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Sabai Dee from Laos!
Our journey here started with a night bus ride from hell - which concluded with a successful boarder crossing into Laos from Thailand, but unfortunately a very unwell Al. The bus itself appeared to be quite comfortable, with constant snacks provided from the on board hostess (uniform and hat to boot) who kept us well stocked up on sugar based snacks and fluid. Even the chairs reclined and had a little footrest.... but nothing prepared us for how cold it was on the bus and for 13 hours of sitting still while desperatley trying to sleep on a bumpy long road. Our first experience of the mighty Mekong River was leaving Thailand behind on one boarder and crossing the river on a rickety wooden long tail boat bound for Laos. We were told that 'Laos Time' was even slower than 'Fiji Time', this was soon demonstrated during the lenghty visa process but nothing could take away the pleasure of strecthing our legs and breating normal air... we'll think twice before we take another night bus again!
The biggest highlight of Laos so far has to be the first activity we did here - The Gibbon Experience. We could write about this all day, but in a nutshell it's a conservation project which uses "canopy tourism" to protect the Bokeo Jungle and the wildlife within it - mainly the black crested gibbon. The poor old gibbons became highly endangered due to poaching, hunting and deforestation to their home, but this ingenious initiative has turned this around by employing the best hunters as guides and jungle patrols which is a better income for the families and much better for the gibbons. The basic premise is this: you live in gravity defying tree houses 100ft up and travel throughout the jungle canopy on a series of zip wires, of which some were as high as 200ft up and 1000ft long. In summary: Mental. We stayed for 3 days and 2 nights with a group of 8 like minded adventurers in our tree house and were even lucky enough to even see a gibbon, which isn't a given. It doesn't get much more surreal than having a rain water shower while looking out onto rolling green mountainous hills and hearing the haunting song of the gibbon, the trick here was not to look down through the slatted floor and the 100ft drop below as the water ran away. No amount of adjectives will do this special experience any justice, but we can provide pictures and videos and highly recommend that everyone comes to Laos for this once in their lifetime. We even overcame the masses of leeches of which we both received a few bites, and amazingly Carly swallowed her fear of heights and was able to launch herself out of our tree house before breakfast.
Other highlights of our time in Laos include:
- Chugging by slow boat down the Mekong to the old captial, Luang Probang. Amazingly we managed the 2 day journey on a boat with an engine insulated with dry leaves and bicycle tyres. We also saw our first elephant hauling a log on the bank which was a special moment.
- Temple Trekking throughout Luang Probang and admiring the most magnificnent temple in Laos - built in 1512 and named Wat Xieng Thong.
- Watching the people of LP offer sticky rice to the monks in order to receive a blessing (picture 100's of monks in their saffron coloured robes at 5:30am, its quite an sight)
- Being a developing country, a lot of the locals are attempting to learn English to better their employment prospects. There's a really successful scheme called Big Brother Mouse which was set up by a retired American publisher and involvestourists buying books to give out to children instead of money or sweets, and offers volunteers the chance to help local people by reading and talking with them. We spent a couple of hours there chatting to a group of boys aged between 13-23 years old and it was really humbling and fun to spend time with them. Their English was much better than our Laos - Al got into a bit of a pickle while trying to explain what a ponytail was and resorted in drawing a horse with a tail and a human head on its back. We're pretty surer these Laos kids now think there's a mythical creature roaming the hills of England which at first glance looks like a horse but on closer inspection has a human head at the rear. All he can say is sorry Laos...
- Taking on a one day mahout course at the Laos Elephant village which homes ex-loggiong elephants and raises awareness about their cloudy future. With our vast knowledge of elephants we were a little dubious about this trip but are pleased to say we were both very impressed with the whole day and its obvious the elephants are very happy with their lifestyle. The best bit was bathing these big rumped beauties in the river while astride their necks... its still unclear who got more wet - Carly or the elephant. Also, its worth highlighting that while Carly was bonding with her elephants mahout - he mistook her name for Umcarly (she was saying "I'm Carly") and was refeered to as Umcarly for the whole day. Classic.
