Hanoi to Vientienne

Sorry its been so long since I've posted, things have been busy.

Carla and I when we first arrived in Hanoi after a disapointing tour of the DMZ and an overnight bus to the city, we thought to ourselves, let's get out of here! But alas, after some strange birthday celebrations, and a gorgeous trip to Halong Bay, we ended up postponig our bus to Laos multiple times and loving the capital city after all.

So, as for my bday, the day started out well. Carla went out to get me bfast in bed. the hotel bought me roses, and our brit friends Amy and Adam managed to find an english bday card, impressive.

The first part of my present from Carla, she arranged thru the hotel staff for me to get a massage. We ended up at a shaddy looking hotel, with no sign above the door. Lets just say I was a bit nervous. They tried to triple the price (vs. what the sign said), but we weren't having that. Ripping off tourists is the name of the game in this town. Anyhow, after sussing out the place, it looked clean and the massesuse was a sweet looking girl. Small enough that I could roll her if things got rough. Although when I sugested I put on my shorts, as there was a window in the door of the room, she tried to get me in the shower, with her I think. Since that wasn't happening, I just put on the shorts and showed myself to the massage table.

Turned out to be very nice and relaxing. Strong hands on that pint-sized girl. Just what I needed after a stressful week, month and year. So Carla was suposed to meet me back at the massage place. She had to grab a taxi to the Hospital to get her seccond of 6 rabies shots. Oh did I metion she was bit by a monkey a few days ago. In her defense he was really cute. We couldn't help playing with him, and buying him some bananas. Well turns out the greedy f****r was a bit insecure and thought she was stealing his meal when she turned her head. And was left with a mini bite to the shoulder. So far she has shown no signs of foaming at the mouth or lucidity, so i think she'll make it.

Ok, so back to my story: It took her a half hour and about 10$ in cabs (that's alot!) to get to a proper hospital and not a nail salon. There's a bit of a language barrier here as you may be picking up on. So she was gonna be late to meet me. When I tried to leave the salon after sitting there for a half hour waiting, they insisted I stay, following me to the door and outside repeatedly. very strange. when I finally insisted and brushed them off, the lovely receptionist took it upon herself to do her job and let me know that my friend said she'd meet me at the hotel. what a sweetie.

So all this put us a bit behind schedule, still went to the hair salon and had pedicures and got our hair washed and blow dried straight. so fabulous. They took an hour, literally to soap up and rinse and condition and massage repeatedly. Even washed my face and massaged it. And cleaned our ears. love it. Haven't felt this clean in months. Sure beats washing a two in one out of my tangles in a bucket shower. It took two of them to brush out my knots and straighten my hair. Pretty amusing, but the end result was perfect.

So all this pampering put us a bit more behind schedule, we met Adam &Amy at the Funky Monkey with a crowd for yummy cocktails and drinking games. Carla and I ditched the crowd and tried to go meet Owen Glossip at Baracudas. He's living here with his girlfriend. And we ran into him on the steet a couple days a go. Well turns out the moto driver didn't feel like taking us there and it turned into a huge ridiculous mission. ridiculous! We ended up at a new club called Solace which is a big boat on the river with a couple cute brothers from Montreal (or Sherbrooke rather) that we recruited along the way. It took us a while to figure out if they were just drunk or just on the slow side. I think slow was the verdict. After yawning off the bordom I took to the dancefloor and shook that ass with a Vietnames entourage of Usher wannabees. so fun.

We then proceeded to Halong Bay on a two day one night adventure sleeping on a gorgeous boat. It was perfect we ended up just the four of us, with another four young guys and an even younger crew. We got drunk on rice wine and tequilla, and sang kareokee. Halong Bay is gorgeous, and although we were not so eager to explore it through our hang-overs on day two, the first day was perfect.

We then hoped a bus to Vientiene, the capital of Laos and arrived yesterday. We paid extra to be on the 16 hour aircon bus, well, as usual, we got scammed. After being shuffled around for a couple of hours: SUV, moto, and minibus, they finally arrived at a shaddy bus station and crammed us on the back of a full local bus. It took 24 hours, with two spent at the most unorganised border. Carla's seat broke right off as we were trying to re-arrange the boxes piled in the seat next to us so they would not tople over in the night. Luckily I happened to be very tired and slept for about 20 out of the 24 hours, except when I had to hop the bag that filled the aisle (ours got trampled, and muddy), to go for a pee in the middle of the night at a dark gas station. I have to say am not yet used to the "pee room" concept, which consists of a concrete room filled with puddles, where women pee comunally and you try to avoid splashing your own and an inumerable number of other womens urine all over your feet. yuck! Atleast give me a door and some privacy!

Anyhow, so we arrived in Vientiene in the highest of spirits, and in need of somewhere to sleep and shower. Well, turns out we arrived just in time for the first of three days celebrating the New Year, where the streets are filled with people hurling buckets of water on innocent passers-by. So we wandered around soaking wet to find many guest houses and restaurants closed.

Anyhow, after a good nights sleep, and a good meal, we are waiting till the rain stops and we can venture north to Vang Vienne. Sounds like a gorgeous town.

Until next time, R