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After putting on our big boy pants and realising we didn't want to sit on the beach for months, we embarked on a trip from Krabi to Vientiane. The flight to Bangkok was a pretty standard budget airline experience but for the second leg of our trip we decided to take the sleeper train. As usual however, things did not go exactly to plan and when we arrived at Bangkok station we could not get the train we wanted (a lovely express sleeper train with beds that would get us to the Laos border at about 8:30am). So, not wanting to faff around in Bangkok again, we decided to get the local night train which didn't have beds and arrived at the border at 5:30 in the morning, before it even opened! We managed to sleep as much as we could however we both smashed our way through the best part of a book each overnight (as the lights remained on the entire way). Almost immediately after we arrived in Nong Khai (the Thai side of the border) we were accosted by a thousand Tuk Tuk drivers wanting to take us to the border.....it's kind of a double edged sword, we had no idea where we were going but at the same time it's a bit daunting after a long journey! When we arrived at the border, the driver decided to double the original price quoted, whilst laughing, and I had to stop Page from punching him and quickly paid the money as it was only just over £1?! All's well that ends well though and we eventually crossed the "friendship bridge" into Laos and arrived in Vientiane at 7:30am.
Vientiane is nice, not as clean as Singapore, as relentless as Bangkok or as picturesque as Koh Phi Phi but nice none the less. We stayed at a hostel run by an Aussie called Phil who was the most attentive hostel worker we have met so far, he had no problem with us arriving hours before check in and made us feel welcome from the second we arrived. Page could have kissed him when he offered her a cup of tea!
After settling in and getting our bearings we decided to take one of the hostels tours of the city. During this tour we saw more temples, a museum about the bombs the US dropped on Laos and its legacy (turns out these bombs are still all over the place!?), the Mekong river and Buddha Park. Of all the sites we saw Buddha Park was the best - basically hundreds of old weather worn Buddha statues that we were free to walk around. Page was beside herself with excitement and took a bazillion pictures! Another highlight of Vientiane was when we stumbled upon a festival of some sort (Bun That Luang Festival according to Page) in which hundreds of people with huge models covered in offerings wondered around the town singing and dancing. Page got dragged off by a couple of little girls and ended up right in the middle with people cheering her on! She was so happy afterwards although a little bit overwhelmed as well.
We spent 5 days in Vientiane in the end and enjoyed ourselves a lot however we decided to move on to Luang Prabang (skipping the party town of Vang Vieng after our experiences in Patong). Luang Prabang is a diamond in the rough, protected by UNESCO it is relatively unspoilt by the regular combination of Asian apathy and tourists' zeal for destruction. If Page thought Vientiane was full of Temples and Monks she was in for a shock in Luang Prabang, they are everywhere! I was less enthralled, it's a nice place but there is a limit to the amount of temples I can walk around. To appease my upcoming boredom we decided to go on one of the numerous elephant trips available in town, it took us a while to find one that we felt treated the elephants well but we eventually found one and booked for the next day.
The elephant sanctuary was amazing. We arrived and saw all the elephants munching their way through mounds of pineapple tree leaves (they eat 250-300Kg's of food a day?!), they are huge! After a bit of a briefing and some chit chat with the other people in our group we started our training in how to ride the elephants. We had to sit on their necks and tell them where to go with different commands (Pie was forward which Page remembered as "Oooo, I could GO FOR a piece of pie" haha). After this we were led to a platform where we got onto an even bigger elephant and went for a walk, there was a guide with us for the tricky parts but we both had to "drive" as we walked around the jungle, into a river and through a village (the villagers don't seem to care at all!?). I say we had to drive but I reckon the elephant pretty much knew where she was going and doesn't need our help to navigate her way around. Once back at the base we were given lunch, the obligatory rice and noodles, and chilled out for a bit before we rode the elephants to the river for a bath. We all had our own elephant and almost as soon as we got into the water they started splashing and dunking themselves.....Page was soaked! We had a great time and it was probably one of the highlights of our trip so far. Elephants are cool!
We fly to Hanoi in Vietnam tomorrow, which will be very different to the tranquillity of Laos, but we are looking forward to going. Hopefully everything will go smoothly!
Love to all.
- comments
deb glithero You've been to krabi?? !! was it nice? loving your editorials ,love to you both ma ma xx
Karen Page I know Debs - been to Krabi already? !! Great photos Love you both xxx