Leeches and lychees in the Laos jungle

Currently writing from the sleepy French colonial town of Luang Prabang, on the banks of the muddy Mekong, Laos, after a fantastic two-day slowboat trip from Huay Xai on the Thai border.

After a fun weekend in Chiang Mai, myself and new Dutch travelling buddy Sophia made our way to the northern hippy retreat of Pai, close to the border with Myanmar. On the way we met a guy called Nick, who lives five doors down from my old house in Ealing! On arrival in Pai we met a lot of friends Nick had arranged to meet there who had also headed up from Chiang Mai - Canadians Igor and Matt, Italian Marco, Dutch Levine and Gaya, plus Ken, Thai owner of Chiang Mai's most famous guesthouse, Julie's. We had a great few days relaxing in Pai, drinking nasty Thai whisky and spending most days at a great outdoor pool place with a bar and music. Virtually everyone you meet in Pai you seem to get along with - there is something about this place which brings out the best in everyone. It is supposed to be surrounded by a underground crystals which give the place "energy". Surely nonsense, but there is something going on. Pai is tiny and full of farang (Thai word for foreigner) enjoying a dose of rest and relaxation. After a couple of days, a five minute walk to a cafe turns into a half-an-hour walk as you meet lots of new friends you met at the pool the day before, or at one of Pai's many great bars. Everyone buzzes around town on hired scooters, there are hippy shops everywhere, with just one 7-Eleven shop which usually runs out of whisky by 9pm. The only downsides to this dreamy little backwater is that the power cuts out every day, and the fast-approaching monsoon season in Southeast Asia guarantees a daily downpour. Still, if you are lounging in the swimming pool, who cares?

After a great few days in Pai, I headed to the Laos border to the north-east with Sophia, Gaya and her friend Frank (another Dutchie - I am outnumbered by three to one now!) where we spent the night in the border town of Chiang Kong before crossing the Mekong into Laos the following day. I had heard a lot of great things about Laos, chiefly that it is the most laid-back country in the world. Even though Huay Xai is a border town and therefore not truly Lao, the previews seemed to ring true. Everywhere you look, people seem to be dozing. I took some clothes to a laundry and a friendly woman lazily pointed to a sign saying she didn't open until 8am. It was 7:56. I went back four minutes later and she took my clothes from me. Thatcher would have hated Laos.

We spent a day in the border town on the other side, Huay Xai, where we found we could still spend our Thai baht as well as the newly-acquired Laos kip. The following day we went on a three-day trek in the jungle called 'The Gibbon Experience'. The name is slightly misleading as you are not guaranteed to see gibbons (although Gaya and Frank did see a few on the last day) - but you are guaranteed to travel like one. As well as a few hours of trekking each day, we had to cross verdant jungle valleys on ziplines - steel cables suspended a few hundred feet above the jungle floor. You strap on a harness and tie yourself to the cable, before speeding off over the canopy. It's a thrilling ride, and an amazing view - and the most ecologically sound way of jungle travelling! Sometimes you have to brake sharply as you can reach the other end of the wire quicker than you thought you would. Sophia smashed into a wooden crash barrier and bruised her leg, and another woman on our trek smashed her camera. My only slight injury was a slightly burnt earlobe, as I was swung into the cable and brushed my ear against the steel - and travelling at about 30mph it was always going to sting a bit! Our Lao guides hung upside down when they did it, even when they were carrying heavy bags full of food for us! The best ziplines were the ones that took us straight into our treehouse lodgings for the night. It was amazing to spend the night a good 50 metres above the ground at the top of a tree - with the only way in and out of the treehouse by the ziplines.

It was a tough trek in either sweltering heat or lashing rain, with different but equally malign insects competing to assault you at all times. In the daytime trek, it was the leeches - slinky-like worms crawling up your boots to get inside your socks and suck your blood. We had to be vigilant in flicking them off before they could make any progress, and only Sophia and Frank lost any blood. They make tiny marks in your skin and are perfectly harmless, but it is not pleasant to watch them slowly bulge with your own blood and then fall off, finally sated. In the treehouses in the daytime it was wasps and bees, followed by rats (tree-climbing ones!), enormous spiders and mosquitoes in the evenings. Despite my aversion to bugs of every kind, I managed to escape the trek unscathed and even got some sleep! The food was great - all provided by the guides, who would drop us off at our treehouse, disappear for a few hours and then zip in with a bag of food. As well as the ubiquitous sticky rice, we were also treated to great veggie dishes and mangoes and lychees. Then, the next morning, the sound of screeching steel-on-steel would mean our guides have just zipped into the treehouse to wake us up for another day of trekking and zipping.

After the trek, the four of us embarked on a two-day slowboat cruise down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, the colonial gem of Laos. We travelled seven hours on the first day and eight on the next. It was a beautiful journey, passing evermore dramatic jungle scenery and majestic hills, with the sunlight bouncing off the murky water of Southeast Asia's biggest river.

Having only arrived in Luang Prabang yesterday, I will save it for the next blog. After LP I will follow the trail down to the Lao capital, Vientiane, before making my way to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, then back to Thailand to fly home on July 3rd - possibly!

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