Advertisement
Published: February 14th 2007
Our last day in thailand we were to have had to get up in plenty of time and head over to Laos to then catch the slow boat down the Mekong river for 2 days to get to Laung Prabang, but we over slept the alarm by one and a half hours as Charlie had put his phone on silent. We rushed to get all our stuff together and made a run to the river crossing point to get stamped out of Thailand and get the boat across the river to Laos. We then had to get stampted in Laos and get our Visas and Lao money which all seemed to take an ages (it always does when youre late!). The Slow boat we were due to take leaves the port at 10.30am and we finally got there at 10.40am, we thought we were lucky to have just made it but as it turned out there was no need to rush at it ran on Lao time so therefore left at 11.30!!!
The slow boat trip was an exhausting and bum numbing two day journey down the Mekong river stopping one night at a small village called Pak Beng. We
had heard that the seats on the boat werent that comfortable and a few people had recomeded cushions but we never expected how bad they really could be. A church pew is like a comfy leather sofa in comparision, it was just 2 small planks of wood nailed to some 1''x2'' wood to resemble a bench!
After about 5 hours into the trip and the temperature dropping incredibly we realised that we were the only people of the boat in shorts and t-shirts and were freezing. We did however met a few people on the boat and went for a meal in the evening another thing about Loas is in the first night stop all the power goes off at 9.30pm so there is nothing to do apart from go to bed early. We did the second leg of the trip well prepared jumpers and jeans and we were still cold although not as cold as we were when we did the Chang Mai trek thank god. Owen did get a face full of water as few times but it was all in good fun. We arrived at Laung Prabang and quickly got a guest house. No fewer then 10
Charlie and friends
He says he promises everyone he wasn't trying to impersonate the spice girlsof us went out for a meal that night and discovered that here they are open until 11.30pm which was a bit better and they did not turn the electricity off at night either.
This is the best bit the next day Owen get's food poisoning from a cup of coffee well actually it was the condensed milk they put in it which was green which he thought was ok as he had seen before. The food poisoning lasted for about 7-9 days and spent most of him time in the room watching tv and recovering. Everywhere you go in Loas the Tuk Tuk drives say weed, and if you say no they ask if you want opium and if you don't want that they'll ask if you want a woman well if I don't want weed what the hell do I want Opium for? And where does a woman come into it????????? When people said to us there is one ATM in Laos we were expecting to be able to get money out from other places but they do close early and charge fees so if anyones in Laos be carefull.
As Owen was ill most most
On board the 2 day slow boat
The 2nd day was even more cramped, it took 10 mins to get to the toilet at the back of our time in Laung Prabang Charlie ventured out most days with his two new friends, Emily and Andrew, that we had met on the slow boat, although we also came back thoughout the day to drag Owen out for some fresh air and some food. Charlie absolutly loved it here it was either the best or up there with the best places he has ever been to. The pictures of the place and surrounding area really do not do this place justice, it is one of the most beautiful places Charlie has ever seen. Also the week we were there was so relaxing and chilled out that it was sort of like a holiday and break from all the tralling we have been doing. I know that sounds stupid but to any one who has been travelling for this long knows it is actually very tiring and it great to stop and slow down for a week and this place was perfect for it.
On one of the day trips Charlie went to see some caves in the morning followed by a waterfall in the afternoon. The Caves were very dissapointing and were really just a hole in
the side of the rock face with loads of Buddhas inside. So in the afternoon Charlie hoped the waterfalls would be slightly better and thankfully there were. Charlie thought they were the best waterfalls he had everseen, there was about 5 tiers to the waterfall with ponds of amazing turquiose water at each level. At the top was a large waterfall with a 100foot drop which looked great. Also around this area there were 3 black bears and a 2 tigers that had been saved from some where and brought here to be looked after. The safety here is not like back in England and i could have leant though and touched the tiger if i wanted to (i did think about did and then thought by not!).
For many of the other days Andrew, Emily and I spent our time either riding or exploring more sights in and around the town. We headed into small villages away from all the tourists to see how the real Loa people live, up mountains to unexplored temples and ventured down the Mekong river. In Charlies words 'i feel like a kid again going of on all kinds of adventures but with
Lao Lao Whiskey
Look closely at the bottles and see scorpions and snakes. There to increase sexual power appantently out having your mum to say when you gotta be back'.
