Cat Ba Island

Bridge:  When the boat eventually dropped us at Cat Ba, we were handed over to another guide who threw us onto a bus and we set off.  20 minutes later we arrived at the national park where we were dropped off and TOLD to go on a 2 hour trek - again - we had no choice.  We asked the guide if we could skip the trek and go straight to the hotel but he told us if we didn't want to go then we should sit under a tree and wait.  3.5 hours later, our bus returned to collect a very angry group of tourists.  It had been shuttling people to their hotels from the boats.  We were then dropped off at the shabbiest looking building in Cat Ba town.  Supposedly a 2 star hotel.  It was more like a dark and dingey brothel!

Again we had sticky rice and french fries for lunch - for the 3rd meal in a row.  An Tam hotel was 6 stories high with no elevator and we got stuck on the 5th floor in a room with NO windows and just the front door for ventilation which only opened up into a windowless cement corridor.  Mould and mildew clung to every square inch of our room making it difficult to breath.  The white bedding was now a pale green/grey and stained with who-knows-what and the bathroom had almost certainly never seen cleaning detergent or a mop.

The whole Cat Ba experience was horrible to say the least.  And to add to it, we happened to arrive on the day when the entire Hanoi population descended on Cat Ba for the school holidays crowding every beach and hotel on the island.

Halong Bay Day 1

Bridge:  We were collected in a minibus at 8am and the 180km journey to Halong Harbour took almost 4 hours.  We sat around the harbour ticket office for almost 1.5hrs while our guide made various calls trying to round up more people for the boat, although we already had our maximum 16 pax already.  We were supposed to board our boat at 11am but only boarded at 2pm - all 32 of us!  I must say that the boat seemed lovely.  A large restaurant and bar on the 2nd deck and a top deck with lounger chairs and cushions beneath the mast.  On the lower deck there were 3 cabins on either side and 1 on the either side at the back of the restaurant on the 2nd deck.  One of which we stayed in.

After a lunch of sticky rice and cold french fries we finally left the harbour at 3pm!  We made a very quick stop (40mins) at some lovely enormous caves set in the side of one of the massive lime karsts in the Gulf of Tonkin.  We spent the rest of the afternoon shuttling tourists to Cat ba Island when we were infact (according to the itinerary) supposed to be touring the bay, swimming and kayaking.  At 6pm we arrived at dirty floating fishing village where the guide told us it was time for kayaking.  Nice.  It was almost dark!!  He then said if we wanted to swim we had to wake up at 6am because the boat leaves at 7:15am.  We weren't impressed.

Dinner on the boat was sticky rice and cold chips again.  Drinks from the bar were out-of-the-question expensive but i needed to wash the starch down with something so I reluctantly settled for a $2.00 cup of tea.  We had anchored near the floating village along with every other boat in a 10 mile radius, we were kept awake till early hours of the morning with thumping Vietnamese karaoke from the boat tied up alongside ours.  And because the boats engines needed to run the sound system.  We also had our boat petrol fumes pouring through our windows!

Hanoi - Vietnams Northern Capital

Bridge:  Because we arrived late we weren't up to tracking down buses etc so we booked a hotel from the airport tourism desk.  Unfortunately Quint lost his cell phone - I think when we were getting out of the taxi.
The hotel room itself was nice but the fridge, geyser and safe all weren't working.  We were also promised a big buffet breakfast included in the room price, but that consisted of 3 slices of sandwich ham - that was going off - and 3 small triangles of bread.  Pacific Prince Hotel it was called.

We were woken by loud traffic and honking horns.  it seems that noone in Vietnam has a drivers license or ever took a road test!  In Vietnam, traffic is supposed to drive on the righthand side of the road, but everyone just drives where's most convenient for them.  Pedestrian crossings, stop streets and intersections mean nothing to these people - let alone "right of way!" and roundabouts.  The streets are dirty - running water fulled with the previous nights dinner leftovers flow along the pavements and hygiene is clearly non-existent.  We struggled to find street stalls and markets selling cheap local dishes and the restaurants that looked slightly decent had New York price tags attached to their meals - local or not.

We had been warned that countless tour companies offered tours to Sa Pa and Ha Long bay and that it was difficult to decipher which was good value.  So we took a chance and bought a 3-day, 2-night Halong Bay tour from the first "decent-looking" (p.s. wrong approach!) travel agency we came across.  They also had cheaper rooms on offer so we moved out of Pacific Prince to Espence Hotel and Tour Agency.

Back to Chiang Mai.

Quint:  The next day we were up early to ride when it was cool.  We only had 150kms to Chiang Mai and made good time to be there before noon.  The last bit of the ride was amazing, lovely meandering roads over rolling hills, I didn't want it to end.

We finally made it into the northern city and back to the bike shop where it had all began six days earlier.  It had been an amazing adventure and had we all had more time to kill, we would have done another bike tour right then and there.

