Hayden's Adventures in South East Asia!

Hanoi is an interesting city, When I first arrived in the city it was night time because my flight so delayed so i didnt get the best first impression. After I woke up the next morning and decided to walk around I thought a lot better of it. The main thing i think i like about it was that there was trees everywhere. They had lots of really nice trees lining all the streets so the air was still nice even with all of the motorbikes riding around. And there were a lot of them. I thought that all of the other cities that i had been to had lots of biked bus Hanoi set the bar to a new level. There were what seemed millions of them on the streets all the time. And they are the main reason the driving style was different than everywhere else. First of all there are literally no road rules at all. None. Even though there are traffic lights that most people actually obey you apparently dont have to if you dont like to. The other main things that is different is that the horn has a different m...

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Me and 3 other people that were staying in my room at the guest house decided that we were going to go to the Buddha Park that was about 30 min outside of town. Rather than taking a taxi or a tuk-tuk which would have been very expensive we decided to take the public bus! This was the first public bus that I took in Asia and I was expecting a long ride squished between old people with a baby on my lap and a chicken on my head. Thankfully when we got to the bus station we found out that it was just an old bus where they tried to fit as many people as possible on it. So not actually too bad. The ride costs 6000 kip which you just hand to the driver whenever you feel like getting off. I never actually saw any bus stops other than the bus station. It seemed as if when you wanted the bus you just went and stood at the side of the road and waited until one came. The driver would just stop at random points and pick up more people, and when you wanted to get off you just yelled or hit the side...

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Like I said in my last post I got to Vientiane super early. A very nice city in the morning, Most of it is right along the sea wall (river wall i guess you could call it there) and everyone including their grandparents and pets were out exercising. People were walking, jogging, running, skipping, biking, skateboarding, standing, swinging their arms, every possible form of physical movement. It was pretty cool to see and there are definitely some other countries in the world who should take up their idealism. After walking along the park by the wall I decided to try and check in somewhere and have a nap since i had such a bad sleep that morning. I went to probably about 10 or 15 hostels and every single one of them was full and I had to come back at checkout and see. So after wandering around for an hour or so with my backpack i decided i would just find some breakfast and wait to see if anyone checked out. I thought it was a good plan until I realized that no places were even open ...

This one is going to be super short and sweet because it wasn't very eventful at all. After parting with some friends who left to Cambodia I decided that i wanted to head back north and go see the east part of Laos. My first stop would be Phon Savan to see the plain of jars. I booked a mini bus from Vang Vieng and it took about 8 hours or something to get there. Once there I walked around looking for a good place to stay. All the places I found were ok and super expensive or dirty and super expensive. I ended up finding an ok place for 60 thousand and mostly choose it because it had wifi and i discovered that there was nothing else to do there so I spend the night browsing the internet. That night booked a tour to go see the Plain of Jars the next day. Ended up getting another one of those "dont tell the others what you paid cause they paid more" deals so i only paid 140000 instead of 160000 kip. Next day I woke up early and packed all my stuff and went to wait in fro...

After not really over paying for a bus ticket and a tuk-tuk ride to the bus station I got on the bus that I thought looked most like it was going to Vientiane. This would be my first overnight bus I've taken and when i got inside and looked at the seats I wasn't impressed. It wasnt dirty or anything it just wasnt built for western size people. the seats were super close together and i pretended i didnt know that i had a seat number and picked a spot by the window. Not like anyone else was paying attention to the seat numbers though either. Eventually the bus filled up with a bunch of local people and we were on our way. About 30 seconds outside of the bus station it came to a hault and a man came in the front door. He looked around for a second and then walked over to a girl who was in her 20's and grabbed her arm and her bag and dragged her off the bus. Im hoping that they actually knew each other and that she will be ok because she didnt really seem to be putting up a fi...

