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Published: January 6th 2018
On arrival back in Thailand we returned to our previous accommodation in Soi 11 this time checking into a better room with power points, it is a necessity as Mark is carrying a digital camera and mobile phones lol. We then went out for a few beers asking the local tuk-tuk drivers where to go but basically just chilling out.
The next day was a veg day, we wandered through the shops on Sukhumvit Road before arranging a flight to Chiang Mai in the nations north then booked a room at Eagle House Hostel No.2. We arrived in cooler, quieter Chiang Mai around midnight and decided to visit the night market down near the river, things were winding down, so we moved on to the Nice Illusion night club which was welcoming aberration in the quiet streets of an Adelaide sized city. The club was cool with live music, pretty people and a happening vibe we will return.
The next day we took care of some much-needed laundry before heading to the Chiang Mai zoo it was a typical Asian zoo poor quality animal care combined with animal shows, I would never go to such
Bangkok
Thailanda place now but at the time I wasless enlightened. On arrival at our lodgings I bumped into the English-Indian girl who I helped with her bags back in Sukhumvit and an American girl called Heidi who we also met in Bangkok, crazy odds having them both turn up here today.
The food in Chang Mai is fantastic wonderful Asian as well as a good selection of western dishes after eating we ventured to an internet café before playing pool at a nearby pub before returning to our favourite night club. We spent several hours drinking been dancing and just having a great time listening to the great live music. Mark went off to the toilet returning with a story about how the “washroom attendant” was “massaging” him while he was taking a piss, that will be a great story to share with the lads back home.
We woke at 7am with hangovers, we are off on a full day trip, an hour north to ride elephants then visit a Karen village before travelling down river by raft and finishing with lunch at a resort. The elephant ride was interesting, but I would never
do it again now that I understand the pain the elephants suffer, we then visited a butterfly house and a couple of dull factories before returning to town. We had dinner around 8pm before heading to bed for an early night.
The next morning, we boarded a van to the town of Chiang Khong where we would pass through immigration and board our boat for the trip down the mighty Mekong to the colonial town of Luang Prabang the next morning. The scenery traversing the Thai mountains was scenic and the town of Chiang Khong was pleasant and worth a look around, eventually we settled into a bar run by a Finnish guy and ate and drank till midnight, I also locked the room key in our room and had to get someone to break in for us.
Early start the next morning avoiding a German shepherd as I pulled the washing off the line then eggs and toast for breakfast before piling aboard a minivan for the short trip to the border crossing. The speedboat for our where I could at least stretch out my legs although it was a little frightening when
he changed directions rapidly. The others suffered in silence as the driver dodged rocks, logs and other hazards in the river while getting regularly doused by waves.
A few floating shops and restaurants lined the river banks, small villages surrounded be jungle and framed by mountains barely visible from the river. Foolishly I swapped seats with Mark, so I too suffered a painful few hours bouncing up river although a Valium did help, we were all relieved to finally reach Luang Prabang dirty, sunburnt but alive so who can complain.
The tuk-tuk from the river to the town centre was going to be expensive so I just walked off and the driver dropped the price, we have an English guy following us all over town, like a lost sheep, but we finally shook him off when we checked into a French colonial era riverside hotel. The town is wonderful, it is full of Buddhist monuments and French bakeries, I tried green tea for the first time here. We had dinner at a riverside restaurant and celebrated our safe arrival with a riverside drink while planning our trip to Vang Vieng.
A
breakfast of croissants and baguettes in the main street was a great start to the day and was followed by beers on the river bank till 2pm when we headed to the us station. There are a few foreigners on the bus the younger males’ rode on the roof, the bus was packed when it eventually left two hours late. We were on the back seat having problems with a nasty old local woman sitting on a wheat bag she kept hitting us, complaining and kicking our feet I was tempted to throw her off. One of the English guys on the roof want to take a piss but was so frightened of falling off he pulled his pats off and pissed in a bottle very funny.
The six-hour journey and on the last mountain pass before our destination the bus which had been making all sorts of noises finally died. We waited on the roadside, frightened to move far because mines litter the jungle in this area, a bus eventually came past and we jumped on for the final downhill ride into the town arriving at 3am.
Early the next morning we were
out on the river on a Kayak running low level rapids it was great fun, but we had little time to rest afterwards as we had to run to the guest house and then the bus station. During the surprisingly comfortable bus journey to Vientiane our female travelling companion began behaving a little unpleasantly poor Mark was sitting with her, so he copped a few snappy comments. On arrival in the Laos capital we decided to ditch her, we were on holidays and didn’t want to put up with the tantrums of some high strung American actress.
We found a place to stay then headed out into the city visiting a large temple before heading for the Lotus bar for dinner and drinks, I can’t get any clothes washed here so will have to travel dirty tomorrow, Heidi called us and apologised for her behaviour on the bus, we will probably fly with her to Vietnam tomorrow.
After breakfast we chilled for a time before returning to the Lotus bar where we spotted a parrot eating cigarette butts, after few beers we made our way to the airport meeting up with Heidi and an
Irish lad called Keith that we had bumped into before on our journey.
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