A huge thank you to Tim Milner at Bamboo Travel in London for putting together such an amazing itinerary, for his knowledge and patience and his understanding of what he thought we would like and what we wouldn't. His collaboration with Asian Trails in Laos and Vietnam made our trip without doubt the 'trip of a lifetime'. Every aspect of this adventure exceeded our expectations.
At a glance -
We took 11 flights, slept in 13 hotels and travelled in or on planes, trains, bicycles, kayaks, elephants, longtail boats, tuk tuks, junk, buffalo cart, motorbike sidecar, mekong riverboat, cyclo, dugout canoe, sampan, dragonboat, bangkok ferries and skytrain.
'best highlights'
- In and around Sapa in North Vietnam - Walking through ethnic minority villages Lao Chai and Ta Van; visiting the little primary school in a hut and each of the children singing for us; sharing a cup of rice wine with some local men on Christmas Day in their house; watching a father make silver earrings for his daughters wedding
- Visiting the Sunday market in Bac Ha with the colourful flower hmong minorities
- Luang Prabang - all of it, presenting alms to monks at 6am, sunset river dinner cruise, children dancing and singing along the riverside, the morning mist,meeting Fan the novice monk
- Kayaking 22km on the Nam Khan river back to Luang Prabang from the elephant camp
- Ginger Junk on Halong Bay
- Elephant Ride on Lak Lake and through the minority villages
- Draysap Waterfall with kids jumping in and playing in the water
- Our private Sampan on the Mekong Delta - all of it including seeing so many smiling faces
- Eating in Hue at a little street cafe
- Tailors shop and sidecar ride Hoi An
- Kneeling in the Wat Arun temple in Bangkok for 9am prayers - a special moment
- Dinner at the Scirocco restaurant on the top of Lebua State Tower in Bangkok
and finally our 'best and worst of'
Hotel Best: La Veranda, Phu Quoc
Worst: Plieku
Breakfast Best: Sapa and Hoi An and La Veranda in Phu Quoc
Worst: Plieku
Bed Best: La Veranda, Phu Quoc
Worst: Serenade, Hanoi
Guide Best: Kha, Hanoi/Sapa/Halong Bay
Worst: Asian Trails, Bangkok
Flight Best: Bangkok to London, Thai Air
Worst: Landing at Saigon - pretty bumpy
Beer Best: All of them - Lao, Hanoi, Huda, Larue, 333, Saigon (red, green and
blue labels), Tiger, Chang and Singha but our favourite was
probably Huda from Hue.
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