A Beautiful City, the Craziest Place on Earth and the Setting Sun...

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Good Evening All,

Well you have managed to catch me in a reflective mood today; the realisation has hit me that I have only ten days left of my trip yes TEN days. Throughout the duration of my trip I have exerted and air of smugness whenever someone has been in the same sorry situation as I find myself in now... humble pie been tasted. Nevertheless I still have plenty of time left for adventure and that's not to mention the civil war I will be encountering upon exiting Thailand (don't worry Mum its safe i'm just trying ro be dramatic).

Rather than depress you let me regale tales of my last few weeks.

Ok well I think I wrote my last blog from Vientienne. People had told me not to expect much from Laos' Capital so I ventured into the city with my expectations lowered to be pleasantly surprised. What I found was a small city oozing with signs of its colonial past. I took this opportunity to once again brush up on my cycling skills and spent the one full day I had in the city perusing around old French Villas and sampling delicious baguette sandwiches. I had been recommended a visit to a sauna and massage place attached to one of the temples in town to partake in a very cheap hour long massage and have unlimited use of the herbal sauna. We were greeted by a rather beautiful half French half Laos girl who explained to us the ropes of the place and continued to spend the next few hours with us which left myself and Omri wandering which of us she fancied...

After the relative relaxation of the nation's capital it was time to head to Vang Vieng. When asked about Vang Vieng most people I had spoken too came back with the intriguing reply of 'The craziest place on Earth', followed by be careful not to get stuck there. Both myself and Omri were in dire need of a late night and a bit of a party so Vang Vieng was the place. Situated in beautiful limestone scenery the small town of Vang Vieng has earned a reputation over the last few years as a place where backpackers (largely English; there lots of cheap booze so go figure) come to 'tube' down the river and partake in all forms of backpacker hedonism. With the cheap and sometimes free buckets flowing really crazy and downright stupid things happen in this place. After a night drinking normally we decided to head 'tubing'. When the river isn't at its lowest of the year tubing refers to floating down the river whilst bars hook you in and ply you with cheap (and free) drinks. Unfortunately the river was rather low so we decided to cut out the middle man and just go to the bars. After a 10 minute tuk tuk ride up river we were greeted by blaring music and a plethora of different swings, ziplines and slides all aimed at creating drunken enjoyment. It didn't take long for a bucket to find it's way into my hand and for me to find something to jump off into the river. The rest of the day was spent in much the same way until it was time to head back and continue the debauchery into the wee hours of the morning. And so what was planned to be 3 days turned into 6. There is many a thing I did within those six days that are too daring for a lot of the fragile eyes reading this to cope with so if you want to know ask when I get back :-)

On the morning of my 6th consecutive hangover the decision was made I needed to get out. Some friends had left for Luang Prabang the day before so off i trotted to go and join them leaving Omri around for another days of madness.

There is only one word I need use to describe Louang Prabang and that is beautiful. The town sits on the confluence of the Mekong and one of it's tributaries and like Vientienne is a maze of old French buildings but unlike Vientienne it's ALL old French buildings. I met up with Amanda and Caitlin my friends from Vang Vieng who greeted me with a flyer for a big party the following night... I guess the madness wasn't going to subside too soon. In the day before the party we decided to head to some waterfalls (honestly i'm not getting sick of them!) that had been heavily recommended to me by others. Crystal blue, cool water was an extremely welcome arrival after the stifling spring heat of Laos and the day was spent enjoying the water in merriment (never thought I would use that word).

So, the night of the big organised super secret party. Off we trotted in high spirits then only to find it had been cancelled; this was a disaster until we realised we had an extra 50000 kip from the ticket money to spend on more booze and spend it on booze we did. In a stroke of genius someone decided that all of the people who were supposed to be at the party should head to a local Laos disco. So after the rental of a fleet of Tuk Tuk's about 50 Falangs headed to the Laos disco and grooved the night away to a selection Laos pop mixed with western crap.

Ok so after Louang Prabang and rejoining Omri I hit the North of the country with the remaining 5 days of my visa. Rather than going into details I will just say we hired motorbikes in an attempt to find some remote hill tribe people but all we found were people trying to sell us hill tribe souvenirs.

Well then , here I am now sat in Chiang Mai feeling a little sorry for myself with 10 days left. I am off to a live jazz bar in a minute so that should cheer me up! In all honesty though I am ready to be heading home (I might feel differently after being back for a week). I will try and blog again before the flight home.

See you all soon

Jack x

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Photos

The reason for many a sore head in Vang Vieng...
A Beerlao 'giraffe'