Sapa

We were so lucky with the bus when we arrived in Vietnam. We spent 10 minutes in Dien Bien Phu where the bus from Laos dropped us and took another bus to Sapa. It was soft sleeper bus which means you will get a seat which is almost like a bed.

10 hours in a bus. 

We got to Sapa 5 in the morning. It was pitch black and foggy and we had NO IDEA where we were and we couldn't see anything! We were walking back and forth the street where the bus dropped us and tried to figure out which way on the  all the guesthouses are. After 3 hours wandering and checking in and out to 3 different hostels we found the one we really wanted to stay; Green Valley hostel, owned by really nice vietnamese family. Dorm bed was 4 dollars and we had bed heater in our beds, that was cool 😁

Now it's winter in northern Vietnam and it really is COLD. It was something like 10-20 degrees but it felt like -10 degrees. In Sapa they have 4 seasons in a day. At night it's "Winter" so it's freezing cold, in the morning "Spring", during the day it's "Summer" so it can be really warm, in the evening it feels like in Autumn. That was quite cool :D

After we checked in to our hostel weather cleared and we rented motorbikes and went explore the town. It was SO BEAUTIFUL. The views were breathtaking! (pictures are not (phone quality))

The town itself looked more like skiing town than Asian town! It was small and cute!

Usually people are doing some trekking and overnight staying at locals houses in small villages but we were so lazy and kind of in a rush so we skipped it. I saw some cool pictures and heard it's good!

We were so lucky with the weather. We had two sunny days so we could see the mountains and rice fields. Some people who have been there didn't see any further than 5 meters and that's quite disappointing. 

After two days and one night we decided to take a bus to Hanoi with our danish friend Anna who we met in Vang Vieng and now again in Sapa.

Sabai Dee Laos!

It is always so confusing to go to new country where you haven't been before. New language, currency, culture and people. 
Currency here is kip (1€=10 000 kips which makes it actually quite easy to convert all the prices) and language is lao, which is in my opinion quite similar than thai.

 First impression was: WAU, this place is beautiful. And it still is! Laos has very beautiful nature. Mountains everywhere, Mekong river and all those small villages by it. Local people are friendly.

In my opinion the price level is higher than in Thailand. Food is more expensive than in Northern Thailand (about 2 e / meal), beer is cheaper (1 e / big beer ), accommodation is quite same, motorbike renting is way more expensive than in Thailand (15e/24h) also entrance fees are more expensive 2e or more.

We got our visas on arrival (35 dollars). We skipped Vientiane and went straight to Vang Vieng. I stayed in Easy Go hostel. It was nice and clean and near everything. There I met so cool people and we were having the best time of our lives whilst tubing in the Mekong and swimming in the Blue Lagoon.  Vang Vieng is known as a party town and it sure is. Everyday party day. I met loads of Finnish people there too! Wonder why ;D 

We were 9 people group; Anna and Marleen from Holland, Harvey from Wales, Marc from Australia, Lena and Jannick from Germany and Howard from Norway (+ of course me and Anton). We all got same dorm where we had so much fun. One morning we woke up 5.30am to see the monks wandering around the streets. People were giving food for them.

Then we took a tuktuk and went to see Kuang Si waterfalls, which supposed to be the best waterfalls in South East Asia! I think they were the best I've seen so far!

 

I still can't believe how blue the water really was!

 

In Luang Prabang everything shuts down 11.30 pm. When bars are closed people go to bowling. The bowling center is in the middle of jungle, out of town. They sell alcohol and people can bowl if they want to (2e/round) :D That was funny experience.

                                    

Utopia is well known among backpackers. Actually I think it's the only bar with people in Luang Prabang :D It's crowded everyday and night. Nice environment to hang out at day and night.

It's quite hard to find cheap food in LPB. They have only one alley by the Night Market where they all sell the same food. 10 000 kip one plate of vegetarian food. For the first time it's good but the second and third time aren't that good. The food is cold and isn't that tasty. BUT you can also buy barbecue meat and fish which are very good and cheap !

After all the must see attractions we wanted to have chill out day. And we got it. They have really nice swimming pool place (again middle of nowhere) but all tuktuk drivers know the way there. Entrance fee is 20k kip plus 50k deposit.

Everynight after sunset they build a night market and they sell cheap handcrafts and clothes.

                                      They have plenty of temples in LPB but we only visited one.. I think they are all SAME SAME, but not so different.

Walking around we found this cool Music school. They have volunteers who teach children play the instruments for free! I played some drums and piano with one local kid. Definitely worth to visit if you like that kind of stuff.

We were stuck in LPB for 7 days because it took 5 days to process our visas to Vietnam. When we finally got them we booked a bus from LPB to Nonh Khiew and took a long tail boat to Muang Ngoi.

This is my fashion outfit when I'm traveling. Maxi skirt, sneakers and Texas hoodie <3

                                  

We were almost sure that we are going to drown and die :D

This is the main street in Muang Ngoi. They don't have any roads. It was nice and different after LPB. 

We stayed only one night there (60k=6e). This is our view from the bungalow :) not bad at all.

Next destination was Muang Khua.  It took 4 hours from Muang Ngoi. They had board on the wall that minimum is 10 people on the boat and we were only five so we had to pay 100k+50k extra. 

In Muang Khua we knew that the bus leaves from there but we had no clue what time. We asked around but people were saying different times.. In the end we finally made sure that the bus supposed to leave around 11 o'clock. 

Well.. It didn't. Or it did but it was already full so we had to wait 3 hours the next one. Luckily there was room for us!

Boarder crossing from Laos to Vietnam was easy and we didn't have to pay any extra fees even though people said we probably should. Bus from Muang Khua to Vietnam Dien Bien Phu took about 4 hours with local bus. (60k) From Dien Bien Phu we got straight away a bus to Sa Pa. And here we are!! 

IT'S FREAKIN COLD HERE! It's probably colder than back home.. People are wearing winter jackets. 

More about Vietnam in next post!

<3

I ❤️ Pai

So we rented motorbikes from Chiang Mai and drove 130km all the way to Pai. It has been one of the best decisions so far! People said that the ride takes about 3-6 hours. But our trip took 9 hours. Oops. :D We saw incredible views all the time. We were driving between the mountains up and down. From Chiang Mai to Pai there are 762 curves. 

Motorbike rent with insurance was only 140baht (less than 4euros) and the company (aya service) takes your luggage to Pai for free and you can just leave the motorbike there too! (They lost my passport for a few days but thank god I got it back!

We heard that Spicypai is place to stay so we all went there. We had a big group from Chiang Mai and we all stayed in same place and that was cool.

The dorm bed was 150baht and it includes breakfast. The dorm was so cool! Different compared to other places where we've stayed. There were no windows or doors. And it's freezing cold at night but still nice and different experience.

Spicypai is really social hostel. 

The views are incredible. Rice field and mountains!

We did almost all the attractions what they have there. We visited some hot springs and geysir (200baht) 

and drove around the city with motorbikes went to see Pai Canyon which is worth to visit,

 some waterfalls and some temples.

 They also had nice place where to swim and sunbath called Fluid (60baht) 

We wanted to try some white water rafting which was once again one of our best decisions on this trip! It cost 1200baht (30euros) and included insurance, lunch, snack, drinking water, pick up and all the equipment. We had 2 GoPros so we got so good videos and pictures!! I really recommend to try it. 

We both loved Pai! It was just what I wanted Chiang mai to be!! So beautiful nature and athmosphere was chilled and still if you want you can do so many things! I think Pai is my favourite place in Thailand!

❤️