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| Sapa in VN, Vientian in LaosDear Blog, Long time havent got chance to uplaod any pics....now i m gonna flooding you guys....hahaha, enjoy!! i have uploaded some on my facebook, if u have facebook, just check it out  Sapa, Bac Ha Market, Sin Cai Village in Vietnam
I was actually doing the same thing with these little brothers, eating their traditional snack and sitting on the roadside, couldnt feel better on that day
duck, chicks and piglet....i love village!!
Trekking with a Korean traveller, Yin, he used to be a Marine in the army, learned Taewando, Murray Thai, Shaolin Kung Fu~~wow....impressive, huh? we trekked along the creek and rice paddies, no path at all, but with a trekking companion like him, haha, no troubles to go anywhere
Nice family and hospitality from the Family Guest House in Sapa, i was invited to join their lunch while i was waiting the shuttle bus on my last day in Sapa. Drank 2 small cups of Homemade Beehives Wine with the Mum, drank it all at one time, like the mum said, "Come on, 100%!!!"
this guesthouse is located at the end of Cau May street in Sapa, a bit further from Queen hotel. Reasonable price (US$6 for a single rm), good mountain view and friendly staff.
Vietian in Laos
in front of the Black Stupa
Buddha park, 25km away from the city
the entrance of a big Buddha, can climb up to the third floor~i just took this pic in this morning and i can show u now~ that's why i said Laos is better than VN~~ Love u all!! hugs,
littleblackrabbit@Vietian, Laos, Day626 on the road
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| A glimpse of leaving a country-leagallyDear Blog, Yipeeeeeee~~i m in Laos!!!!!!! I arrived safely by bus to Vientiane, the capital city in Laos yesterday. Before taking the bus:
All foreign travellers were gathered at a corner of nowhere, coz we were all being picked up by motorbike drivers, dropped us there, told to wait...then, some of us with lighter backpacks were "transfered" to the main bus station by motorbikes. And the rest of us with heavy backpack, were being "squeezed" into a taxi. Yup, seven ppl in a taxi with big backpacks, nearly suffocated to death. Well, i don't feel really bad to be honest, coz i deem at least there were others exactly the same situation with me, hahaha...i m not alone. Especially, Mic of the UK couple, he was in a bad mood, coz he has been fed up by this money minded country also. He said he feel like he was a human ATM here......Even though i had empathy to him, cant help but laughing.......when travellers shared the ups and downs of the journey, interestingly, despite the nationality, immediately you are bonded to each other, coz you have experienced what they went through before. His grevienances eased the boredom of waiting, coz we had something to laugh about. At the border:
There were about 15 foreign travellers on the bus, from UK, Spain, Germany, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, of coz ME, the representative of Hong Kong as well. The whole trip took us about 20 hours, the most funny part was to go through the procedure of departure and entry to the borders of both countries. No indication at all, nothing...no one will tell you what to do, at most, someone will show you the direction of the office, then, you can just wait....after about half an hour, we all waited at the window of oversea passport. Amazingly, there were many other Vietnameses put their passports to the counter of where were we supposed to be (Oversea passport!!!). Later, we found out that even though there were more than 50 ppl waiting, only one staff was on duty. The others? probably having breakfast, coz i have seen them walked in and out, doing nothing, but drinking tea and picking their teeth. Ha~ of course, no one queuing up. It took us another 1 hour to leave the immigration of Vietnam (yeah!!!finally!!!), before you leave, you have to give either US$1 or VND20.000 for a stamp. Dont ask me why, no money, no talk!! |
While we walked passed the border, we saw many beer bottles on the roadside, one of the spanish guy kidding:" that was where our US$1.00 belonged to ~" At Laos's immigration office, things doesnt change better, but we could all manage to do our own things, like grabbing the immigration card, applying visa on the spot, exchanging money, paying for another stamp....not so panic now~ it's nice to help each other out. We would all gathered the passports and passed them to the counter for checking ^v^ well, that's the travellers'spirit!!! Today i am in Laos, a place far more relaxed and laid back.....I - Love - it !!!!! A Bad Foot I have twisted my right ankle 3 days ago, a bit worry, but nothing i could do by that time (ha, just put on the tiger balm, hahaha...why tiger balm? dont tell me you dont know this magical medicine~hahaha, it works on every situation!!), i was just thinking, what this experience will bring me? haha, this time, it brought me a new friend, Stewart from UK, he stayed in the same hostel with me, and he also has a bad foot, he got a bad infection from a cut on his left foot, so our conversation started because we all have a bad foot. When we walked on the street, it was actually a scene, coz he only wore one flip-flop, another foot wearing a sock and we were limping. I told Stew that we were just like playing the hopping game, tying two feet and walk Hey, no worries!! i m fine right now, my foot is good!!! at least, no trouble to walk with my big backpack~i will promise to be careful!! Love, Pictures from previous trips in Malaysia and Vietnam  tram in Penang Hill   Amanda from UK, we were having a seafood dinner in Penang  The best hostel i have ever found in Malaysia, Traveller's Lodge in Melaka, run by Japanse  Ryan in Singapore, colleague in NZ from vineyard. He treated me a nice dinner!!!  A beautifu church in Vietnam. | | |
