Advertisement
Published: January 5th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Night market
Luang Prabang Hi Guys,
As you may have guessed from the title we are now in Vang Vieng but we are leaving tomorrow.
Vang Vieng is a town that has been totally overrun by backpackers and all it really consists of is mediocre eateries which all have bed style seating all directed towards a TV which plays continuous re-runs of either the Simpson or Friends! Any hint that you are actually in Laos is only provided by the scorching sun. You might as well be back at home in your own front room. But then at home of course you couldn't get "Space Pizza". This seems to be what Vang Vieng prides itself on and NO we haven't had any.
In order to escape this we hired a motorbike yesterday (sorry Dad, but we had no choice!) and headed out into the real countryside to where the real Laos people actually live. Town is preserved soley for tourists! The countryside around here is actually very impressive, lots of mountains and of course the Nam Xong river which disects the town. The nicer bit being on the other side. Which is where we went.
There are also a lot of
Rich drinking a bloody mary
In the Blue Lagoon, Luang Prabang caves around here. Unfortunately I think we choose our first cave badly as we were lead down some very small gaps, involving practically needing to lie on your stomach and crawl through, then down a rather rickerty ladder, only to descend down another rather small and fairly unsafe dark hole to reach a dead end..this was the high light apparently. In which there was a bit of rock...or shrine maybe....god knows. Not to mention (which Rich has just informed me) there were numerous funny looking spiders. Good thing he didn't tell me at the time, because I was struggling with the thought of getting stuck down that bloody hole, especially as our guide didn't descend with us and just stood at the top of the ladder laughing................... I was not very amused.
Suffice to say I have no intention of going caving ever again.
After that we headed for a Beer Lao (just one between two) where we meet a very funny three year old called "Ten" who greatly enjoyed posing for photos and movies and then watching himself on the reruns on the back of my camera. Fortunately this did seem to cheer him up as when
Monks collecting alms
Very very early in the morning. On the high street in Luang Prabang we arrived he was just a naked little screaming thing.
Then we headed off out the other side of town where we found a really cool bar in the middle of nowhere with bamboo huts dotted along the river for you to sit, lie, lounge in and enjoy the scenary. (Where we shared another beer...no drinking and driving here.) All very pleasant until some really pissed Laos turned up. Oh well, you can't have everything.
Anyway, before Vang Vieng there was of course New Year.....
Despite my hopes that by going on a Mahoot training course over the New Year it would prove to be a quite one, it most certainly was not. We very quickly found out that when with Mahoots you must do as Mahoots do. That includes drinking a lot of Lao Lao. This is their local homebrew rice whiskey. Yep it was as viscious as it sounds. They also seem to have a custom that you cannot refuse a drink when offered to you. While offered drinks were often small they were numerous and of a varied type. This ranged from beer lao, lao lao, and red wine. Yummy....
One of our
From the back of our tuk tuk
On the way to our Mahoot training. If you saw how pissed the driver was later on, you wouldn't have got in the tuk tuk. It was hairy enough as was. Mahoots "Ban" and our guide "Saan" had obviously decided to get us completely hammered. After dinner we were invited to join the staff party around the camp fire where they cooked fresh grilled fish and we all drank and danced to really really bad 80s, mainly German music. Saan I think took a liking to Rich as he was continuously trying to touch him (not touch him up) but stroke his back and his knee etc. Later on in the evening Rich even got a kiss...on the neck! Lucky chap. I was invited to go and sleep with the Mahoots, an offer I graciously refused. I think they were trying to seperate us so that Saan could have Rich all to himself. Anyway, I'll let the photos do the talking.
The Elephants though were absouletly fantastic we learnt a few words to tell them to go, stop, turn left, right and go back and sit down. And I abosultely loved it, it was really cool to get to spend so much time with these magnificant animals. We got to ride them by ourselves and also bath them in the river, on New Years Day at about 7am....you can imagine
On the way to Tad Se Waterfalls
The boat that kept breaking down and we had to swap boats mid river... this was a rather harsh wake up to our very very sore heads. I think Rich just about managed not to puke on top of the elephant.
This was then followed (after breakfast) by a four hour kayak down the river back to Luang Prabang....oh my god why did we ever say we wanted to do that. It was torture. I felt terrible and we got absolutely soaking wet. And I just about managed not to puke in the kayak. We weren't feeling on top form, you may have guessed.
One thing Rich forgot to mention in his last email, from our last conversation with Phod (our novice monk friend), that we discovered what his favourite sports are, this will make you laugh. Tennis and skiing, though as Phod pointed out Laos has no snow....and he's never been anywhere but Laos. The wonders of TV.
Oh, Rich has also had his hair cut yesterday, in a rather fine street side barbers. We felt compelled to go as everytime we drove past on our bike the lady kept waving at us so we had to go back. His beard is much dimminished and I might say rather scratchy
and he looks 10 years younger. Or that is at least what the barber said.
Got to go, time for photos also internet way expensive here.
Loads of love to you all and we sincerely hope that you saw in the New Year in a similar style to us. Missing you guys loads. Vietnam next stop after the capital of Laos Vientienne.
Speak to you from there.
love Rach and Rich xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 13; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0432s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Carl n Chiara
non-member comment
Happy New Year!
That sounds like a New Year celebration you won't forget! The Elephant riding looks like fun! Have a great 2007!! Love from us both x