New Photos!!!

Hi Guys!

Here you have more pictures of our trip:

Check some pictures of Hue here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26652485@N06/

Enjoy!!!

Hue- central coast (Vietnam)

Some sun at last!!! :-)

We left Laos to go to Vietnam again... now to the centre of the country. WE arrived to Hue.. summer time!!! Sunny and not rainy anymore! However, the arrival to the city was a bit bizarre. After 20 hours on the bus, the bus driver left us on the middle of the road 10 km away from Hue! Ok, the bus was going further to the south but at least they could have dropped us in the city or the bus station!
A little bit confused and asleep we stood on the middle of the road trying to catch the attention of some car. A vietnamese taxi-van stopped and gave us a lift to the city centre for little money.

Hue is a city known by its river (Perfume river) and the royal tombs. It is quite touristic so, it is not difficult to find hostels, restaurants and shops for travellers. Hue is like a central point in the country where all the travellers in Vietnam stop here for a couple of days as it is half way between Hanoi and Saigon.

We decided to visit Hue by motorbike. So funny!!!

We started the route going to a budhist temple (pagoda) near town. There we saw all the monks meditating and praying and singing to Budha. This pagoda is one of the few ones that are nowadays intact from the war against the Americans.

After that we went to an area where there were some old bunkers and there was an amazing view of the river. We could see local fishermen with the typical boats of the area.

Our trip by motorbike continued through the streets of Hue until we got to the royal tomb of Tu Duc. This tomb is set beside a little lake and surrounded by pine forest. Our guide told us that all the dragons created on wooden frameworks represent Heaven. It is quite common to find them in temples or building roofs.

We were quite hungry at that stage and we decided to go for something to eat in a local place. We ate some kind of spring rolls stuffed with meat and vegetables and rolled with rice paper. Delicious!! They are typical from Hue..but I can't spell the name :-)

With a full stomach we went to visit the “Citadel”. This is an old imperial city located on the north side of the river. This place was bombed by the americans years ago.

After getting lost a bit around the city we ended up in the local market. We just arrived when it was “siesta” time... lucky us! The time for a nap in the afternoon is a sacred tradition here!!! And also they sleep anywhere and in any position!! Hahaahaha Hilarioius!

The route finished with a very cool ride around the surroundings of Hue. Huge rice fields with little roads and people working on the lands. Great views.
In the middle of all the rice fields there is a small bridge called “Japanese bridge” where the locals use it shadow to practice their sacred siesta.

Our nice visit to Hue has finished but we will continue by bus (for a change) through the south of the country... next destiny... Hoi An.

See you soon.

Have a look at some pictures of Hue here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26652485@N06/

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is one of the most visited places in Laos due to its beautiful landscape and the calm of the villages. Also, the different group ethnics in the area keep their old traditions very alive.
As soon as you enter in Luang Prabang you can see the influence of the French colonialism. The architecture of its buildings , the shops, restaurants, hotels even cars reflect the colonial style.
Some of them are very luxorious!!


Also, you can do lots of different outdoors activities around the area!

We went to visit the Kuang Si waterfall. This waterfall is located 30Km away from Luang Prabang city. It is an amazing waterfall with turquoise waters! The waterfall forms small swimming pools where you can swim safely. We spent all the afternoon there! Great!! Jumping from one little waterfall to another until getting to the top one! Amazing!!

The heavy rainfall at the moment has put us off going to the centre of Laos.........so we are now going back to Vietnam. We will go to the centre and south of the county. We will write you from there. See you soon!!

Trekking in Luang Prabang province

We were too optimistic this time and we chosed a4 days trek with different kind of sports and we stayed with local families. But of course we forgot that we are travelling through the monsoon!!!
The first day we did 5 hours by bike stopping in some villages. Yes, the difficulty wasn't the bike but the mud! There were huge puddles everywhere! Yes, you had to see us... very clean....:-)
On the way we visited some temple and a textile factory. We could see as well all the rice fields combined with the pinapple flieds.
In Laos they cultivate two kinds of rice: one is the same as our rice and the other one is called sticky rice. You use it as if it was bread just to go with your meal. Quite funny!

The first night we stopped in Ban Soven; a small village on the other side of the Mekong river. Here live three kind of tribes: Khmu, Laolum and Hmong. It is a very small village where the houses are made of bamboo and wood. Some of them didn't have electricity. People here do rural work. These kind of villages are so different compared to the capital or from Luang Prabang!

The next two days we were trekking along the jungle and walking through overflowded rivers. They were so high due to the rain of the last few days. Rain and mud everywhere!
We spent the last night in Ban Houeyfay, a Khmu village. The curiosity of its people for us made the evening very enjoyable! For dinner we tried the local wine. It is made of fermented sticky rice. Soooooo sweet! sooo good! We slept very well that night!