- Taking part in a renouned cooking class and attampting to make 5 traditional Laos dishes and visited the food market - which is the polar opposite of Tesco. The last time we checked, Tesco's weren't offering baby buffalo feotus, tasty sweet treats affectionately known as Cat Droppings (these were actually pretty good) and magic mushrooms. After spending hours lovingly creating the dishes, we sat down to enjoy them all, apart from one, which ended up down Al's leg and all over the floor after he and the pan had a disagreement (yes this was boiling hot soup, although no lasting burn)
- Meeting lots of cool people, some of whom we're sure will be keepers and are conveniently dotted throughout the world. We're now at the half way point of the trip and its nice to share experiences with people we can call friends as we're missing you all...
We're leaving LP tomorrow by bus and heading to Vientiane, the captial of Laos, for a couple of days before leaving for Cambodia.
Hope all is well
Sohk Dee Der
xx xx
- comments
Mum (Jack) Hi Al and UmCarly - Yet again, another great blog with the odd laugh sprinkled throughout. You've done and seen so much that its brilliant you have the blogs to look back on in the future to help you remember the detail. Have a great time in Vientiane and hope your journey to Cambodia is more comfortable than the night bus experience. Take care and keep safe. Missing you. Lots of Love, Mum (Jack) xx
Mum (Sara) Hi my darlings UmAl and Umcarly - brilliant blog - made me laugh out loud, what sights you are seeing and friends you are making - night bus sounds horrendous - the rest gorgeous - umcarly very impressed with conquering your fear of heights and Al poor you on the bus ride - keep up the brilliant blogging - we are all missing you loads and loads - Lots and lots of love Mum, dad, ruthie laura and clyde xxxxxxx xxxxx
Tim I am annoyed I missed out on Laos as it seems I missed out on so much cool stuff. Instead I spent it on doing buckets in Phi Phi (chav). Looking forward to seeing you guys...its nearly approaching! x
Sar Ha ha, still laughing at umcarly... hope you got to drink some umbongo in the jungle whilst this was happening. We checked out the gibbon experience on tinterweb and it looks wicked, we were particularly impressed with the size of the big spiders that were pictured in the treehouses, if you didnt know that already i suggest you dont look. Take good care of yourselves, miss you both xxxx
karen I love your blog and I love you both I always feel like Im there and now I need to rest !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cant wait for update love Karxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Poppins Brilliant post! You've got me in stitches. At this stage we're all so engrossed in Jungle City that it's easy to occasionally forget the constant adventures of 'Umcarly & Al' on the other side of the world. Your experience with the gibbons makes me want to pack my bags RIGHT NOW! Love it and love that you're clearly both having a brilliant time. Carly we were all thinking of you earlier this month when we won 'Best Integrated Fundraising & Campaigning Organisation' from the Institute of Fundraising. It was humbling to be up against the likes of Oxfam, Greenpeace and the huge and amazing names of the charity sector. So from wherever dodge internet cafe you're reading this you should feel *veryveryveryveryveryveryveryvery* proud. What an amazing job you did last year. We're missing you terribly. xx Ps. Here's a little wee clip of JC so far. 4 weeks to launch date. Remember how that felt... http://programmes.stv.tv/the-hour/health-fitness/family/262350-jungle-city-edinburgh-students-get-involved/ and, http://programmes.stv.tv/the-hour/health-fitness/family/262325-jungle-city-edinburgh-city-centre-to-be-overrun-by-animals/ Pps. Phil Worms of Easyspace wrote to you (and me!) to say: "Having viewed the names of some of the other nominees and winners , you were certainly up against a strong field of major brands and non profits ,which must make doubly proud. If it was down to me I would have awarded you a few more as well! "
Hugh "were even lucky enough to even see a gibbon, which isn't a given". Classic line, I'm using that one.