Our first stop in the north was Hoi An. We took an all night train to get there which was quite a restless experience. We opted for one of the cheaper options which meant sitting in an upright seat in a lit train cabin. We were woken up multiple times by train conductors yelling stops or by older women trying to sell us food throughout the night. Enventually though, we arrived in Hoi An and took a cab to our hostel. We stayed at the “Hoi An Lifestyle Homestay” located a 3 minute bike ride from old town Hoi An. Hoi An is a well kept old-style city that is exemplary of the traditional trading ports that were once bustling in the 15th-19th centuries. At one point Hoi An was considered the best trading port in all of SEA, most notably for it’s ceramics.

While we were in Hoi An we took advantage of the free bicycle rental provided by our homestay, cruised around and ate a lot of good food. Hoi An is also famous for their custom textiles and silk products so naturally, Matthew purchased two custom suits. He had zero intention of buying suits but we were approached on the sidewalk by a nice English speaking woman who convinced us to go check out her family’s custom fabric store. After much humming and hawing Matt designed two suits (with my help of course) – one navy and one maroon. Also while in Hoi An we went to a coffee roastery .

We spent a total of two nights in Hoi An before catching a bus to head farther North. We had heard really good things about Ninh Binh so we decided to split up our journey and spent a few days there. What we didn’t know but would later realize is that Tam Coc, the neighbouring city of Ninh Binh, was where all the sights were. So, after a 14 hour bus, we were dropped off in the middle of the city of Ninh Binh at 3:30 in the morning. The bus was supposed to arrive at 5:00 AM, but lucky us we arrived early!

So, sleepy-eyed Ky and Matt sat down on the curb to assess their options. We googled a couple of 24-hour hostels and tried walking to them, but they were all locked up and closed for the night. So much for 24 hours. We woke up one hotel owner by ringing the doorbell but he told us he was full. So we sat down again.

By this time it was around 4:30. After some quick researching, we discovered that we actually wanted to be in Tam Coc, and that’s where all the fun outdoor activities could be found. We looked on booking.com for some cheap accommodations, booked one, and started walking. Tam Coc was about 7km away – only about a 15 minute cab ride, but we had time to kill so we started walking the 2 hour journey.

We walked along the canal in Ninh Binh, and we were not alone! There was a good number of locals out running and getting their exercise in before sunlight. Everyone was very friendly and we shared hellos with most people. We took a couple breaks along the way, but before we knew it the limestone cliffs began peaking out and we knew we were close! About 1.5km away, it started to rain on us – of course, the perfect ending to our mid-night adventure. But there was no heavy downpour, and we made it to our guest house still pretty dry.

To our delight, we were greeted by some furry friends upon our arrival to ‘Tuyet’s Homestay’ plus our room was ready! We couldn’t have asked for a better greeting.

After a quick power nap we took bicycles to check out a local pagoda that was built into the side of the mountain.

The next day, our host recommended we check out a boat tour down the Trang An River. We took their suggestion and went on an amazing 3.5hr boat trip winding through elaborate cave systems while dodging swooping bats!

After the tour ended we raced to Mua Cave Lookout to catch the sunset over Tam Coc. Websites online suggested allocating at least 15 minutes to get to the top of the lookout. Since we were racing to get to the top in time for the sunset we ended up completing the 500-step climb in just 6.5 minutes. Man we were sweaty! It was worth it though, the sunset was mesmerizing.

After 2 nights and 2 full days in Tam Coc, our next destination was Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba Island is located in Ha Long Bay and is one of the only habitable islands in the area. Cat Ba Island is known for its rugged and dramatic limestone mountain faces, sandy beaches and unreal rock climbing. We were able to book a bus through our homestay that would take us directly to Cat Ba.

The bus ended up driving directly on to a large barge that carried over other cars and motorbikes. The trip on the barge took under an hour, and we were able to get off the bus to take in the sights. The bus then delivered us directly to our hostel – ah, it was fantastic to not be in Cambodia anymore and have have some trustworthy transportation! The temperature was dramatically different from Tam Coc – it was actually a bit chilly! Temperature during the day was around 15*C, and locals were dressed in parkas and pants. We certainly stuck out as tourists in our sleeveless shirts and shorts. It was late afternoon, so we dropped off our bags and went exploring. We walked about 20 minutes to find the beach, and man was it ever scenic. Check out the pictures below!