That afternoon the four of us rented two scooters from the same shop.  We sped out to a nearby animal park / zoo which unfortunately was a bit disappointing.  After our own week of freedom and independence, it was sad to see thing such as beautiful hawk mountain eagles built to soar the skies - kept in cages with barely enough room to spread their wings.  From there we set off to a golf driving range to smack a few balls wish was good fun.  Before we left I abused my poor little scooter and did an impressive doughnut on the gravel in the car park - much to Bridge's horror and my friends cheers - boys will be boys!

The next day after a morning of catch ups and note swapping, we said our goodbyes.  Blake, an Aussie mate I'd made in the UK had been such a pleasure to travel with.  He was an amazing character full of life and energy, never wanting to waste a single second of any day.  We wished him well on his travels and hope that one day we will meet again.


Off to the airport we went, our flight was delayed by half an hour and again by 4 hours from Bangkok.


Our time in Thailand had come to an end and we were very sad as it had just been amazing.  Anyway its onto Vietnam from here - new adventures to find and new people to meet.


After a very rough take off from BKK due to heavy rain and lightening, we were finally onto the second leg of our journey - VIETNAM BABY!

On to Phayao - Finally!

Quint:  The next morning we were up at sparrows.  We wanted to get to Phayao early so we could chill out a bit and hopefully partake in some "extra mural activities."  200kms and we did it in about 3 hours, not bad.  The purple monster, was however, struggling a bit on the up hills but managed to keep up ok.

Phayao thankfully, was more then just a one horse town.  Set on the side of a large lake, it seemed to be quite a buzz.  After the previous nights budget arrangement, we decided a hotel would be a treat and managed to find quite a nice one for about $3.50 per night!!  NOW we were smiling!  Unfortunately after a short boat trip on the lake and a couple ice creams later, we realized the rain was about to come down hard.  So after a few thoughts we decidedd to cancel our evening drive around the lake and thought well, lets do what we best when it rains at home and watch a movie.

Enthusiastic about our idea, we set off to find a DVD rental store, hoping we could also rent the machine as well, as the hotel didn't have one.  After much frustrating sign language and playground talk we finally got the gist that there were DVD's for rent but no DVD players.  We were about to give up when we found out the owner of the shop also owned a Kareoke bar next door that had privvate studio rooms we could rent for about $1.00 and hour.  Problem solved.  We ended up watching a fantastic movie called "The Hurricane" with Denzel Washington in our private room with surround sound.

Much to our dismay and utter disbelief there were about 8 Asian men in the room next to us dancing and singing Karaoke with their shirts off and a couple crates of beers.  Looking through the glass walls at this bunch we couldn't work out why at 3pm on a Thursday afternoon they would be up to such a game, I mean, did they not have jobs?? - Or wives to go home to?  As queer as it most definitely was, within a further few weeks of travel in Asia, we began to realize that when we go to the pubs back home, men over here hit the Karaoke bars - no matter how many hairs they have on their chests!

Ghost Town of Thoeng

Bridge:  We had an incredible breakfast spread back at Viong Yonok next door with Jim and her husband Ian.  Eggs, bacon, sausies, tomatoes, you name it!  They really were a fantastic couple and really went out of their way to help us and make us feel welcome.  It started raining so we threw the black plastic bin liners over our day packs and strapped them to the bikes.  We spent the whole day riding through the mountains on winding roads and were trying to reach Phayao - on th elake, but at 5pm we still had 200km to go!  So we decided to ride into the next town, Thoeng, to find somewhere to stay.

Quint:  Arriving at Thoeng tired and sun burnt we were willing to crash anywhere for the  night.  However reality hit began to creep in as we realised what we had found ourselves was a shanty town then anything else.  Driving around for another half an hour confirmed our initial fears, there was nowhere to stay!  After giving up we decided to pull over on the street and gorge ourselves on some street food chicken kebabs.  It so happened that where we stopped a lady on the street offered us to stay at her 'guesthouse'!  Before we knew it we were following her on her scooter and finally arrived what surprisingly resembled a place to stay.  Cheap but cheerful and relatively clean we decided we didn't have another option. 

That evening before we turned in we found ourselves an empty snooker club to entertain us for a while.  Although the club had a back room full of mafia-looking men taking part in illegal gambling, we seemed to be left alone and in all we had quite a good evening! 

The Golden Triangle

Bridge:  After an uneventful night and a late wake up, we headed for the Golden Triangle.  The distance was only about 60km but for some reason it took us hours.  Our first stop was the famous “Hall of Opium” which was an impressive building but too expensive to get in so we opted for the smaller Opium Museum instead.  The views of the Golden Triangle were impressive from up here.  You don’t often get the chance to lay your eyes on 3 countries all in the same view all at once.  Thailand meets Burma and Laos in one corner of the Mekong River.

After lunch we decided to ride a few kilometres further to Chiang Saen Lake.  We passed dozens of dams and after hours of driving around in circles, we found the right one.  The boys immediately wanted to jump in for a swim, so we spotted a jetty and headed for it.  The jetty was part of a water-bird conservation area but they let us swim anyway.

