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view from the zip line
zip lining and holding a camera is not easy!easy everyone ive been a bit lax with my blogging of late, this is probably partly due to acquiring a large bag of herbs for free after only being in Laos for around 2 hours, so apologies........ LOL. i am now in the capital Vientienne waiting for my vietnamese visa which should be arriving tomorrow although at the moment i have no passport and only a phone number to call to retrieve it and my visa as i gave it to an agency in Vang Vien to sort out when i was less than sober.
Laos so far has been a welcome break to the mass tourism of Thailand, which whilst that can sometimes be a good thing tends to take away from the authenticity of the trip with regards to the culture. that being said Laos is rapidly changing and building a huge tourist market with prices to match, so all those people who visited Thailand uttering "its not so cheap here" should probably get to Laos sooner rather than later before its destinations and also people become over focussed on tourism.
the first 3 days i spent in Laos were in the jungle at 'The Gibbon Experience'
where they have rigged the forest up with zip lines and tree houses in an effort to use the money gained to conserve the forest, which would otherwise be burnt down and turned into rice paddies destroying the habitat of various wildlife most notably of course the gibbons. i met my companions for the next few days before entering the jungle and realised quickly that they were not really my sort of people, which was pretty lame considering that i would be spending my birthday with them, however the surroundings were more than enough to keep me amused. we trekked for 3 hours the first day after being told to expect a 7 hour hike but luckily as there hadnt been much rain the river was low enough to drive a pick up truck through to the first village which shortened our journey substantially (even if we did have to all pull it out if the mud with a length of rope). so after a long day of traveling and trekking we reached our tree house and zip lined in, it was almost 150m high and the zip lines that led to it were sometimes 300m long, you simply attach
your safety line then your runner and off you go zipping across the rain forest 150m up looking out over the vast expanse of jungle broken occaisonally by the odd tributary of the Mekong. our food was ziplined in by the cook who came back after dinner for an english lesson where i learnt the odd Lao phrase and he some how managed to remember everything i taught him. the next day (my birthday) we woke up at 5.30am and went in search of Gibbons i stayed right next to the guide to try and get a good look but some of the others were making noise moaning about the lack of a trail to walk on and ended up scaring them away, so the most i got to see was a rustling in the trees and and the sound of them jumping away. we got back had breakfast and set off on a 2 hour trek to our next treehouse which was near a waterfall with a large pool at the base that u could swim in and also climb the waterfall itself where we spent the afternoon chilling and jumping into the water from a rope swing we
made from a piece of vine. that evening everyone was pretty tired and i decided ( after a smoke) to go for some fun zips just for the hell of it before it got dark and zipped to and from the treehouse a couple of times to amuse myself before spending th rest of the evening playing cards. the next day was just a matter of trekking back for a couple hours walking through some more rivers that almost drag u away in the current and back to the town to arrange a ticket out of there. on the way back i met some Scots that had rescued a monkey from somewhere and spent the journey next to a small primate in a wicker basket that in the absence of its mother suckled on the only small pink teet like thing it had (filthy monkey!). i intended to get the slow boat down the Mekong but got up to find that it left at 10 and the only method of transport was by bus, so we set off at 1pm on our 14 hour bus ride stopping for various drop offs and to load more mopeds onto the roof but
all in all it was a pretty pleasant journey. i got talking to a girl from Manchester who lives in Luang Prabang who very kindly offered me, an english couple, a canadian guy and 2 dutch girls to crash at her's as we arrived at 3am which solved what might have been a bit of a problem.
the next day the dutch girls went their own way and me, Jason (canadian) and Lawrence & Natasha (english couple) went in search of a guest house. we checked in had a wonder, got caught in a mini monsoon and ended up as usual in a bar, i decided to try the local whisky and was given a wine glass full of it a pint glass and a can of coke. needless to say after the lao lao (Lao Moonshine) i had before, plus the free shot and then my pint of whisky and coke i was a bit tipsy and it was only around 2pm. i forget what we did for the rest of the day but i do remember going to a huge night market a bit later that sold huge opium pipes and various hand stitched garments and jewelery etc.