The next day, we had booked a 4-hour half day of rock climbing with Cat Ba Rock Climbing. All gear included and a guide for ~$50 Canadian, not too shabby! Our friends Erin and Josh had recommended this company, as they had spent last years Christmas on Cat Ba Island and spent some time climbing. We left around 10am, a group of 6. 2 young guys from Israel, one guide from Venezuela, and another guide from Vietnam. We were heading to an area called the Hidden Valley. However, this area and the pathway to it are currently owned by the Vietnam Army, and Cat Ba Climbing pays them for access to the area. So we arrived at the pathway, but there was a holdup – the army was performing target practice. So there we stood at the edge of a field, with rifles blasting every 20 seconds, trying to make small talk among ourselves. Lukily the 2 Israeli guys were extremely friendly and engaging.

Amit and Tom, our 2 new friends from Israel, had some interesting stories to tell us about their experiences growing up in Israel. All citizens, upon graduating high school, are immediately expected to serve 2 and 3/4 years in the army. They are paid and can learn skills, but apparently it is not thought highly of among the citizens. Amit was put into piloting/airplane engineering and Tom entered into computer programming. They had both just recently finished their time and immediately left to travel.

Eventually there was a break in the shooting, and we were allowed to pass. The army officials were friendly enough and shared smiles with us as we passed. 10 minutes later and a short walk through the jungle, and we were in the Hidden Valley. Miguel, the guide from Venezuela, took us 2, and Anh, the guide from Vietnam, paired with Tom and Amit. Miguel set up routes for us all day long, and taught Matt how to lead-belay, which was a fun learning experience. We climbed for the next 4 hours, gradually increasing in difficulty. Miguel set us up on some easy routes at first, given our lack of experience climbing outdoors.

Matt here – I gotta hand it to Kylie, she absolutely CRUSHED it her first time climbing outdoors. She didn’t fall ONCE and flashed every single route she climbed (meaning no mistakes from bottom to top). It was incredible to watch! We will definitely be pursuing more outdoor climbing in the future 🙂

After our day of climbing, the 6 of us went and shared a meal and some beers at one of the local restaurants. It was a fun way to end the day with some new friends. That evening, we treated ourselves to a big ‘ol hot pot.

The next day we travelled to the Cat Ba National park, and Matt had high hopes of seeing the endangered Cat Ba langur, a species of primate endemic to Cat Ba. We didn’t end up seeing any but we went on a big hike and explored around the island.

After 3 nights in Cat Ba, we took a boat back to the mainland followed by a bus to Hanoi which is the capital city of Vietnam. We only spent one night there and we spent the majority of our time exploring the various shopping districts that are interspersed throughout the downtown.

The following day we caught a flight back to Thailand from Hanoi. It was time to spend the last week of our trip exploring the coastal south of Thailand.

– Ky and Matt

Our first stop was Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – also known as Siagon, this city houses around 8.9 million people and is the financial hub of Vietnam. The flight from Sihanoukville to Ho Chi Minh took just over an hour and getting through immigration took another hour meaning we arrived in the city in the late afternoon.

Out of the 4 countries we visited, Vietnam is the only one that doesn’t condone getting a visa upon arrival, you apply for one in advance either online or at an embassy. We chose to do ours online as that seemed easiest but after doing some research we discovered that there were a lot of scams and faulty visa application websites that would take your money and give you a fake visa. Because of this, I was quite nervous as we stood in the long line to go through immigration. It didn’t help to calm my nerves when it seemed like every second white person was being turned away and sent to an even longer line labelled ‘visa services.’ However when we finally got to the front of the line, the officer on duty hardly seemed to give our visa’s a second look and stamped us through no problem! Phew, Matt and I were both really happy and relieved that we had chosen a valid visa website 😅

Once we left the airport we began the hunt for a cheap hostel. We settled on ‘WillHome Hostel’, a cheap 8 person dorm room with breakfast included for only $7 a night. It wasn’t the cleanest or quietest hostle we’ve stayed in but Matt was still feeling fatigued from dengue and flying really took it out of him so when we got our room key he layed down to rest for a few hours.

