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Hello
Its been a while since we last updated but we will try and keep it brief. We got back to Bangkok and checked in to the hotel for the first night of our package tour. Dave met his roommate sean and we walked to the bangkok grand place which was really impressive and much more intricately decorated than the palace in beijing. We met our tour guide, also called dave, and the rest of the group. nearly everyone is a teacher but all mixed ages which has made for a good balance so far and has kept it interesting. We went out for drinks and did a 7-11 crawl down koh san road on the first night. Dave and sean were up late the next day with sore heads which has set the tone for the rest of the trip.
For the first full day we had a tour of the canals in bangkok and went to see a 50m lying buddah, daves favorite wat so far. At the end of the day we went to the train station to board our over night train. We were all impressed with how nice it was. The first day in chaing mai was elephant riding and bamboo rafting. I got to stand at the back and guide the raft which was cool, its just like punting, and there wasn't enough seats on the back of the elephants for our whole group so i luckily got to sit on the elephants head like the guides without a seat! It was scary at the time but i was really lucky to have the chance to do it. We went to Doi suthep temple later and had a guided tour. We were blessed by a monk ( he threw water at us then gave us all bracelets he had weaved from white thread). keri enjoyed the night market which we stayed in until midnight. My card was cancelled due to some dodgey transacations but after phoning up it turns out it was just me trying to take momey out and they reactivated within the hour so no disaster there. Dave went to see thai boxing and thought it was really cool but didn't enjoy seeing the 35kg weights (kids) at the end as much.
From Chaing main we got a mini bus to chaing kong on the mekong river at the laos border. We stopped on the way at the death temple, wat rong khun. It was a beautiful looking modern take on the old temples. It was all white with silver tiles and looked like something out of narnia (you should google it) and also stopped at a cashew nut farm. We stayed one night on the river before going over in to laos and boarding a slow boat down the mekong to luang prabang which took 2 days. We stopped off at pak beng for the night and had our first laos food; beef larp ( sort of minced beef with herbs and vegetables and sticky rice that you eat with your hands) and some laos beer and lao lao whiskey. The two days on the boat were really relaxing and we all caught up on reading, sleep, cards and getting to know the group. Dave even had a swim in the mekong. We stopped on the way to see a hill tribe village and the pak ou caves.
We had 3 nights in luang prabang. On the first day we looked round the national palace museum and went to a waterfall. it was really great to see and we got to swim in a plunge pool further down and dive off a mini waterfall (dave was the only one to do an impressive flip!). We had dinner at lao lao gardens where we had a bbq in the middle of the table and a vat around it to catch the fat and make a soup which was hard work and really hot but fun. The next day we walked up to wat phousi which is in the centre of luang prabang on top of a hill. Seven of us hired bikes and cycled round the old town. We went to a bar by the river called utopia and had cold drinks sat on axe cushions which broke up the cycling perfectly. Dave also did a laos cooking course so expect some exotic cooking, in particular a very nice sweet and sour chicken, when he gets back.
We then got a bus to vang vieng which involved 7hrs of very sketchy and hair raising driving through the mountains. The driver stopped at the bottom of the first hill to tell us to open the windows as the air con had to be turned off to give the engine enough power to make it up the hills! We stalled once and skidded to avoid an oncoming bus once but made it here in one piece. This morning we went kayaking for half a day which was really good fun then i hired bikes with emily from the group and dave tried to find some caves but ended up just having a nice walk. Off to vientiane, the laos capital tomorrow and then flying to hanoi, vietnam in a couple of days where we loose 5 of the group (theres 15 altogether) and gain 5 new members. Really enjoying the ease of the tour so far and the activities and accomodation has been top notch ;)
hope everything is good for everyone in england
take care
leo, dave and keri
ps sorry its so long
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