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Published: November 26th 2007
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After a relaxing evening by the fire warming up (Phonsovan is 1800m up and freezing cold) and enjoying our first beer Laos we took a tour the next morning to the plain of jars and other sights nearby. During the 60's and 70's, the US spent over $2 million a day bombing most of Eastern Laos. The aftermath of this can still be seen in the craters marring the countryside and more than 30 million unexploded bombs still buried in the ground. Our tour took us to see most of this, as well as a cave where almost 400 people were killed as they were hiding from the bombers. The plain of Jars sight was hyped up in the guidebook making us expect something amazing, or at least slightly interesting. However, it turned out to be just a few old jars on a hillside.
The next morning (5th) we caught an all day bus to Luang Prabang, and the next day planned to see the sights in town. It turned out that the sights of Luang Prabang consisted mainly of temples, which, after Angkor Wat, are not particularly interesting to us. That evening we bumped into Gary (our friend from
Bomb Shells
Used for building materials in Hmong villages Cambodia) and arranged to go the next day with him and some other people to the nearby waterfalls. We met up with the group the next morning, which happened to contain some people who had hired a pick-up, so 12 people piled in for what was quite a hair raising journey. The driver seemed to forget that there were people in the back clinging on for dear life. At the waterfall we climbed to the top of the main fall and admired the view before making our way down again to the swimming holes at the bottom. The water in here was freezing, but well worth jumping in, just for the experience. In the evening, we bumped into the rest of our Cambodian travelling buddies, Matt and Emma.
The following day (8th) we planned on going to a different waterfall whihch is supposed to be smaller, but more impressive. By the way we've just witten that you can probably tell that we never made it, mostly due to language problems with the boat driver who just took us back to the other one again.
The next day we made our way to Vang Vieng, only 4 hours down
the road, but more like 6 with a flat tyre. Arrived and once again bumped into Gary, who recommended us a cheap guesthouse. Later in the evening we bumped into someone else we had met previously, on Ko Tao diving. The next day we again didn't do a lot again as we had decided to have a quiet day watching friends and family guy (both played on rotation continuously in bars around town). In the evening we met up with most of the group from Luang Prabang and entered a pool competition, in which we all failed miserably, but at least got a few free drinks out of it.
On Saturday (11th) we went Tubing, with most of the people we had met, intending to get an early start, being on the river by 11, but in hindsight we probably didn't start early enough. Tubing involves simply floating down a river in a tractor tyre inner tube, stopping at as many (or as few) bars as you like. All of the bars have rope swings and one has a volleyball court, so needless to say, we stopped at quite a few. Its probably the best sport in the world.
On Sunday we hired bikes and rode out to a lagoon and cave nearby, on the way back, as is becoming customary, Rosie's bike broke, so we had to walk the rest of the way.
In the next few days we went climbing, Tubing again, and spent a lot of the time just mooching about, watching family guy.
On the 16th we headed to Vientiane (the capital) to meet Laura who was arriving the next day (woohoo). That evening it was Matt and Emma's last night with us, but instead of having a big night out, we bowled. We were all pretty hungover from the previous night, so drinking was out of the question.
In the afternoon Laura arrived and we did the sights of VIentiane in our own particularly lazy way. Meaning we walked past most of the sights and admired them from afar. After saying farewell to Matt and Emma we went and took part in a pub quiz, in which we finished 3rd.
On the next day (18th) we headed back to Vang Vieng for more Tubing, and watching family guy. One day we watched friends instead.
On the 21st we
Bomb danger marker
Walking on the white side is safe, walking on the red side is not finally made our way out of Laos, heading in the direction of Thailand and the full moon party.
Next stop Thailand (again).
More Soon
Neil, Rosie and Laura
xx
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Jenna
non-member comment
Hey!
hey guys! had a quick look on your travel blog! looks like you're all having an amazing time- continue to do so! keep us all posted making us jealous! have a fabulous december, stay safe and take care! lots of love, Jennaxxxx