That evening we stumbled upon a kick-ass vegan restaurant where we tried our first hot pot – a popular cooking method here that involves a large pot of soup broth placed on a single burner in the middle of the table with an assortment of protein and vegetables mixed in it. Also with the hot pot comes a big plate of veggies to top it up, some vermicelli noodles and garnish such as fresh mint, cumin, sprouts and lime. It was delicious and a great value for money. Easily one of my favourite dishes!

We spent a total of 2 nights in Ho Chi Minh and occupied most of our time with walking around the city and eating at all the vegetarian restaurants we could get our hands on. Ho Chi Minh was such a welcome change of scenery after being in bleak and dreary Sihanoukville. I found Sihanoukville very uncatering towards vegetarians and I ended up eating either fried rice or fried noodle most of the time as that was all there was. I mean, not the worst thing but I knew getting out of there would mean more options for food and for fun and man was I right. One thing I noticed and really liked about Ho Chi Minh city was how popular vegetarian food was – locals of all ages could be seen casually eating out at vegetarian restaurants!

After a quick but delicious stop in Ho Chi Minh, we caught a flight to Da Lat – the city of a thousand pine trees (so it’s said). Da Lat is a quaint city located approximately 1500 metres above sea level and is surrounded by vast, coniferous tree covered mountains.

We stayed in Dalat for 3 nights spending our first night in a great little hostel called the ‘Brew and Breakfast’ – a hostel that prides themselves on serving tasty vegan food which we treated ourselves to for breakfast. They also had a few friendly cats and dogs that lived there which made me really happy.

Our second two nights were spent at the ‘Maple Hostel’.

While we were in Dalat we visited the Datanla Waterfall, one of the three ‘must see’ waterfalls in the area. It was pretty busy but we picked a nice day for it.

After the waterfalls we headed back into the city to check out an architectural point of interest. It’s called the ‘Crazy House’ and it’s a hotel where every room has a stand alone design and decore. For a small admission fee you can spend as much time as you’d like exploring the crazy house. For me it was like stepping into a hobbit-sized, Dr. Suess inspired children’s book that had come to life. It was really neat to frolic around in for a few hours but I have no desire to actually stay there because there are nosy tourists walking through your accommodations every single day!

That evening it was cold (like 12 degrees) and raining so we were craving some comfort food and what’s better than a vegetarian buffet? 😏 It was a good way to end our busy day.

On our last evening, we decided to check out a cool bar called ‘The Maze’ because our friends recommended it to us for its unique atmosphere (thanks Ern + Josh!). Turns out the name is pretty self explanatory as it’s a 5 story bar and the entire thing is one huge maze! Every floor has a different theme and no two staircases lead to the same place. No map, no employees walking around to help and only 1 bar. Here are some pictures from that lost lost night…

Before we left Dalat, we made sure to try some of the local specialties!

De Lat was awesome and we both really enjoyed our stay but after 3 days it was time to say goodbye. We took a bus to Nha Trang, a small coastal town famous for its beaches. We only spent a total of 10 hours there as it was just a stop over on our long bus journey to get to Hoi An, but we made the most of it. We set up camp on the beach and enjoyed a relaxing recovery day by the ocean, the South China Sea to be exact.

That evening we caught an over-night train (which was our first train ride of the trip) to continue on to Hoi An. That being said, I’m going to leave it here and save those stories and more about northern Vietnam for the next post. Stay tuned!

– Ky 🌙

This is a small post reviewing some of the different flavours of chips we have discovered so far. This post will continually be updated.

Getting into Cambodia

Our plan was to travel from Don Det to Phnom Penh and the ‘bus’ we ordered said it would be roughly a 9hr journey. So we booked our tickets and started early the next morning where we took the ferry at 8am from Don Det back to the mainland and waited for our first bus of the day. It should be noted that the details of this day are a bit hairy but bare with us. SO, the first van (not actually a bus like we were expecting) came after about an hour, showed up with a flat tire so we waited a bit longer for a replacement van. The van that showed up was equipped with 10 seats and there were 13 of us… we all looked around nervously at each other thinking some of us wouldn’t make it on. Little did we know though, that this would be one of our more comfortable (I use that word lightly) van rides.

