Hanoi, Vietnam and end of Laos

Fortunately we ended up feeling better for the Gibbon Experience, and it was awesome!! Everything we hoped it would be. Mike and I had a treehouse to ourselves with running drinking water, a shower, hammock, snacks...it was awesome. Oh, and no climbing up to it, you had to zipline in and out! Meals, although a bit bland, were served to our treehouse. They pretty much gave us a harness and let us roam free on the ziplines all day, except when the guides took us hiking. Our guide showed us all the plants in the jungle they eat/use for medicine too. We got up really early one morning after a crazy thunder storm and saw gibbons! There were at least 3 of them, two black males and one light brown female. All of the people we met on the gibbon exp were really awesome too, and we ended up hanging out with some of them after in Luang Prabang too.

Back in Luang Prabang, this time able to explore, we went to a nearby waterfall that was AMAZING. It was a multi-tiered waterfall with various swimming holes throughout and turquoise water. Mike was convinced it was fake, it was so beautiful. We also went to the night market and out with our Kiwi friends at night. Oh, at an internet cafe my camera was stolen, so that is very sad :(. I accidentally left it for 20 min there after uploading pics, and when I came back only my camera cord was left behind :(. Fortunately I had just finished backing all of my pics on my USB, so no pics lost. Thank god.

After Luang Prabang we took a slow boat up the Nam Ou river to Nohn Khiaw, a gorgeous little town nestled between huge limestone mountains, with the river running through the middle. It was so cool seeing the locals fishing, the kids swimming and the buffalo sitting in the water. The kids seemed to be having SO much fun, it was a really happy place to be. The town itself was very small, only had one paved road (the rest dirt) and a couple of guesthouses/restaurants. Mike and I stayed in a bungalow with a balcony with hammocks that overlooked the river. It was like paradise, very peaceful. And the people were SO nice, they always smiled and said hello when we passed.

On our second day there we were walking up to some nearby caves when we saw a girl fall off a bicycle while doubling with another girl. She was unconscious on the ground, so Mike and I ran over to help. Mike carried her and we lay her down at a house and checked for breathing/etc. They really didn't know much about first aid there. After about 5-10 minutes she stirred awake, but then passed out again. The people gave her some drink which woke her up again, and when Mike asked what it was, we were told via charades that it was PEE. Gross! Did the trick of waking her up though :S. After her dad came and picked her up and we went with them to the "hospital" (not much there), where she was given medicine and looked at by a doctor. The dad and family were very thankful towards us.

Came back via local bus (very packed, shared with several sacks of rice and veggies and some animal...a guinea pig?) and then a tuk tuk which ran out of gas 2 minutes after we started driving...quite the travel experience. Oh, and Mike got puked on by some lady in the bus who was sitting in the front seat. And the bus wasn't actually a bus, it was a covered truck bed with seating on either side. Not very comfortable, but very cheap! I thought it was a cool experience, although Mike (for very good reasons!) did not enjoy it. We may not be taking one of those again for a while.
Same day caught a flight to Hanoi in Vietnam via Lao Airlines, which is supposed to be unsafe at times but it was no problem for us.

Now Hanoi....what a crazy crazy place. This is definitely an Asian city. Very fast paced, horns are used every 3 seconds by each and every car and motorbike on the road. Sidewalks are a place for people to spread their wares to sell or are used as a parking lot for motorbikes. There pretty much is no road line system, just a massive free for all. It is absolute madness. Cool experience though, very different from slow paced Lao. Mike and I have already been scammed twice, once by a taxi meter that miraculously jumped by 40000 dong when we weren't looking, and another time when we were eating hot pot at the night market. They told us the whole hot pot was 150000dong, and then served us plates of mushrooms/etc to put in it and charged us extra. Fortunately some nice English-speaking Vietnamese guy heard us arguing with the people and he helped us reason with them, and in the end we didn't have to pay for the extra plates. Thank god for that guy, the price was about double it was supposed to be! Oh, the night market was pretty cool. Mike and I bought sun glasses.

We are staying in a hotel with a SUPER nice, cute lady who owns it. She serves us fresh lemonade when we're thirsty, and breakfast! She was so good to us we booked a 3 day Sapa trek through her, and we leave tonight via overnight train. Hope it goes well!

Oh, and today in Hanoi we went to The Temple of Literature, which is some cool old bit of architecture where Confucious students (used to?) study. We also went to the Museum of Ethnology and learned about Vietnamese and all the hill tribes' culture. We saw some crazy water puppet show there, which is basically a puppet show in the middle of a lake with swimming puppets, created in Vietnam I think. We couldn't understand what they were saying, but still amusing.

PS!!! For those of you who read this, facebook is banned in Vietnam so you'll have to contact us via email (or the blog)! Mine is smeyers@ualberta.ca and Mike's is stick_man000@hotmail.com.