| Farewell to Vietnam...Soon!!!Dear Blog, This is my second day back to Haino. It's so amazing that the trip from Sapa to Haino was just so smooth~Coz I was told that all the trains are fulled and not a single ticket available at all. Since i have spent more than 3 weeks in Vietnam, i started getting used to the culture/philosophy here: True is not necessarily the truth, depends what you think (staff in hotel/ travel agent) and how you interpret it. Therefore, i was not panic and i don't believe the "face-truth ", perhaps i still wanted to try my luck and interested to know what's God has arranged for me this time. Luckily, I was not alone, there was another traveller, Mr Sylve from France, who also wanted to go back to Haino to meet her girlfriend, either by bus or train. So, I had a company to hunt the train ticket together ^v^ When we arrived the train station, there was another traveller who were arguing with the staff there, because the staff refused to sell the cheaper local ticket for him, even they have seat available. This is a good example of how bureaucratic and inflexible they (system/company/ society/ government??) are. Coz as a traveller/ foreigner in this Red tape country, you've got no choice but always have to pay more. At last, i dunno whether that poor guy can buy the ticket or not, if he didnt want to pay for the "tourist" train. As far as i know, he was still staying there to negoitate with the staff when i left. So, my assumption was correct, there were still plenty of tickets for sale in the station. I was so happy to pay VND 168,000 for a soft seat with A/C, and more importantly, no commissions needed to be paid!!! Since we still had a few hours to go, so Mr. Sylve and i went to a cafe and had an interesting conversation for the whole afternoon - Communism, Socialism, Politics and Laos. It has been a long time I havent really talked about Karl Marx...Communist...haha, back to the old school days.....funny!!! That's the funny thing about travelling: meeting people and sharing ideas and information, or cultural exchange (shock??  ) Anyway, i really enjoy it !!! Tomorrow, i booked a day trip to Halong Bay and on Sunday, i will take an night bus to Laos, it takes around 17-18 hours to the capital city, i hope by that time, i can still feel my bum, fingercross!!! I love Laos even before I go there, coz the embrassy is just so efficient, 1 day for visa and only $14 US!!!! Love u all!!! Littleblackrabbit@ Haino | | |
| Dear Blog, Lately, I am a bit hate myself, coz i m not quite myself anymore. The more time i spent in Vietnam, the more i found out that i become more suspicious, skeptical and conspirative. This is not ME !!! I used to be trusted in people and have faith in them~ but now, when to trust and when not to? who is reliable and who's not? At certain point, i am thinking:if you just keep a simple mind and trustful attitude to travel in this country, you will end up in an empty pocket. Sad to say so, but probably i m just a budget traveller (dun have spare $$ to be cheated ), am travelling on my own, therefore, got heaps of decisions have to be made everyday...A friend has told me she will always ask herself the purpose of her travelling. And i asked myself, what's mine? Ans: to experience life. So....wake up gal, life is not only sweetness!!!It's time to gain wisdom. Luckily, i have them to be my backbone... Serenity Prayer Lord, Give Me Courage
Every day I try to do God's will,
but every night
when I looked back on my day
I knew I have failed,
at what God asked me to do.
So I say a little prayer
the next morning:
God give me courage
to walk on the right path.
To take the time
out of each hour
to thank you.
God give me courage
to accept the things
I cannot change
and change the things
I can.
God give me courage
to change my hurts and angers
into love.
God give me courage
to choose right from wrong
whatever the cost.
God give me courage
to follow your will
each day of my life.
Charles J. Breunig and what my father's reminder: to be a happy traveller, money will be finished sooner or later in the future, but more worthwhile is to travel thousands miles and see the world. Thanks God sending some angels to me yesterday, i did a wonderful trekking with another Korean traveller to the remote village away from Sapa...Cat Cat, Sin Cai where the H'm ethnic group they are living~~all day surrounded by the rice paddies and corn field...what a beautiful day!!! Love,
littleblackrabbit@Sapa | | |
| Feel like a Vietnamese...Dear blog, Today, i really feel like i m a Vietnamese as i tried to experience the bustle and hustle situation on the road. Yup, i threw myself into the chaotic sea of motorbikes and bicycles~~well, not too bad though, at least, i reckon Hue is a better city to try to cycle around rather than in the others(i dun think i will bike in Saigon or HCMC). I hired a bicycle for just US$1.00 and biked for about 6 km to a covered footbridge which built in 17 century, what an adventure!!!( Coz i dun want to be a passive traveller always sitting on the air-cond bus, but for sure, i dun think this is a bad thing~just wanna to do something different ^v^) All i counted on was a few sentences of description in the lonely planet. I biked for about 2 hours, coz i had stopped for many times to take pics and asked for direction. Apart from the people wanna do business with you, generally speaking, people in Vietnam, especially the villagers are friendly and helpful. So, it is good to stay away from the city. Cycling around the rice paddies helped me to discover the tranquility of Vietnam, which i seldom find in the city. Meanwhile, a motorcyclist drove by and wanted to show me the way. Well, i guessed i m just too alert to strangers, especially an enthusiastic middle-age stranger, at first, i thought he would like to make money out of me, like most of the motorbike drivers on the roadside. (Halo!!Motorbike??---which is the most frequent sentence you can hear in Vietnam). Mr. Van (he introduced himself later) was just a helpful villager, he told me the direction to the bridge and showed me the toliet as well. In fact, he even tried to grab my bike and pulled it with his motorbike in order to take me to the bridge, so hilarious!! of course, i just said thanks and told him i could manage to get there by myself. Later on, we met me once again on the bridge and i found out that all he wanted is just to take a picture of him I guessed the villagers are curious to foreigners, or maybe there are not many gals biking alone to the countryside, coz i didnt see any cyclist on the way, but i saw another two foreign gals came with motorbike drivers. The trip was so nice and i was glad that i made a good choice to bike around. It just took me about one hour to back to the city even though i had lost my way, but thanks for the friendly villagers, and heaps of other motorbikes to guide me back safely. Wanna share with you two sentences from my lovely friend Helen in Taiwan. "Travel is not about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself. Travel doesn't answer any questions, it just creates more !! " "Dream is not what you see in sleep; dream is that which does not let you sleep" What a beautiful day!!! Love,
Littleblackrabbit@Hue, Day 13 in Vietnam. Day 610 on the road | | |
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