Advertisement
Published: March 1st 2009
Tree
I love this old tree and the color of the water behind itHello all, I had an extra day before I make the 17 hour overnight journey into Vietnam so here is the latest blog as well as some new and some old pictures.
Last I wrote we had arrived in Luang Prabang. I wanted to include some photos of the slow boat. When we arrived in Pak Beng for our first night of the two day journey you are met by the entire town trying to get you to come stay at their accomodation. As you can see by the photo all the boats tie up along shore and everyone gets off and walks up a steep sandy river bank. All the people have to get off before they can get to the bags that are stowed underneath so once you get off you have to squeeze your way back on to get your bag. Great system!!! The thing is that the little Laos children are much better at squeezing their way back onto the boat to get your bag. Stacey had gone to look for a place to stay and I was in charge of retrieving the bags ha. I was standing waiting to get back on the boat to
Getting off the slow boat
Night one on two day journey to Luang Prabang get my bag when a little person who was smaller than my bag came off the boat wearing my bag. The little runt has got my bag and now I have to chase him up the sandy bank to try and stop him before he reaches the top and expects me to pay him for carrying my bag all the way up the hill. The kid was about 4 years old carrying a bag bigger than him and he still made it up the hill before me. Quite the little scam they run. I never asked him to get my bag, or asked him to let me chase him up the hill. Anyways, Stacey had taken my day bag with all my money so the little guy didn't get any money from me. It was, however, hilarious to watch tourist chasing these little children up the mountain side with their bags.
So we arrived in Luang Prabang and made our way to a quiet little guesthouse near the river on the other side of town. Luang Prabang is a town that is surrounded by the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. A nice place to walk around and explore for
Trying for some sleep
She seems to sleep better in all the chaos than she does at night with me snoring next to her. a few days. On our first night we had dinner with a couple from England who have an around the world plane ticket and are travelling for the next ten months. While we were at dinner we discovered that almost every night in Luang Prabang, about the time everyone is having dinner, the power goes out. I think that the system is not designed to have that much power being used at once. The locals jump to their feet and run for the candles and everything carries on as if nothing has happened. It went out three times during our first dinner haha. The next day we explored the city and caught up on some emails and sleep. We hiked up to the top of Phu Si, the central mountain in the city and walked around the beautiful temples on the way to the top. We thought it would be a great place to watch the sunset, we were right, but unfortunately every other tourist in town also thought it would be a nice place to watch the sunset. We were spoiled being the only tourists in Indonesia and watching a sunset with 100 other people isn't quite as beautiful
Sunset over Luang Prabang
Hiked up to the top of the mountain for the view, unfortunatly so did everybody else. and peaceful as watching it alone. Stacey wasn't feeling very good so I met up with two girls that we had met in Chiang Mai for dinner.
The next day we made our way to some waterfalls called Tat Kuang Si. They are multi-tiered waterfalls tumbling over limestone cliffs into series of tourquoise pools. There are places in which you can swim, swing on the rope swings and jump off the waterfalls into the pools. I have put up some pictures of it but I will add more when Stacey sends me her pictures because with her waterproof camera we were able to get some great pictures. On the way to the waterfalls there is a bear sanctuary that takes in injured or orphaned bears from the area. They are black bears that only grow to be about half the size of the bears that we have back in Canada.
The next day we took a bus to Vang Vieng. The roads in Laos wind back and forth and around and around. Stacey and I were laughing how if we were in Switzerland the swiss would just build tunnels through all these mountains instead of the switchbacks that
Tat Kuang Si waterfalls
multi-tiered waterfall over limestone cliffs, great for swimming we had to endure for 5 hours. We arrived in Vang Vien in the heat of the afternoon and walking aroung with our packs in search of a place was not an option. Given that Stacey still wasn't eating much or feeling very well I went in search of a place. In Laos, like most of southeast Asia, they set any price that they think they can get you to pay. One place started at 60,000 kip, which is about 10$. When I came back to it 20 minutes later she was showing the room to another group of people and now the price had jumped to 270,000 kip, about 35$. I laughed pretty hard when she offered me that price and we all ended up walking away. I am sure sometimes it works on people but it is tough. We found a nice place near the river and center of town and moved in.