Our driver insisted we’d all fit in, which we did, and off we went. It was a short drive to the Cambodian boarder, it took about 20 minutes or so? Our experience getting through the boarder was seamless however our 2 Canadian pals who we had met on the island that were also crossing weren’t so lucky. They showed up with no cash, there were no atm’s and it cost $38 cash to cross. Seeing that they were our friends and being the generous Canadians that we are, we helped them out and lent them the cash. They were very greatful and e-transferred us back right away (plus they threw in a little extra for our troubles, not a bad deal 😏). Once we walked through the border which was a neat experience in itself, we sat at a small roadside restaurant for 2hours until our second van arrived. We were scheduled to be brought to a bus station however, upon arrival we learned it was actually just a small restaurant. We spent about an hour or so here and ended up grabbing a bite to eat.

Around 1:30pm the third van of our journey arrived. We thought that this van was going to be the one that took us all the way to Phnom Penh…oh were we wrong. We got into the van and the driver proceedes to drive 50meters down the road where he left the van parked on the road (with us still in it), got out and sat outside of the van for an hour chatting up his buds. Keep in mind the van doors only open from the outside and it was a 35degrees day not to mention the van was over capacity by 4 people. It was a painful hour. Once we got going though, our driver made multiple random stops to drop packages off or pick packages up which we soon leanred was very typical of van rides in Cambodia. We proceeded to be transferred into 2 more vans, the second of which was a cargo van. If you’ve lost count by now, that’s 5 vans total.

By this time it was around 6pm and the sun was setting. The 5 hour cargo van ride was by far the worst. Not only were there 5 available seats for 10 of us but, the driver decided to take the scenic route. On the slow, dark drive through rural Cambodia, we encountered three police checks. At one check, the driver had to bribe the cops for whatever reason…our best guess was that it had something to do with the fact that there were 5 people in the front seats, including 1 American girl who was forced to sit on the drivers lap.

Eventually, we made it to Phnom Penh around 10:30pm and walked 2km to our hostel. Luckily the hostel we had our hopes on had space for us 😅. We stayed at Envoy Hostel and it had a great little kitchen and chill space. We made instant noodles and snacked on chips for dinner and guzzled it down with some 50cent beer. We got to bed around 12:30pm that night, way past our bed time. That was our longest and most exausting travel day yet and we hope it keep it that way!

Phnom Penh

We had a lazy morning spent recovering from our crazy travel day. Ky woke up and noticed she had acquired a rash.

That day we picked a few low-energy things to do around the city. We got some groceries, walked around and visited the national museum. For us, the museum was quite anticlimactic as it consisted of various stone relics which at first was neat but then, after an hour or so, got a little tedious.

Luckily, there was a homemade noodle shop close by. We were amazed as the noddles were whipped into shape right before our eyes! We enjoyed homemade dumplings and noodle stir fry for dinner.

After dinner we went to the Cambodia Living Arts Centre for an evening of dance and live music. The show was called Earth and Sky and it displayed traditional Cambodian dance, dress and music which we both found really cool.

The next day we toured S-21, the National Genocide Museum. S-21 was an old school that had been converted into a concentration camp during the Khmer Rouge. We got the English headsets and spent around 2 hours listening and walking around the various exhibits. There weren’t any pictures allowed. What we saw is hard to describe. It was a tragic yet beautiful tribute to the lives that were taken during the genocide. The whole experience was also extremely sobering. You could feel how recently the horrific events had taken place. There were still bloodstains on the floors, prisoner carvings on the wall, chains bolted all over the floors which we hadn’t noticed until we tripped over them. It was a powerful experience, we’re glad we went and will be humbled by the experience for years to come.

On our quiet walk home it was dusk and our brains were still foggy from being inside of S-21. Kylie was walking with her head down, checking google maps and suddenly 2 men on a motor bike pulled up, intercepted her walking path and robbed her. The good news is they only got my phone, it was non-confrontational and it was over just as fast as it started. Bummer. We immediately rushed back to the hostel to begin protecting Kylie’s digital privacy (I.e. Deleting info from her phone, changing passwords), and Bell was able to remotely lock the phone from being used at all. After we recovered from the initial shock, we went out for some recovery dinner and got overpriced conveyer-belt sushi – it was delicious!

