We left Ban Lung in Cambodia and drove up to the Laos border and i think we ended up getting really ripped off for that journey. We firstly paid $10 for the bus ticket, which is considered a lot for a three hour journey, but it was then made worse when our mode of transport pulled up! I think the guy had forgotten to tell the bus company about us so we ended up having to get in one of his mate's cars with 8 of us in there, two of which were in the driver's seat! We all had to sit on our sides to fit and the guy next to me kept trying to discreetly push himself back against my boobs, at which i stuck out my elbow so he would get the hint! At the border we had to wait 45 mins for another guy to pick us up, who then decided he wanted some dinner, so stopped off and made us get on a local bus which was literally a truck with a cage on the back. After an extremely bumpy ride with carrier bags of fish on the floor, we eventually got to where we were supposed to catch our boat to the island. The boat guy told us he had not been given enough money to take us to the island that we asked to go to and he had to take us to another smaller one. This meant that the guy who intitally took our money, kept the majority of it for himself. He knew we would never see him again so there would have been nothing we could've done about it.
We caught a boat to a place called 4 thousand islands on the Mekong River. It's got that name because during the dry season the water level drops and there are around 4 thousand of these tiny islands. You can stay on three of them and the one we went to was the smallest with no electricity at night time. We stayed in a bamboo hut for £2.50 a night which had the most amazing view. It had a porch with hammocks on it which overlooked the river and we could see a perfect sunset every night. We ended spending nearly a week there because it was so beautiful, just swimming in the river and reading in hammocks. The only downside is that tha island was really basic and only had rain water showers and squat toilets but we'd had worse along the way and the views made up for it. At night we sat on the porch and surrounded it with candles which was also really nice until the mozzies got involved and we had to retreat under the net on the bed. We also had a full view of the thunderstorms in the distance which lit up the whole sky and the pictures we have don't really do it justice.
We left and the next place we went to was called Savannaket which isn't really worth talking about except it had a dinosaur museum from all the skeletons that have been found in the area. Apart from that it was a ghost town so we headed to the capital Vientienne. We didn't book a hotel in advance here and when we got off the bus we were facing a gorgeous hotel which was $26 a night. Thats cheap for what it was but when we're used to paying £3-£4 a night it was way over budget. As we'd just spent the last few weeks roughing it we thought we'd treat ourselves to a night there and ended up staying a full week! Vientienne was a really nice city so we really enjoyed being there. We found a shop that sold food from back home such as Dairy Milk, Frosties and Philedelphia but the prices were crazy so we didn't indulge (well maybe a bar of chocolate or two!). We found another shop that sold bagels with bacon and eggs which was brilliant after all the noodles and boiled rice we'd been having. They still weren't as good as my dad's sausage butties, but was an ok substitute.
We left Vientienne on the road of death up the mountains! It was a six hour drive climbing up mountains and back down again with massive drops over the edges. It was also the season for landslides too where the mountain side just falls onto the road, but we were lucky not to have any of that. They drive crazily too and our bus was overtaking cars on corners, in the wrong gear, with big drops down the side. I had to try and sleep so i could block out the fear! We eventually arrived at Vang Vieng which was the most beautiful place we had been so far. There were huge mountains everywhere which were covered in tropical trees that misted over in the mornings. The place we stayed was like a log cabin next to the river and had the mountains surrounding us. Vang Vieng is famous for tubing, which is basically floating down the river in an inner tube and getting drunk on the way, but we decided to go kayaking instead. The river surrounded by mountains and was peaceful and quiet, until we heard a thumping in the distance and saw a really bizaare wooden shack on the side of the river, crammed with people dancing like they were in Ibiza.
It was really random and didn't fit the atmosphere of the place at all. More and more bars filled the edge of the river banks with big bungee jumps and slides into the river, which were 100% home made and definately would not pass health and safety standards! Apparently people have died there before from jumping off the bungee rope when the water is too shallow or by getting too drunk and drowning. We gave it a miss and carried on down the river, which just as quickly, turned back to the quiet peaceful river again.
We couldn't get enough of the scenery here and hired motorbikes to ride into the countryside. There were lots of caves which we attempted to explore in flip flops but then had to give up, because no one would have ever found us in there! We found a lagoon to swim in, which was the coldest water we have been in since we came away. It was a relief from the heat but couldn't stay in long because we started to go numb.
On one of these roads a river ran right across it. Alistair being the sensible one said 'Shem, stay there and you need to pay attention to what i do'. With that patronising tone i thought i'd just be quiet and let him get on with it. He set off through the river riding the bike when it suddenly got too deep (he didn't check it first!) and he got stuck. His flip flops starting washing down stream and some locals were staring at him like he'd gone mad.
At that point i shouted 'why don't you use the bridge?' and rode my bike around the side of a house to the other side. It was hilarious to watch but we didn't manage to get a photo of it which is a shame. I'm sure you can imagine the scenario though!
We stayed in Vang Vieng for a while until we had exhausted the countryside and then decided to head to the last destination in Laos, Luang Prabang. This town was really quaint and had a really good atmosphere to it. We had a really nice room here for cheap because it was a bit out of the way so we could relax a bit. A lot of the things to do were quite expensive here such as elephant trekking etc and as we were heading to Thailand next we wanted to save a bit of money. The one thing we did do was visit some waterfalls which were the nicest ones yet. We climbed up really high and got to the start of the waterfall. It wasn't one big one, rather split up into small pools all the way down. In the highest pool you could look over the edge right down to the bottom and the pools all the way down were a turquoise colour when the sun shone on them.
We followed the river all the way down and at the bottom we saw an enclosure which had about 5 brown bears in it. It was great to see them really close up and it was even better because we weren't even aware that they were there.
The best thing by far was the night market at Luang Prabang. At night they closed off the main road and people set up stalls on the floor on a rug. If you wanted to look at anything, they got you a stool and just chatted away with you rather than being pushy for you to buy things like everywhere else. It has been quoted as the most peaceful market in Asia and it was pretty obvious why. The place was full of fairy lights and all the goods were really good quality. Most of it was handmade by villagers, not mass produced, which meant everything was unique. The food part of the market was also brilliant. You could get a barbequed chicken breast of pork chop on a stick for 20p. They made chicken mayo salad sandwiches for 50p and it was all fresh. Alistair obviously went a bit meat crazy and had 3 chicken breasts, 2 pork chops and a sandwich! He argued that it's the first time in months he has been able to eat decent meat (which is true), but he defiantely struggled to go to the toilet for a while!
We would have stayed in Luang Prabang for longer but we were on a time frame so had to leave for Thailand. To get there it would have taken three days on a slow boat and who knows how many diffeent forms of transport, so we decided to cheat a get a plane instead, which took an hour. It was more expensive but was definately worth it.