Hue, Vietnam

A very quick and easy border crossing into Vietnam as we headed East towards Hue. Immediately noticeable is the amount of traffic on the roads. Scooters everywhere- it really is a walk in front of them place as there is never a break in the traffic. I was shocked to see 7 lanes of scooters going in both directions on a single lane road!.

Some of us went off for the day in a square shaped dragon boat along the Perfume River which was pretty good as we very slowly cruised past the boat 'villages', and dredgers. We stopped off to see some Kung Fu. Our guide couldn't tell us often enough how Vietnam beat China in wars 2000 years ago! We then headed to see a pagoda and then to the tomb of Emperor Minh Mang. The tomb complex was huge- lots of temples, lakes and statues of the emperor guards (people, horses and elephants). The complex was built in 1870 and has been well kept and restored. The tomb which initially had an unknown location, due to the number of Mang's enemies who wanted to destroy his body, is now completely out of view behind a huge stone walled area. A great day out, despite the heat.

Pete has also returned having left the truck in Kathmandu and flown to us via Bangkok. Great to have him back and we had a fantastic night celebrating his return which included a round of the Odyssey Blue cocktails and writing the Odyssey 2010 limerick on the ceiling (I'm hoping someone made a note of what it said!).

Today I spent the morning in the citadel which features palaces where the emporer lived. Building only started in 1805 and it's amazing to think that only 200 years ago people were living there. The citadel is still moated and there is so much funding going towards restoration as, after years of neglect and some war time bombing, the site is in need of a little work which is taking place at the moment. Great morning out and not too strenuous.

Next to Hoi An!

Phu Hin Bun National Park, Laos

From Vientiene we drove as far as we could into Phu Hin Bun National Park and then we got a longboat to our accomodation. The boats seat 3 and arn't very comfy especially when you are on edge as all your luggage lies inches above the water line and the driver is bailing water out the back! Great way to see local life and lots of water buffalo taking a bath. We were staying in some very basic bamboo huts which was an experience. With about 5 km to the nearest village and just one restaurant on site it was a great way to spend time as a group and just relaxing.

The main reason for coming to the National Park is to see the Konglor caves. The caves were pitch black and enormous inside (well what we could see with the head torches of the driver and guide). We stopped to get off and have a look at some pretty cool stalagmites and stalactites. A great experience and it was nice that we were the only tourists there. Hopefully the caves will never turn into a huge tourist trap with spot lights everywhere like many of the European caves.

After 2 nights in the national park we headed to Savannakhat for a night. Nice town but it was very much a stop over for the border run the next day. We saw Thailand from across the Mekong- a complete contrast to the lesser developed Laos side!

Vientiane, Laos

With 2 days in the capital of Laos, Vientiane I wasn't too impressed when I saw the city- promenade in the making and generally a pile of mixed matched buildings. I've had a great time though. Some of us hired bikes (shoppers with baskets- Lesley wasn't impressed!) to cycle the 50km plus to the Budda park which was like a garden centre of stone Buddas. Pretty cool really especially the huge reclining Budda. We all enjoyed a game or 2 of ten pin bowling in the evening and I found out that my life long bowling technique wasn't the norm, much to everyone's amusement. I subsequently lost- a lot!

Today it's been so hot, so I had a potter round the city and saw the equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe built and unfinished in 1962. Hideous- even the plaque described it as a 'monster of concrete'! Afternoon was spent cooling off around the very nice outdoor swimming pool in the city.

Tomorrow we are back to basics as we head to the National Parks.

Vang Vieng, Laos

A long hard day on a very windy road and we rolled into the backpacker's mecca of Vang Vieng. Bars, restaurants and lots of western tourists. There isn't a whole lot to the town but some how people manage to stay for days, sitting in bars which show Friends and Family Guy on tv's. Thankfully we were only here for the one day so some of us booked into the 'must do' thing which is tubing. The basic principle is that you float down the river in a tube for a couple of miles stopping at various river side bars and drinking a lot of Laos whisky. It was great fun as after 24 hours of solid rain the river was very fast, but not the safest of activities to participate in. Nearly 5 hours later we all made it back to shore. I managed to pick up a few cuts and bruises along the way from trees but at least I didn't float all the way down the river to Cambodia!

In Vientiene, the capital now, so hopefully a couple of good days to come.

Luang Prabang, Laos

We got to Luang Prabang on a 6 hour boat trip down the Nam Ou/ Mekong which was really good as we passed little villages, water buffalo on the banks and lots of people fishing. We stopped at the Tham Ting caves which were a big tourist attraction and a disappointment. The religious caves can't be walked around and all you see are a collection of small budda statues. On the up side, climbing all the steps did stretch the legs after sitting for the morning on the tiny boat.

Luang Prabang is a backpacker town where you can do all the usual sporty activities but it also has lots of fancy restaurants and temples to potter around plus we are back in the land of bakeries and coffee shops (you know where I’ll be!). Here for 2 nights I’m going to spend a day pottering and tomorrow morning I’ve booked on a half hour elephant trek and a swim in a waterfall which should be good. Till then I’ll be dodging the rain!

The elephants were amazing! We had a 30 minute walk in a circular route on the back of one and then we got in a pool to wash them and then feed them. In think everyone had a great morning which was finished off with a swim in a waterfall.