The next day, we went to the police station to file a report – it was surprisingly a painless task. After that, we found a used phone store and got Kylie a used iPhone 5 for $50. PSA, she only has messenger and is unable to download any newer apps 😒. So if you have been trying to contact her, send her a message on messenger, that’s all she’s got right now! That evening, we caught a night bus to Siem Reap. A couple sleeping pills later, and we had arrived.

Siem Reap

We arrived at 6am, walked around a bit in a sleepy haze until we found a cheap hostel, called Unity. The owner was super-friendly and insisted we eat breakfast for free before we had even decided to stay. Suffice it to say we did stay there lol. That evening, we walked through the Siem Reap night market, where Matt was pressured into buying a nice new white cloth shirt and was then encouraged to tip the ladies who sold it to him because they had called him handsome! Nice try ladies, no tip for you. We then walked to dinner, at the Bug Cafe! Check out the following photos to see what we ate 🙂

The next day, we had reservations at a nice resort located on the outskirts of downtown, called Tanei Resort and Spa. We hiked with our bags there – took us over an hour and it was stinking hot, but the pool made the walk worth it! We spent 3 nights here, maxin and relaxin by the pool, taking advantage of 2 for 1 happy hour, and enjoying the complementary white robes 🥂

Our last day in Siem Reap was spent touring Angkor Wat. We booked a sunrise tuk-tuk tour, so we arrived at Angkor for 5:00am. The city of temples was full of beautiful relics, but our tour guide spoke barely any English and spent most of the day giggling at himself. It was a little disappointing since we were told we would get an English speaking guide but we didn’t want to be rude. We did our own reading about the temples on Wikipedia later when we got home.

That night, it was time for us to part ways – Kylie was attending her 6-day yoga retreat the next day, so Matt hopped on a night bus to the west coast of Cambodia, Sihanoukville.

Matt’s bachelor week

I arrived in Sihanoukville at 6am. From here I was able to get my ferry ticket to the islands, the main reason I was there. I chose my destination of Koh Rong Sanloem. There were a couple spots to choose from, and I chose M’Pai Bay. A 45 min ferry ride later and I was there, in paradise! It was a beautiful island. I walked around the island twice, scoping out all of the spots to stay. 2 different people ran out of their restaurants to ask if I was lost lol it was very friendly. I settled on a hostel a bit farther away from everything, called the Lookout. It had a great lookout (fitting, I know) over the ocean.

I checked in, and walked around the island a bit. After returning to my hostel, I found out I had a new neighbour in the dorm I was staying. His name was Tom (England) and he had been to the island previously for a few months, so he knew a lot of people there. He invited me to a party at the Two Ducks bar that afternoon, and I obliged. We went to the party, and I was quick to discover there was a large population of English people there on the island, running hostels and bars and other small businesses. The party was a lot of fun, drank a lot of beer, and they even served dinner and with a donation bin that went to the island. Afterwards, we caught the sunset from the Lookout, and then went to the Dragonfly bar next door for the rest of the night.

The next day, Tom and I went snorkelling. It was loads of fun, and we stayed out there for over 4 hours. Saw lots of cool wildlife, including cuttlefish, barracuda, and hermit crabs. Unfortunately, I got really burnt 😦 I was a lobster. I spent a lot of time reading my book, and crashed early. The following day, I spent some time planning our Vietnam trip, and I went for a hike through the jungle. I went to the Dragonfly again that evening, but turned in early. This is when I started to not feel well… I spent the entire night being taken over by a sickness. I was getting chilling waves through my body, high fever, and restlessness all night. I woke the next day, and everyone swore I just had a “clang-over” – a hangover resulting from drinking too many shitty $1 beers. It made sense, but I knew I was actually sick and not just hungover. I scheduled a ferry trip back to the mainland for that afternoon. I booked the cheapest private hotel with AC I could find, and caught a taxi as soon as I got back.

My amazing friends convinced me to go to a doctors office. So, the following day I took a taxi back into town (as the hotel was a bit out of the way). I told the Dr my symptoms, she took me for a blood test, and sure enough I had contracted Dengue Fever, a mosquito borne illness. Go figure – an entomologist contracting an insect borne virus! The Dr prescribed me some immune system enhancing meds (as the only cure is rest) and I went back to the hotel to sleep. I couldn’t get into contact with Ky until the following day around 10am, so I buckled in for a rough 24 hours. The Dr said it could be a 7-14 d illness, and I was only on day 2.