The last day we went kayaking towards Luang Prabang. At last a sunny day!!!

The river was soo quiet at the beginning but when we went through the rapids the kayak turned 360 degrees! Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check some pictures of Laos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26501406@N05/?saved=1

Vientiane- Laos' capital

After very long 24 hours on the bus we finally arrived to Vientiane, Laos' capital. Our firs impression was: Is that Asia????????? The thing is that Vientiane is a city extremely quiet in comparison with all the places that we have visited before in Asia. There is no traffic jams or crowds of people on the streets. But something very curios is that the very few cars running along the roads are 4 wheel driver ones and very very new!! Vientiane's three main streets are paralel to the Mekong river and offer a very nice and quiet walk through the city. We visited its temples (called wats), the museum of history and the Triomph arc (Patuxai). This arc and Vientiane's arquitecture show the French influence on the city. This fist stop in the capital of Laos has showed us the peace and tranquility of its people. Honestly, in Laos people is veryyyyyyyyyyyy quiet! The majority of Laos people is budhist. The vast majority of the boys choose to join the monastery for their studies. After 3 years there, they can choose if continuing there and become a monk or just leave the temple. We leave now Vientiane to go to the north of Laos, Luang Prabang. See you later!!

We'll be adding pictures soon :-)

Hanoi : the capital of Vietnam

Hanoi is a very modern city with a French colonial flavour. Its main lake "Hom Kiem" is surrounded by alleys plenty of shops and markets to walk around .. and also thousands of motorbikes to dodge! You can't imagine the amount of motorbikes that there are in Hanoi! There is a population of 2 million people and there are 1,600,000 motos!!! Unbelievable! Motorbikes everywhere!!

The magic of Hanoi is on its streets. There is lots of people on them at anytime. They get up very early in the morning to do some exercise and then they go for something to eat in those bars with mini tables and chairs located on the sidewalks. You can get all kind of vietnamese food here: rice, noodles, all kind of fish and meat, seafood, frog, tortoise...even dog!! Yes! in Vietnam they eat dog in certain days or special situations. Also it is said that eating dog's meat gives you luck!!

Another thing that surprised us was the coffe culture! Since we left home we haven't found a country with that and we loved it!! we suppose it is due to the French colonialism. Furthermore the coffee is with sweetened milk... yummy!!!!!!!!!!!

No matter how much people can tell you about Hanoi ... you don't realise of it until you are here yourself. Crossing the streets thinking that thousands of motorbikes will run you over or bargaining for everything is an adventure! you have to bargain even for a bottle of water! The shop assistant will try to sell you the item for about 5 times more of the price in some cases!!! Amazing!

The old city centre is called "Old Quarter" and it is where we stayed. WE have visited museums, temples, parks and the huge Ho Chi Min Mausuleum complex. Ho Chi Min fighted for the unification of Vietnam and the independence of the country from the French conolism. Hundreds of people queue to pay their respects. A funny thing here is that his embalmed body remains there even when he requested to be cremated!

One of the last nights in the capital we went to see a water puppet performance on the main theatre. This is a very old Vietnamese tradition created by the rice field workers.

We leave Hanoi now to cross to Laos. We will come back to Vietnam to visit the centre and south of the country.

See you soon!!

Sapa : mountains, rice fields and lots of mud!!!

After a few days around the Halong Bay the interantional gang (Caro, Sandra, James and 2rapitenques) was ready for the next adventure. This time we went away from tourist tours and we organised a trip to the mountains by ourselves.
Sapa is a mountainous area on the northwest of Vietnam very close to the Chinese border. This place is plenty of huge rice fields where the locals from different ethnics group work. To get there we took a night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai. This was our first time in the Vietnamese trains and the only tickets available were semi-soft seats!! Semi soft?? We better say semi hard!! Ten hours by train trying to get a position to sleep (impossible task!)

The town of Sapa is plenty of things for the tourism: restaurants, hostels, hotels, internet cafes, shops, markets and travel agencies which offer different kind of activities to do around the area. We decided to go for a trekking to visit the little villages around the area and also stay in a home village house for one night to taste the local life.
The first day of trekking was a challenge. The weather wasn't very good and it was raining for a big while... and the path...oh God! it was a swimming pool of mud! All of us were slipping around! It looked like a competition to see who was the dirtiest one of all! After a while we were all so covered by mud that we started a mud war!! ueeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
You had to see how did we get to the village! Even our faces were brown cause of the mud! The people there suggested very kindly to go to visit a hot spring to enjoy a swim in such a nice environment (of course they wanted us to clean ourselves before entering to their houses :-)) . We have to say that the hot spring was cool and we then came back for dinner nice and clean!
The house where we stayed was made of bambu and wood and it was comprised of a lower porch and then a first floor with matresses on the floor and mosquito nets.

