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Published: February 9th 2009
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Lou: Hello! Figured a blog was overdue as we've been to 4 more countries since the last entry! Last time we were just about to fly to Bangkok... Well we made it in one piece, our flight was pretty awesome - there was a ridiculous selection of movies, TV, games and even web chat! We went on at about 2 in the morning to see if anyone was awake and I pretended to be a russian called Boris...
Anyway, it took us a while to adjust to Thailand after Africa - there were sooo many travellers, it was freezing at night and they don't give you enough food! We had to go out for midnight snacks the first few nights. We went to Wat Phra Kaew and the Grand Palace where someone asked to have their photo taken with Mark - we're not quite sure who they thought he was; got interviewed by some Thai schoolgirls practising their English and watched the evening aerobics in Lumphini Park.
We headed north to Kanchanaburi, where the Bridge over the River Kwai is, and Ayuthaya where we went on a boat tour round the temples and also saw some elephants having sex
- whilst there was a guy sat on the back of the male elephant! Our last stop in Thailand was Chang Mai, where we went a bit mad buying presents at the night bazaar and went on a cooking course with a Thai celebrity chef.
We crossed the border into Laos and spent a night in Luang Nam Tha where we had a delicious meal - I was very pleased as we got a big portion as well! Laos was a lot more laid back after Thailand and it really is a beautiful country, we loved it. We went to Luang Prabang and went mad at the night market (anyone seeing a trend here?) We also went elephant riding which was a massive highlight. First we both sat in a basket on one elephant and went for a trek through the jungle, which was quite funny because our elephant wasn't very well behaved and kept stopping to eat and then had a massive poo - nice! Then, the best bit, we got to ride 2 elephants bareback into the water to get bathed! Mark had a massive bull elephant that kept squirting him with his trunk, we both got
soaked and it was great fun.
After Luang Prabang we headed to Phonsavan where we watched an amazing documentary called Bombies at the Unexploded Ordnance Centre - if any of you get the chance to watch it you really should. Before coming here I had no idea that Laos was the most bombed country in the world. Ordinary people have been trained to go and clear the unexploded bombs of which there are still thousands, the people here really are amazing.
We also went to the Plain of Jars, where there are basically loads of huge stone age jars in a field and no-one is quite sure why they're there. Then we headed to the capital Vientiane where we met up with Will and Amanda and we all headed south to Pakse on a bus that actually had beds! We had the back row which was just one huge bed, it was awesome! From Pakse we did a day trip to the Bolavan Plateau where we went to coffee and tea plantations, saw traditional weaving being done and visited several beatiful waterfalls.
We're now in Saigon, but I'll let Mark update you next time on our adventures
in Cambodia and Vietnam so far...
Love Louise and Mark xxx
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