The next day, the wifi crapped out and I actually ran out of data, so I had to venture out of my hotel room to get a top up for my SIM card. I made it just in time to get into contact with Kylie as she was leaving her yoga retreat. We had plans to bus separately and meet up in Phnom Penh, but there was no chance of that happening. Quick change of plans – she was now going to fly to me in Sihanoukville. She arrived at 9:30pm and proceeded to nurse me back to health over the next few days. Phew what a relief it was she had finally arrived!

After a few rough days with Matt’s fever spicking on and off, he finally started to come out of his dengue state enough for us to move on from Cambodia. Next up, Vietnam!

– Ky & Matt

Don Det, Laos truly is a backpacker’s paradise. Located in the south of Laos, Don Det is one of 3 habitable islands in an area known as the 4,000 islands. We heard that the 4,000 islands was a nice place to kick-back and relax so we hurried our way across the entire country of Laos in just 3 days so we could experience it for ourselves.

Don Det Island is approximately 8km in length and biking is the main mode of transportation as the roads weren’t wide enough for cars. We spend a total of 7 days there and it quickly began to feel like home. The locals were welcoming and very helpful, the street cats and dogs were the friendlyist we’ve encountered yet and the beer was always cold. What’s not to fall in love with?! We spent most of time eating, reading and biking around.

On our first night, after we chose a guest house and got settled, we found a bar on the West side of the island to catch our first Don Det sunset

Highlights from our week on Don Det include:

Discovering the coffee shakes.

Catching a local boat racing tournament.

Going on a full-day kayaking trip

Our first pumpkin burger experience

Indian food at our favourite restaurant on the island, Jasmine’s. We ate here 4 times!

And of course…the kitties. Sorry Pete!

Our final sunset

Don Det was exactly what we were looking for – a relaxing place to unwind. It was a great week.

From Chiang Mai, we took a 4 hour bus to Chiang Rai. Found a super cheap hole-in-the-wall hostel for the first night, and then found a nicer 8-bed hostel for the next night. We only had 3 other travellers in the room with us, and everyone was quiet and respectful. Not much to report about Chiang Rai – it was basically a smaller Chiang Mai, and about half of the restaurants and stores were closed because it was a long weekend. BUT we did go for Thai massages, and holy crap did my body ever need that. I have never received a professional massage, but I’ll definitely be getting another. We ate a cheap 7/11 dinner that night consisting of ramen and stuffed buns, and had a good nights sleep.

The next morning, we caught an 8am bus to the Laos border. The bus had open windows and an open door at the back, and unfortunately one woman’s bag flew off of the bus halfway! There was some conversing in Thai (had not reached the border yet) and I guess they made plans for her to retrieve it. We learned a new lesson that day – make sure our bags are SECURELY packed away!

We passed through the border seamlessly – we were officially in the second country of our trip! A Laotian visa was about $40 CAD on arrival. From here, we took a van cab to the pier in Huay Xai (pronounced who-I say) where we hopped onto the popular 2-day river slow boat along the Mekong River.

The Mekong River is the worlds 12th longest river and the 7th longest in Asia (which infers that Asia has some of the world’s longest rivers!). It runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and is a major trade route between western China and SE Asia (thanks Wikipedia).

Day 1 of 2

The first day consisted of an 6.5 hour ride from Huay Xai to Pak Beng. It was a gorgeous route. We had arrived minutes before departure so we had to get seats near the back of the boat, which has been reported to be deafening due to the motor. The motor wasn’t that loud – it was the other tourists who were loud! Ky and I were all set for a nice and peaceful boat ride, reading our books, and taking in the sights, but the boat quickly turned into a party boat. Beer was sold on board but a lot of people came prepared with their own. There were 2 middle aged Australian men in front of us who got absolutely plastered, kept trying to initiate conversation with us, but it ended up turning into them talking down to us like children. They quickly got the point that they were being annoying and we didn’t want to entertain them anymore. But we didn’t let them ruin our ride; we ordered some beers for ourselves, plugged in to our headphones, and read. It was also aggravating to watch grown adults ooh and ahh when they saw naked indigenous children swimming and playing in the river, as if they were animals in a zoo. People rushed to the side of the boat to snap pictures of them. Kylie and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes in disbelief. Toursists, man.

