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Published: August 7th 2006
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Fruit of DEATH!!!
My god... Durian Fruit smell bad for a reason!!!!! DISGUSTING!!! First of all this email is dedicated to our 4 sole readers.... Alex jackson, Pauline and David Hutchings and Hayley Wayley Brown! Thanks for your messages-this one's for you (it's a little dull! be prepared!)
Ok...so having had our fill of elephants....we planned to move on the next day. We grabbed our stuff and headed off to Doi Suthep-a mountain that frames Chang Mai. Whilst up there we visited yet another temple (with a long name!). Legend has it that Buddha employed a white elephant to walk carrying a religious relic until he found a suitable place to build a temple....this is where he chose!!! Then he died! Aaahhh! And now we know why he died....the stairs are endless!! The views were pretty spectacular over Chang Mai-better when it's not cloudy I imagine!
That evening we got the bus to Fang-not remotely anything to report about Fang other than here was the place that me and Paul discovered our new love!...Dragonfruit! Since then I think we have employed a small army of Dragon fruit pickers!!! We've eaten about a million of them!!! And spent most of our budget on them!!!!!
From there was the bus to Chiang Rai...closely
Paul's New Love!!!
YUMMY!!!! (He actually has his eyes closed!!) followed by the bus to Chang Saen...still nothin to report ......until........
Having arrived in Chang Saen and missed the slow boat to Laos (you can actually get the slow boat to China from here!!!!) we checked into the 'friendly' Guesthouse! The 'Gentleman' there informed us in great detail about how we could 'get nice price' should we book the boat through him. Obviously the price sucked!!! We politely declined his very kind offer yet took a room for the night. He wasn't best pleased. Then we asked to use his internet. It wasn't working so we asked for our money back.....here's where the fun began!!!!!
He refused to refund us as he had 'worked for us!' Then followed much heated discussion before he tore up our money and threw us out because 'he didn't like us!' What???? Little Pauly and me????? How can you not like us?????? He was obviously deranged! We quickly packed and exited....not before getting our money back on the room!! Oh well...it was a free shower if nothing else-and we then got a much better room out of it-where we were treated like royalty!!!
Next morning we left for Phitsanalok. Having changed all
Doi-Suthep
TL; White (Green) Elephant. TR; A Buddha Thing. BL; Buddha Prayers. BR; Elephant God our plans to get to Laos overland rather than by slow and very pricey boat! Again....not much to say other than visiting a Buddha casting factory-very interesting to see how they're made. From there we caught the bus to Laos-after another mammoth overnight journey!!! (I'm beginning to feel very old!)
Laos is amazing-much prettier than Northern Thailand-which could've easily been avoided....as you can probably tell from our lack of enthusiasm over it!
After crossing the border, we headed into Vientiane-the Capita of Laosl. This is where we had a day off from travelling and I'm ashamed to say we spent a whole day inside watching Sky TV!!!! Bliss!!!! Only leaving the room for a necessary meal!!! The next day having recharged, we braved the outdoors to purchase our rather extortionate Vietnam visa! Once we're there we may not be able to eat!! Haha!! We visited the Royal temple 'Thatluang' and visited a monument with a Da Vinci style Buddhist ceiling-much the same style as the Stations of the Cross telling the Buddha story. It was here that we learnt all about Buddhism!!!!!!!!!! Whilst watching monks eat lunch!
After all this excitement (sorry this one seems a bit
Fire Buddha
2nd Most Important Image in Buddhism boring!) we headed to Vang Vieng. This place is stunning-reminded us a bit of New Zealand as it's set within the mountains. We hired another motorbike....sorry Paul's mum!....called Wheelfred...notice a pattern? This one was manual....Brave Pauly!! Wheelfred showed us all the sights (well he tried but our navigational skills lacked something!) We drove for miles and saw a riverside village full of straw huts-with sky TV dishes, very strange!-and visited Phanouk Cave where we swam in a beautiful lagoon....here came the next calamity!....
Ok...so we dropped Wheelfred's key into the lagoon! Doh!!!! We had to ask the locals to hot wire him and invent as many excuses as we could for the hireman! Thankfully after a stressful few hours...all was ok!!!! Here was where we had our first drink in about two weeks!
Next day we took Wheelfred-complete with new key-to a 'Fun Park'! Exactly what it was! We spent the day relaxing and 'death swinging' (Swing of DEATH) into the River Song! (Did you all get the footage? Or did you get something else from Pauly..teehee! Silly Billy!) Brilliant fun..and we have the bruises to prove it!
From Vang Vieng we did the first bit of
Guest House of DEATH
WARNING: Never stay here!!!! If you do you won't get to stay long!!!! jammy travelling! We managed to nab a $30 ticket aboard a plush sleeper bus down to $6! We had five beds to ourselves-with three kids thrown in! (Mean that in the non-Michael Jackson way!) After much entertaining and loss of many cards (their own made up version of '52 card pick-up') and being punched in very strange places (!) they finally went to sleep-God knows how-twas the bumpiest journey ever! Although Pauly slept like a baby!
We arrived in Luang Prabang-tune in next time for an EVEN MORE exciting blog!!!!!!! (Sorry have to go-we're hungry!)
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Amy
non-member comment
Hello
Hey! I always read your travel blog!(Well I at least look at the pictures!) I see you two are still looking very glam! In Vancover now, but really wish I'd made it to asia after seeing all your pics! Take care, and may GOOD luck follow you! Love Amy