we then went in search of a bar and stumbled across some live music and went in to use the toilet when we were called over to sit down and dicovered we had walked into a private party. it was no problem tho and the guests all seemed happy for us to be there and brought us free beer and food and had us up dancing with everyone else (not that we knew their dances but we tried LOL), it turned out that it was someones boss who had passed some kind of course in business and it was his graduation do, it was a nice touch to have stumbled across this party and good way of getting to know a bit of the Lao culture (even if it was a business do) and even more refreshing was the way that we were welcomed into this private function without anyone batting an eyelid, i dont think the same would apply back home! we left there and went to another bar for another drink only to find that everything closes in this town at 11pm, everything except the bowling alley, so we jumped in a tuk tuk and off we went.
after being offered opium by about 5 different tuk tuk drivers by the entrance we went in and had some more drinks and a game of bowling before headin home.
we had arranged the night before to go to a waterfall about 30k out of town with a guy from the market who also drove a tuk tuk, it was lashing with rain and we climbed a horrendous path to the top that had itself become a waterfall just to find that there wasnt really much of a view at the top anyway. so we climbed back down the slippery slop in sandals, passed the bears in cages we had seen earlier and found the section that you can swim in. there was 2 tiers and you were able to climb onto the top one and jump around 3-4 meters into the pool below which kept us amused for around an hour or so before we headed back into town. that night was spent relatively quiet just eating with a few people we had met, like rachael the girl i was in the jungle with, an irish couple and another canadian dude called Roland and an english guy called David,
after a couple of drinks we had an earlyish night as we decided to go mountain biking in the morning.
so we haggled the guy down from 100,000 kip (6quid) to 60,000 and set off on a 30k journey to some caves that were out of town. after around 20mins of cycling it starting hammerin down to the point where jumping into a swimming pool would have probably left me dryer, nevertheless we powered on for a while and stopped in a little shack for a beer with some locals who convieniently were english students, and to our dissmay found out that we still had around 20k to go. when we finally got there we decided that we would try to get a boat back into town but the guy wanted a ridiculous amount of money and we realised that we didnt have time to go across the river to the cave and get back before dark, so our efforts were for nothing and we now had to face a 30k cycle back. by the time we got back we were all covered in dirt and had legs the consistency of jelly but all in all it was a good
view from my guest house
across the mekong u can see Thailand under the sunset day.
the next morning we got our mini bus, that all 10 of us privately hired as it was cheaper and also meant that we wouldnt have to endure them trying to fit 15 people in a 10 man bus, to Vang Vien and 4 hours later at around 5pm we arrived. that night we took it easy as we all knew that the next day we were all going tubing.
by 1pm we all stood waiting for our tractor inner tubes and set of in a tuk tuk for the drop off point, jumped into our rings, braving the cold of the river and started floating down stream. a short distance away there were small children with long pieces of bamboo that held them out for you to pull yourself into the bar and one by one we dropped of our tubes for round 1. the first bar had a huge rope swing swing that you have to climb a set of dodgy stairs to get to, you then hold on tight jump off swing about 20 meters across and around 30 ft high at the highest point, before letting go and falling into the river. everyone was trying
a small village on the way to Luang Prabang
check out the small boy with a huge iron kettle to to backflips etc and there was almost a panel of judges minus the score boards (other drunken tubing onlookers) who would applaud or go "oooooooooooooooooh" when someone bellyflopped. i decided at the last minute that i would attempt to swing as high as possible and try to shift my bodyweight into a dive, and half succeeded landing kind of chest first but even still i received a big round of applause anyway. the further down the river we got the drunker we got and the more hilarious peoples rope swing attempts became. i ended up in a bar playing Bob Marley recipricating in the appropriate fashion (if u get me) until all of a sudden it was almost dark and i was on my own. i jumped in a tube and headed down the river expecting to find the last bar pretty soon but after 5 mins it was pitch black and after 15 mins of no sign of life i began to consider having to swim to the edge and trek back through the jungle. despite my predicament, i found the whole scenario hilarious and giggled down the river a bit further until a small child appeared out
of nowhere and pulled me to safety at the last bar where i walked back......... stumbled back over sharp stones, gave my tube back and headed back to mine for a shower, i made it as far as my bed and there i lay for the next hour. the rest of the night was spent takin it easy and gettin some food and stuff as me and Roland wanted to do something constructive the next day.