One day we decided that we were going to go see the Phu Kham Cave and the Blue Lagoon because we had to stay one more night to catch a bus. So the tree of us rented bikes because it was only 7km outside of the city. We read online that there were many fake caves along the way and make sure you go to the correct one. It turns out that the road that goes to the cave is also used by all the villagers to walk their cows around and with a recent rain that made it pretty muddy. Riding the bikes on it was a challenge for a bit but it eventually dried out and turned into hills with big holes and large rocks. We stopped and talked to a man with a little restaurant along the way where we bought some water. He reminded us that we needed to make sure that we went to the right cave and gave us exact directions. Along the way we came across a couple little boys about 2 & 3 that ran towards us holding out their hands seemingly wanting high fives. We then found out that they try to pull us off ou...

Driving to Vang Vieng the first thing you notice is the amazing mountains they seem to come out of the middle of no where and shoot up straight into the sky. Vang Vieng is a small town which basically only exists because of the tubing. Everything there is super cheap, Paid 20000 kip ($2.57) for a room with a bathroom and free wifi. Super good for most Laos standards. Forget to take my camera with me tubing so there wont be any pictures. Walking around we noticed that every single restaurant (there is a lot) are constantly playing friends on tv's set up on the walls. i think that during the 3 days that i spent there i saw every single episode of friends just watching while i was eating meals. After being on the bus that day we decided to just chill out that night. The next day at about noon we decided to go get our tubes. There are only 2 places in town that are allowed to sell tubes. You have to pay to rent a tube and then a deposit the same price as as renting a tube ...

To whom it may concern, Please allow me to apologize for the lack of updates since November 12th 2011.  Due to the fact that I: met a bunch of cool people did a heaps of amazing things spend a whole lot of time chilling out saw many monuments travelled over a couple borders hang out with crazy amounts of people I was unable to update my blog to share with you the details of all of this. Again, I am sorry for my actions and I hope that we can put this matter behind us. I look forward to updating you soon. If you have any thoughts in this, please feel free to share. You may contact me at your convenience. Sincerely, Hayden Davey

After I got my visa sorted out and booked a flight which ended up choosing me $140 I was on my way to Vietnam. I got the the airport super early like it told me to on the ticket, something like 2 hours early only to find out that you couldn't check in until 45 min before the flight. So I had to wander around the ridiculously small airport to find something to eat. Quite a challenge when you have your huge backpack and everywhere is overpriced. I wandered around till I found a moderately priced Japanese food place where I had some pretty good udon soup. They didn't have a kitchen so not to sure how they cooked it. After checking in and getting through security I found a couple seats to lounge out on in front if the gate. I listened to the Steve Jobs audio book I downloaded the night before and eventually lost track of time. After a while someone came on the intercom and said that the flight was going to be delayed. About 2 hours later we boarded the plane! The plane that we ...

After the second day on the slow boat we arrived in Luang Prabang. The city is in Northern Laos and was once the former capital of the whole country. Now it is a "World Heritage City" and if you walked through the streets you would see why. Laos was colonised by the French and you can defiantly tell in Luang Prabang. The architecture of the city is very French inspired. In 1989 when Laos was reopened to tourism the colonial mansions were restored in to guest houses and hotels. Even with the buildings so nice the prices for the hostels were still pretty cheap. The place I stayed at was 25000 kip a night ($3) but some of the Villa's along the river were a lot more expensive. Tree under which we ate lunch one day Every night they closed down the main street from about 7-10 and had a very nice night market. People sold all sorts of arts and handicrafts. Lots of clothes as well. I bought some pants with the lowest crotch i have ever seen (thats how they...

We were having a chill day in Luang Prabang and walking around we decided that we were going to get a massage. It was a traditional Lao-Thai massage place and i ended up getting the "Traditional Massage". My friends got either the foot or the head and shoulder one. When we went up stairs there was this giant room with beds and curtains along all the windows. They gave us some Laos clothing to wear and we got changed and laid down on our beds. There was only 1 or two girls when we walked in the place and then by the time we were ready to start there was about 7 of them. I guess they just called them up and they came over from whatever they were doing in town, at least two just woke up from sleeping in the back room but you couldnt tell and they were ready to go. I still cant believe how strong these little Asian women were. Thai/Laos massage combine stretching with massage and pressure points.  At one point the lady had me on my front and she was standing on my hamstrings ...

