Living beyond our means

It was time for a break. We got the train south to Nha Trang. Ellie had read a couple of lines in the Lonely Planet describing an idyllic beach resort 60km to the north of the town. After a scary hour long taxi ride through the pitch-black countryside. In the end, it was great - a couple of days recharge on a beautiful and deserted beach.



The Cambodia story to follow later...

Tailortown

Hoi An, a mere 20 hour bus ride from and an anagram of Hanoi, was peaceful and full of tailors. We had some suits, shirts and dresses made before relaxing with our 10p glasses of beer.

Spot that housemate - Emily Moss edition

Hanoi and around

Hi everyone sorry about the long silence - Vietnam censored our blog and they had better software than Myanmar so there was no way around it. Still, we're safely over the border now so now I can post.

We flew into Hanoi from Vientiane. The Lao capital was sleepy to say the least. They had also decided to dig up every road in the central area, so it was quite noisy and looked like a bomb site. Still, the food was really good - a legacy from the French colonial era.

Hanoi was a stark contrast. The roads in the Old Quarter are so busy with bikes that it's hard to cross the road. Many more people, and a moto on every corner whistling for your fare. We also became instant millionaires at the bureau-de-change. We saw a water puppet show, the puppets were beautiful, maybe not for an hour though - get an aisle seat if you ever go.

We caught the sleeper train to Sapa, a French hill station in the north-west near the Chinese border. The hills were absolutlely pristine and it was nice to flee the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. We had a lovely 2 days walking in the hills spotting buffalo.

Halong Bay was the next stop. We did a two day tour on a Chinese junk boat. This was the most touristy place we had been and we saw a few friends from home - see the next post Ems. We had a night at the Costa del CatBa island resort, which was so awful we resorted to the Visa card. Lovely views of the bay, though we got monsooned on (again!) while out in a kayak.

Elephants

Ok, next stop Luang Prabang where we went to an elephant camp for two days. We got to ride on their necks and give them their morning bath. It was amazing - I loved every minute of it and was really sad to say goodbye to my elephant at the end! Els got a girl called Meredith and I got Tusky John. Here they are:

Laost

Hi everyone, we're in Luang Prabang in northern Laos now after a couple of days' adventure in Chiang Mai - elephant riding and bamboo rafting. We got a (very) Slow Boat across the border, which took 3 days in all. The boat was uncomfortable, but the Mekong River is really beautiful and the time went quite quickly.

Chiang Mai was great, expecially the food after Myanmar. We also had special special Thai massages and were bruised for days. The surrounding countryside is also amazing and we did a trek to see the waterfalls - really hot though.

More later Jx

Lake Inle

Next stop Lake Inle a mere 12 hours on a LOCAL!!! bus. This meant no reclining seat and (shock-horror) no air conditioning - Els' death bus of doom. It seemed cramped to begin with and then they put 15 stools in the central aisle and promptly filled them with passengers. Good job we booked! The lake itself is beautiful, it is so serene for Myanmar in the middle of the monsoon season. It rained for an hour or so every day and was also really sunny at times.

We took a motor-canoe trip around the major sights of the lake for a day.

The two above are of the fishing village - loads of houses on stilts above the water. Els is really proud of these photos because of the reflection (don't know why she thinks she took them, but she seems to believe it). All the kids would lean out of the windows to shout at us as we went passed. It is the low season in a country that doesn't see many tourists - there were only 6 of us around the lake.

The next day we hired bikes and went for a cycle around the shore. We were aiming for the hot springs. When we arrived soaked in sweat they were closed for the low season. So we went a bit further to the 4 star hotel for lunch and hiked up to see a pagoda at the top of those stairs Els is in the photo - long way up!

Ellie is expecting to win a wonderful Art Prize for this photo - another one of mine acutally, but she denies this. I am happy to concede it though.

The bus back to Yangon from Inle was even worse than those before. We stopped for a while on the mountain roads because of rain and arrived 20 hours later. The taxi drivers then had a fist fight over who was going to get our hugely overinflated foreigner fare to the airport, so we snuck away with the quiet driver in the corner.

Now in Bangkok, Vietnam visa sorted, washing done, Ellie given ok by doctor, train booked for Chiang Mai tonight.

Love to all at home, Jamie xx