Intrepid tour started, the Golden Rock Tour.  Pretty self explanatory, so we had our own driver and guide for the two of us for 2 days, 1 night.  We set off with our first stop being The Commonwealth War Cemetery on our way to Bago.  Very somber affair with all nationalities and not surprising, many Indians with the border being so close.

Now I thought the traffic was crazy in Vietnam, this is a different crazy in Myanmar.  See if you can work out what is different about the photo I took on the left below.  The right is pretty obvious.  There are also no motorbikes allowed in Yangon, so it is basically one big traffic jam, worse than anything I have seen in Australia.

So for any vehicle being used for commercial purposes, there needs to be a spotter on the left hand side (front passenger side)!

We had a tea break where we tried Burmese sweet tea, loved it then for lunch we had a typical Burmese lunch, curries.  Burmese make up about 60% of the population hence why the British called it Burma, but since independence they have gone back to their original name.

The food is a lot different to Vietnam, curries, oiler and more spicy.  Not really sure what this was, and didn’t try it on advice from our tour guide.  

After lunch we headed to the base camp of Golden Rock where everyone is transported up in trucks, 6 to a row and it is 2000 Kyat ($1.96) per persn.  The ride took about 1 hr and was pretty windy but it was open so this is one trip I survived without throwing up!

We checked into the Mountain Top Hotel and walked to Golden Rock.  It was very busy due to it being the weekend and after a full moon so families make pilgrimages to the Golden Rock and stay overnight, some sleeping in buildings on the floor, others who get there later sleep out in the open on the stone pavements.  True dedication.

Like most religions some things women can’t see or do, so it is no different here. Men can buy gold leafs and then place them on the Rock.  Women are not allowed to do that.

Further into our trip we saw how the gold leafs are made so stay tuned.

Now for those of you who find this walking caper a bit too much, you can hire yourself some porters.  We saw some Chinese using this.

Because we are high in the mountains, the conditions can change very quickly, one minute you are looking at a wonderful view, the next, fog.

That night we had a local curry with our guide and watched some English Premier League Football (Soccer).  They love it here.

The next day, we packed up and was lucky enough to spot a very traditional monk that is only on the mountain.  We then lined up for the truck back down.  Now this was an experience, it was more like a rugby scrum when a truck arrived and people would literally dive and push to get on the trucks.  Traditionally monks are not suppose to touch females, this apparently doesn’t apply to getting onto trucks.

Here are the platforms that we used to get onto the trucks and Niels make a friend and posed for photos.

We finally made it onto the truck and got down the hill to our driver and our first stop of the day was the Scared Hall of Ordination where only the columns were original and the rest of the building had recently been rebuilt as a replica.  We went to see a recliner Buddha which is the 2nd largest (not sure if that is the world, but lets say it is) and the four buddhas which is 4 Buddhas facing in each direction with their backs to each other.

This time, Niels was the attention from a group of Monks who wanted to speak to him and have their photo taken with him.  I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with me, no one wanted my photo:(.

We then headed back to Yangon and got our communication sorted, bought Sim cards, it was easy and very cheap, makes you wonder why it is so expensive here in Australia considering two years ago no one had a mobile phone in Myanmar.

At 6pm our second and major tour began with a group meeting where we introduced each other, 16 people, 11 different nationalities, 1 tour guide and 2 trainee tour guides.

The next blogs will convey our Myanmar trip and then our independent trip of Laos.  And yes, there will be throwing up on public transport!

Dates: 21st October 2016 to 23rd October 2016

One of the hardest meals to find something to eat in any foreign country I think is breakfast.  I am a Vegemite and toast girl and also muesli with yogurt.  Here it is noodles.  I bought a toaster here which created a couple of looks at the store.  Looking back on it though, I don’t know if it was me or the toaster they were looking at.  I would say probably me now.

The common breakfast meal here is phỏ, chicken, shrimp, beef and various other thin liquid soups with noodles,  bun bo hue etc.  However I have two go to breakfasts when out and about:

1. Banh Mi with egg, bread roll orginally introduced by the French with a fried egg in it with soy sauce and chillys if you are feeling tough.
2. Xoi Vo. It is sticky rice with bean paste

This is the lady that sells it to me.  Also, I forget the traditional noodles in a clear broth, Pho.

Due to language differences there are many great signs and words around that bring a smile to my face

This is a truly imaginative name for a restaurant, would you believe that it is French and is pretty good.  Ignore the yellow pump, it was being held ransom and is a whole other story.

This is on the wall of a Bubble Tea Shop.  I laughed out loud when I saw this.

I have left the best sign for last, however, I know it is hard to beat the above.

I am considering whether I should be getting a commission for the use of my name…

I ended up with a bit more time left and I am not sure how that happened between my crashes and a few unplanned toilet stops on the way.  In a country that is very populated, it is hard sometimes to find a quiet spot in an emergency.

