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So i'm over half way through my South East Asia trip, and just had the best week of my trip ever. I'm officially in love with the country Laos- its so laid back and relaxing its addictive!
About ten of us, who all met on the journey to/on the slow boat have somehow stuck together and its been awesome! Since last post, i took up all the french architecture in the awesome town of Luang Prabang. On the first day i mangaged to hike up a hill to temple to see the amazing views of the town that lives off the mekong. The second day took us (30 infact in 3 tuk tuk's) to the Waterfalls about 21km out of town. The water was stunning! The milky blue that you see in postcards was for real and definitly worth the sweaty ride! Cara and I decided to hike up an old track to the top of the waterfall to see if we could get some better views- halfway up it was worth it (il put photo's on to prove it soon) but the next half and hour literally climbing only got us to a muddy pool in dense bush...at least we appreciated the rope swing and pools even more at the bottom! Luang Prabang also took me and four others to some caves to the south of Luang Prabang- a VERY bumby tuktuk ride, and long tail boat accross the river let us reach them. Somehow along the way we were accompanied by two "tour guides" aka two 8-10year old boys who followed us around everywhere and insisted on getting their photo taken....then proceeding to push every button on my camera to see what i did! Quite entertaining....
Vang Vieng was my next destination in Laos and the journey there was...interesting.... Don't get me wrong..the scenery was more than stunning- you literally felt like you were on top of the world when you were snaking (and winding and turning and turning again) around the corners and up the mountains above the clouds, but not everyone could keep their breakfast down to put it lightly...and this was the scene of 90% of the Lao people behind us on the bus...but not to worry...the loud sounds of retching were eased slightly by the top 100 on Lao Radio blasting out.. (anyone who's heard this will understand its not exactly easy listening music!). And just to top off the first half of the journey, we heard a nice loud bang behing our right wheel before lunch which added a couple of hours while the dismantled the back half of the bus and its wheels...but all in the name of an adventure! Luckily the company i was with made it all worth it and laughs were still possible along the way!
When arriving on bus to Vang Vieng don't worry when the bus driver tells you you've arrived and all you see is an old air strip with no civilisation in sight- believe it or not you are inthe right place and places are hiding behind the trees..but i d like to disagree with the lonely planet writer who compared Vang Viengs main strip to that of Khao San rd...especially when cows and goats just wander aimlessly down the streets. The main strip does however consist of cafe's with lounge like seats playing Friends 24/7. Even though i'm a huge fan i resisted the temptation and didn't go in to watch an episode once..there's more than enough to do-including walking to a cave (which was a lot further away than the precise 17minutes we were told by our waiter) where you DO need a torch, to tubing down the mekong stopping at bars along the way and watching crazy Farang jump of insanly high rope swings! I also learnt that i do not have a knack for paddling whilst in these tubes-i apologise now Dave & Cara for my slowness (i swear the last km took about and hour....)
Vientiane was my last destination in Laos. 10 of us set out for this journey by kayaking for 15km of the way -what an awesome experience! We even got to go through rapids which scared the living daylights out of me, (but i didn't capsize!) and were greeted by one of the best lunches ever whilst sitting on some boulders overlooking the sights... The rest of the journey there was in a tuktuk at break neck speed because two guys wanted to catch a bus...this basically involved taking over anything moving every 30 seconds... to put it in perspective, our tuk tuk which left at the same time as the other arrived an hour and a half before the other one. (but you can minus some time because the other one lost a wheel on the way- never expect transport in Laos to be simple!). Arriving in Vientiane, the capitial of Laos, i faced for the first time a teeny bit of panic that we wouldn't find a place to stay for the night. Busniess opportunity for anyone who wants it-go to Vientienne, open up a guesthouse/hostel that doesn't charge huge rates in US$ and has enough beds to fit all the people coming to the town (even if its just for the low season numbers...). Luckily enough, Sharon, also one of the slow boat gang, offered to twin with me and for the first time in a month i got AC, tv in my room, sheets that i could sleep between and a shower i could hop in without having to wear jandals- luxery i tell you!
The town itself isn't that spectacular compared to the rest of gorgeous Laos-Cara and i headed up to temples and markets for the day and past many empty colonial buildings, and even a fair ground-completely deserted but the bumper cars were still in their ring, and the merry go round in place but rusting- so eerie that after the french left so much stuff just stopped!
Yesterday brought farewells to all bar one of the slowboaters who remained all the way from Huay Xai over a week ago- was awesome spending time with you and you all made my week as much as the country did itself! So Sharon and i departed Laos yesterday to Niang Kong where i am now, right on the other side of the friendship bridge between the two countries. After only five minutes being here i already knew i was back in Laos as... Yellow flags/T-shirts are back everywhere, the ice cream man and his jingle can be heard going up and down the streets, ATM's are in abundance and i've counted more than there are in the whole of Laos country in just this town, i no longer feel like a millioniare when i open my wallet and my 100 000kip notes are gone, coins exist again, Banana pancake vendors are nowhere to be seen, JoMa's bakery and its chocolate crossaints are km's away, cars are driving on the left hand side, minor birds in cages outside guesthouses don't greet me with 'Sawadi Ka' and i don't get to say Kop Chai (la lai lai lai..eh eh!) to thank people anymore! But i'm loking forward to heading on night bus tomorrow back to Bangkok so i can get to the Southern beaches for my last few weeks! My farewell to Laos is definitly only temporary because there's so much back there i have to go and do-i'd recommend this country to anyone anytime!
Will post photo's when get back to Bangkok and cross my fingers that no virus enters my memory stick....
would love to hear from anyone!
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