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Well it has been exactly a month since my last post which makes me a fairly crap blogger. Plus I am on the worst keyboard known to man (one of those coin operrated interrnet/phone things in Bangkok airport - so at least I'm dedicated!) so my usual high levels of spelling and grammar might not be reached today ;).
So from Chiang Mai we went to Pai on a hair raising mountainous bus journey and spend a day moped-ing around the place on a little green scooter which I fell in love with. Only a small number of near death experiences, nothing more than your average cycle round london. which reminds me - must replace my stolen bike with a moped on return. pictures will be up soon attesting to how brilliant i look in crash helmet. ahem.
the return journey to Chiang Mai can be summed up in a few words: the bus was so packed i had to sit on the floor next to SICK. for four hours.
then we decided to journey to laos. this involved a two day slow boat down the mekong to the ancient capital of luang prabang. as no trip would be complete without a flurry of panic, i first realised i had left my towel drying in the thai sun and then convinced myself i had left my SLR behind. the towel was a tragedy (being an amazing fast drying micro magic towel); the camera was just me being a tit as it as on my knee. the towel, i actually got back as someone transported it across boarders for me and a happy reunion it was too.
the slow boat was just that, slow, uncomfortable and dull. the views that began as quite pretty, turned pretty samey and the sheer number of times we played cheat/bulls*** had me feeling like a mind reader by the second day. i should really play more poker.
overnight we did not stay on are boat - good job as it was more of a motorised raft - we stopped in pak beng. we were told this town was VERY dangerous and we would probably be robbed or at the vey least riped off. (this advice given to us by a man we later found to be a lying con artist trying to make tourists get his s***ty bus instead of the boat). pak beng was a little dingy but nothing worse. far from being ripped off we payed about a pound each for a room. ok, later that night i was woken by a roach to the face (which between us, mike and i managed to murder and flush down the toilet in the dark - the perfect crime!). i also befriended two tiny kittens and tried to give them horrible over-treated milk i bought in the shop when they aready had a mummy cat. (would make more sense if you were there i think...)
we arrived in Luang prabang and went to the sisterr hostel of where we stayed in Chiang Mai - Spicy Laos. It was a good hostel but very overpriced - especially in laos where you can get a private double room for abouut 3 quid - andd i couldnt help feel a bit ripped off. it was a good place to meet people though. the day we arrived we went bowling. the less said about that the better. and to a disco where i got my feet trodden on by a lady boy in heels.
then i left the people i had been travelling with and went off on my own to do a trek to meet some hilltribes. joined 3 danish, a swede and a canadian for the two days which was half hiking, half kayaking. didnt much like these scandinavians it must be said but had a great time, watched our guides pull down a honey comb from a tree and ate honey sraight from it and meet hundreds of kids who wanted their photo taken and stayed with a hill tribe in a village full of baby animals. on the down side there was no toilet or electricity and we had to go to bed when the sun did - at half 7.
the next day, in my infinite wisdom i got cross with the sexism i perceived from our guides who didnt want me to lead a kayak with another girl in. They tried to insist we each went with a guide but i put my foot down, explaning i had done this loadsa times and was great! Ipromptly flipped the boat over in the first rapids. which i maintain was great fun and could have happened to anyone. and i navigated the rest of the rapids fine, we even came third. (even if the race was only in my head).
then i went on to vang vieng which is a ridiculous little town that seems to exist solely so that western backpackers cann sit in big rubber rings and 'tube' down a river stopping along the way to get drunk on laolao wiskey in the noisy river side bars and cause themselves as much bodily harm as possible jumping off rope swings half-cut. needless to say i enjoyed it immensely. met and shared a room with two great american girls and spent the evenings watching friends in all the weird road side bars that all had the box sets on repeat.
then vientiane, the laos capital, wasnt as boring as i had expected but certinly no bangkok. met a french guy and we went to the big statue park and climbed on some buddahs. it was strange but pretty cool.
i crossed the boarder back into thailad at nong khai - determined to do it myself i got the local transport to the brige and sat next to a little laos girl who told me i was lovely. i told her she was lovely too. it was a nice moment. i actualy crossed the boarder without too much trouble and met an interesing english guy in the tuk tuk to my hostel. he was a film maker making films about indigenous peoples and shamans in northerrn thailand and had begun working withh an NGO to protect their way of life. i told him i was a journo and he's goig to put me in touch with some contacts in Northern Vietnam who are doing similar things which might yeild and interesing human interest story..
Nong Khai as a town itself was really nice, surprising for a boarder town. i rented a cycle bike and whizzed off in the boilig sunshine to their local sculpture park whihc was bloody amazing full of giant concrete buddahs and 7 headed serpents made of masses of reinforced cement. had mango annd sticky rice for lunch and began a continuing obsession with the wonder that is sticky rice. i cannot stress how sticky it is. made friends that night and drank too much chang beer which, in comparison with beerlao, is a dirty dirty drink and i hate it! the day before (still determined to do eveything BY MYSELF) i had cycled to the railway station and bought my overnight train ticket to bangkok (and thanks to my determination to do EVERYTHING BY MYSELF i saved just over a tenner). So i got myself to the train station very excited about my overight sleeper far too early and ran into mike who i had travelled to laos with and a couple of girls from spicy laos. we drank chang again. yuck. my upstairs bed actually pretty comfy and i asked the attendant to wake me up last. as it happened i woke up at half 5 anyway, rather worse for wear and headed off to the kaoh sarn road to find my hotel. adam's flight was on time and i met him at the airport without a hitch.
and now, beaches, elephants, waterfights and riots later im back at the same aiport, have sent him on his way and am awaiting for my check in to fly to hanoi. Althoug we had no problems at all in bangkok and actualy probably saw more of the city while it was in its state of emergency than before, i cant help but be glad im on my way out of it. it feels a bit like a ticking time bomb and although most thais seem to be ignoring it and carrying on with business (or water fights) as usual, im not sure what will happen in this country in the next few weeks.
as for elephants, monkeys, beaches and waterfights...they'll be in the next installment. if you've managed to read this to the end and not skippd through you've done well! now...to Vietnam!
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