I crossed over the from Thailand at the town of Huay Xai which is where I went and did the Gibbon Experience. From Huay Xai you can either get to Luang Prabang by bus or by slow boat. Obviously I didnt want to spend 12 hours on a bus so I decided to take the slow boat which takes 2 days and you spend a night in Pak Beng. The whole things costs $30. All the stuff that we read online said that the slow boat is supposed to be really uncomfortable and you should bring a pillow to sit on. Also that there was no food or water on the boat so you have to stock up. Once we got our ticket and climbed on the boat we thought that we may have gotten on the wrong one. It was really big and lot of space. The seats were old van seats so actually pretty comfy and some of them actually had tables in between them. There was even a little bar in the back that sold chips, sandwiches and beer. The boat is made for about 70 people and then they add seats to fit another 30. After that a group...

I was going to sign up for a tour in Chiang Mai called Flight of the Gibbon which is hugely advertised everywhere and supposedly the number one tourist attraction in Thailand. Im glad i didnt though. Just across the border for Laos I signed up for "The Gibbon Experience" and i dont regret it. The Gibbon Experience is an eco-tourism project in the forests of the Bokeo province in north-western Laos. It works on protecting the forests and the Gibbons that live within it from poachers, deforestation and other threats to their habitat. The 2 days 1 night program that I signed up for cost me 1.4 million kip ($178) which is probably outside my budget and defiantly the most money i have ever withdrawn from an ATM at one time. I had to do 2 transactions because they most they will give you at once is 1 million kip. From the office it is a 2 hour  drive through small towns and villages to a house in one where we got our harnesses. After that we walked for another 15 min ...

Huay Xai is the small town just on the other side of the Mekong from Thailand. Only 1 street of shops and 2 ports. Many homes along the water when you walk way to the right but we didnt head too far that direction. Like I said just a small tourist town where you catch your mode of transportation to the next place in Laos. All the shops sold pretty much exactly the same things. Snacks and sandwiches. Everywhere you went they were offering to sell you sandwiches for the slow boat or the bus the next day. And they all had pretty much the same 10 to choose from. We chose one that a couple owned just as you come up from the border crossing. They had about 6 different signs saying "We have sandwiches for slow boat" and "we have sandwiches for Gibbon experience". All sorts of other clever ones as well. Plus they were really nice and funny. Another thing all the shops sold was whiskey. They have lots of whiskey in Laos, special whiskey with snakes and scorpions inside the...

So far my idea on Thailand temples is that once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. Mostly they are all the same to me, lots of gold and jewels, blue, white, and red, mythical creatures. The White Temple though is unlike anything that I have ever seen. To me it looked like a giant snowflake. An all white main building intricately covered with little pieces of mirror. One of the main differences between the white temple and other ones is that the white one gives off a modern feel and the other ones you feel take you back in time. It was very very clean and no big walls around it. There is no entrance fee and you can see the whole place from the outside as there is no big walls surrounding it like other temples. Its nice cause then you can take in the whole thing at once from far away. its a little bit harder with the other temples because you are so close Around the temple was very well kept grass and a series of connected ponds with fish in them. A huge variety of fi...

I've decided that I'm done with Thailand for now. From the hostel we signed up for a mini van to take us to Chiang Kong, the border town for Laos, and see what we could get up to there. We lucked out on the van and got the seats right at the front so we got a whole bunch of leg room. So it was Nisha, Selena, & I and then the rest of the van was filled with 8 other guys from the UK and the driver. This was one of the best road travel trips I have had so far. The driver let one of the guys plug in his ipod so we were listening to more western tunes and we had the most random conversations the whole time. Along the way the first rest stop we went to was part of a cashew nut factory. I was really surprised how big the fruit was and how small the nut you got was. Inside there was a huge room with samples of all different flavours of cashew nuts and of course i tried them all and didnt buy anything. The next stop we made was at the white temple. More in the next blog post....