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Well about two weeks to catch up on so get comfy, it might be a long one!
After leaving Sydney bound for Bangkok on arrival we bagged ourselves a spot on the floor of the airport and camped out for about 8 hours until our flight to Vientiane. We saw no fighting or had any hassle at all staying in the airport (did get a few dodgy looks though, 4 girls in sleeping bags on the floor!). Arrived in Vientiane and headed into town in a taxi to RD Guest house, nice room, not very private bathroom!
After a nice lie in we wandered to the Scandinavian Bakery in town for an awesome breakfast and cheap ice cream (Mr.Whippy and everything!). We then went for a walk to the oldest temple in the city which had two thousand tiny buddha statues placed in alcoves around the outside. Then off to the very hot and cheap market where a few souvenirs may have been purchased for you lucky folk back home! Cheap dinner and cocktails then back to the room (a few more Mr. Whippys may have been consumed in between!). The next day we tried to get ourselves into the posh Lao Plaza Hotel's swimming pool but the price was too high for us backpackers so we just melted in the heat instead! Tonight was not such a great meal (dodgy lemony green curry but good sticky rice!). Bus to Vang Vieng was booked for the next day so we hopped on to our little minibus and headed north.
On arriving in Vang Vieng we checked into Malany Guesthouse (note the change from "hostel"in Oz to "guesthouse" in Asia. We are moving up in the world!). Again nice bedrooms, massive double beds and much more private bathrooms! After exploring the town we realised it was full of English, American and Canadian backpackers all there for the tubing! So not wanting to dissapoint, the next day was spent hiring a tube and getting a tuk-tuk to the Nam Song River. This was possibly the most surreal setting in the world, nestled beneath beautiful limestone Karsts is a river surrounded by wooden shack bars selling buckets of cheap alcohol and offering people the chance to throw themselves off dodgy looking trapezes and zip-lines. We spent the afternoon floating down the river and watching the crazy people jump off into murky waters not knowing where the bottom was. After a slight panic because we had to get the tubes back by 6pm we got by to town via tuk-tuk not tube. The next day was unfortunately spent watching Friends (they love it in Laos) and drinking Oreo millkshakes so not much to report. However the days that followed were full of delights!! We booked ourselves into Chef Khans cookery course where me and Gracie learnt how to prepare and cook veggie spring rolls and Penang curry with aubergines. We then watched Zoe and Lucy make Green curry and Pad Thai. The afternoon was then spent stuffing our faces with our actually quite tasty feast (don't worry we wrote it all down and will happily make it all when we get home!). After that fun-filled day the only way to top it off was to go tubing without the tube! Tuk-tuk up to the river to then syke ourselves up to jumping off the trapezes, may have been helped along by a few buckets! After rolling around in a bit opf mud me and Grace got the courage to go off the jump and I can say for both of us that it was AWESOME! It gives you such an adrenaline rush and you surprise yourself with the strength of your arms. Zoe and Luce were big chickens but helpfully took lots of photos!
From Vang Vieng we jumped on the night bus to Vientiane and then down to Pakse. This was not the comfiest but we did have a bed between us and food and water. We managed to catch up on some much needed sleep when we arrived in Pakse and checked into Salachampa hotel (that's right a "hotel"!). Then booked ourselves onto a trip to see the Bolaven Plateau to see the tea and coffee plantations. This was a great trip, we headed to waterfalls and local villages including one where the inhabitants made their own coffins before they died. Also got to meet local tea celebrity and some very cute kids.
As Pakse wasn't the most touristy place in the world we got the bus and boat down to Don Khong in the four thousand island region. We stayed in probably the best hotel since Fiji's Walu Beach. It was newly renovated and had the friendliest (and best cook) in Laos running the place. To celebrate Luce turning the grand old age of 23 we booked a (strenuos!) trip to Don Dhet to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins. After a long boat ride and even longer, and bumpier bike ride we managed to spot a few dolphins before getting completely drenched in a freak downpour (not the first!). This was a great trip despite the sore legs and bum muscles! The evening was spent toasting Lucy's birthday with cheap rum and awesome yellow curry.
After saying a sad farewell to our hostess we jumped on the bus to Phnom Penh to begin our Cambodia adventure. This was our most eventful bus trip yet. About two hours after crossing the border without any hassle the bus started to smoke and we had to pull over (the turbo had gone apparently!). So the next two hours was spent on the roadside waiting for another bus! Arrived into Phnom Penh a few hours later than expected and checked into Simon II Guesthouse. The next day was spent visiting the rather harrowing but incredibly interesting Tuel Song (S-21 Prison) and the Choeng Ek Killng Fields. We learnt a lot about Cambodias, scarily recent, past and our eyes have been opened to the suffering so many people went through only fourty years ago. It's going to be a few days of culture before heading to the beaches of Sinoukville.
(apologies if any of the place names are spelt wrong, I'm doing this from memory!)
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