Laos

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Whimped out of the slow boat and spent one whole hour on the plane to Louang Phabang, it was great!! Met two very sweet but rather clueless Welsh boys on our flight and we sort out accommodation together. Wandered around the town, first Lao meal and ended up at Hive, local bar full of westerners. Evening drinking until we were thrown out at 12 after which everyone headed for the local bowling alley!!! Few rounds of rather drunken bowling, much fun!
Next day I climbed the Phou Si (the Sacred Hill)in the middle of town to visit temple and check out views. Sweated so much Bekka thought I’d been swimming, but well worth it for the amazing views all around of the river and town. We then wandered around the Royal Palace Museum which had a huge room entirely decorated with cut glass pictures telling ancient stories. This was my favourite part as the room was beautiful with every piece so finely cut, right down to the expressions on peoples faces. Later we took a boat across the Mekong River to Xiang Men, a small village on the other side where we were the only westeners. It was wonderful to walk through and see how the local people live and just wander by as they got on with life. We again climbed many steps to Wat Chom Phet, an old disused temple, to watch the sun begin to set.
The next day a group of us headed to Kouang Si waterfall, a stunning multi-level fall were you can swim in the clear-blue pools. On the walk to the falls we passed a Black Bear sanctuary and a caged tiger that had been rescued. The bears were lovely, very playful but the tiger paced in his cage and looked extremely agitated. Very cool to see a grown tiger so close up, but sad to see him distressed. Once we reached the falls, we climbed up the right hand side which turned out not to really be a path but just an uphill scramble. Quite hard work but good fun. At the top we crossed the water and had an easy climb down the other side. A well earned swim in the pools below after. That evening we all ate at a vegetarian buffet at the side of the road then headed to hive for a few drinks.
The next day me and Bekka caught the bus to Vang Viang. A 7 hour journey of extremely twisty, windy roads with people being sick and no time for toilet stops, not much fun. Arrived in the rain and with 3 other girls (Susie, Laura and Rose) found accommodation. That evening we had food together and all bought matching Lao PDR vests for our journey down the river the next day. Woke to rain but still ventured out and picked up our rubber rings to begin our float down the river. Soon the sun came out and we all had so much fun floating down, stopping off at bars for a few drinks and testing out the rope swings. At the last bar I attempted the swing and landed on my face in the water, spent next few hours sporting large red bruise - not fun!!! That evening we all went out for Ross's birthday.
Next day we took the bus to Vientiane. The next day we wandered round the weekend market and were planning to catch a flight to Phonsavan that afternoon to see the Plain of Jars. However, I STUPIDLY misread the tickets and we arrived at the airport as our plane took off. Was VERY pissed off and am still reeling from the fact I missed a flight - I NEVER MISS FLIGHTS!!! So after a fair amount of swearing, we managed to catch a plane to Hanoi that evening. So a number of hours wasted in the airport and finally we were air born for Vietnam.
On to next blog..........

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Photos

On our way to the waterfall
(with my eye in the left hand corner - bit freaky!1)

Vang Viang - before tubing
Rose, Me, Laura, Susie and Bekka

Me on the rope swing
Just before I landed on my face!!!