We arrived in Hanoi at around 3 pm however we didnt get to our hostel until about 7. It was one of those travel days. The immigration line was actually great and went very fast. The main issue was baggage claim. The bags were just taking absolutely ages and then there was a blockage which caused all the dads to get on the conveyor belt which then set off an alarm and caused all of the belts to stop. Once it actually started again it took another 20 or so minutes to come out. The next challenge we faced was money. Which was very difficult as all the atms were out of money.  This was causing a lot of issues as people only had their cards. Luckily we had decided to get out a bit of USD as we needed some for the Laos visa. But we didnt need them in the end. This made it easy for us to get a couple million out to get into town. (I would defo recommend getting some out if your heading to south east Asia makes life a lot easier in a situation like that) Hanoi airport is about an hour out of the city. So we got a grab which took a sec due to how busy the airport was due to Tet. But eventually we ended up in Hanoi old town, all checked into our hostel. We had planned to meet with our friends from home for dinner. This was great we ate at little Hanoi which came to be one of our favourite spots. The people running it were great and it was nice and cheap. After that we headed to bed.

We decided to meet Amelia for breakfast. We headed to a nearby cafe where i had my first egg coffee and banh mi. They were both really good the Vietnamese coffee scene is unmatched. We spent the rest of the day jumping between some cafes and hitting up the cool shops in Hanoi it’s a really cool city. We went to pho 10 for dinner which is the Michelin awarded pho restaurant. I recommend it. That was basically the end of our day. On the way home we saw a board game shop and picked up monopoly deal. This was the start of our competitive tournament.

The next day we had booked onto a coffee making course. Of course this was right up my street and i really enjoyed the process of learning the new techniques and differences in the cafe and coffee culture. We drank a selection of v60 and phin coffee. We then turned the coffees in egg,salted and coconut coffee. It was very interesting and something i will make when im back in the UK. The afternoon i spent wondering around with my camera taking photos. It is a really awesome place for street photography. The locals are very friendly are happy to have their photos taken. Here’s a few of my shots. The evening was spent exploring the area by the river and dinner at little Hanoi. The food was so good. And the area we were staying has some incredible architecture. 

Our 4th day was more of a chill day we had breakfast at the hostel then headed over to a cool area with lots of stationary stores and other shops. We spent the morning there and had a great time. The afternoon we headed to banh mi 26. It’s a great banh mi although not the best we would have in the whole of Vietnam. We then headed to train street early afternoon. We chilled and played monopoly deal then had some dinner and watched the train pass through. It takes a few hours to come but the time spent waiting was really nice, we spent some time talking to some Germans sat next to us who had just finished the ha Giang loop which was what we were doing next. The train was pretty incredible. Here’s some pics.

Today we were planning on doing a cooking course. I was really excited for this as we were heading to a proper wet market. We got to meet some locals and do a bit of haggling. Would recommend definitely the best one we’ve done so far. We cooked pho, bun cha and summer rolls. Bun cha was incredible, it’s by far my favourite meal in Hanoi. I enjoyed it a lot. The pho was also great although it is a very difficult recipe to make at home as it involves like 10 hours of cooking. Maybe I’ll try it one day. Once we had finished the course. We got dropped back at train street and realised the train was only like 5 minutes away so we watched the train again. I got some really great photos, i was super happy with what I got. In the evening we met Amelia for the last time to have some dinner before they headed down Vietnam and we went onto ha giang. Here’s some of the photos i took.

Today was another chill morning we headed to the note cafe which was really cool we wrote some notes, had a coffee then had a walk around the lake and headed into the temple on the lake. It was really cool we got to see the turtles that live in the palace and then had a coffee in the afternoon. We chilled out in the afternoon playing pool and other games. We were heading to beer street with some school friends. It was a great time and such a wild place it’s basically pedestrianised apart from sometimes massive vans decide to drive through. It was a cool place. We then headed to a crazy bar like 5 floors up in the middle of the bar street it was cool we stayed there for a bit then it was time for bed at about 2am.

I don’t really have anything to report for this day. We woke up pretty late. We did  some planning for the ha Giang loop and got some stuff we would need. But after that just general mooching and coffee shops before having some dinner at little Hanoi. Ready for our last day in Hanoi. 