The dinner was very nice; rice with vegetables meat and fish. The only thing is that we were doubting if the dark meet was beef or dog! yes!! in vietnam dog meat is quite popular... we will never know.. but better not to know it! hahahahaha
The next day we visited another village and the surroundings. They showed us how they cook, the different kinds of bambu, the traditional machinery to grind the rice , etc. We also went to an amazing waterfall!! It was perfect for a very sunny and humid day!! We were there swimming for a while and then came back for lunch and get ready to go back to Sapa. Uff!!! After lunch and the heat!!! it was the hardest part of the trekking! An hour and a half path way up !!! You could only hear "uff" "ay" "why we didn't take a motorbike?".... but finally we arrived to the village where they had to give us a lift til Lao Cai to get the night train again and go back to Hanoi.
Once more it was a nice trip where we enjoyed the landscapes, food and the kindness of the local people.

To see some pictures of Sapa enter here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26501406@N05/

Take care!

Floating on the Halong Bay!!!!!!!!!!

After a couple of days in Hanoi we have been gathered the crew to start our adventure along the Halong Bay. The team is comprised by Caro “la boluda”, Sandra “la sevi”, James “the Irish”, and of course, us, 2rapitenques around the world. We decided to go for a trip of 3 days and 2 nights around the Halong Bay. The first night to be spent in a boat and the second one in the Cat Ba island.


Try to go to Halong Bay without a tourist pack is impossible!! It is all set up in such a way that it is better (and cheaper) to get a tourist pack with a group of people than trying to do it by yourself. Seriously! It is the only way to visit the place if you don’t want hassle. However, tourist packs mean mass tourism, and, it is not ideal but it is the only way to do it here. In fact, we have seen lots of cases of scams or being cheated by paying some services that eventually people didn’t get.
One thing that we have learned in this country is to be cautious with your money. So if you ever come here please do not pay anything in advance, pay once you come back from the trip. Even doing that, we ended up paying 10% of, apparently, “government taxes” that we discovered later that they didn’t exist. … c’est la vie!


The Halong Bay is made up of more than 3,000 islands emerging from the water. It is considered one of the worldwide heritages by Unesco.The islands are covered by wild vegetation and you can see how the islands have become eroded on their base due to the waves and wind. The legend says that the little islands were created by a dragon that lived in the island long time ago. The wild animal was cutting the island up into pieces when walking wildly towards the coast and he created this magic place.


Our trip started in Hanoi. After 3 hours by bus we arrived to Halong city. A boat was waiting for us to bring us towards the bay. Sailing among the little islands it is very cool and you can see wild beaches, floating fisherman houses and we even visited an amazing cave! After all that we ended up having a dip in the water to handle the heat and humidity of the day! Great fun jumping from the boat JBut that wasn’t the end of the day. After a tasty Vietnamese dinner (seafood, fish, meat, vegetable and lots of rice) our moment of glory arrived J Karaoke!!!!!!!! Yeahhhhhhhh one was saying…”I won’t sing”.. the other..”Came on, just one song” … “no, you go first … all very shy for a few minutes… But after a bit we were all dancing and singing (or maybe shouting and jumping) with no shame! Other groups of people joined us and we started a Karaoke party until late nite! Such a good laugh!! As Caro “la boluda” well said…. We were floating in the Halong Bay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ueeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


The following day we went to Cat Ba Island. This is the only inhabited island of the bay and was declared national park a few years ago. I don’t know who had the idea but we ended up trekking until the very top of the island … nice views but stifling heat!!! Something that we can say of Cat Ba is that it remind us to the Benidorm but in Vietnam…. Huge buildings, restaurants, shops, souvenirs and lots of massive places for leisure. Also, now are the summer school holidays and we could see all the local families there… on the beach , renting motorbikes, walking on the street …. It was funny to see the same as we do but with another scenery. We finished the trip with a small cruise through the East part of the Halong Bay.


We would like to pay tribute to the song “My way” of Frank Sinatra as it has been the song of the trip!! We got a bit carried away singing it in the karaoke!! Sure that not as Sinatra but such a laugh!! Such a song!! Such a moment!!! WE were all identified with the song!! J

Here we go:My way

And now, the end is near; And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, Ill say it clear,Ill state my case, of which Im certain.
Ive lived a life thats full.Ive traveled each and evry highway;
And more, much more than this,I did it my way.
Regrets, Ive had a few;But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to doAnd saw it through without exemption.
I planned each charted course;Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,I did it my way.
Yes, there were times, Im sure you knewWhen I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;And did it my way.Ive loved, Ive laughed and cried.
Ive had my fill; my share of losing.And now, as tears subside,I find it all so amusing.
To think I did all that;And may I say - not in a shy way,No, oh no not me,I did it my way.
For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -And did it my way!

Check some pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27523343@N06/?saved=1