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Saba-dee (Hello in Lao),
Yes I am now in another country after having just got to Thailand but this is how it goes here. Here's what I've been up to for the last week. As I uploaded the photos last week, you can already see the celebrations for my birthday and the trek pics, but i'll start from there.
After arriving in Chiang Mai, I did what every other tourist does here and booked myself onto a trek. I'd just got off the bus and was taken straight to a guesthouse where the trek was pretty much booked already and all I had to do was pay up to go. It was ok though as the price was good and the group I was heading out with were awesome. Our trek took us further out than most, and after wondering if we were going to start trekking soon after our 4 hour jeep ride, we arrived just outside a town called Pai. The scenery around Pai was pretty awesome although the actual trekking didn't require the same effort as the trek in Nepal. We stopped off on the first night in a traditional hill tribe village where we played a game of Footie with the locals. I, of course demonstrated my awesome footie skills, letting in two goals, kicking two balls in a small kids face and destroying the local wise mans fence with a ill aimed kick. I was doing lots for Thai-English relations. Despite these unfortuate events I wasn't banished from the tribe and was allowed to to stay for an evening of Thai Dancing, Thai curry and quite a few beers. (Not necesssarily in that order). The next day was my birthday (26.....arrrghghh) and to celebrate we trekked further into the hills and spent the afternoon swimming in the waterfalls there. A welcome break from the walking! We reached the second village at around 5 and immediately started on the Moonshine whiskey in honour of myself. Our guide poured me doubles of the devils brew as a special treat. Mmmmm lovely. This inevitably lead to more beers and some drinking games. For the Budd/Porritt/Sharp readers, we played the clicking game we play at Christmas. It was difficult though as they do it to a different timing. As a result I got the majority of the forfeits which consistd of having charcoal rubbed over my face. See the pics! I decided to call it a night when I stumbled to the toilet and managed to fall in it. After that spectacular display, I passed out to await the next day. Thankfully, the next day involved little trekking and we passed it chiefly by rafting down the river to our pick up point. All in all an enjoyable birthday if a little painful at times. After arriving back at Chiang Mai I managed to do as little sightseeing as possible and just hung around cafes reading and eating. It's a hard life.
I decided to head up to Lao as I was getting a little tired of Chiang Mai so I hopped on a mini-bus of fellow travellers and headed north. My fellow travellers included Tessa (Italian), Chris and Becs (Australian), Lauren (French), Israel (Israeli surprisingly) , and a Danish couple in their 40's. I cant remeber their names but the guy had a bright orange beard and spent the next two days with Beer Lao in one hand and cigarette in the other. Nice guys though. I think they were ex hippies who were still holding onto their youth. Anyway I digress, back to the plot.
We arrived in the border town of Chiang Khong and headed to our designated guest house. It looked friendly and peaceful, but our illusions were shattered by the appearance of the forceful dimmunitive Thai lady owner, PJ, now known among us as Commandant PJ. We were ordered to our rooms and then ordered to dinner wih expert efficiency. It was a nice and cheap place to spend the night though. I the morning we were given our passports back and led to the boats by the Commandant where she disposed of us and then marched off into the distance. Thank buddha the Lao side was more relaxed.
In order to reach Luang Prabang we borded a long boat to take us down the Mekong which would take 2 days, with a stop in Pak Beng. We as ever were too busy talking and buying food for the journey to realise that we were the last to board the boat. As a result we had to sit in the engine room for the first day of the journey. So we spent 6 hours sitting next the engine of the boat with toilet tissue in our ears to ease the noise. We all agreed to get early the next day to secure seats. It passed quickly enough though by playing cards and checking out the awesome scenery down the river. It reminded me a lot of Nepal with its hilly mountainous landscape. The stopover in Pak Beng was ok. The only notable thing that happened was when I went to bed and drank from my water bottle and got drenched. After inspection of the bottle, I realised that a Mouse had chewed through the bottom of the bottle. Nice. The second day of the trip passed as the first although we sat in the passenger class this time. The only memorable thing that happened was as we made a stop at a river village. The boat was swinging towards another vessel and we were going to crash into it. A Lao woman jumped from our boat to the next and pushed our boat back. Unfortaunately we carried on sailing into the distance as she was stuck on the side of this boat. It was quite funny, all we could see was her hanging onto the side of the boat calling to us. We all hoped the villagers would come and help her out, as evidently the skipper wasn't turning back.
We arrived at Luang Prabang the next day and split up after leaving the boat to find lodgings. This town is bloody expensive ($10 a night) so I decided to only stay a couple of days. L.P. is a weird place in that it feels completely French. The architecture, food and people are all influence by the french colonial days, and as a result a lot of French tourists are here too. I was suprised by how much French I remembered from School, however I think Lauren was a bit bemused by our attempts to speak to him en francais. Yesterday, Tessa and I explored the temples of the town and then met up with Chris and Becs for dinner and a few beers. All in all, LP is a nice town but it's time to move on. I'm off to Vang Vieng today for some Cave exploring and Tubing. (I'll explain next week)
Adeiu Mon amis
Will
P.S. I'll upload the pics in a few days.
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