Colourful Laos and Vietnam

Thanks to Mrs. Lien Tran from IZItour we had an unforgettable holiday in Laos and Vietnam! From the beginning of our first inquiry she was the most helpful and nice and polite sales woman, I experienced through our more than 40 years of travelling! She helped us to tailor our five weeks according to our interests in ethnic people, landscapes and cultural visits to the most important sights of these two countries.
In our program we had trekking to the local people of North-Laos, which was quite stressful on the way and with very low comfort in the villages. If you are interested in more colorful pictures of the people you should make it until Phongsaly, as we were not so lucky with the very shy people between Mokok Noi - Chapiew Luang and Ban Mouchee (three days multi-ethnic trek, tribal villages of Akha pala, Akha Erpa and Akha Mouchee). But we enjoyed a lot boating on the rivers in both countries, as well sightseeing of different limestone caves - sometimes we were the only visitors! Luang Prabang for sure was on our program as well - but it is not typical for Laos! It is a bit crowded already, because there are so many visitors from raund the world. It reminded me to Bali visits some years ago...
The train in Laos was a quite nice experience of travelling confortable. The railway line was opened only five months ago, is very well organized and gives you an idea of Chinese organisation.
In Vietnam we loved to go around in the very green Mekong-delta: cycling, boating and taking pictures. And joining cooking lessons at the homestay. Or manufacturing lotusflowers, made from paper.
In Hoi An and Hue we were impressed by the wonderful historical buildings as well as by cultural shows like The Hoi An Memories Show or the Vietnamese Bamboo Circus, which reminded us of the artists from Cirque du soleil.
Maybe you decide not to take the nighttrain from Hue to Hanoi - we could not sleep because of too many stations, where the train stopped and went on with a lot of jerking. And if you have to share the compartment with a foreigner who snores really loud...? Think it over twice.
Hanoi was different to Ho Chi Minh City, which we liked more, but was a good place to start our tour to the most northern part of Vietnam. Once again we were on the road to get nice pictures of the people living there and enjoyed the fantastic limestone formations. On all our stops during the weeks we had affordable hotelrooms, each very clean and functional - and sometimes with really luxurious interior. For example an electric toilet with such a lot of buttons, which were so complicated to manage, that we preferred the flush-button only.
What else to tell? Food is very nice, everywhere. We like to eat like the locals, and where the travel agency had booked lunch for us in advance, we had our own chillies with us, because in Vietnam they think, foreigners love to eat without spices! In Laos this was quite different - there we had to decide, if we wanted very strange food from the nightmarket as chicken feet in very hot soup or maybe some insects... But noodle soup is available everywhere! And we love all these markets, which are very colourful and sell fruits, you will dream of, when back in Europe. And they sell turtles and toads, we cannot think of cooking - but this is Asia!
Ba Be was our retreat after weeks of touring through hilly and mountainous areas, foggy or sunny weather. Staying there once again in a private guesthouse with lovely hosts we would have liked more time to stroll through the ricefields.
The luxurious cruise in Lan Ha Bay was our last stop on the program, so we had to head back to Hanoi. We would have preferred a simpler way of cruising, than the four stars boat – but the room with the balcony was quite nice! Only the program of this 2-days/1 night cruise was a bit poor in our eyes: each day only cruising for one hour, and the two trips to the limestone caves did not impress us after the big ones we have seen in the north. However – if you are for the first time in a landscape like there in Lan Ha Bay, it will be an unforgetable experience to you!
So for both countries and the marvelous planning by Mrs. Lien Tran from IZItour it is considered: Any time again!