Our last day in Hanoi, we spent at the Ho Chi Minh museum. It was a cool experience and taught us a lot about Vietnamese history. It was more ceremonial than the one we would visit in Saigon city but that was cool. I had to rent some trousers in order to enter. We then took a night bus to ha giang in the evening for what would be the most incredible experience of the trip so far. Although the journey there wasn’t the best experience. 

heres a few extra photos from Hanoi:

we arrived in Vientiane at around mid to late afternoon. Once we were off the train we had to head into town. The train station was a bit out of the main city so we had to take a pretty rough bus into the main area of the city. There was about as many people as you can imagine on this bus and then they also filled the aisle up with chairs too. Instead of asking everyone to pay the 30k charge to the city centre when getting on, they decided to make all 30/40 of us pass our money to the front and obviously not everyone had the correct so then the lady was passing change back. That went about as well as you can imagine.

Once we had made it to the hostel we checked in and then headed out to explore we walked over to look at the Thailand boarder which was pretty cool. Along the front by the river was also a cool night market selling the standard selection of night market things. We then headed back into the town and headed to the famous pizza place everyone suggested we go to. The town itself has mostly a selection of western food and then a seafood night market. We didn’t wanna eat here however due to the fact that laos is a land locked country… the pizzas were really good though we enjoyed a lot. In the evening we just headed to the hostel to chill. 

The next day, we headed over to the national museum. It was pretty good we enjoyed looking around at the history of Laos. A country that i would say a lot of people don’t know much about. Such as the impact of the Vietnam war. I think this is mainly due to Laos not allowing tourism until 1990 which meant that it was really on many peoples map. Once we had done that we shared a tuk tuk with a German couple as the museum was quite far out and only one tuk tuk was available. They were heading to the big Buddhist temple which is a significant cultural building in Laos due to its survival while Lao was being heavily bombed in the Vietnam war. It was awesome and a really beautiful Building. I was able to be blessed by a monk and received a bracelet that i still have on. The afternoon we had a look around some of the cafes and found a really cool one. They had jenga which we decided to play and actually completed it. Pretty cool ill drop a picture down below. In the evening we went to the tipsy elephant bar and watched the sunset. It was cool and we saw the sun drop over into Thailand.  We then went to a smash burger spot which was genuinely really good. Possibly the best I’ve ever had, before heading back to the hostel for bed. 

We weren’t in Vientiane very long so today was the day that we were leaving to go to Hanoi a destination i was so excited for. In the morning we grabbed a coffee and then had a look around the Vientiane uxo centre. Again it was super interesting and really highlighted the impact American bombing had on the development of Laos even to this day. Once wed done that we went for a quick bit of lunch before it was time to go to the airport. The taxi to the airport was definitely running on what i like to call “Laos time” and we were REALLY late to the  airport. However it all worked out and we were able to make the flight into Hanoi. I will now start on my Vietnam blogs. Not gonna lie it is gonna take a while we are in Vietnam for a month and a half.

Vang Vieng is probably the smallest town we went to in Laos. It sits in the centre of the country and is known as the adventure capital and the cheapest place to go hot air ballooning in the world which is cool. Outside of all cool attractions and adventure stuff the town is really small and there’s not too much To do. Which is fine but came to be the reason I didn’t love vang vieng as you can’t always be bungee jumping or para motoring.

The first day we just went to a restaurant as it was that kinda time after we had checked into our hostel which was not as advertised but it was fine. The crux of it was they give out free beer per 5 star review so there reviews way out way how good it actually is, anddddd we were in a 40 dorm room with only 2 toilets when we booked an 8 person one which never existed. But compared to the other hostels around in vang vieng it was defo better which is crazy lol.

