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Published: August 20th 2007
I know i know it has been some time since i have managed to email and post any photos but i have the excuse of being in Laos and not having any electricity or water sources were i was staying for a hugh part of it, so for that part i am sorry. I have had an amazing time going down the Laos country-side and now i find my wee self in the land of the Cambodians. It is such an alarming change to Laos, much more like India...though all the south east Asian countries are amazingly different form each other...
So i finally made it out of Pai which did take some doing, got a but back to Chang Mai and then onto Chang Kong where we stayed the night in a strange guesthouse, right on the Mekong River with Laos on the opposite side, pretty cool. They did have plastic pillows and shut up at 9.30pm, then in the middle of the night i head this tremblous banging at my door, over and over again. It was 4 in the morning i was getting the slow boat to Laos in the morning, i was totally not in the
crew of the slow boat
it was a once in a lifetime experiencemood for this, so i shouted out for who-ever was banging at my door, but no answer...i asked again but no answer...i grabbed my torch and all the courage i could musted and opened the door to confront my door banger....it turned out to be a small black and white cat sculking in the bush, with a look as if to say it wasn't me....
The next day we walked around the corner to the Thai boarder control and got stamped out, then walked through lots of mud to a small long tail boat, which took us over to the Laos boarder control, spent about an hour messing around there, with visas, photos, changing money from Bhat to Kip which suddenly makes you an millionaire...i am finally one of the eleit...though only in Laos and now in Cambodia. We then got taken to the main slow boat which would take up to our nights stop, we got coned into getting accom before we left, as they said we could not get it once we got to this village town....note not to believe them when anyone tells us this!!! I was lucky enough to sit at the front, away from
laos countryside as seen from a really slow boat
at the hight of the vietnam war the American were spending $2.2 million on bombing laos everyday the engin and all the carbon minoxide they was making all the folk in the back sleepy...i was also lucky enough to sit next to a lovely girk from Kent called Kat and 4 great chaps who had just graduated from Bristol Uni in IT kind of things...we then proceded to spend the next week hanging out with each other. The boat journey was long and uncomfortable, that is the only was i can really discribe it...great mountains and lots of muddy water...but if it had not been with-out the company of 4 very funny english boys and a quich witted english girl i might have gone stir crazy...we got to the first nights accom which was a fee, cockroach, spider infested mould ridden place, with dodgy electricty and a drug dealer for a manager. The whold night he proceeded in trying to sell up smack, coke and speed...what the hell are we going to do with speed in a one horse town??? Run up and down to the waterside and do it again!!!!
We woke early the next day and did another not quite so painful day on the SLOW BOAT, i feel that now i have done
snake wine....!!!
not even if i was fecked it once there is no need for me to do it again...we got to the wonderful town f Laung pra bang, home of lots of Buddas in caves, snake wiskey and one of the most amazing waterfuls i have ever seen....the pools at the bottom of it were amazing there were 3 to swim in, they each had their own waterfuls which were 3/4 meters high, Kat and i jumped from that one!!! Some even had their own jucuzies. It was amazing and i loved all of it...shame Tom was feeling crook from the cocktails and midnight bowling we had done the night before...i think he was just bitter that i had gt a better score then him...
The next day took us to Vang Veang where they seem to have Friends on constant play in lots of the bars/cafes. The only other thing that all the kids do is Tubing, where you sit in a bit rubber ring and float down the river, now this was not the mekong so was not so dirty but was still dodgy and fast. The whole point of tubing is to make it to the bamboo bars the litter the side of
budda time
4000 buddas and counting the river, drink beer laos or have a Bucket which has m150 in it, the south east asian equilanvant to redbull. It was messy they were moments of panic when you miss and landing and carry on down the river, then Tom has to come and rescue you and you feel a bit like a wally, i did buy him a drink to say thank-you. At one point one of the bars literly broke while about 20 of us were sitting on the floor, this did not seem to bother the Laos bar workers who laughed at us and told us to sit back down...we perfered it on the not to dry but muddy and more stable land land. Vollyball of sorts was played and jumping from swings from great hights was done, all in all was a great day and we crashed out in the evenings in a bar showing "Family guy"and drank cheep wiskey.
