Monday -Feb 15 - On to Halong Bay

Up early at 5:30 ---- there are roosters in the city. It is about a 4 hour drive to Halong Bay and we are scheduled to eat lunch aboard the ship.We arrive on time to see about 40 boats reading to board their passengers for a day/night adventure on Halong Bay.

Sailing out to the myriad of islands which number in the thousands is a sight to remember. After lunch, we sail further into the bay and pick-up a set of 3 kayaks. We drop anchor and 6 of us venture out to explore the nearby islands and sail through a large cave. My paddling partner is Frances, an Aussie,whose significant other wanted to swim. As darkness falls, we return,clean-up and have cocktails.

The ship was neat with individual staterooms, small as they were, to accommodate two. Each room had individual bathroom facilities.The meals were great...reminded me of my cruise to New Zealand's Doubtful Sound in 2002 with my good friend, Russ Sanders. The Halong Bay ship had a small karaoke machine and we had a lot of fun singing before retiring to bed at 9:30AM....slept until 7 AM like a rock.

Sunday - Feb 14 - 1st Day of Tet New Year in Viet Nam

It's an early morning rise with the barking dogs and those darn roosters...cockle doodle-doooooooooo. Everyone was wishing that they had purchased a sling shot in Loaung Prabang. I head to the kitchen house to watch the preparation of sticky rice. A woman is husking the daily portion of their rice at 5:45 AM...and we think we have it hard.

Get dressed, pack our small overnight bag and head to main home to have breakfast...attached are pictures of grandma,grandpa and Ky as they cook our breakfast which included sticky rice, excellent egg omelet, rolls and tea.

After breakfast, we pack the van and head toward Viet Nam to assist them in celebrating Tet. It takes us about 2 hours to reach the Viet Namese checkpoint.

We are told by our guide, Tuo, that crossing the border into VN is normally a laborious process with multiple checking and rechecking of passports and visas. However, there is minimal staff on duty due to Tet and we all are processed with 1/2 hour. The weather has changed from the 90F to the mid-60s and it is very foggy as we enter VN.

We still have along way to go...about another 5 hour drive to our final destination for the day...Nihn Bihn located south of Hanoi and Halong Bay. We stop at the only place we can find for lunch, eat and arrive at Nihn Bihn. Businesses are closed, horns are honking, people are celebrating...we have dinner at the hotel and go to bed...it has been a long day driving but we have seen much. The hotel, picture attached, is a 2 * and quite nice. One thing...driving in Viet Nam is extremely dangerous...people do not follow the rules of the road...much more dangerous than driving in Thailand or Lao....goodnight...Tom

Saturday - Feb 13 - B52 boats + Sopyyuag Homestay

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We left Vientiane around 9 AM heading for the Viet Nam border. We will spend the night at a small village about 2 hours drive from the border. The drive to the village is a long one lasting about 7 hours. We travel southeast along the Mekong river for about 4 hours with Thailand to our west. We finally turn northeast following rte 8 towards the Viet Nam border. Along the way we stop for toilet breaks at happy rooms, lunch, pass a major hydroelectric power plant and finally arrive at our destination, Nam Theum bridge, Laos.

To get to the village, we take "B-52 Boats" which are boats made out of B-52 petro fuel tanks which were ejected from the planes during their Viet Nam war bombing runs....this is a successful recycling project...boat has no keel so you must be very still and avoid capsizing the B-52. The mountains you see in the picture were the home to the village we visited...the VN war and unexploded ordinance forced them to move to their current location about 20 miles west.

Our final destination is the village, Sopyuag. What a wonderful evening...the village is full of children who we entertain and they entertain us. Ben and Tuo play the guitar, we sing a few songs and the kids join in...what a great night.....After spending time with some village families we have dinner. Our guide, KY, cooked us a delicious meal which includes stuffed tomatoes and cabbage each stuffed with a mixture that included pork, lemon grass, pepper, sticky rice, and onions...delicious. Dessert and a shot of rice wine made an appropriate end to a wonderful day.

Attached are random pictures of our village home stay including embroidery items which we purchased

After dinner we walked to our home stay home which is a very nice cabin raised on 4x4 pilings. The bedroom is one large room...there are 3 of us...Simon/Elizabeth and me along with the host family. he floor mats are comfortable and we fall asleep shortly after 9:30 PM. The only problem is waking up in the middle of the night having to go to the squat toilet...it's dark, you can't find your shoes but you do have a flashlight...I can hit my target...

Friday, Feb 12 - Visit Buddha Park, BeerLao Brewery & Wat Si Saket

Well it's Friday and our 1st full day in Vientiane. Simon, Elizabeth, Jun and I are off to see "Buddha Park". The Park was built in the late 1950's as sort of a religious park that combined both Hinduism and Buddhism. The statutes are made out of concrete...so off we go in a tuk-tuk truck for a round trip cost of 50,000K or $6.


We were all surprised in what we saw. Look at the pictures...we believe that each set of statutes represent a story...unfortunately there were no local guides to hire you we made up our own fables....we stayed for about an hour plus examining the statues and amazed that somebodies could create suck a "Park".

Departing the Park we stop at the "BeerLao" brewery where we treated to a very cold bottle of beer and watched a video about the brewery. The beer is excellent an it has been my beer of choice while in Lao.

From the brewery we head for Wat Si Saket that was one of the few that was not destroyed by the Thai's when they invaded Lao in the 1800s. The name of the temple is "Pha That Laung" which was spared because it's design is Thai based. What an impressive architecture. Similar to Thai Wats but have cobras and nagas (dragons) incorporated in its design. A huge gold super stupa, beautiful temple ornaments and a hall full of pictures depicting the life of Buddha...100s of detailed pictures of Buddha's life...enjoy

After lunch, I found the "Big Brother Mouse" store which is a charitable organization designed to foster reading among the Laotian children. They also carry Laotian children story books in both Lao and English...bought a few for the grandchildren. Picture of one of the book's illustrator and me.


We will be leaving Vientiane tomorrow AM for the Viet Nam border. We will spend our last night in Lao at a small village at a village on the border. We can only bring a small bag since we must cross a river to reach the village which is located in a jungle are...will take mosquito net and repellent. From there we enter Viet Nam...until we meet again...Tom