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Sabaidee!
I have to admit, we are in Chang Mai, Thailand..but I have already written this once when I was ACTUALLY in Laos and the stupid computer broke so I am backdating!
Well, I hope everyone is well at home. I keep getting told that the weather is lovely in England and its quite wet here now so I should probably stop gloating! We tend to have hot mornings here, rain mid day and then slightly cooler afternoons (by slightly cooler I still mean about 30 degrees!).
So last time we were on here we were in Singapore. From there we had an uneventful flight to Bangkok. We were only in Bangkok for 3 days and we are going back there so I wont talk about it much now...suffice to say it is -hands down- the craziest place I have ever been in my life!
From Bangkok we got a sleeper train up to Nong Khiaw on the Lao/Thai border. It was a suprisingly comfy nights sleep, we had air-con and were in 2nd class. The most bizzare thing was waking up in the morning and looking out of the window too see miles of paddy fields. Our trip was made more interesting by the fact we were sharing a cabin with a thai bride with a 62 year old English husband who kept tring to sell us strip joints and 'lovely' guesthouses they knew. After Kho San road we were more than aware of what 'lovely' guesthouses might mean so we politely declined and grabbed a tuk tuk to the border. After having parted with a considerable sum at the Lao border (immigration wanted bloody overtime for 3 O clock in the afternoon!) we made it to Laos capital 'Vientiane'.
Vientiane is the least capitallal-aly city I have ever been to. It is very charming, has some nice restaurants (also some food poisoning- inducing ones) and the guesthouses arent shabby for 3 pounds. However it is really really quiet. Other than the constant hum of tuk tuks and street vendor bells there is nothing. Vientiane is known as the village of villages and it is patently clear why, the centre isnt much bigger than the centre of Bracknell. This is, however, the only thing comparable to Bracknell. The city is very nice and the people are nicer (not that I am saying there arent nice people in Bracknell!). There was plenty to do in Vientiane. We went to Wat Si Saket, which is a beautiful temple surrounded by thousands of Buddha's. It is the oldest temple in Vientiane and the only one not to be destroyed in the various sackings of the city. We also went to Patuxai which is the Laos 'Arc de triumphe'. Also known as the 'verticle runway' it was built with cement donated by the Americans, intended for a new runway. Laos, being a forward thinking country, decided instead that a massive arch in the centre of town was far more fitting. You can also climb to the top of Patuxai and see fantastic views of the city (which probably justifies building it I think!). We drank plenty of BeerLao by the Mekong, and Laos; being a former French colony, love baguettes which makes a nice change from noodles or rice...or noodles and rice.
Moving on from Vientiane we got the rather excitingly names 'VIP' bus (which really just means you get seats) to Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a random street in the middle of Northern Laos that has been run by backpackers since the hippy trail. It is so laid back it is verticle and is full of bars, restaurants and guesthouses. We stayed in a cheap (read:basic) bamboo hut with a stunning view over the Nam Song and Limestone peaks. We spent 5 days here just chilling out mainly, which was nice after a frenetic couple of weeks. We drank more BeerLao and enjoyed the rather naff 'friends bars' in town which are bar/restaurants with comfy seats and re-runs of friends on the tv. They are an absolute hit with backpackers which is odd considering you are in Laos and doing something that can be done on channel 4 at home. Either way we became cretins for a few days and ate looots more noodles. Probably the best thing we did in Vang Vieng was tubing. This basically involves being given a tractor tyre inner tube and being driven by a tuk tuk a few kilometres up the river. Then being left there and floating back down. This experience is 'furthered' by providing about 20 bars along the way. Every now and then a rope is thrown out, and you get dragged in and given free Lao Lao (rice whisky), and then maybe a couple of BeerLao's. What starts out fairly sedately, soon turns into carnage with people falling off tubes, missing exits and floating off without their mates and just general drunken crazyness but with a tube and a (suprsingly strong) river. It was great fun though and we ended up attached to a group of guys from Sunderland who knew how to drink! Luckily we didnt end up being swept away and spent the next day recovering in front of Friends.
From here we got a 7 hour bus journey up to Luang Prabang, which is probably the worst journey we have done yet. It was long, there was pretty much no straight stretches of road, we got a flat tyre, at one point it rained so hard that the road became a river and yet the driver continued despite not being able to see out of the window and to top it off me and Tom were trying to not to drink for fear of having to go to the loo by the side of road (we keep hearing horror stories about not being able to go into the bushes because of unexploded bombs (Laos is the most heavily bombed country ever)), but we made it one piece and considering what we paid for the priveledge, probably shouldnt moan. Luang Prabang is an incredibly beautiful old french city in the middle of the mountainous north Laos. It is completely surrounded by emerald mountains and the mighty Mekong runs through the middle. It is a UNESCO world heritage sight and so it is heavily protected and has some fantastic architecture. It is also know as the city of golden spires, and has about 30 'Wats' in the city. Here we did a hell of alot of walking and photo taking. We went to the beautiful Wat Xieng Thong, with its sweeping ceiling and incredible wall painting from the 13th century. We climbed up to Phu Si, which is a hill temple in the middle of the city that gives incredible views of Luang Prabang. We went to a few of the other Wats and the also the Royal Palace which is also a museum. One room of the museum houses lots of gifts from other countries and included beautiful ornate japanese vases, rare stones from China and intricate art work from Russia. Tom and I found it hilarious to come across America's contribution which resembled a lego spaceship on a wooden box....very funny! Luang Prabang also had some of the nicest food we have had which varied from Mekong seaweed to the most delicious bakery. We throroughly enjoyed Luang Prabang but after 4 days decided to leave, and get the 2 day slow boat up the Mekong to Huayxai and the Thai border. On our first attempt I literally couldnt rouse myself early enough to leave and so we ended up in Luang Prabang for another day. The next day we did the packing the night before and got up nice and early to get there. We got to the ticket office only for Tom to realise he didnt have enough cash on him. The only cash point in Luang Prabang doesnt open until after the boat leaves and so we end up in Luang Prabang another day! Third time lucky we made it onto the boat for our serene 2 days going up the river. Well, it wasnt exactly serene in the end but it was interesting. Because we were going the opposite way to most backpackers most of the people on the boat were Lao...this included them, their rice (which was generally twice the size of them!), their babies and their animals. We were all piled onto wooden benches or the floor, it was uncomfortable but fun. The boat only broke down twice and it was priceless looking out to watch the villages going about their lives; bathing in the river and fishing. We stopped for an uneventful night in Pakbeng where we just crashed out and the after 21 hours sat on our (extremely numb by this point) bums, we made it to the Thailand.
Foward another boat and bus and we made it to Chang Mai.
Finally!
Which brings us up to date! Well, that was an absolute mission to write so I hope it was fairly interesting to read. As always we miss you all lots. Keep in touch on the wall or emails and I will be back blogging soon (or you may even get treated to one of Toms delights)(although I doubt it as he hates writing them!).
Take Care, check out the ew photos...
Captain Liz and First Mate Tom xxx
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