The capital was our last stop all together, we finally managed to find a guesthouse for all 6 of us, ate some dodgy Pat Thai ( note not to eat it while out of Thailand or even BKK ) went down to the
it 's all about the waterfalls
i had forgotten my bathers, so had to go in in my undies...the boys didn't seem to mind... river, discussed the effects on the world if we did not have mozzies...and then tried to find some where that was open later then 10pm to have some more beer lao, this proved harder then one might think, after a few places and Male Robin and Kat asking a Tuk Tuk driver in French were we could go out for a drink and maybe some dancing, we got taken to a hotel outside of town, on the 3rd floor we found a disco the kind you get taken to when you are 12 and your school are running it, though we had lots of ladyboys at our, Kat and i spent a long time teaching the boys how you tell the difference, as we feared that they might come to some great trouble further on down the line, back in BKK.
Next moring i woke early went out and got breakfast for everyone, woke them to say goodbuy, thought at least one or two might kill me for waking them before 9am, i got Tuk Tuk to the public bus station, got a bus to Pakse which was ment to be 8 hours, turned into 13 hours as they
feel the need to stop ever half an hour. For what i am not sure but they seem to eat and drink and need a piss more then any other nation i have ever met, i think thay could even take the Americans on in thr eating stakes...they also play Laos music and sing along, not cool when the Army guy sitting next to you is singing out of tune to a terrible song.
Arrived late managed to convince the only guesthouse in town that i could stayed with them on a mattress on the floor, which turned out to be some kids bed, i felt terrible bad about it as i lay there with my feet hanging of the end. But i did find a bed, wake up on my Brithday morning and get a bus and then a boat to the 4000 islands ( Don Det ) and while walking along a muddy path looking for a guesthouse i heard a "Hi Robin"it was none other then Scotish Sarah...so i got a bamboo hut a few over from her with no running water or electricty but it was 70p a night!!!!, the others on the boat stayed
take a deep breath
if Leo can do it in the beach, then i can do it in Laos...amzing feeling there also and we all had a nice day togerther hiding from teh rain, and then in the evening went and had some great Indian food which tashed like an Indian meal does back in the UK not how it does in India, drank cheep wiskey for 50p a bottle and even one of the girls mashed up a banana and put a incence stick in it as they all sang happy birthday to me...cute
The next day we went white-water rafting, well muddy brown water raftng, but i was great fun and the waves were 3-4 grading, the guides spoke no english and no saftly tips were given out, so it was up to me and English Dave to let the rest of them know what to do in and if you managed to fall out of the boat. Was a great day crossed over into Cambodia illegally and then back again, saw the biggest volume of water, waterful in south east asia very impressive and then spent the afternoon sleeping in the hamocks they were outside our bamboo huts facing the mekong river, pretty cool. Found a backey run by a guy from WA, amazing carrot and
walnut muphins and bread, real bread not the sugar loaded syuff that you can usually find...the next day Sarah and i left early for Cambodia.
It was a boat then a bus, then a walk to the Laos immgration check point, and i use that word very loosly, then walk over the deadman's land to the Cambodian side of things, again a shack is the best way to discribe the immgration side of things even my cambodian visa looks like i did it my self, it is just awful almost a joke. But you pay them some $$$'s and they let you in, then many hours in a broken down mini bus with a huge crack down the windscreen!!! Drops you off for lunch. It was a litle while lalter that i realised that my main bag was no longer with us...it had been loaded back into another minibus and taken back to Laos...so we had to call Laos get to brought back to Cambodia and then we spent many more hours in the mini bus, flying down the rd, missing cows and dogs at an amazing rate...stopped for dinner in another town. The bus was meant to be
Beer Lao Boys
Check out them guns... back in half an hour, 2 and a half hours we were still waiting and the locals were getting restless...we found the guy and he dropped us off late in a samll portside down the name illudes me now. He promissed he would be there in the morning 7am, we missed the first guesthouse for the shire dirt and stayed at a really nice one with electricty and even a telly, was amazing to behold.
7am he was not there and was never coming...we were told this is what happens!!! and got a Tuk Tuk to the main bus station and then a local bus which felt alot safer then the mini bus, along with the Cambodian Karoke that you are ment to sing along with on the bus, we made it here. Sarah and i will be seeing the biggest religous building in the world tomorrow, also known as Ankor Wat...and i want to see some Jungel temples...Cambodia was an intresting first taste but i am sure it can only get better and better.
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Anna
non-member comment
Argh! Me wanna be there too!
you bet it will get better, just need to travel round cambodia a bit... watched some doco on cambodia the other eve and felt terribly homesick!!! you lucky thing.. light an incense stick at angkor wat for me and tell the elephants hi from me. love ya! A xxxx