One thing that we had been told was that Laos is what Thailand was like around 10 years years ago and there are a lot of undeveloped areas which appealed to Owen as he was getting fed up with the way Thailand is(Comerciallism). A lot of the area's are not horrendus just a little bit behind thou there are toilets, hot showers, bottled water etc but the drainage is not 1st class and it is quite dirty but Laos is an amazing place just because it is relaxed and chilled out.
Some of the other great things about Laos is the Laos beer which is some of the best since i have left the UK and also the bread/bagettes, this is because Laos used to be a french colony and so therfore has a large french influence.
In Laos Prabang they have a night and a day market during the day it is up the top of the main road. During the day it is on the side of the street and in selected areas. During the night they close the road off and it is
The main waterfall
As you have probably guess by know Charlie has a thing for waterfalls completly manic people going everywhere and you have to fight your way through the place. One really good thing about laos is the money, Charlie and Owen were Kippenaires having one million kips (52pounds) and this money lasted a long time (well depending on how much Loas beer was arround).
Anyway on our last night Owen was able to join us to celebrate Emily's 20th birthday with a few drinks before leaving to Vang Vieng the following day.
We left and met up with another bunch of new people Irish, Canadian, Croation, dutch and German all with various ages we all went for a cracking meal Vang Viene is quite basic really there are alot of guesthouses and it is most famous for Tubing!!!! The first night there was really fun about 14 of us had food and then we met a Scottish couple and ate with them. The food was cheap and the drink even cheaper we wandered to the nearest bar and Owen played pool on the worst table imaginable the ball litterally moved up hills to the pockets. We were only there for 2 days and got as much done as we could Charlie went
Tuding but Owen was still feeling unwell and had to sit this one out.
The whole reason we came here was to do tubing which is basically floating down the river in a big tyre innertube for 3 Kms. Along the river banks there are many bars, swings and zip lines. As soon as you require a beer stop you signal to someone on the bank that pulls you in with a bit of bambo. Charlie didnt get 50 meters down the river before heading to the first bambo bar were he andf a couple of friends had a beer lao and Loa Loa whiskey, which in like petrol to drink! Charlie made it a bit further down the river before stopping again to go on some higher swings over the river. these swing all drop you into the middle of the river from quite a hight. It was great fun espically when you see the odd person belly flop in! Charlie didnt make it the whole way down the river as we had stopped at too many at the bars and it started to get cold so they ended up getting the boat back down the river and
walking the last bit home.
The next day we travelled to Vietene on the VIP bus wich is worse then the bus you could get to Cardiff from Cowbridge. Vietene is the capital of Laos and has the only international ATM Charlie was skidding on the bones of his bum so we had to get cash. We were only there for one day and met the Scottish couple again and went for food and played pool. The next day we went for a wander and there is a minture Arch de treuph which was built buy the Laos government when the Americans gave them money to build a run way so it is called the vertical runway. We caught our plane to Vietnam as we did not want to catch the bus which is 36 hours and is meant to be a nightmare journey. Owen hates flying and was terrified so Charlie decided to be really helpfull and say don't bother reading the emergency instructions as we're flyingover a mountains and theres so flat land to land on so we'll die on impact anyway. To Owens relief we did land fine, for such a big guy he doesn't half
Typical street in Laos
Alot different than back home worry alot!
Our first impressions of Hanio was that it has the most motorcycles we have ever seen even more then Bangkok. Charlie will explain in more detail in the next blog
Now we do have something to tell you all Owen and Charlie have gone thier seperate ways Owen to Hong Kong and Charlie is staying in Vietnam. There is no bad reason for this Owen just wants to see more of Hong Kong and get to Australia quicker. So the next few travelblog updates will be seperate ones.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.187s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 14; qc: 67; dbt: 0.1273s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Emily
non-member comment
Hello from Oz
AAAhhh.. the rest of Loas looks real perdy. I love the picture of the local transport. Take it easy and talk to you soon!