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Published: December 11th 2008
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I write about our Laos adventures with Migs standing guard to make sure I don't delay it any longer! I cant believe it takes only 3 months to forget how to type, or use a computer for that matter, but apparently so. Anyhow, here goes with our next adventure... To get from Chiang Mai to the 'land of a million elephants' we had the choice of a two day trip via slow boat or a one hour flight courtesy of Lao Airlines. It was a really
really tough call but, believe it or not, we heeded the advice of some fellow travelers and the flight won. We may have been 320 dollars out of pocket but we had our first taste of the local tipple Beer Lao in style and felt like normal people rather than backpackers for a full 60 minutes! Our destination was Luang Prabang which had been made a world heritage site 10 or so years ago. The flight was in the late afternoon so we had a brilliant view of the city nestled in the mountains as the plane flew over. Its very beautiful, with lots of traditional temples and markets, as well as colonial buildings from
back in the day when the French were in charge.
The next day was the big 30 and I was woken at the crack of dawn by a croaky rendition of happy birthday from old Migs. So much for a lie in! I think he was more excited than me to be there and joyful at the thought of me finally hitting the thirties. After he'd reeled off all the 'old' and 'gray' jokes he'd saved up and I'd responded with the obligatory 'bald' and 'stupid' ones we hit the streets on a whistle stop tour of the local markets, temples, museums and the riverside. We climbed to the top of Phu Si hill in the middle of the old town with fantastic views of the Mekong snaking through the countryside. It was brilliant but there were so many eco-tourists and snobby toffs everywhere! You could see why though as there was culture oozing out of every brick but it was a really noticeable change from the backpackers and package tourists in Thailand. Also, instead of being offered a massage or papaya salad on every street corner (specifically masaaaaage and salaaaaaaad in Thailand) it was a normal 'waterfall' in
Laos with no extended syllables to be heard anywhere! In fact there was a whole range of new one liners to entice us travelers but overall these felt far less pushy and you didn't have the feeling there was a rip off somewhere down the line.
Those French had left the wonderful influence of baguettes, bakeries, cafes, decent coffee and wine. Bad bad bad for the waistline but oh so good for the soul! Migs organised mulberry crumble for my birthday cake followed by cocktails at a street bar and a cool local BBQ for dinner that you can cook yourself at the table over some hot coals. The meat is cooked on the dome of a metal dish with stock, noodles and vegetables bubbling away in the rim. Quite a nifty thing. By the time we'd finished at 10ish we were so pooped (and pissed) we headed back to our guest house and promptly fell asleep. So much for partying all night, it must be the age! It was a really brilliant birthday which I tried to stretch out for at least another month. Miguel had other things on his mind though as the next day he woke
with a really high fever and could hardly stand. By the third day I was about to book tickets back to Thailand to go to the hospital, thinking it was malaria, leptospirosis or dengue fever (its a bad thing to look up symptoms on the internet) but luckily the next day the fever broke and he started to feel better. A few days later he was back on his feet and we took the bus to our next destination, Vang Vieng.
We'd heard a lot about this place and the famous traveler pastime of 'tubing' which pretty much means sitting in the inner tube of a tractor tyre and floating down the river. The other pastime it seems is sitting in bars watching reruns of Friends and selecting shakes or pizzas from the 'happy' menus. 'Happy' meaning a la hash, weed, opium or any other local herb you might like to sample. A Belgian guy we met in Chiang Mai had had a happy banana shake without reading between the lines and spent the next two days lost somewhere on planet zog! After I heard that I decided to join the eco-tourists and toffs at the other end of
town, and vowed never to drink a shake on the off chance something happy found its way in!
Tubing and happy menus weren't the only thing of note to this place. It was also my newly updated most beautiful place on earth. Limestone cliffs, stunning views, rivers, small villages, lovely people... the list is endless. We hired a moped and took off into the countryside crossing little streams here and there with locals joining water buffaloes to have a dip. Tiny school kids in the villages would wave an yell 'sabadee' (hello) as you went past. As we were obviously backpackers in the more upmarket part of town, the family that ran our guest house charged us 10 dollars rather than 25, so being scruffy definitely has its benefits.
Our tubing day was fantastic. There is something so wonderfully blissful about floating down the river. You can stop at the bars on the way down by grabbing on to the ropes that the locals throw in. We joined about 100 people at one and sat on a platform over the river soaking in the sunshine. One guy we had met decided to cool off and jumped into the
river only to come up 2 seconds later with a dopey grin and blood pouring down his face. The lady behind the bar chewed some leaves and stuck them into the wound on his head, then whisked him off to the hospital in town on a bike. When I say hospital that word should be taken lightly. We saw him in the capital Vientiane the next day with horror stories of the ten stitches he'd had without anesthetic! They also stitched a rolled up bandage to the wound, with an uncanny resemblance to a tampon, which he couldn't take off for two weeks even if he wanted to! So we waved tampon head and his missus goodbye and after a day or two of sightseeing in the capital, made our own way back into Thailand to catch a local flight to Bangkok. This was our third time there so we passed on all the tourist stuff and went to the cinema instead for a bit of Bond, and Migs was fitted for a new suit. The very suit that we are now carrying around for the next 2 months!
Next stop - Vietnam (which we did make it to
thankfully as our cheap and cheerful flight left two days before Bangkok airport was taken over!)
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Maurice
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Another great entry indeed!
Me too found some new strength after reading this entry over here for I have been sick for one-and-a half week now.Just after meeting a new girl that is and staying over there all the time so you can imagine that it was not the greatest of starts. Talk to you about that later.No poundwater in my coffee over here( :-) Dennis ) so thats one plus.Great inspiring views again!