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Published: August 1st 2010
Speed boat
All smiles before we left!!Firstly, a big thank you for all your messages and emails. It is really nice to hear from people back home with updates etc. Please keep the gossip coming (Ellie’s request) as it is seriously lacking here.... well I don’t have a clue what they’re saying anyway. Please keep the sporting updates coming (Steve’s request).
Also a quick apology for the absence of video clips this time - we have two we would like to show you but there is a problem uploading them to the blog. We will try and get them on asap though.
Here’s what we’ve been up to.....
So, after three days, the hospital was still refusing to release Ellie’s passport, and we were desperate to leave Chiang Mai and get on with the fun. In the end we decided to go to the hospital and perform a sit-in. A few hours later and an hour after their office was due to close for the weekend we left the hospital for the last time passports in hand and stupidly happy... then booked ourselves onto a mini bus to Chang Khong (on the Laotian frontier) followed by a speed boat down the Mekong River to
our first stop in Laos, Luang Prabang. At the time of booking the speed boat felt like such a good idea as it would get us to Laos in the fastest possible time (24 hours quicker than the slow boat).......5 minutes into our speed boat trip we came across some technical difficulties with the boat and though this didn’t bode well we managed to laugh it off. However, 55 minutes later (an hour into our 6 hour journey) there was no more laughing, the rain would not stop pouring and we longed for the slow boat or to be anywhere but on this boat. We have uploaded a video clip from the boat but a brief description...... a small boat, with a substantial engine strapped to the back that had absolutely no leg room and cruised along the Mekong at about 40mph!
The one bonus of that day however was that we had the fortune of meeting a lovely couple from France called Eloi and Cilia who were excellent company and made the trip more enjoyable. More on them later....
We arrived at Luang Prabang soaking wet that evening and the rain was not easing up. Managed to get
Laos bbq
Meat on the top, veg and noodles around the edge ourselves to a nice guest house and asked for their best room, a whole £13 a night (oh what a treat!) It was back to reality the next morning when we asked for their cheapest room at less than half the price. So Luang Prabang is a small town and we were immediately struck by the French influence which dates back to the time of French Indochina. The town is awash with French colonial style architecture, worthy of its World Heritage Site status and for the first time since we left Britain we were able to get a good bit of bread (the Thais seem to love putting sugar into their bread as it is obscenely sweet!).
On our second night we met up with Eloi and Cilia for dinner and were introduced to a few of their friends who had recently emigrated from France to LP. They took us for a Laotian bbq which entails a hole in the middle of the table where they put a bucket full of hot coals. A metal plate is then put on top of the fire and there is a section to cook the plate of meat and a bowl section
to cook your noodles and veg in water. A better understanding of this arrangement can be seen from the photograph. Anyways, it was so good that we were with someone who had done it before otherwise we would have been eating the piece of pork fat and drinking the water they give you to cook with. The following day we headed off to Kuang Si waterfall about 45 mins from LP. It was spectacular! It was huge and set over several different levels so it didn’t appear to be too crowded with tourists and it gave us a nice chance to laze around and swim in the waterfall pools.
Our next stop was a 6 hour coach ride away. Now this bus was called the VIP bus so we had quite high expectations.... on arrival at our seats we were greeted by a pair of navy blue men’s cotton pants draped over the seat.....using the bus ticket as a pair of tongs we managed to chuck the disgusting thing onto the seat in-front only moments before a Spanish couple came and took their seats there! We arrived in Vang Vieng in the pouring rain and stubbornly decided to walk
Kuang Si waterfall
Just a little bit wet!! to the town centre as we thought it was only 5 mins away....turned out it was a bit further than 5 mins but we trekked on with our big bags and managed to find a really nice clean guesthouse on the main road.
Feeling like we needed a bit of exercise, the following day we decided to hire a bike each and head into the mountains along a route that the map made look very easy. The first 30 mins of the ride it was baking sunshine and even though the roads were very rocky we remained happy. Then our good old friend, the rain, started pouring down and the dirt tracks turned into a big slushy mess, some of which were so deep it was impossible to ride through and on one occasion the local villagers had a great time standing there watching as Ellie get completely stuck and then covered in a lovely manure and mud mix. Cycling through the hilltribe villages was really nice as all the kids would shout ‘Sabadee’ (hello) at us as we passed. Steve even felt compelled to give a young smiling girl and her brother 5,000 kip as they were so
cute - if Angelina would have been there, she would have them on a plane quicker than anything! (Don’t worry though - 5,000 kip is only about 40p and they were very grateful). Soon, Steve started getting suspicions that maybe we were going the wrong way but by this time our map was turning to slush in the rain. After 4 hours of cycling (what should have been a 30km circuit) we met a very nice local who spoke good English. We asked him to point to where we were on the map and he placed his finger on a position so far from the map, it wouldn’t have even been on the next map along! He then pointed us in the direction of Vang Vieng and off we cycled, eventually arriving back about 6 hours after we left, soaking and caked in mud. Unfortunately, all that hard work meant that the next day ended up as a forced rest day as we virtually unable to move. The silver lining was that we saw some breathtaking scenery, some of which we managed to catch on camera before the rain set in.
After three days of almost constant rain in
The bike ride from hell!!
