Photos – Vietnam and Laos
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Nice scenery around Muong Khen, NW Vietnam
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Cycling out of busy Hanoi
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If you look carefully, you can see Pete about to be steam rollered!
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Gerrard, a French cyclist we met coming out of Hanoi, who gave some helpful hints about the road to the border.
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Walking the very narrow plank onto the boat to leave Monkey Island.
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Pete with a monkey!
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Christine with a monkey. They were surprisingly tame.
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Monkey on Monkey Island.
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Monkey Island.
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Bungalows on Monkey Island.
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On the beach on Monkey Island.
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Approaching Monkey Island.
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Cycling on Catba island.
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Vietnamese flat on Halong bay boat.
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Halong Bay.
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Halong Bay at sunset.
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Halong Bay.
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Halong Bay.
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Floating convenience store, Halong bay.
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Our cabin on Halong bay boat.
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Ready, steady, charge!
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We were sitting by the lake in Hanoi watching some couples having wedding shots done when the photographer decided they should use our bikes as a prop! Slightly random but good fun.
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Parking our bikes at the market in Hanoi.
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Vietnamese fruit seller.
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Vietnamese coffee, our favourite.
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Sleeper bus that we had to take from Lao Cai to Hanoi, because of Pete’s infected foot.
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Pete with the X-rays of his feet!
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Hmong village people selling souvenirs in Sapa.
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Sapa market getting going in the morning.
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We hired a moped for the day to explore the hills around Sapa.
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Pete making friends with a Hmong villager trying to sell him a pink top.
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Sapa.
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Good Morning Vietnam! After 7 weeks in China, we were happy for a change.
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Impressive waterfalls near the Cambodian border.
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Sunset over Mekong river from Don Det.
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Longtail boat on the Mekong
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It’s a hard life, but someone has to do it. Relaxing in our bungalow on Don Det.
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Taking our bikes on the short boat ride to the island of Don Det, Laos.
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Caramelized bananas, great food for cyclists!
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Market in Stung Treng, Cambodia
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Live frogs for sale!!
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It was so hot we were tempted to join these water buffalo wallowing in mud
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Roadblock!
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Early morning cycling on dirt road outside of Savannhaket.
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They have these bridges everywhere. Unfortunately the gaps between the planks are just about tyre sized, making for a very unnerving ride over them.
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Monks on their way to receive alms (their food for the day) from the locals, early in the morning
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More monks taking part in the alms giving ceremony
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Bin made out of old tyre. We saw these everywhere in southern Laos and in Cambodia
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School children lined up for registration and assembly
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Monks in Thakhek
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We werent’ quite sure what was going on here – lots of people fishing (we think) but in a small muddy pond. Frog or snake catching maybe?
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Getting a lift to work in the fields
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The lesson here is, don’t leave your bikes loaded up with bags anywhere with kids about, unless you want little fingers investigating your stuff!
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Village hut
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Kong Lor cave. Very cool but very spooky.
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Pushing our boat over a shallow bit in the cave.
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Monk on a bike!
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Temple entrance just outside of Vientiane.
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Vientiane night market, a great place for dinner.
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Wat in Vientiane
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Wat guardian
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Paddling between Vang Vieng and Vientiane
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View from sundeck in Cocoon resort in Vang Vieng.
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As Pete found out when trying to buy sandals, it is often hard to find shoes the right size in this part of the world!
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Sunset in Vang Vieng
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Bananas and a mystery fruit for sale by the side of the road
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Buddhas for sale
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They could really do with sorting out their electricity cable network here.
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Car ferry on Mekong
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Luang Prabang main st in early evening
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Novice monks in Luang Prabang.
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Snakes like these are often seen outside of wats, for protection.
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Cool sunset from wat Chomsi in Luang Prabang
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View from wat Chomsi, Luang Prabang
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Wat being built in Laos.
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We saw these pretty bright flowers everywhere there was water.
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The school run, at 6am. The world gets going early here.
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Small stone barbeque pots that we saw everywhere. Would like to have one back at home but they are very heavy!
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Nongkhiaw bridge
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Scenery around Nongkhiaw
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Bungalows in Nongkhiaw – ours was in the middle!
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Hammock on bungalow balcony. Very nice.
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Thankfully, we didn’t see any tigers!
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Hmong hill tribe village.
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Petrol station, Laos style
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We arrived into this village to find everybody dressed up in their finest, waiting for somebody important to visit (not us!). Shortly afterwards a helicopter buzzed over presumably containing said important person.
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Cute piglets!
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Small local wat, north Laos
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This cow tried a bit too hard to get through the anti-cow fence placed around a tree, and ended up with it stuck on its head! It got it off before long though.
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Nice scenery around Vieng Xay.
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The road to Nameo, at the Vietnam/Laos border
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Typical Vietnamese White Thai ethnic minority village house
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The English teacher in Hoi Xuan, who helped us with directions. He had never met a Westerner before, despite living only 200km from Hanoi.
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Logs being moved downstream.
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We love water buffalo!
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Another typical village stilt house
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A stilt house being built
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The road from Mai Chau to Hoi Xuan
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The final moments of a big beetle. Moments after taking this, it was squashed by a car!
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If you need a broom or a feather duster, these are the ladies to ask.
Christine and Pete's Big Cycling Trip 
Hiya, hope you are both well and enjoying the ride still, I should imagine you will remember me ,,, Im the falling man on the tubing day ! Before I forget,,, THANKYOU for all your help and concern, it meant a lot to me that you came to see how I was, anyway, how long did it take to get the spokes? I grinned and grimmaced my way through the rest of our journey, Shane hired bikes and made the best of it, and I went to hospital when we got back, broke ribs under my left scapula and have a trapped ulna nerve, bit of a nuisance but could have been worse, I have some pics of you on the tubes will try and send them to you. Kev. x
By: kevin playfair on December 7, 2010
at 12:37 pm