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hello,
welcome to the Christmas edition of the blog! you will be glad to hear that the constant sound of Christmas songs has not passed me by this year, whilst driving I have been singing them aloud, over and over again, trapped inside my helmet whilst we drive hundreds of kilometers across Laos! eek
we have now reached our Christmas destination and tomorrow we will be checking into our posh hotel!!! cant wait.....
....so since the last blog we have done over 1,600km from the capital of Laos to the sticks and back again to civilization in Luang Prabang, a world heritage city. The bikes have been going great, although I have now had 6 punctures and 1 blow out (see relating photos). think my bike just wanted some money spent on it as Craig's knackered old thing had been getting a lot of attention.
first stop was vang vieng, I did some outdoor rock climbing which was excellent fun, although the tips of my fingers did not think so as the rock surface was very brittle and sharp. managed 4 ½ climbs and one that I couldn't even get onto, even with the help of a booster by one of the instructors and by standing on the shoulders of the other!!!!
after that we had to do a 360 as I developed yet another throat infection so we ditched the bikes and quickly went back to the capital for a throat swab (came back all clear! thankfully, although I ended up a hundred quid lighter!) back on the road we wound our way along the roads to Phonsovan, where the infamous plain of jars is (Google image it if not known!) we managed to see all of the main sites, thanks to the work done by MAG - who removed all of the unexploded bombs left over from the war. There are massive bomb creators all over the sites, another reminder of Laos troubled past.
Leaving the jars behind we decided to stop off at a hot spring. had a bath in a hut which had naturally heated hot water from a spring, a welcome break from the cold high altitude weather we had been getting. and a chance to get off the 8 layers id been wearing!
Next we drove to Sam Neau, which is close to the Vietnamese border, and 100km in the wrong direction for us, so that we could see the network of caves which the government used during the war. there was an audio tour to do, and it included interviews with local people and a very compelling sound track of fighter planes and bombs exploding, it gave the whole experience a chilled feeling, but it was good to see how the people survived.
At this point we were well off the main tourist trail, and we were getting approached by young schoollads eager to learn English. they all complained "my English teacher doesn't even know English all that well and keeps teaching me the wrong words!" well, we couldn't help but buy them a can of coke and try and help them with their English studies.
the drives have been quite long, sometimes only covering short distances (60-70km) but with the winding roads and pot holes, trying to avoid chickens (who love to run out at the very last minute), children, trucks, buffalos, cows, goats and generally EVERYTHING! it can make the going slow. but it is a good way to get around.
next we decided to blow some of the budget and do a conservation night boat safari into a national park that has tigers! the scheme works hard to encourage its 20 partner local villages to conserve and protect the local environment and the animals. if paying customers see certain animals (that are rare or endangered) then the villages each get a little bonus. in this way the guides and tourists both win when they see an animal. so if your "lucky" enough to see a tiger, only one of our 7 guides had ever seen one! then you had to cough up an extra 2 million kip! that's 200 quid! so your sort of praying to see one but also hoping that you don't! the trip was great and well worth doing, as we made good friends with the main English speaking guide. drank a lot of lao lao...and slept great! on the tour we saw, a civit (medium sized cat), some deer, a hawk, otter and lots of awesome rare birds.
after that we had a massive drive over 160km to Mung Kiau, a sleepy village along a river, which had amazing backdrop views of the massive limestone cliffs surrounding the village.
now we are in Luang Prabang, we arrived today and have just been catching up with "normal" life. hope the snow is good (if you have any) we have been trying hard to describe to the locals what a snowman is!
we will be skyped and wifi'd up between 23rd and 27th December whilst we are in our posh hotel so if you want to speak or get in touch then let me know. credit is cheap so ill happily call a landline if it means the opportunity to catch up with some friends.especially as near new years and my birthday (hehe!) it wont be possible in the places we will be staying.
well better go. lots of love.
after Christmas we will be back on the bikes for a further 4 weeks, after extending our visa and continuing to do northern Laos. so the next blog update will be when we sell the bikes and I can let you know how it all went.
thanks again for the messages from home. I can read them every now and then when we are near tourist spots but I don't always have the opportunity to reply straight away.(but i always will eventually!)
- comments
Joey!!!!! What a fab blog entry Junior & very timely as i'd just missed my train & was sat on the cold platform Grrrrr. Next train arrived in no time reading about your travels. Hope you both have a lovely Christmas & New Year xxx
Laura Williams Loved the blog and the pictures... wishing you both a happy and luxurious Christmas x
mum lovely, you should make this blog into a book, with pictures to colour in and everything lol. love woo xxxxxxx