We check into a motel-looking place across from the lake but found that their cook had gone on leave.  We had spotted a more expensive boutique place next door and went over to see if we could use their restaurant.  We were greeted by a very cheery Thai lady who spoke excellent English.  Their place was lovely.  7 boutique en-suite chalets, a spa, sauna, gym swimming pool and lovely open-aired restaurant-come-entertainment area.  We kindly explained that we could not afford their accommodation and she was happy enough to let us stay for dinner.  We placed our orders with her elderly mother in the kitchen and then spent the next hour swimming in their fancy pool and knocking back the beers – well the boys did anyway.

After dinner (hands down the BEST homemade cabonara I’ve ever tasted!!) we were joined by Jim (the Thai lady) and her English husband, Ian.  They’d been married over 25yreas but still only looked in their early 40’s.  Ian is an engineer/surveyor for some big oil and gas company.  He was currently based in Angola scoping out potential oil sites to place gas lines or oil rigs.  He had worked all over the world.  He had even worked for the company who eventually built the oil rig off the coast of Bazaruto, and during his time in Mozambique, he’d also spent a few days relaxing and exploring Paradise Island (Santa Carolina) – SMALL WORLD isn’t it!!

Long-Necked Women

Bridget:  Last night we found a little travel agent outside our guesthouse.  It was around 9:30pm when we discovered it and seeing that the lights were on and there were people inside the little hut, we decided to see what they had on offer in terms of activities in the surrounding area.  We were in for a little surprise:  Mr Puk Thip, the Tour Operator himself, along with about 10 of his mates were gathered around his desk gambling (which is banned in Thailand and considered a great crime!) and quite obviously enjoying one too many Chang Beers!  Business had obviously been slow for quite a few weeks but Mr Puk Thip was quick to sober up and offer to take us on a tour to the Long-Neck Village for just 2 litres of fuel for his scooter!

We met up with Mr Puk at 8am sharp and headed out to the Long-Neck village.  What and INCREDIBLE experience!

The tribe originally came from Burma but fled across the border during the war.  Their village consisted of a few bamboo thatched huts where they slept and ate and the rest was a little tourist alley of huts where the long-neck ladies sat and wove pure silk and cotton scarves, table cloths and other items of linen.

All the ladies were extremely friendly and welcoming despite having to pose for tourists cameras every few minutes of every day.

We arrived around 9am and were the first 4 tourists of the day, but by the time we left at around 10:30am, there were already 2 buses and 4 jeeps full of French and German tourists arriving.

We learnt that girls start wearing their first brass neck rings at the age of 5 and further rings are added every year after that until they are 21.

The lady explained that the reason for wearing the heavy brass rings around their necks and on their calves was because in the jungles in Burma, where their settlements used to be, tigers were their main predator and if they were ever attacked, the brass rings would help protect the tiger from suffocating them at the throat or biting into their main arteries in their legs.

The rings, over time crush the collar bones and shoulders downwards with their weight and therefore make their necks seem longer.  If younger women who are heavily pregnant are seen to have strong neck muscles, they are allowed to remove the rings until after they have given birth.  Elder women will never be able to remove their rings as the muscles in their necks would have weakened over the years and would simply snap and break if they removed them.

From there we drove along some lovely deserted roads along the mountain ridge that separated Burma and Thailand.  We found a viewpoint high up in the clouds where an army base was kept.  Trenches and cement bomb shelters lined the ridge, but we were allowed up to view Burma just across the fence and down into the valley.  We took lovely photos from up there.

In the late afternoon the road wound down the mountain to Thailands most northern city, Mae Sai.  We stayed in lovely little bungalows right on the Mekong River called Mae Sai Guesthouse.  Unfortunately on the other side of the river was Burma and its shanty border town where people are clearly very uneducated and seem to think the only way of disposing of garbage and sewerage is to dump it into the river.

Hit the Road!

Quint:  The next morning after breakfast, we dropped our rucksacks (and passports!!) off at the bike shop and roared out of town.

A black Kawasaki 650, a Honda 450 and our lovely purple Honda Phantom cruiser 200, yes you said it, we redefined the term “cool”!

Even though the Phantom didn’t do zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye, we had a lovely crafted machine, chromed to the nines with gears as long as a ballerinas legs and an engine that purred like a tiger!  And – I’m not finished – to top it all off, I even had the babe on the back!  I’ll say it again, just to remind you – super cool.

The first day was a lot for us.  I suppose we were on such a high we just kept driving!  When we finally checked our map and saw we had in one day almost done a 3^rd of our 7 day plan!

We stayed in a town called Tha Ton (otherwise known as ‘The Swiss Alpes of South East Asia), a lovely small town set in a valley on a meandering river by the name of “Kok”.  We finally booked into a nice deserted hotel on the river, and that afternoon found a boar driver to take us up the river to the Burmese border.  Unfortunately we weren’t shot at by soldiers on the Burma side, but we did get to swim in the river and float all the way back down to our hotel.

We had teamed up with another Aussie guy who Blake had met in Chiang Mai.  An interesting fellow to say the least.  He went by the name of Mark Green and his favourite thing to do was to twist his French ‘mo’ into curly points and write weird thoughts in this diary.  Apart from that he was good humour to have on the trip.