I selected another route that would take me to the Chinese Border again, the start of the Ho Chi Minh trail, gate crashing wedding photos, cruising on a lake, watching some smuggling and seeing the biggest waterfalls in Vietnam.  This route had it all and best of all, no crashes.

I used this as a guide, but did it in a slightly different order.

Vietnam Coracle

So on the 14th of October I went from Bao Lac to Ha Long.  Now on the way I worked out that I didn’t stay in Bao Lac as I drove through it about 2 hours later.  The ethnic clothing changed and wasn’t as colourful but was black with red.  I drove through some wonderful scenery, there was dam construction, rice harvesting and installation of power lines Vietnamese style.

I then came across this wonderful village that focussed on knives.  Of course I had to stop and I sat down with one of the owners and she showed me all the different knives and what they were used for in Vietnamese:).

From there I went through what I like to call “The Glasshouse Mountains on Steroids”.

Now as I was cruising around I noticed these mechanical things which are called “The Chinese Buffalo”.  The don’t go very fast but they are everywhere and they look hard to drive.  I think it is a rotary hoe gone crazy.

I made it to Trung Khanh and decided to push onto the Waterfalls, Ban Gioc.  These were amazing and are on the river that divides Vietnam and China.  On the Vietnamese side they had boats that were manually driven whereas on the Chinese side they had motors.  I hired my own boat for 300,000 VND ($18 AUD) which was pretty extravagant.

Now this is where the smuggling began, you can see in the left of the photo a small craft with items and they would be unloaded on the Chinese side.  This gave me a taste of what was to come.

So I saddled up again and headed off in search of a place to stay the night.  The roads were shocking, gravel, dusty and holes that would swallow trucks.  These big trucks carried 20kg bags of rice.  I then saw something in the distance, bamboo bridges with white bags trotting across the river from Vietnam to China.

I pulled off the road and sat for about 15 minutes and watched the hard work of carrying the rice bags to vans on the Chinese side.  Once the vans were full, the transfer would cease until a new van would arrive.  I then continued on further down and found some more smuggling, however this was slightly different, they had built a slide that they used to move the packages down the bank and then ran them across the river.

There were a number of monuments to the fallen Vietnamese from the invasions from the Chinese in 1979.  After being choked by dust, dodging holes the size of the Grand Canyon I found some accomodation.  I had the whole room to myself

I went for a wonder around the village and had some yummy food, again, not sure what it was.

I had dinner with the owners and then went to bed early after 263km of driving.

So the next morning I went from Ha Long to Cao Bang, a total of 193km.  I encountered some of the worst roads of the whole trip, lots of dogs and horses and a road slip where we waited for about 1.5 hours for it to be cleared.  During my wait, I met some people who kept me entertained.

I had a great breakfast with Chinese sausage, how cute is this place.

Again beautiful scenery

Made it to Cao Bang then headed to the start of the Ho Chi Minh Trail to see where Ho Chi Minh crossed the border and the cave that he lived in for a while.

A beautiful river awaited at Suoi Le Nin and uncle Ho’s kettle

I then headed back to Cao Bang and had pizza for dinner, yum

The next day I headed to Ba Be National Park, 139km, lots of windy roads through valleys and a couple of mountain passes. The Ba Be National Park has a lake and ethnic villages surrounding it.  I went on a boat tour for 550,000 VND which took most of the day. I saw waterfalls, reflection ponds, a temple and enjoyed the quietness of being on the water.

I then found some accomodation and settled in for the night and gatecrashed some wedding photos.

The next day was off to Hanoi and back to civilisation, 209km.  I did my usual trick of trying to go on the motorway that is for cars and trucks only.  After that hiccup I found my way to Hanoi and to the centre of town and to a backpackers where I had met some people on my Ha Giang loop.  I then took a tour around Hanoi as it was my first time driving there.  We went to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.

I then had a wonderful night visiting Bay from Habitat for Humanity and then the next day was emotional selling Oscar.

I finished off my time in Hanoi by visiting The Temple of Literature, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, cyclo tour and farewelling Oscar.

The last two weeks was one of the best experiences of my life.

Some interesting statistics:

• km travelled 2041km
• Money spent on fuel, 670,000 VND, $40.70 AUD
• 2 crashes resulting in injured person and injured motorbike (Oscar)
• Almost hit the following things
  • Buffalo
  • buffalo poo (those things are massive)
  • dogs
  • children
  • horses
  • cows
  • pigs
  • goats
• Nearly driving over numerous cliffs while looking at the amazing scenery
• Getting lost in a cave for over an hour
• Emergency toilet stops – too many
• Not getting lost once

One regret; Niels wasn’t there to share it with me:(.

Dates: 14th October to the 18th October 2016