OWEN AROUND THE WORLD: Sin jow Vietnam

I've made it to Vietnam after some really grueling bus journeys!

From Luang Prabang in Laos the first stop was in Phonsavan, famous for the Plain of Jars, but also part of the Ho Chi Min trail supplying the Vietcong during the war. It was quite a strange place with houses full of old weapons and ammunition which really gave you a feel for the destruction caused by the war. Apparently the equivalent to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes was dropped in the area for 7 years on the trot, with Laos being the most heavily bombed country per inhabitant ever. There are some interesting stories such as families living under bamboo trees but most striking though is that people really seemed to have moved on from the war, people do not show any hard feelings. The Plain of Jars is exactly that, plains full of massive stone jars which date back thousands of years. The locals insist they were used by their ancestors to brew Lao Lao whiskey although the French archaeologists who studied them thought they were graves. They certainly create an intriguing landscape.

Possibly the most hardcore bus journey of my life was the one from Phonsaven to Xam Neua closer to Vietnam. Two buses were doing the trip, one which was literally packed to bursting point, and one with a little less cargo mixed in with the passengers. The little group I was with managed to find a place to sit at the back of the bus on some sort of platform above the motor and then the bus took off for 12 hours of hardcore bumping around all night long. You would almost be asleep when the bus would hit a major bump, living you in mid air for a few seconds before crashing back down fully awake. It was like a mild form of torture...

From Xam Neua you could head to Vieng Xai where the Lao government hid in huge caves during the war. The caves are really impressive, and really look like something out of a James Bond film. One of the caves was really huge and housed a small army of 3000 people! It is difficult to imagine what it would be like being there with bombs raining down outside but the inhabitants survived with some still part of the Lao government today. The landscapes in the area are beautiful, the looming rice harvest meaning the terraced fields were full of golden yellow colours.

We got a bit stuck in Vieng Xai when I tour guide suddenly remembered the last public bus had already left after telling us we would be able to make it no problem. Conveniently his friend turned up, trying to charge us a whopping 15 dollars (3 each) for what should cost 80 cents. Its the sort of typical situation you get in when traveling around here. A sum of money worth nothing back home is often the source of intense negotiation, and to get around the world on a tight budget I guess it has to be. In the end after trying to communicate with every truck driver in the village where no one spoke English, we managed to get a lift with a truck full of oranges! It was a bit mad for us, but probably even madder for the locals who saw all these tourists perched on the back of an orange truck racing through their village.

It was another hectic bus journey to get to Vietnam... It started in the cold at the Xam Neua bus stop where we got on a truck which took us to the border... It was the coldest 3 hour journey ever. From there it was another 10 hour journey to Thanh Hoa, followed by a 3 hour shuttle bus to Hanoi. The 10 hour journey was not terribly bumpy, but extremely full. There were 3 people on the two seats I was perched on, not to mention the drunk guy sat on top of my feet. I think most surprising was the physical contact, with other passengers quite happy to rest their arms on you, around your shoulders... Overall the people were very friendly, even the guy next to me who lost his leg in the war. The jungle landscape was again very impressive. We even had a quick stop on the way where the locals smoked some opium and drank some tea before getting back on board!

Vietnam so far is great. Hanoi is a really nice city, very European but quite crazy with about 1 million motorbikes dominating the streets. I was expecting the worse after hearing many stories about how aggressive people were selling things but so far it has seemed positively chilled out compared to India. I'm still with some Argentinian guys I met in Laos, and together with headed up to Sapa in the north where you can meet local tribal people. The landscapes were amazing despite the cloudy weather and the rice fields looking muddy instead of golden yellow after the harvest. The real issue though was tourists... There are just too many of them! It is a real shock going from a place where a only few tourists venture each day to a place with hundreds of tourists. I think it would be good to go back with more time and do a really long 5-7 day trek to get off the beaten track.

After Sapa, we headed to Halong Bay, one of the must see sites in Vietnam. It is impressive with big mountain like rock formations poking out of the water although again, it is a little bit overrun with tourists. The photo there shows you how many boats were on the sea. What was great though was the kayaking as you could head off behind the rocks towards completely deserted beaches. Very nice. Now I'm back in Hanoi, I plan to head south from here as I loop round through Vietnam and Cambodia back towards Thailand for my next flight...

The turquoise water falls in Laos

Banana tree

Paradise?

The living room decor at my guest house in Phonsavan

Plain of Jars

Partially harvested rice field in Laos

Food market

Our Plain of Jars tour guide turned English teacher

Slightly packed bus

This broken bus seat has to be the smallest one in the world. Not what you want for the 12 hour night journey! But better than the plastic stools some people had!