Lovely Laos

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What a crazy entry into this land-locked country.... I was happy to have found people going my way but to be honest, it was easy. A little chaotic but easily done. We were heading to Vientiane, the 2 Irish and myself. They already had a hostel sorted but I was sure I would be able to walk in and find one. I had a look in the Lonely Planet and there was one that had my name in it so I thought I would try for that.....
As we got into Vientiane, it became apparent that there was some kind of festival going on.... (I can see a theme here) :-) which inevitably meant more people.....
Jo's guest house was full.... but I spotted another and luckily they had a room for me. Little did I know that I was right next to a market stand, practically in the middle of the festival. This stand was selling records or CD's and all I could hear playing was Boney M and Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot bikini...... enough to drive anyone MAAAAD! So I tried to get out and explore....
From what I could see, the festival had one main strip along the river.... shops, market stalls and people everywhere. After walking around for a bit, I noticed a couple of girls who I had crossed paths with a few times.... I introduced myself and we started talking. They seemed cool so we decided to go for a couple of beers and a bite to eat.... We sat at a make-shift bar along the river where we could drink/ eat and catch the festival action. We had something that resembled a hot-pot which was lovely and drank some Beer Lao. Loads of people had gathered along the river to watch floats that had been made.... they were then set alight and left to float out. People also bought mini floats made out of flowers with candles on them..... again they lit them and made wishes before letting them float away along the Mekong. The girls were leaving the next day but in the time we had, we had fun.....
I got to bed to the lovely sounds of Boney M and other wonderful tunes...... and woke up to them - yippeee! The following day I made friends with 2 more girls and we went out exploring the city and then sat by the river and watched the festival boat races. The following day, I booked myself on the morning bus to head to Vang Vieng. The bus journey was about 7 hours and along winding country roads.... luckily I had my ipod.... it has been a GODSEND! I got talking to a Dutch guy and a Kiwi girl..... they seemed v nice so we decided to find accommodation together once in Vang Vieng. I had been recommended a nice place to stay....with stunning views right on the river. We all got a room each..... one of which was a gorgeous hut, hammock on the verandah and stunning views..... which we promptly sat out on and drank some beers. Although Laos is landlocked, it makes up for that with stunning scenery and huge rivers. Vang Vieng is very popular with backpackers and one of the main reasons is the tubing. Basically you hire a rubber ring, get into the river in your ring and float along. You get to a point where there are loads of bars and men at the side hold out poles to pull you in.... hilarious! As you might imagine... after a few stops, people are a bit merry! They also have these big swinging ropes that launch you over the river and then you let go.... plummetting for the water. GREAT! There was one I went on that flicked you up in the air really high, just a bit scary.... woooohooo!
We had decided to do this the following day.... at breakfast we met 2 more Dutchies that decided to come along for the ride. It was great..... beer after beer, floating along and swinging off the trees into the water... ahahaha! At one point, we had one guy that worked in the bar chasing us down the river trying to give us shots of Lao Lao... an awful spirit that tastes like paint-stripper.... eugh!
The following day, we hired bicycles so we could get around a little faster and ended up doing about 15k ride. We visited a cave and swam in a gorgeous lagoon, what a life......
After this, Cindy (the Kiwi girl) and I decided that we would head to Luang Prabang... a little further north and a good 6/7 hour bus journey. Once there, we settled into a hostel and went out to explore. A lovely place... full of street markets and lovely little shops. From here, we had been told that we could go to elephant camp so we both had our sights set on organising this. We booked ourselves on to elephant camp, leaving the following day. We were picked up and taken a little out of the town. We would be here for 2 days. It was quite a run down place in the middle of nowhere. There were a few huts and a lot of surrounding jungle. There was another guy on the camp, an Argentinian who I'd actually briefly met when doing the tubing. He was also to be here for the 2 nights which was pretty cool, the more the merrier!
First we were taken on an elephant ride where we sat in a wooden seat.... we fed them and learned how to command them..... i.e. kneel down, turn left/ right, stop etc.
The next step was to get into our 'Mahout' suits, quite similar looking to pyjamas but all a neautral colour and ride them bare-back with a Mahout (trained elephant person) sat just behind you to help. This was a great experience.....
In the afternoon, we went out to explore the surrounding village which really wasnt much.... a few huts here and there. We met lots of lovely kids on the way, so curious and wanting to play so we spent a bit of time with them.
That evening was one to remember.... there was nothing to do here part from sit, chat and maybe have a beer or 2. Luckily, Cindy had brought her playing cards so we sat there and played games and told silly stories until about 11pm.... it was very funny and we certainly laughed a lot. The next day, we had to get up at some ungodly hour to pick up the elephants from where we had left them in the jungle, get on their backs and take them for their early morning walk and bath. We walked them through the jungle until we reached the river and slowly but surely made our way in. I was not too sure what to expect, whether we would get completely immersed or just a bit wet. My elephant was by far the biggest so we had to go quite deep. We were splashing and rubbing the elephant down, trying to get all the mud off him. At some point the elephant knelt down and he completely disappeared under water.... this has to be the funniest thing ever! I was laughing so loud, whilst getting completely wet and washing my nelly. This was such an AMAZIMG experience. When we finally got back to the camp to change etc, we were all ecstatic after such a moving event......
Later on in the afternoon we went to visit a huge waterfall and sat by it to have our lunch. It really was a great sight and a lovely place to eat. That evening, we all went back to the main town of Luang Prabang with the hope of finding a cooking course in the next couple of days. Somewhere along the way, we bumped into a girl that Alejandro (the Argentinian) knew who was from Cambridge... small world.... as I lived there for 3 years :-) after dinner, a few drinks etc.... we went out and ended up at a bowling alley! Lots of fun! The main cooking courses were closed on the day we wanted as it was a Sunday but we fortunately found a place that let you choose the dishes, showed you how to cook them and then eat them after. Not quite as organised but learning some of the cuisine non the same! In the end there were quite a few of us which was cool... some cooking, some writing, some drinking :-)
By this point, I was much more aware of time. The days were running out and I had to get to northern Thailand before getting to Singapore to catch my flight to Oz. After much talking about it, Laura (the lass from Cambridge) decided to come with me so we booked ourselves on the local bus which would take us to the northern Thai/ Lao border. What a funny trip indeed.... the bus was a run down local thing with leather seats.... hardly any backpackers, just loads of asians and a million and one boxes. Are they running a local import/ export service or is this a bus we thought?..... it stopped every 5 minutes... people got off, people got on, boxes were taken, more boxes were added. It was absolutely freezing, windows open and filling the bus with cold air..... and at about 3am we stopped in the middle of nowhere..... apparently a bus station. The driver needed to eat and rest. Luckily by this point the back seat was empty so I lay there and slept until we left again at 8am.... by about 10am we got to the border.... a 2 minute boat crossing over the river. Sweet...... Back into Thailand for the 3rd time :-)

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Photos

More tubing
Where we stopped for drinks and a go on the swing

Rope swing
The smaller swing out of the 2....still fun though

Lagoon
Where we swam

Huge Nelly
The biggest elephant that I rode :-)

No elephant
After kneeling down, it looks like I am sitting on water and not a huge elephant....

Spring rolls
The lovely food we made

Comments

[Gemsie]

Tubing!
oh Jo - tubing! Its the best way to spend an afternoon don't you think? Glad you liked Laos...sounds like you are having a wicked time. Yey! lots of love Gemsie xxx