The last weeks Vietnam & Thailand

Back in Bangkok I realized I would have to wait 1 week before I would receive my second Vietnam visa, this due to holidays in both countries. A week in Bangkok, what was I suppose to do? Within a day I knew the answer and on Monday I started my 5 day Aromatherapy massage course. It was great fun and a good way to fill in time. On Friday I received my certificate for it. It had been good fun!

Facebook citations: Friday 6th May: Waiting for the last mini bus (11pm) to take me to the airport. Will be a long night, for my flight (to Hanoi) doesn't leave until 6:45 tomorrow morning. Will go seat hunting, hopefully finding seats without armrests and will let the drowsy anti motion sickness tablets do the rest:)

Saturday 7th May: OMG the ride to the airport felt more like a stomach turning rollercoaster ride. We got there within 40min instead of an hour. Had 4h sleep and am in a hotel room in Hanoi now. Decided to catch the overnight train to Hue tomorrow, so that I can meet up with Phuong before then. Will start working at the orphanage as soon as I arrive in Hue. Can't wait! :)

Up to Vietnam! I took a flight and went to Hanoi where, the following day, I met up with my previous tour guide Phuong. We had lunch and went to this local place afterwards for coffee. We had to go through a few alleys, then several flights of stair until we reached the rooftop with a few over Kiemlake. The coffee was extremely strong, almost unbearable, but the view made up for that. After Phuong had left I went to the lake and was quickly accompanied by several students, one who I offered to help with his English via internet. That evening I took the overnight train to Hue.

Phuong had had contact with the head nun of an orphanage in Hue, where a friend of his took me to the next day. In the morning I went by motorbike, but for the afternoon I had rented a bicycle. For the next few weeks the routine was the same every day. In the morning I would hop onto the bicycle and half an hour later I would arrive at the Orphanage, stay for two hours and jump back onto the bicycle to do it all again in the afternoon. In the afternoon I would leave the orphanage at 6.30 so I could make it back into the city before dark. I would look after the kids, but all it was really was to give the kids some TLC. Their beds existed out of simple metal frames and only the two babies were lying on a thin blanket. The others slept without diapers on the metal frames, because it was cheaper and easier to keep clean. As you can imagine, I would step into a puddle of urine at least once a day with my bare feet…. It simply became normal. I got really attached to some of them, and so did they, for a few would continue crying until they were held by me and no one else. What I’m going to tell you now might sound strange, but it didn’t take me long to get lonely. Yes, there were enough kids to keep me company, but being unable to communicate is a lot harder then you would expect.

Tuesday 17th May: Don't know the language.... it is making it so much harder.... frustrating not to be able to communicate at the orphanage!

There was no one there that I could speak English with. It made me decide to move on a bit earlier and enjoy a few days in northern Vietnam.

But my god, how I will miss those kids!!!

Tuesday 17th May: Working at the orphanage.... it's hard.... Leaving tomorrow to Hanoi and then Sapa.

Wednesday 18th May: Last day at the orphanage... an employee from the hotel offered to join me so that she can translate for me, so great! Will drop by another one this afternoon too, to drop off some stuff and then off to Hanoi by overnight train. Sapa next!

Wednesday 18th May: PS. Had a blast last night! Met this chick Jo, downstairs at the internet and she invited me for dinner with her Gecko tour...... so I joined them. Went wild in the bar Brown Eyes.... Oh, and why didn't anybody warn me that MSN isn't a good idea when your tipsy....

When the last day an employee of the google hotel and I arrived at the orphanage, only a few of the youngest children were on the ward, for the others were chanting (praying) in the big hall. So I could only say goodbye to a few. The girl from the hotel then drove me to several pagoda’s around the city and to the citadel. A great way to spend my last day in Hue. That evening I took the overnight train, followed by a minibus from Hanoi to……

Sapa!!!