Nong Kiew, Laos

Nong Kiew was a little village with not much in it but a great place to chill out. We were staying in little bungalows of the banks of the Nam Ou which was pretty cool minus the ants in the bathroom and kittens in the roof (at least there were no rats, one of which had become resident in Neill and Kylies room and enjoyed chewing through all their stuff!).

Some of us had a wander to the Patok cave which is cut into a huge limestone mountain. 300 people lived in the cave for 25 years during the Vietnam war and were only found out about and bombed when the Americans saw smoke emerging from the cave. The afternoon was just what I needed- time sleeping in a hammock! In the evening we discovered what a Lao “BBQ” is- hot pot! Not quite what we expected but a really enjoyable meal as we ate in a families restaurant/living room as they ran out on a scooter to buy more ingredients from the shop. I don't think they'd ever had so many people for tea!

Luang Nam Tha, Laos

We headed on a public bus across the border into Laos. A pretty straight forward day despite the border and the bus wasn't half as bad as I thought it was going to be. I'm really surprised that they got all our bags on the roof rack (and that stayed on!) and pretty shocked at the amount of fruit and veg that the locals were taking across the border- the bus was packed! We all arrived in Luang Nam Tha relieved to be in one piece and out of China.

Luang Nam Tha is a really relaxed village stretched down a single main road. It's full of guest houses, restaurants, and tour booking offices and with all that Western backpackers which was really nice to see. Its hot hot hot but there's great food and fruit shakes and plenty to do. Some of us hired bikes for the day and cycled through great scenery and little villages. We were headed towards a waterfall but missed the sign post so it was a 20km detour but nice all the same. A great day but exhausting in the heat and then on the way back we were drenched in a down pour so It was time to call it a day.

There is something for everyone here- cooking courses, trekking and kayaking. I went on a day of kayaking down the Nam Tha. It was great fun and not too strenuous as we went through small rapids. The guide was in the back of my kayak so we did some upstream rescues aswell when some of the kayaks tipped over and people got stuck in trees! Lunch was provided, local style as we ate using banana leaves as plates. The company we used is promoting eco tourism so we visited 2 villages that they support. It was a really interesting insight to Lao life as we walked through the stilted houses with the animals walking around and went inside one of the houses. The locals spoke a different language and the interestingly, the women after they marry shave their eye brows and wear their hair in a bun to indicate that they are not available.

Luang Nam Tha has been a great break from the chaos of China and everyone is loving Laos so far. Unfortunately Pete is still stuck in Lhasa and now all the government offices which he is waiting to reissue his permits have closed due to a Yoghurt festival (!). Looks like he won't be able to join us for at least another 2 weeks now.

Kunming and Jinghong, China

With the loss of the truck we booked ourselves on a 19 hour sleeper train to Kunming. 66 people to a carriage and 6 to a cubicle and 3 tiered bunks and many a pot noodle and chicken foot hanging around, it certainly was an experience! Despite the bunks most definitely been made for the tiny Chinese is was a surprisingly comfy nights sleep as we headed towards Yunnan province and the city of Kunming.

Kunming was just a bog standard Chinese city where the local guide listed the attraction as a massive Walmart! It was only when we went out for dinner in the evening that I discovered the huge shopping centre that I missed whilst on my afternoon wander.

We headed to Jinghong on an intercity coach with very comfy wide seats. The scenery gradually changed getting more tropical looking and monsoon showers as we headed south. Jinghong was a great city where we ate on the banks of the Mekong river, had an unsuccessful attempt at finding a night club. It was also the home of pineapple rice (mashed pineapple with rice served in a pineapple)- yum, and a dish which was literally a plate of frozen sugar snap peas which was very random!

Chengdu, China

We arrived for a couple of days in Chengdu. Originally not on the route but everyone was excited to be in a proper Chinese city and the Sichuan province is also home to the panda, which we went to visit in the breeding centre.

The centre was home to about 100 pandas of which we saw about 10 Giant and 5 Red. Seeing a Giant panda was amazing. They were just sitting around letting us watch them and the 2 week old baby was adorable. They were also suprisingly not that Giant! We also did a lot of walking around this humid and smoggy city, visiting the People's park watching the locals dancing and Tianfu Square. Also visited (much to some peoples delight) was the Mc Donalds- 3 times!

Today, some of us are visiting a temple and we are getting a sleeper train to Kumming this afternoon.

'Making a plan', China

Pete informed us in Linzhi that a bridge had washed away and it would take so long to fix that we would have to turn back to Lhasa. We got permission to drive the faster road (we only had permits for the more scenic mountain road) meaning it would only be a long day's drive back rather than an entire week. We then changed the plans to extend the Tibet permit, which was due to run out, and then drive to Nepal and spend some time in Kathmandu, then fly to Bangkok and get hire transport around South East Asia. If we were to completely back track through China, it would take about 2 weeks, so that wasn't an option.

Unfortunately we later found out that the Tibet permits that we needed would take 10 days to renew, so a new plan was made for us to fly from Lhasa to Chengdu. Completely cheating in the overland world, but it was the most sensible idea as we all couldn't spend another 10 days in Lhasa.

So, with airline baggage limit looming, I've thrown away as much as I can and repacked and repacked again, getting a lot of flash backs from April, and we all said 'good bye' to Calypso. Pete is staying in Lhasa to wait for the renewed permits and then driving to Kathmandu with the hope of finding someone to drive it back to the UK. He will join us in 2 weeks time somewhere in Laos.