V & Visa (2)

We then changed tack & decided that the fastest option was to use ChinaOdyssey to arrange the rest of our stay in China picking us up from where our pre-planned arrangements ended . They were very good & a couple of days later all we had to do was pay a 50% deposit . Unfortunately I filled in all the forms required , copied both sides of my debit card + my passport & faxed these off but unfortunately they do not take debit cards. They preferred Paypal so I attempted this route but was stymied by a transaction I had made a couple of weeks earlier to an Ghanaian charity which Paypal deemed dubious & bounced even though I subsequently told them it was legit. This resulted in Paypals labyrnthine security process kicking in & asking for proof of ID & address - not so easy from here- despite my protestations. Our third option was Jenny's credit card which seemed OK. While all this had been going on a weekend had arrived & gone we had booked more days in our hotel to allow for a further 4 day delay. These delays have prevented us from making any side trips from Vientiane as the Chinese consulate keep your passport to add the visa & you cant book into a Lao hotel without it. Today some 14 days after arriving in Vientiane we got our passports back complete with visas.
Fortunately Vientiane is a very relaxed place to spend time in. It has lots of good local restaurants, bars,very good coffee shops & bakeries and the Taj Mahal which reminded us of eating out in India all that time ago.As far as sights go there are a number of Wats dotted throughout the centre of town most of which have been rebuilt but  we visited what appeared to be the most interesting - Wat Sisaket.  This ones claim to fame was due to its survival from the Siamese invasion in the early 1800's who used it as a base whilst they were pillaging & destroying the rest.. It houses some 11,00 buddha images + the broken remains of a number of others.
Other than this we visited the National Historical museum which wassplit into two sections. The first was pre-history & charted the progress of civlization in Paos from stone age to the Siamese invasion. This doesn't amount to a great many artefacts lots of the most important pieces had been looted by subsequent invasions Chinese,Khmer,Siamese & French. This looting was compounded by the effects of action covered by the second section which started with the Indo-China war & was compounded many times by the wholesale bombardment it received in the Vietnam war..( i've read that Laos has received more ordnance per capita than any other country . A map of the country showing bomb sites as small red dots is solid red in the south of the country. What was amusing was the "revolutionary" language of the time used for the war exhibits as in "the imperialist U.S. forces & their puppets".. All in all though it was thought provoking without being quite as shocking as Cambodia or Vietnam. Next stop Kunming China !

Vientiane & Visas

It all seemed simple when we were in Luang Prabang ? Having read that there were very few queues at The Chnese consulate in Vientiane we decided to apply for our visas once we were here. We arrived having booked 4 nights at a hotel with a fitness room & pool to while away the 4 days that the visa would take to process. The process seemed relatively straightforward  based on the information available on the consulate site. We had to have proof of our flights into & out of China & where we were staying and there was a suggestion on a travel site that we might need to prove by a bank statement that we were able to survive  our period of stay - presumably they did not want us to be a burden on the Chinese state. We booked flights in to Kunming & thought that proof of an onward flight (albeit) from Sydney to LA would prove our intention to leave. We also arranged some hotels in the first 3 places we had chosen to visit & contacted a chinese tour company about a three cornered tour of Shanghai,Xian,Beijing at the end. I made the rash assumption that this provided an outline itinerary with a gap in the middle in which we could arrange a Yangtse river trip.
All of this took a couple of days. Completing the forms, 6 pages)  including an extra 2 as we were not applying from our home country was relatively easy & we copied all of the documentation including our passports & set off to walk to where the consulate was. Unfortunately the tiny symbol on the free schematic map we had turned out to be much further away than it looked and to be the Russian embassy ! Once we realised we hopped into a tuk tuk in the hope that we could get there before closing time @ 11.30. Fantastic - we made it. This was not goiod enough as we were informed that we had to have proof of booking for everyday of our planned stay & our actual flight booking out of China i.e. we had to book 30 days of accommodation and or tour plus flights & hope that we got visas ! Back to the drawing board !*?!

Luang Prabang (2)

Old town Luang Prabang is a collection of villages clustered round the historical old town sited on a peninsular between the Nam Khan & Mekong rivers. From our hotel there are two routes into town & three bridges over the Nam Khan : the bamboo bridge , the old bridge & the new bridge which is the route taken by the nightly shuttle from our resort to the night market in town. The bamboo bridge is a fairly rickety affair reached via steep slopes on either side of the river. On the old bridge you have a choice of the unlit pedestrian path ( interesting after dark) or joining the vehicular section - fortunately motorcycles/cycles only - lit by oncoming headlights at ones elbow.
A trip on the Mekong for " a sunset cruise" turned out to be didsappointing due to the sun being obscured by cloud but watching what else happened on the river - monks bathing, children playing etc was sufficiently interesting to pass the time.
 The highlight was a day trip toKuang Si waterfalls which is about 20kms outside LP. An inauspicious arrival  ( usual tourist trap stalls) made me think this might have been a mistake but doubts were dispelledeas we climbed the path towards the falls. First we came upon the bear rehabilitation project which was series of very large enclosure populated by bears recovered from poachers who feed the chines medicine market with bear bile. The closures contained lots of things for the bears to climb,play with & sleep on and they were taking very good advantage of these. There was almost none of the trademark repetitive behaviour that is exhibited in zoos where animals are kept in confined spaces and alot of playful activity.
The falls were a series of pools leading to the view of the 100foot drop from the cliff. I and another english couple climbed to the top which required a lot of effort for almost no view at the top. We could however cool off by swimming in the pools at the bottom once we had slithered our way down which was excellent.
On our way back we had a look round a local furniture makers premises which was very interesting for the carpenter & builder in our group of 6. Next stop Vientiane & the Chinese consulate !/*!

Another day [another country Laos - Luang Prabang

Easy flight from Hanoi & arrive at MyDream Resort by 11.30. The "resort" is very small,new with a large bathtub masquerading as a pool. The setting however is gorgeous & we have a balcony overlooking the garden which is on the banks of the Nam Khan river which joins the Mekong at Luang Prabang .We doze in our room during the 40c afternoon & take the shuttle down to the "city" for dinner.Seeing somewhere for the first time at night ( with no streetlights ) gives you a distorted view particularly when you are dropped off at the quiet end of town. Today we realised there is no part of town that isn't quiet. Luang has more than its fair share of wats & monasteries & the National Museum (which was until 40 years ago the Royal Palace).It also has plenty of good places to eat most of which are very reasonable e.g10 pounds for a local meal for two with beer. The local sausage with ginger,chilli,lemon grass & pork is particularly tasty & most places offer a few Thai favourites.

Hanoi 28/4-2/5

Our last days in Hanoi were spent mopping up the last few attractions to be seen. We visited the Tran Quoc Pagoda on West Lake which dates back to the 6th century & is beautiful. The setting was a little bizarre because it was a public holiday & there were lots of swan shaped pedalos out on the lakes. We then went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum (unfortunately closed when we got there)  followd by the Water Puppet Theatre This was an excellent demonstration of local customs ( ploughing rice fields,fishing, dancing etc ) accompanied by music. The puppeteers are behind a curtain up to their waist in water & it was enchanting ,very skilful & at times extremely funny.