Saturday 21st May: This is how I and how you don't wanna wake up:(6am on the overnight train) I opened my eyes, looked outside & realized that we were not moving. I shouted ,,Sapa, Sapa" to the woman in our cabin. Her answer was vague, I couldn't take the risk. One minute later I was standing on the platform (eyes still half closed) with my backpack diagonally on my back, in one hand 2 bags, in the other my jeans skirt, bra & cardigan! Luckily I didn't sleep naked!

Saturday 21st May:Yesterday after the overnight train I booked a trekking daytrip to a homestay. This morning I came back to Sapa with one of the girls and we hired motorbikes. We drove for six hours, full speed where we could while admiring the amazing views! Forgot to put suncreme on my hands so now it looks as if I'm wearing red gloves:( . Tomorrow we'll drive back to Sapa, after visiting the markets in Bac Ha where we are staying tonight, and then the Night train to Hanoi followed by a night flight to Bangkok.

I had such a great time in Sapa. The first day trekking was great, a good small group and stunning views! The hike was a lot easier and time went by a lot quicker then I expected. Rice fields terraces for a s far as you could see. Clouds come and go, covering the mountains from time to time. A few drizzles here and there too, so the raincoat and gumboots came in handy. There were local woman, beautifully dressed, accompanying us during our hike. They would give us a helping hand where needed, in the hope that we would feel obliged to buy one of their products. The next day we left the homestay, rented a motorbike and off we went. Julie, who I’d met at the trainstation, and I drove the whole day. I loved it! We were driving faster then the locals, which is perhaps a bit of a concern. We drove over 200km that day and we spent the night in Hac Ba, where we visited the local Sunday market the next day. On Sunday we drove 140km back to Sapa. The last few kilometers we decided to simply drive and meet up in town at the bakery. I was extremely lucky. When I reached Sapa, my motor started acting up, but I could get it to start again. In town the motor stopped. I had ran out of fuel, I think. Luck was on my side for two reasons: 1. My sense of direction was correct, so no extra meters; 2. It was all downhill! The result: I was able to cruise down pure on gravity!! Reaching the restaurant where I handed in the motorbike, with empty fuel tank. Then again, it was also how we had started our trip, me running out of fuel because the tank had been to empty to start with. Couldn’t even reach the tankstation. Suppose that the person after me will have the same problem, since I saw the owner fill it with no more then 1 liter.

The horrors of traveling: My Sapa adventure ended with a horrific ride in a minibus to the train station in Bac Ha after 20min. I was already throwing up and the whole ride took an hour. I made a few knots it the used plastic bag and left it under the seat as a reminder (for the bus driver) of his own (lack of) driving skills. After the overnight train, I arrived in Hanoi where I waited the whole day for the night flight. It was only a 1,5 hour flight to Bangkok, so I had to try to sleep at the airport there until the shuttle busses would start their rides into town again. In Bangkok I had to wait the whole day until 6pm for my bus to Ko Lanta. I paid more to get direct to Krabi, but this didn’t happen. So we started driving that first overnight bus to Surathani, stopped for an hour in the middle of the night at this local restaurant, had to switch busses in Surathani and from Krabi it was even worse: In Krabi we switched from the bus to a mini bus, went to a ticket desk in Krabi town, into another minibus to another ticket desk (after an hour, still in Krabi town), into the back of a red pick up truck to a bus station (after waiting another hour and still in Krabi town), into a mini bus that took us to Ko Lanta in two hours where we were dropped off at a ‘bus station’ in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was a smart resort owner, who picked up desperate people like us. This was the beginning of my stay at Ko Lanta!

