Never take Ha Noi pho granted!

Hello from Ha Noi, Viet Nam! (This is post 2 of 2, so proceed downwards firstly if you have not read it already!)

Much has happened since that last lofty post in Luang Prabang. We had a wonderful time in Laos and it came to an end much too quickly as before we knew it, indeed, it was time to leave. After the wonderful and enlightening elephant experience, we decided to make our way by slowboat up the Nam Ou (the river Ou) to the small valley village of Nong Khiaw. For those of you savvy in boating and acquatics, you would not be surprised to learn that boats travelling upstream (as we were) during the dry season (as we were) are often subject to impossibly low water levels and as such, a boat's only chance on continuing to move onwards is if it is pushed. We were sharing the small boat with eight other travellers and when the driver cut the motor and stepped out of the boat, we realized it was in everyone's best interest to also exit the boat and help him push. A sight to be seen, surely, as the eleven of us hiked up our pants and jumped into the river...

All delays aside, the boat ride was beautiful and though it ran a bit longer than predicted (however, not unexpectedly) we enjoyed savouring the huge limestone cliffs and hills that form Northern Laos. Nong Khiaw was a magical place, nessleted in a large valley with one dominating bridge connecting the community. Our first night there, we (not unhappily) discovered that the power only ran from 6 p.m until 10 p.m and by "ran" I mean came and went as it pleased. Unfortunately, our second day there I succombed to some rather painful food poisoining at the hands of some bad Laap (delicious Lao meat salad, even the bad stuff was delicious so how was I to know!) but within the day I was recovered and happily spending the day away from the toilet once again. Ironically, it was St. Patrick's Day which I spent close to the toilet yet I had not had a drop to drink...luck of the Irish indeed!

After three days in Nong Khiaw, we continued northwards on the Nam Ou by boat to the village of Muang Noi Neua. MNN was an even smaller community without vehicles of anykind (save the bicycle, of course) and limited electrical services as well. Our stay here was much more active than our previous location - one day we rented a small paddle boat and took in a good deal of swimming, and the other day we did a good three hour trek to some stunning caves inland. Jay has undertaken "The Lord of the Rings" reading and I am re-reading my all time favourite book "A Suitable Boy" so much of our time in these places was devoted to reading with the sun on our faces and with beer lao in our bellies.

In sports news, the Best of 7/Best of 7/Best of 7 BRISK tournament came to a thrilling and close end and while I applaud Jay's comeback efforts, I took the final game 7 to ensure my overall wins. Bravo to both parties involved.

After another three days in MNN, it was time to move onwards to Viet Nam. We decided to take a boat rather than a bus to the newly opened border five hours north from MNN but as this is not a populos route, we found ourselves alone on a longtail boat with the driver, his wife and an incredibly large catfish who joined us on a village stopby. (Happily, he survived).
Upon arrival to the town of Muang Khua - our last stop in Laos - we found a seemingly clean guesthouse to spend the night before we were to travel onwards early the next morning. Perhaps some of you have caught on at this point, but if you don't have electricity...you don't have ATMs. And if you don't have American currency, well sir, you are shit. out. of. luck. We had exchanged our American currency and of course no one was interested in anything else, so we had limited funds to get to Viet Nam. We were unsure of any unforeseen costs at the border and did not exactly know how much the whole trip to Viet Nam (boat and bus) was going to cost us. Suffice to say, our dinner was skimpy that night and we didn't even indulge in breafkast the next morning. Budgeting at it's finest!

We met a Thai man that night in town who overheard us stumbling through Lao to figure out how exactly to get to the border crossing. His English was superb, and he told us he too was going with his family (two grandchildren and a collegue) to the border the next day. He was renting a bus for himself, and as there were two extra seats, he offered us them to us. As we spoke with him and his wife, I found myself feeling oddly familiar with them. I then realized they were the bizarro Thai version of my very own grandparents, Mare and Frank!!!!! This delighted Jay and I endlessly during our time with who we came to call our "Thai family".

We travelled with them for three hours to the Viet Nam border. After a delicious noodle soup breakfast with the family - whom initially referred to as Thai Frank (TF), Thai Mare (TM), Thai John (TJ, we assumed he was their son), Thai Rory, aged 13, (TR) and Thai Maeve, aged 8 (TM2). Eventually we learned that TF was "JP" and TM was Renu, and they were both retired Professors in Food Science from the University of Chiang Mai. Their English was so spectacular because they had done their PH.Ds in Redding, England.

As a group, we made the impulse decision to carry on from the border to Ha Noi. All of us originally planned to spend the night in the border town but we were all tight on time and an offer of $10 per person in a spacious private van was too good to pass up. The journey would take ten hours on yet another bumpy, unpaved road. We stopped for dinner along the way and felt so part of the family as we all ate and shared signature Vietnemese dishes. We spoke at great length with JP and Renu though I forgot to mention their likeness to my own grandparents. What seemed like hours of bumpy road, sore bladders and neck pillows later...we arrived bleery eyed into Ha Noi at 5 A.m in the morning, rounding our travel day up to 22 full hours. We crashed at a hotel, barely away of the chaotic city that surrounded us...

And so here we are. Ha Noi is a beautiful city and we are thourougly enjoying our return to metropolitan life. The pho is good, the fresh rolls are good, the baguettes are good...life is great. We spent a good part of the day today taking in shopping and riding around town in a Cyclo (a sort of rickshaw-bicycle deal.) Tomorrow we are going to visit Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum - luckily he isn't visiting Lenin for his annual brush-up in Russia - and we will be continuing to take in the city until next week. We are glad to be staying here but also don't have much of a choice because we are awaiting our Indian visas! Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!! Ahem.

Phew. That took a bit out of me. I think we will go get some Pho and relax before taking in a Jazz show tonight in the Old Quarter.

Much love from Viet Nam
Maeve/Jay