Before it got too hellish Vang Vieng we were pretty relieved to be going so booked ourselves onto a canoe trip to Vientiane, the capital city. This trip involved a 1 ½ hour ‘taxi’ trip. It is essentially a flat bed truck with two benches either side - highly comfortable! They dropped us by the river and gave us a very basic safety course before we kayaked down the river for 3 hours. The kayaks were two person and they insisted upon the stronger of the two to go at the back. The problem we had was that the bung in the rear of the canoe was not there, as was the case with most of the canoes. As a substitute some leaves had been bunged in the hole. The main problem with our canoe was that Steve, being slightly heavier than the typical Laotian, ensured that the hole was underwater, thereby filling the hull with water!!! This left us with an unstable boat and by the time we got to the rapids, Steve was replaced by one of the guides and was sent to the front of the boat which was carrying everyone’s lunch - no pressure there then. So it turns out that
having a load of water in your boat makes it almost impossible to stay upright in the rapids and not long into the white water Ellie’s boat was overturned with her underneath. Needless to say, after getting trapped under water for a bit too long, Ellie’s fear of deep water is now greater than ever and she spent the entire rest of the canoe ride completely terrified and irritating the hell out of the guide who could not understand the fear.... Steve on the other hand had a great time and managed to avoid capsizing in the first rapid and everyone was relieved to see the food remain dry. However, the second and third rapids were too much and over went Steve’s boat, three times in total. Luckily, he is not as much as a wuss as Ellie and very much enjoyed his cooling dip. By the time we moored on a rock for lunch everyone was a small bit worried about how it would turn out.... but somehow the clever Laotians had managed to keep the food dry, despite Steve’s best efforts, and we had a super lunch of chicken kebabs cooked on a pile of sticks, baguette and
fried rice. After lunch we had a leisurely ride to the finishing point, so leisurely in fact, they let us go in the same boat. We then had a 2 hour ‘taxi’ trip to Vientiane where we arrived feeling a bit stiff.
We were instantly surprised with how different Vientiane is from the other places in Laos we visited. It was a proper city with roads, traffic lights and posh hotels with not a dusty lane in sight. We saw (well Steve did anyways) a Ferrari and two Aston Martins - quite out of place in the Laos we had grown accustomed to.
On our first full day in Vientiane, we decided to hire bikes again and got ourselves to the Cambodian embassy to sort out visas. Then we headed to Pha That Luang which is 'the most important national monument in Laos, a symbol of Buddhist religion and Laos sovereignty' (thanks Lonely Planet!). Although the actual temple was closed, it's most impressive from the outside as its golden dome glistens in the sun. After, this we cycled off to Patuxai, which is Laos answer to the Arc de Triomphe. It was built in the 60’s with concrete
donated by the US for the airport runway hence its nickname of ‘the vertical runway’. It’s quite a nice centrepiece within a tree lined (and very French) boulevard which extends down to the presidential palace and there a few fountains surrounding it where we whiled away a good few hours soaking up the sun.
On our last night, we were walking around looking for a restaurant when we passed Eloi and Cilia who were also heading out to dinner. We all decided to eat together and had a nice meal followed by a couple of drinks (fruit drinks for Steve). It was Eloi and Cilia’s last night in Laos as they were flying to Hanoi for a couple of weeks before travelling down to Ho Chi Minh, going the opposite direction than us when we reach Vietnam. We worked out that we will probably be in Ho Chi Minh around the same time so decided to meet up for drinks - Steve’s drinks embargo will be lifted by then! On this topic, Beerlao is somewhat ubiquitous in Laos and it was very painful seeing it being drank and advertised everywhere. A bottle is currently in Steve’s bag which will
be consumed on Monday 9th August - Mum’s birthday!! (not that he’s counting down at all!)
So, the next stop was 4000 Islands or Si Phan Don. We decided that the best way to get there would be an overnight sleeper bus and it turned out to be ok though there was a small hiccup to start. We were one of the last to get on the bus and it transpired there were no more beds so we showed our ticket to the bus lady who spent the next 15 minutes running back and forth from the bus to the depot.... this was a small bit worrying! Just as the bus driver was calling everyone to leave the lady eventually came back and told us we were getting on a different bus that was apparently going to the same place - this again was a bit worrying but we went along with it and were quite happy when we got on the second bus and found it to be much better than the one we were supposed to be on - we even got some free snacks and water! The sleeping bit itself was about the same width and
length as a standard single bed which you can imagine was a little cosy with the both of us but it was better than most transport we’ve had so far!
The next morning we arrived at 4000 Islands which you may have guessed is a collection of Islands. They are in the Mekong River and right on the southern tip of the country beside Cambodia. We stayed on Don Det. Only a few of the islands are inhabited and 24 hour electricity is a recent addition so I’m not sure why we were so surprised when we turned up to find ramshackle bungalows looking like they were falling into the river and very little facilities. Our enquiries at a couple of guesthouses about air-conditioning were greeted by smirks! We eventually found ourselves a nice looking guesthouse with solid looking bungalows and a nutty owner and hired some bikes to get ourselves around. After the relative hustle and bustle of Vientiane, we were not used to the laidback attitude of the locals who seemed very blasé about accepting our money and kept on telling us it can wait ‘til later...
Day two on the island, we went on a
trip to see some Showaddywaddy dolphins (or maybe Irrawaddy) who live in the Mekong. We got a few good sightings but they seem quite shy so didn’t come too close to the boat. We then headed to a waterfall which we can’t remember the name of but do remember that it is the biggest waterfall (in volume terms) in SE Asia. It was nowhere near as picturesque as the one earlier in Laos though.
After two nights on the island we had exhausted all the things to do so looked forward to crossing the Cambodian border for the next part of the trip......
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Bas
non-member comment
Haha you guys are legends, love the updates on your travels. Did you guys make any videos of the biking trip? Seems like a small miracle you even got back at all :-) Anyway keep coming with the stories, makes a nice change from greyish Reading. Have fun, cheers Bas