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Ok. I'm kinda cheating. We just got back from Laos. Now in Bangkok. But doesn't it look cooler on the map?
Hadn't realised how long it's been since I last checked in. Really thought I'd sent an update from Chiang Mai and now I'm under time pressure to remember all the stories. Right. Here goes.
Chiang Mai
Having booked a bus to Laos we bottled out once we heard our friends would be in Phuket instead. We rescheduled for the traditional first Northern stop in Chiang Mai. Another night bus. Another groggy morning. Thailand's Northern capital was though genuinely a breath of fresh air. No chants of "tuk-tuk", "where you going" or generally everyone trying to rip you off. Chiang Mai is the Thai trekking destination and so on the second day it was off into the mountains after a quick check-in with Thailand's tourist police's very own version of Sgt. Jones from police academy. (Go on Wikipedia him). First it was onto elephants which was a great buzz for a bit. Then we realised we were going in one big circle, buying more food for the elephant every 10metres and being taken for a ride in more ways than one. After a bit of lunch we trekked. And trekked. And trekked some more. Sweat, rain, mosquitos and more. We were relieved to get to a small lake for swimming, until the guide emerged from the water with a leech stuck to his back. 10 people literally walked on water.
That night, camp was in a tourist village of 5 or 6 huts and some local villagers cooked the best meal I've had yet in Asia. While not a very authentic village there was good banter. The candles came out, followed quickly by the guitar (replaced even faster by an iPod and speakers) and the whole thing had a very coombaya (sp?) atmosphere. Pondering another day's trek we quickly decided to cut out the third day or trekking and took the route home the next day. We stopped in another rock pool for swimming, this time leech free. Next was onto 5m long bamboo rafts for a gentle ride downstream. It soon became the greatest raft race the world has ever seen. There was sweat, blood and raw passion but writing about it will bely the true emotion that existed. I'll tell you in person some day.
Laos
From Chiang Mai we took a horrendously uncomfortable minibus ride through the night to the border. We crossed the Mekong the next day, and after having our ears checked for H1N1 (I kid you not) we were admitted to Laos. Our next stop was Luang Prabang, 2 days downriver. Being short on time, we did in 6 hours on what Lonely Planet described as a runaway chainsaw that disintegrates on impact (only read that bit after we'd booked it). The speed boat was a canoe, packed with 8 people lashed to a truck engine. Equipped with crash helmets, the function of which I still question, we took off. Literally. Six hours later sunburnt, wet and cramped into one seating position we arrived. We checked into the nicest guesthouse we've had yet and went out for a few beers. Then we found out there's a 12am curfew and the town shuts down at 11.30. Apart from the local bowling alley which for some unbeknownst reason is allowed to continue serving alcohol. And such was the recipe for one of the most bizarre nights of the trip to date.
The next day was another cramped minibus ride through the beautiful scenery of Laos along a road once designated by the US government as a no go zone due to bandit activity. The guys with the AK47s actually looked pretty friendly to me.
Vang Vieng was populated with Irish people and had very little going for it as a town. That's until we acquired our inner tube from a truck tyre, tuk-tuked 15mins out of town and lept with our tube into the Nam Xong river. Along with hundreds of others we floated, through over and around rocks to bars on each side of the river where you would be thrown a line and hauled in. Some bars had mud volleyball, others killer slides and one, excellent french fries! For four days we would take a tube and go again and again down the river. It was surreal. And something everyone should get a chance to do. We're considering how it'll work on the liffey.
As our time in Laos ended it was more horrendous bus journeys and disturbed sleep back to Bangkok to meet our tailors and take in some sights. At the moment Bangkok hasn't impressed me. It has strange smells and everyone seems hell bent to get some of your money. Still I'll be open-minded and give it the next 2 days to prove itself. I'll let you know how it performs. Right now I'm off to reclaim my phone after I've lost it for like the fifth time in as many weeks. Hopefully this one will return.
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