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8th April: So after our amazing time visiting Angkor Wat we left Siem Reap via the plushest mini airport you have ever seen to Vientaine the capital of Laos. We didn't spend much time there, just a night and left the next day to Vang Vieng.
I found it a bit of an odd place, quite small and not particuarly developed in some ways but a real backpackers mecca with loads of young european travellers and full of cafes selling western fayre and playing re-runs of Friends??!! The main reason peple visit here is to go tubing, which basically involves floating down the river in a big rubber ring stopping off at waterfront bars/shacks along the way gettign very drunk! All the bars have big swings that you can go on flinging youself into the river shoudl you wish to do so! We had quite a few beers and also far too much of the local tipple called Lao Lao (which i am NEVER drinking again!). This took us over the edge and by the end of the day, having only managed about 500/600 metres down the river, we were one man down, Chris having been sick, i lost my sunnies, fred lost his headscarf -no big loss ;0) and Charlotte her t-shirt (she did have on a bikini!). We staggered back to our hotel - not kidding, and slept it off till morning. p.s fred has written a long story about this whole trip which i wont bore you all with again, to do with Chris and the big swings - v.funny! The next day after a big breakfast we hired bikes and decided to sweat off the hangover with a cycle out to a local cave and outside of it a crystal clear pool for swimming. This sorted out our heads and was a lovely way to see the beautiful and dramatic scenery. We were sourrounded by mountains and paddy fields.
The next day we were off again further north to Luang Prabang, which was a lovely town with a very French colonial feel about it. We arrived at the start of the Lao new year celebrations, which was great timing on our part. These celebrations last about four days, and involve spending time with their families, and generally the whole town has a massive water fight for the entire holiday period. It is impossible to go out and stay dry, any local villages in the sourrounding areas lie in wait on the road side to squirt water or throw buckets at any passing car. In addition all around the town are groups with water guns, hose pipes and buckets just waiting to get people. They also cover you with flour, black tar stuff and lipstick! On our secnd day we kitted ourselves out with a big water gun and joned in the massive water fight that lasted all day. Open jeeps drive up and down the street soaking peple and the people in the street do the same back. It was a lot of fun and a brilliant way to celebrate NY. It wasn't all fun in LP, we also did some serious tourist stuff ;0) we visited a local waterfall called Tat Kuang Si, which was a beautiful tiered waterfall where you could also have a dip. Along side the waterfall was a bear rescue centre, with these great black bears swinging in hammocks and generally chilling out! There was also a lot of temples to visit but having had out fill we only went to one which i though was just beautiful, called Wat Xieng Thong. It was a monastry and temple with the most equisite decorations.
From LP we went further north to Luang Nam-tha and went on a two day kayaking trip through the local nature reserve. We spent our time kayaking through the most wondeful scenery broken up by the odd rapid to negotiate - which weren't too rough. On one such rapid, with me at the front and Fred at the back, i was chatting away to him about how nice it all was and how well we'd got the hang of it all, afer a while i hadn't had any respnse from Fred (suprise, suprise!) so turned round to see why he was ignoring me and realised he wasn't in the boat! I looked back and saw him and Charlotte staggering through the rapids holding each other up with chris further back in their boat shouting at Charlotte because she hadn't done it right ;0) What i hadn't realised as i was chatting away to Fred, is that he had ducked to miss a low hanging branch and fallen out of the boat. I was to busy talking to notice and had left him behind....ooops!!! :0) So after the days excitement, me finally forgiven, we stayed in a local village by the river. Bathing was done in the river with all the local kids and the toilet was a shack out back. We had a lovely meal cooked by our guides of buffalo (actually not too bad) and the boys shared a bottle of Lao Lao ( i only managed on shot) and chatted with him about life in Laos.
Whilst in Luang Nam-tha we also visited the local sauna which was a wooden hut on stils and sweated it our for an hour or so and had a massage, which was much more pleasant than the one we'd had in India! From Luang Nam-tha it was back to Bangkok via three buses and a boat for a few more days of luxury before heading off to Indoensia.
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