we ended up renting mopeds and going to explore, there were some more caves here and considering we didnt get to see the ones in Luang Prabang we made that our first destination. a fair way down a long country lane with no cement, covered in pebbles and boulders that somehow didnt pop our tyres we arrived at the cave to find a man and 2 children charging admission. we paid 60p, got the 2 children as guides as part of the deal and in we went to a pitch black cave full of tiny tunnels that u had to army crawl through while the 7 year olds laughed at our demeanor, i was also wearing all white and left the cave brown, but
it was a bit of an adventure nonetheless. we continued down the road passing villages where a couple of guys said they ate dog (we were up for it but didnt find it) past herds of cattle and across 2 small rivers that made our bikes cut out leaving us thinking we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, but it got to a point where there were huge puddles and clay that made the bike slip out constantly and we decided to turn back. we chilled in the evening as we had a coach to Vientienne the capital booked for 10am the next mornin.
we arrived in Vientienne in the pouring ran and refused to pay the ridiculous tuk tuk prices and walked to find a guest house. we checked into a nice enough place and went for a walk to get some food and just spent a few hours wandering aimlessly seein what there was to see. Roland had to be up at 4am to catch his flight so after some dinner in a nice restaurant with a live band that had waitresses that would appear from nowhere and top up your beer we had an early night.
in the morning i took a stroll and bumped into Maddy a girl that came to the waterfall with us in Luang Prabang, rented a moped and went sight seeing, not that there is much here but the Buddah park was pretty cool still. i also had to go and pick up my passport and Vietnamese visa that i had left with an agency in Vang Vien to deal with, however i was less than sober when i did this and realised later that all i had to show for my passport and $55 was an empty bus ticket with a phone number. luckily after getting directions to their office i was relieved to find my passport in tact with a fresh visa for Vietnam waiting for me (who ever said leaving your passport with stangers when your high is a bad idea LOL). back in town and got some food in a little open air place right on the banks of the Mekong river and sat there for the next few hours chatting. Maddy had to be up at a reasonable hour for her flight so at around 12ish i dropped her off and arranged to meet her in
the morning.
all i wanted to do was get some money post a dvd of my pics home and get a bus south however........ after beeing called over by the police once for not wearing a helmet i managed to blag it and say i needed to go to the bank to pay the fine and just didnt come back. then i accidently went the wrong way up a one way street and again was signaled by another copper to come over, instead i put up my hand to say sorry and drove off only to be chased by another copper on a motor bike. he was trying to fine me for my simple mistake (6 quid) but knowing it would only go in his pocket i tried to smile and argue saying i didnt realise he meant stop (yeh right) and that i wouldnt do it again. however, after getting around not having a license by showing him my provisional (ha ha) which confused him, i had to go and get the owner of the bike and ended up having to pay about 3.50 after an hour or 2 of my time bein wasted ( i dont mean to
sound ignorant but the police are all corrupt here and i wasnt about to go down lightly). it turned out that the post office was shut anyway but i did manage to find probably the only place to change travelers cheques in the whole city on a saturday as the bike owner drove me there when they realised they were probably only gonna get their bike back once i had paid a fine.
i am now just about to go to the Four Thousand Islands in the south to chill for a couple days before entering Cambodia so i wont be on the wire for a few days or so so until there is acess........
Much Love and i'll be back online as and when!
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Kitiya
non-member comment
awesome trip
I have read you bolg by chance after searching info for my Gibbon trip. I'm actually working in Laos for almost 3 yrs. but never know that there's such an adventurous trip here in laos. It's very inspiring ....