Ko Lanta. Two Scandinavian girls, Joanne & Christian and Eric arrived with me at the Paradise resort. The name wasn’t a resemblance of the place, but we were all to tired to look for something else. That evening we went out for dinner together. Christian called Eric and me, mom and dad, while we had to listen to his stories of being in love with this straight guy Charlie…. The next day Eric told met that the kids (Christian and Joanne) had decided to go back to Phuket, where they had come from the previous day. He had found Ko Lanta too boring. Eric and I rented motor bikes and invited the Danish girls to join us for lunch. After lunch we drove around the Island together, visited a beautiful resort Costa Lanta and went to dinner together too. I had left my bags in Eric’s room, because I had creepy crawlers in my bed the night before, so I was going to change resorts. We had done so much that day, that I hadn’t had time to find a new place so I crashed at Eric’s who had two beds anyway and paid half this rent. The next morning I left on the motorbike with my backpack and bags to the resort Costa Lanta, where I would start my first windsurf lesson. We had to wait for the wind to pick up and the swells to drop, so I started my search for a new place to stay. Two resorts further down the beach I found what I was looking for. A nice place, for a good price after bargaining and close to the windsurfing place.

Saturday 28th May: Loving Ko Lanta: Amazing ocean views from my lovely hotel room, everyday stand up paddle surfing and WINDSURFING!!!! (+ eating green curry & fresh pineapples ofcourse)

After my windsurfing lesson I decided to return the motorbike. I had a really ‘blond’ moment. I thought that I would be able to walk a little before getting a tuctuc to safe money. Not a good idea. After half an hour of walking did I realize that it perhaps wasn’t one of my best idea’s…. it was stupid and dangerous. Most parts of the road weren’t lite by streetlights, but pitchblack. There were a few houses, some deserted restaurants, but mostly empty roads with a beach or bushes along the sides. I tried hitchhiking, which was successful after another half hour. By then I’d been walking in the dark for more than an hour. This guy took me to a 7Eleven, where it would be easier to get another ride. I was getting tired and didn’t like the idea of waiting for a while, also because Thai are known for drunk driving. A few meters to my left there was a guy smoking. Within 5 minutes there was a car that pulled up and he got in. Before he closed the door I started yelling ,,Excuse me, Wait, WAIT!”. I ran towards the car and asked if I could please get a ride, so I could get closer to the hotel. The girl in the front said: ,,Of course!” So there I was in the car with 3 (again) strangers. When they were talking to each other I recognized their Swiss accent. We started chatting and I couldn’t tell them what the name of my resort/hotel was. She told me her and it sounded vaguely familiar. Turned out that we were staying at the same resort, she had even seen me earlier that day. They asked me if I had already had dinner. This wasn’t the case so went to a restaurant together. Marco and Gec spoke English and their friend Sandro barely, so I had to use my ‘Barge Duits’ (Fantasy German) every now and then too. We had a great time together. The next day I couldn’t go windsurfing, but I went stand up paddle surfing instead. That evening we went out for dinner again. The following week I spent my days either windsurfing or boogie/body boarding, with some reading, sleeping and eating in between.

Tuesday 31 st May: Twisted my ankle today:( No cool windsurf accident, but went with 3 others to the national park... I was atacked by termites, jumped to the side, landed on uneven ground with my right foot...... And that was it, damage done:(

Thursday 2nd June: Waiting for the storm to blow over, so I can go windsurfing!!! I look like a surfbabe (when I'm out of the water), with my knees scratched, ankle taped and a massive bruise on my shin;)

Thursday 2nd June: Have been out today collecting..... bruises that is. Was able to add a nice bruise on bruise to my collection and an even more special head bump with bruise. I'm such a colourfull person;) Tomorrow windsurfing again....

Friday 3rd June:Another day of waiting for good weather conditions (for windsurfing) that never came. Luckily I could catch some good waves doing body boarding instead!

Saturday 4th June: Finally a better day for windsurfing, or should I say I'm finally getting better at windsurfing!?!

Sunday 5 June: Had my last day of windsurfing, body boarding and sunbathing in Ko Lanta, topped off with a nice sunset at the beach!!! Time to pack my bags:(

I really loved it at Ko Lanta. It was very quiet, but that was exactly what made it more special. A few weeks earlier I was looking forward to going home, but it was so relaxing that I would’ve loved to stay a few weeks longer. To be home will be great too….

Monday 6 Juni: Waiting in Bangkok for China Airlines to fly me home!!! Hmmm that coffee at mom and dad's will taste great for sure:)

Thursday 9 June: Home sweet home!