Our first full day in vang vieng we rented a buggy to go to the lagoons. It was SUPPPER fun we went with our friend Lucy. The buggy was automatic and the Laotians drive on the opposite side of the road. So it was very different to what we were used to in England but we a managed and it was a great time i really enjoyed driving it. The lagoons were really cool. We went to the second one first which was was underrated and nice and quiet. It had a swing, zip line into the water and a 10m diving board which was pretty wild. I then drove us to the 3rd lagoon which is the famous one. It’s a bit more built up with like a shop and restaurant and a lot more people. It was cool and the vibe was very jungle bamboo vibe. This one also has a cave which is horrifying. I don’t know how to describe it other than a hole into the centre of the earth. It was honestly so dangerous. Lucy went in fairly deep and said once you were in there it was really hard to find which way you came from as there were multiple passages and none of them were marked. I did go into the main chamber by the door and it was COMPLETELY pitch black. It’s crazy how no one has got lost in there before as loads of people were going in.The rest of the day was spent chilling before we had 7-11 for dinner. You can’t go wrong. 

The next day was our most empty day. We didn’t really have anything planned so we started our day going for breakfast at naked espresso which is a bit of a chain, i think just in Laos but not sure. I had a omelette and grace had a smoothie plus cereal.  The coffee was pretty  good too for a chain. We walked around the town for a bit of the morning having a little explore in the town. We then decided that we would go to the nam xay viewpoint. It is described as a hike but its really a scramble up one of the steepest hills. It was so so worth it though and the view at the top was incredible and of course we went onto the motorbike up top and took some pics before heading back down into town for a bit of lunch at the green cafe. I had falafel which was so great. The more western foods here are always so good. We played a lot of uno in the afternoon as regular cards are not allowed in Laos. We then went to Garys Irish pub for dinner where we had bangers and mash and i had a Guinness too. As you expect it was quite expensive but honestly so worth it, really hit the spot. The next day we were  doing a zip lining and canoeing which was exciting.

We got picked up at 9 for our action tour thing. We met loads of friendly people in the truck on our way there but the tour was terribly managed but a great time. We didnt actually get to the zip lining until 11 which was honestly crazy but it was funny and the people we met were all laughing too so it was a good way to connect. Although 2 people decided to leave before we started lol. On the way there a stray dog jumped into the back and chilled for a second before jumping out when we stopped to pick up the kayak that had been thrown off the top of the truck when we went under a bridge. The zip lining was really fun but also pretty terrifying, it was split into 4 parts. The first one was about 100m and pretty chill. Then i saw the second one which was 350m or so and probably the same distance if not more down. This one was so crazy and i was not excited to do it. But actually once i was strapped in i was excited and did enjoy it. The other 2 were pretty similar lengths and heights and before long it was all over which was a bit sad as it was really fun. We then had a quick break before heading to the kayaking spot. By this point it was about 1pm which was when the tour was meant to end, but because we had been so delayed we still had our other activity to do but no lunch to be had. The kayaking was a great time we headed down the Mekong for about an hour or 2 before arriving at the beach that was right next to our hostel which was handy. In the afternoon we headed to big mamas roadside sandwich, which are a famous part of vang vieng. The sandwiches are pretty good i do have to recommend. The rest of the day was just spent chilling and getting ready to head to Vientiane tommorow.

As i just said, today is a travel day to Vientiane. We just chilled in naked espresso for the morning and then took a tuk tuk to the awesome train station. We then boarded and headed off to our final stop in Laos, Vientiane!

Taith is an awesome small hold roastery in East Sussex. They produce a select few coffees that they have personally sourced. They handle their coffees very transparently and have a great selection of information on their website for each individual coffee. This is something I think is really important and helps connect a buyer to the farmer who produced the coffee. This is the coffee I decided to buy.

Quebraditas 

Varietal- Orange Bourbon 

Flavour profile- Orange zest, nectarine, peach 

Process- Double anaerobic washed 

Country- Columbia 

Thoughts:

This is one of the most impressive coffees I’ve drank in a while. I think the anaerobic process really helped to bring out the intense fruity notes of the orange bourbon. It had a great marmaladey flavour that was really enjoyable. It was very intense when brewed in V60 I think this would help it bridge the gap for people who normally don’t like fruitier coffees as it allows them to experience something darker and intense while still be an intresting and new experience away from a normal chocolatey Columbian.

I’m really glad I was able to try this coffee Edison Argote is a really inspiring farmer who producers some really impressive coffees in his time. I’m really excited to see what he comes up with next. If your intrested in seeing what he’s up to he is on instagram and is fairly active.