After a long night train ride in more or less comfortable hard sleepers we arrived at 4am this morning in Hanoi. The city was absolutely dead and after some difficulty we managed to find a hotel room. The usual difficulties: "Hey you!! You need hotel? Cheap cheap, only 8 $ per night and free internet and breakfast and bicycles and everything...!!" Ok we go there, walk our lungs out, arrive and what do we get? "Oh solly, no cheap loom anymole, only loom fol 15$! Wanna see?" BASTARDI!!! But we managed and woke up a few hours later in another world. The sleepy city turned straight into a bustling nightmare of cars, bicyles, motorbikes, streetvendors and shops. But it's wonderful after the days up in the Sapa mountains and a shoppers paradise. We spent the day eating Vietnamese delicasses (frog, pigeon,...) at the Dinh Lang Thuy Da Restaurant overlooking the lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi and shopping for silk, DVDs,... Right now we are in a bustlig internet cafe surrounded by Vietnamese kids playing online internet games. You can't imagine the noise :-)

Sapa was nice, even though very touristy. We spent New Year's Eve in a restaurant celebrating with a bunch of drunk Vietnamese.



We danced with them to Modern Talking, drank Vietnamese wine (not the best in the world ;-) and had a great time! On the 1st and 2nd we did a trekking tour to some nearby mountain tribe villages of Mong and Red Zar people. The nature was beautiful, rice terraces as far as you can see surrounded by steep mountains.



And the people we stayed with were incredibly nice. We had dinner with a Mong family and played cards with their kids after. Good times. Only the tribes women started to get on our nerves trying to sell something on every house we passed on our tour.



Tomorrow we will continue our way to Halong Bay!

After some true hardcore travelling in Northern Laos and Northern Vietnam, we arrived just in time for the New Year in Sapa, a busy mountain town in Northern Vietnam close to the Chinese border! It's been a very exhausting but beautiful way to come to this place! We left Vang Vieng finally on the 27th and got on the busy local chicken bus. The corridor full of stuff from the people and hardly a space to sit but we did the 20 hours overnight trip and arrived in the early morning hours in Sam Neua. From there we caught just the next pick up (open air, juhuuu) to the border town Nameo, where we finally left Laos and entered Vietnam. There the adventure only just begun!! After an hour of running back and forth between some offices and signing 100 papers followed by luggage examination (if we carried weapons...), we went on foot to find out how we could go further from there! well, not that easy as it turned out. We crossed at a border with no money exchange and no public buses that would go on from there into Vietnam. So the only way was to hire a private car that brought us 3 for 30$ to a hill tribe town Mai Chao (an over 5 hours ride on windy roads, well worth its price!!), where we stayed overnight in a bamboo house and got served some nice food prepared by the local family. At least so we could celebrate Elodies birthday a bit :-)
Next morning we had to be brought on motorcycles to the 5km away cross roads where a bus would pick us up to go to SonLa. That was another 5 hours trip. We arrived in a dusty town where they wanted to make us believe there is no more bus to continue towards Sapa and that we'd have to stay overnight in one of the guys hotel! Yeah right. We didn't believe it and walked to the street to catch a hike. And see there, a bus to Dien Bien Phu passed and picked us up! After some wild discussions with the bus driver, we could pay the fare in US Dollars (we still had no local currency!) and continue! After some more wild discussions and Elodie drawing a women sitting on the toilet, the bus driver was convinced of the emergency and stopped the bus for a toilet break :-) Well, you need to be creative in this country!

Vietnam is an incredible change to Laos. Everything seems to be much faster and busier. People here are much less relaxed and time seems to matter again! Actually very much, considering our bus rallye this morning!! I felt like in a race car Nintendo game, only that I was in the screen and not in front!!
But we safely arrived and are ready for our well earned massage, sauna and a New Year Eve's celebration tonight, if we can find that here!!

Happy New Year to all of you and a good start off in 2005!!

There is no such concept as time here in Laos. I think the word doesn't even exist!! We were supposed to be in Northeast Laos near the Vietnam border today, but actually we are still in Vang Vieng. Well, after waiting for the bus from 3pm until about 4:30 pm yesterday afternoon a bus was approching very fast and despite the waiving of our ticket seller, just passed! We didn't know what was going on, but after a few hectic words with his friend he directed us to his pick up and there we took off, to the ' Chase the bus to Sam Neua' car rallye! It was quite adventurous! He paced down the road, constantly junking the horn, slmost killing all the bicycle drivers along the road and in the end stopping in the middle of the road and meant: " Nevel mind! Tomollow! Solly! "
All righty, we are ready for another try!

Merry Christmas to all of you out there and back home from Vang Vieng in Laos!

It's wonderful here and in fact I am very glad to spend it here, rather than in Southern Thailand at the moment! So for those of you worried: we are perfectly fine and felt nothing from this massive earthquake! Thanks god. It's truly a tragedy and I feel deeply with all the people that got caught in this catastrophe and are still struggling down there at the moment!
I passed a wonderful Christmas in Vientiane! Christmas Eve I spent with Karen and her friends in a French restaurant in Vientiane where we got served a delicious 7 course French dinner. What a delight after my upset stomach :-) Yesterday morning Elodie arrived safely in Vientiane and after picking her up at the airport and some airy tuk tuk rides (the local motorbike pick up taxis) the Christmas marathon continued at another of Karen's friends house, where we had a really chill relaxed Christmas day brunch right by the Mekong. Thanks again Karen!

Great times :-)
Today, we made our way out of Vientiane on the last two 'seats' in the VIP bus to Vang Vieng! Well, the seats where small plastic chairs they put up for us in the gangway between the regular bus seats ... but we arrived and had a great afternoon watching the sunset with a cool bear at a lame riverfront bamboo bar! Tonight we'll be checking out the full moon party! So merry Christmas again to all of you back home!! We'll be heading out east towards the Vietnam border tomorrow.

...is no fun! This is definitely not the country to get sick. The past 4 days were pretty tough. It cought me on my birthday (yuhuu, great timing ;-) and since then I am spending more time in the bathroom then elsewhere, but oh well, I guess that's the common risk you take when travelling here in these countries. Just that here noone understands you, you know!? 'I am sick, I need a doctor, hospital, do you know where?' Answer: "You want to go waterfall? Today ol tomollow? I have tuk tuk, only 4 Dollar, for you!!"
or
"Can I have the steamed rice with Chicken? But not spicy please I am sick!!" "yes yes..." what do I get? Chicken with Ginger and Chilli!! But I guess what doesn't kill you makes you only stronger!

Yeah, and after seen a clinic today, it definitely makes you appreciate our Western health standards back home! Wohoo. but i am settled with some pills, rehydration salts and diarrhea medication, which should bring me over the overnight busride tonight down to Vientiane. There I can stay with Karen in a real appartment (thanks so much, Karen!!) and hopefully cure it until Christmas! More tomorrow...