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Hello everyone, Nikki here!
Well what to say about Laos?! We've had a fantastic experience, which we'll try to cram into this single blog so apologies in advance for the length of this entry.....
Here goes! We got the slow boat from Chiang Kong into Luang Prabang which was an experience and one which I NEVER want to do again!! The journey along the Mekong River was very pictureque but the benches on the boat were wooden and about 30 cm wide so the whole journey was spent attempting to sit comfortably and shade ourselves from the blistering heat! We've never been so happy so get somewhere!
Luang Prabang was a lovely, lazy town but we'd made the mistake of booking a hostel in advance online before we'd seen the rooms. Our room was like insect-ville and when we entered our room, the first thing we noticed was a huge, green spider on the mirror, to which the employee showing us to our room looked at and exclaimed "Surprise!" Additionally, the lobby of the hostel was packed with party animals arriving from Vientiane who asked us "Do you guys like to party, are you hardcore?" Needless to say, we moved to a quieter, cleaner guesthouse the next night and were much happier there!
We'd met a big group of people on the slow boat who we ended up getting friendly with and travelling through much of Northern Laos with and who made the experience all the more memorable! In Luang Prabang, all 13 of us travelled together to a waterfall 25km out of town for one of the days we were there and, for me, this was the highlight of my time in Laos. There were numerous water-holes where you could swim and dive off the waterfalls into the turquoise-blue water and our group were lucky enough to have one of the pools entirely to ourselves. Our blog photo was taken there and every time I look at it, I remember what an amazing day we had!
We also really liked the market in Luang Prabang which was so much more chilled than those in China and Thailand so you could actually look at everything without calls of "you buy?" every two seconds. The handicrafts and clothes on sale were beautiful and one night after a few beers, we decided to all buy a pair of fisherman trousers each so the next day we headed out with matching outfits! Losers! The restaurants and cafes in Luang Prabang were also lovely, albeit slightly more expensive than we had thought, the only down point was the curfew applied in the town, hence after around 10.30pm it became like a ghost town!
From Luang Prabang, our group got a minibus together to Vang Vieng, which we thereafter referred to as "the Ibiza of the East!" It's a crazy, crazy city full of stoned or drunk Western teenagers wearing very little and living it up! Not quite our scene but we had fun nonetheless! By day, the town is dead but if you look into any of the numerous cafes off the main drag, there are hordes of hungover tourists stretched out on the beds available there watching episodes of Friends or Family Guy. The afternoon brings the commencement of 'Tubing' (more on this to come) and in the evening you can see flocks returning from Tubing mumbling and stumbling, soaked to the skin and covered in permanent marker!
We were intrigued! So we headed out in our crowd the next day to experience Tubing for ourselves! Tubing is essentially floating down the river in a huge rubber ring, however, aside the river are numerous bars where you are thrown a rope and dragged into for a 'bucket' or two. Each of these bars have their own swings, zip wires and chutes from which you can re-enter the river in a slightly less sober state! We spent so long at the first couple of bars we had to rush down the river to ensure we got our tubes back on time. Despite our reservations, much fun was had by all!!
Our next stop was Vientiane where we spent a couple of nights which included the night of my birthday! Vientiane was a lovely city with grand buildings which had a distinctly French feel, as well as many quaint little lanes and cafes. For my birthday, Craig had booked me in to get a manicure and a massage which was lovely and a welcome break from being on the move all the time. We'd also bought a cake from the Scandinavian Bakery where we'd been very impressed with the pastries we'd had for lunch each day. However, the cake turned out to be pretty gross! It looked like chocolate but inside it was cherry jam and peanuts - not a good combination!
The final day in Vientiane, we took a very long walk to their replica L'Arc de Triomphe which was beautiful and provided a stunning view over the whole of the City. We also passed a Laos PwC on the way which, of course, I had to get my picture outside! As well as the great food in Vientiane, we also had lovely drinks called Ladybugs from the Full Moon Cafe, as recommended by our Ozzie friends.
From Vientiane, we got the overnight bus to Pakse which was luxurious compared to the buses we'd got in China and subsequently in South East Asia. We had an actual double bed with lots of leg room and the tour company threw in an egg-fried rice with sweeties for dessert!! The only weird thing was that if you were travelling on your own, you were given a double bed to share with another single traveller. We had a couple next to us, male and female, who had just met and were sharing a bed for the night! Brings a whole new meaning to a one night stand!
As soon as we arrived in Pakse, we headed straight to a little place called Tad Lo which is nestled in the hills and houses farm villages, waterfalls and beautiful countryside. After a night there, we headed further South to the Four Thousand Islands, finding a guesthouse in Don Khon. The guesthouse was lovely, called Pakha Guesthouse, run by an older lady who saw to our every need! The food their was also amazing with huge portions and we found ourselves eating there almost every night!
We decided to get bicycles and cycle around the island which we'd heard takes around 2 hours and as we rode away from villages and cafes and generally from civilisation, the heavens opened and an almighty monsoon began! We've never been more wet in our entire lives. The road became a torrent of rain and the more we cycled, the more into the wilderness we ventured with no sign of getting back! It was an experience but I certainly don't want to encounter anything like that again!
Another unique experience we had in Don Khon was when we had a little 'visitor' to our room during the night in the form of a hungry rat who tried to steal a packet of oreos from our desk. We were awoken with the sound of the oreos falling and whilst Craig tried to usher our unwelcome guest back out into the street, I stood quivering on a chair and instructed him to remove any shred of food we had in the room. Needless to say, we slept with the light on for the rest of the night!
Laos overall was a very laid back, beautiful country where we had some really awesome experiences. Onwards to Cambodia......
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