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Soooo… with the Canadians we headed to Laos, after a farewell night out with everyone at a great reggae bar. The whole journey was quite an experience, especially the border crossing, which was over a stile and down a dirt track to a booth, and then across the river to another booth! The 2 day slow boat was quite long, and very uncomfortable on the first day on small hard wooden benches or the floor - the second day we managed to bag some old car seats at the back! Apart from the discomfort, the views were great, including seeing some elephants logging, and lots of kids playing in the river. We stopped over night in a tiny village which was interesting - the first time I’ve had a curfew in a while - we had to be home for half ten and the electricity got turned off at 11 - which meant no fan!
We eventually arrived at Luang Prabang, which is a really lovely town. While there we went to Kuang Si waterfall, which was absolutely stunning, with turquoise waters (see photos). We trekked right up to the top and scampered down to a pool near the top where you could jump in and swim to the edge, and look down the entire waterfall! It was amazing. Also while there we went to some caves, which just had loads of little buddhas in, and a whiskey making village where I bought some local rice wine - bloody good stuff! There was also a really good nigh market. (Our last night in Chiang Mai we went to a night market, where we had the best spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce, and ate them stood hiding under tarpauline during torrential monsoon rain!)
The journey from LP to Vang Vieng, our next stop, was pretty awful. It was continuous hairpin bends on a mini bus - for 6 hours straight - no exaggeration! We saw a straight bit for about 4 minutes and got v excited! Even I struggled, and I don’t get travel sick. But it was worth it. In VV we did the infamous ’tubing’, where you float down a river on a tractor inner tube, get fished out by bars along the way and then do terrific rope swings into the river. Very fun. The town of VV itself wasn’t really anything special (apart from the ‘friends bars’ everywhere that just played friends over and over again…heaven!) but as soon as we got some bikes and crossed a bridge we were out in rural Laos, with chickens and cows running around, and local kids shouting ‘Sabadee!’ (hello) and great scenery - a flat plateau of rice paddies with cliff faced formations jutting up around, and caves with green lagoons - your own private swimming pools! Soooo lovely.
After VV we carried on down to Vientiane, the capitol, where we only planned to stay while we sorted our visas for Vietnam, but on the day we were due to leave mike started to feel rough, so we postponed the bus for a day, and by an hour or 2 later he was feverish and in a pretty bad state, so I threw him in a tuk tuk and got him to hospital. The next few hours were pretty dreadful - mike was really struggling and I was useless, in a complete state of panic while all these nurses were jabbing him with things and I was trying to mime his symptoms and history and fill in forms while battling a cascade of tears when all I wanted to do was stay in the room and check all the needles were new/clean etc!! After an hour or so he was much better - we think it was a combination of dehydration and food poisoning, but they kept him in overnight in ICU with several people who kept flat lining. I didn’t clam down for about 24 hours! Eventually they discharged him the next the morning, and I got him home and looked after him for a few days. (Don’t worry, he’s back to his usual bouncy self! Ha ha.)
While in Vientiane we went to a brand new ‘waterpark’ that was only 2 weeks old, which was interesting! It had just a few local lads playing on the slides - which were great - you went down on the equivalent of a camping mat with handles! It was a pretty miniature park, but it did have a small pool tool - the heat of a bath! We also went to a gold stupa - very important to Laos cos its built on the site of a previous construction that supposedly held Buddha’s breastbone, it was good, very gold. Finally we went to the national museum. The ancient history section was very interesting - the more recent stuff regarding the ‘French colonials’ and ‘US imperialists’ didn’t have any real info in English, just graphic pictures with negative captions., which was sad and frustrating.
From V we got a 24hour bus to Hanoi, which was horrible! There were 6 westerners and the rest locals, and we never had a clue what was going on. We stopped at 2am for what we assumed was a toilet break - we ended up being stuck there for FOUR HOURS while the drivers went to sleep. And with the air/con off, therefore making the bus a sauna, we were left in a smelly kitchen with the option of a smelly floor or an even smellier table to try to sleep. Needless to say, not much sleep was had! Customs was interesting, too. Absolute chaos, where you practically had to throw your passport over a counter and hope you got it back, and then walk for about 15 mins (thru no-mans land??) til you reached the Vietnamese customs to check in.
We are now in Hanoi, which is my favourite place so far - its chaotic and friendly and I love it! All in all, we are still having a cracking adventure, and I’ll try n put some more photos on. Hope you are all well, lots of love xxxxx
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