We arrived at the port in Pak Beng, a small river village, and were swarmed by locals trying to get us into tuk tuks to their guest houses and stay for the night. We politely refused and pushed through and walked the 500m distance to the village with our own 2 feet and found a nice spot for about half of what was being advertised at the pier. We met a friendly German traveller named Johanna who was also looking for a place to stay, showed her to the guest house we found, and then invited her to dinner. It was Thanksgiving Day back home, and it was nice to share a meal with a new friend. I ordered a traditional Laos dish called Laap, which was minced meat (I chose pork) overtop of vegetables. And the restaurant we went to gave us each a free shot of whiskey. Afterwards we settled into our private room for a much needed sleep.

Day 2 of 2

The next day, we got to the pier 30 mins early to get better seats. It seemed like a lot of other people had a similar idea, but we managed to get a good seat near the front of the boat, and it was a much more peaceful ride. We think a lot of people were suffering from the day before. We both napped, read a lot, met a fellow Canadian from Vancouver, and ordered a couple of beers. It was a longer second day boat ride (~8.5 hours) but we arrived in Luang Prabang with still a bit of daylight. We found a decent hostel for the night, and went searching for dinner.

We settled for a spot along the river, and heard there was a night market so we headed there next. It turned out to be a great market – lots of local art, free whiskey and wine tasting (I actually bought a small bottle of wine), and some tasty vegetarian street food.

As we were walking the night market, we saw a travel agency that plans bus rides. We knew we wanted to get to the 4000 islands in Laos, specifically Don Det, but didn’t know how to get there yet. We quickly discovered we could do a full day of travel the next day and planned a crash course to Don Det. We heard that Don Det was a beautiful and relaxing island, and that is exactly what we were looking for.

The next morning, we took a van taxi from Luang Prabang at 8am to Vientiane. It was HOT and crowded. The AC did not seem to work very well. Kylie felt crazy sick the entire ride, and it didn’t help the trip consisted of a lot of winding roads through the mountains. It was a beautiful and scenic ride though. We had a bus transfer in Vang Vieng, which actually seemed like a very cool place to stay and in hindsight we may have stayed a night there if we had known what it offered: lots of hiking and trekking through mountains and jungles. However, Vang Vieng has a reputation; upon googling it, one of the first descriptions is ‘a hedonistic party town.’ So, maybe not the worst thing we skipped it. We arrived at the Vientiane bus station around 6pm, and had time to buy some bus station dinner (ramen) and a couple of beers before our night bus.

The Night Bus

This was our first experience on a sleeper bus. Instead of seats, there are small beds. Felt like we were on the night bus in Harry Potter! One problem we were quick to notice is that these kind of suck for single travellers; there is a very good chance you get paired with another single traveller who you’re forced to sleep in very close confines with for the ride. We heard a disgruntled gentlemen in front us complain “I asked them to make sure I was alone!!!” Turns out the only way to assure you are alone is to buy 2 tickets!

Even though we had a bed for the night, it was pretty uncomfortable. Our bed was right beside the bathroom, which had people coming and going all night. Also, everything in Asia is not designed for large people. So I was constantly bumped through the night. Also, it seemed that the storage underneath the bus was full, and they packed the entire isles with bags so that it was basically a jungle gym that people had to crawl over to reach the bathroom. We have now learned that it is common for buses and vans in SE Asia to transport goods and who knows what else on public transport. They pack as much shit as possible onto whatever vehicle has space.

Anyways, after not a very restful sleep, we arrived in Paske at 6:30AM. We climbed into a truck taxi, and were the only tourists surrounded by 15 locals. Before we left the station, women with baskets of fried insects came around so obviously I bought some. They were selling bags of crickets and bamboo worms with green onion for 50 cents. It was an odd choice for breakfast, but the onion complemented the bugs quite well. However, it would probably be best served as a dinner appetizer. For the remainder of the 4 hour drive, we stopped frequently in small villages where locals would surround the truck and (much to Kylie’s dismay) shove sticks of entire roasted chickens into the truck for purchase. I tried one of these a few days later on Don Det (petty good).

Finally, we had arrived in Nakasong, where we caught a 15 minute ferry to Don Det. We were here, paradise awaited us!