When we were in Indonesia we saw places where you could rent movies, or watch TV in restaurants. We didn't understand why anybody would travel half way around the world to watch things that they could watch at home. After traveling for two months
we feel very different about that idea. We were so excited when we saw that most of the restaurants in town play Friends episodes. I will admitt that we watched a rediculous number of episodes. Considering Stacey was sick it was the perfect place for us to be. I could leave her with something to do. Our first night we watched friends and went to sleep.
The next day we met back up with Emma and Sam (girls who we treked with in Chiang Mai) and decided to go tubing down the Nam Song River. For those of you who have never been tubing this is my description of it. You pay for a tube and get driven in a Tuk Tuk up the river to the first bar. You have a drink, then you get in your tube float 10 feet to the next bar.....and have another drink. Then somebody had the brilliant idea of giving us something to do at each of these bars other than drink. So you have three options 1. Climb 30 feet in the air and swing out over the river on a trapese like contraption, 2. Fly down a zip cord full
Swimming Time
Swim, rope swing, jump off limestone waterfalls, its like a playground speed not knowing when the handle bar will hit the end and you will go flying into the water, 3. Climb up to the top of a giant water slide and go flying down it a hundred miles an hour and go flying into the water. All very fun....but who thought it would be a good idea to invite a lot of drunk people to participate in these activities. Needless to say, people weren't just waking up with sore heads from drinking the night before but waking up sore all over from the dare devil activities you can do along the way. So funny and so much fun. So we spent the day going bar to bar, floating in our tubes, listening to some great music and laughing at people flying all over the place. The water is quite low right now and the river is hardly moving so you had to paddle pretty hard to make it those 10 ft to the next bar. (I will add the picture of this day once Stacey sends them to me)
After spending the day on the river in the sun we decided to go dancing. Stacey still wasn't feeling good
Tham Phu Kham cave in Vang Vien
Wow we have seen a lot of caves and waterfalls on this trip. so Sam, Emma and I went to a place called Smile Bar. Mitch, this parts for you.....So we are having a great time dancing away when Brian Adams, summer of 69 comes on.....followed by, of course, Bon Jovi, Livin on a Prayer. Had a little sing along with the rest of the bar in your honnor Mitch, wish you could have been there. Great night.
They next day we caught a Tuktuk ride to a lagoon just out of town and hiked up to a cave called Tham Phu Kham. Once again my trusty head lamp came in handy as we explored and absolutely huge cave. The light couldn't even shine to the top in some places and it felt like we were on another planet. We spent the day laying by the lagoon and swimming of course. For our last night together Stacey and I watched some friends while having dinner. We booked our bus to Vientienne (capital of Laos) and Stacey booked hers onwards to Bangkok to go home.
The next morning we said bye to Sam and Emma who are headed up to northern Vietnam (might meet up with them again before I go home)
Blue Lagoon
Vang Vien, more swimming and relaxing and we headed to Vientienne. Said my goodbyes to Stacey, fought a little tear that was determined to make its way down my face and found my way into town. It is always a little nerve racking traveling with people as no matter how good friends you are when you are with someone 24hrs a day 7 days a week it can be the end of a friendship. I am very happy to say that Stacey and I did great traveling together and it has done nothing but bring us closer. It was so nice to have someone to share all these memories with. So I waved goodbye as she set off on her 12hr bus ride to Bangkok and found myself a cheap dorm room for my time in Vientienne.
Today was a nice day because I really had nothing to do. I have to wait for my Vietnam visa to be ready on Monday (tomorrow) so today I roamed the streets, wrote lots of emails that were long over due and this blog. It has been go go go it seems so it was nice to catch up today.
I leave tomorrow night on a 7:00
bus to Vinh Vietnam and I don't arrive till the following morning at 10:00am. Not looking forward to that. Oh well part of the experience like everything else I guess. Good thing I have my head lamp and a good book to keep me company. I am adding some old pictures at the end of this blog that I wanted to put up. I hope you enjoy them and can piece them into my trip where they belong.
So I am on my own and feeling pretty good so far. Next stop Vietnam. Love you all, miss you lots,
Alicia
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0436s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mitch
non-member comment
Wow, its unreal to see that you were at the exact same Blue Lagoon that I swam in almost two years ago to the day. It's really bizarre to actually know exactly where you are. Awesome. also crazy to think that you and stacey split up in Vientienne exactly where Brent and I parted ways. so random! Anyway, hope you enjoy the next leg of your trip. Love you! M