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Published: April 5th 2006
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Last night i tried three different internet cafes and none of them worked. tonight i've found a cafe with a reasonable connection, but the power's gone off twice (that's the whole of luang prabang, i've sent adam to fetch a torch so we won't have to find our way home by the light of the lightening from the impending storm), so this might be a bit abrupt.
arrived in bangkok three hours late because my plane had to land in rayong (or somewhere) to wait out bad weather over bangkok. luckily adam, bless him, was still at the airport when i finally walked through the gate, which is fortunate because i didn't have the address of where we were staying and vodafone didn't switch my phone to global roaming so i couldn't text him.
spent one day on bangkok, looking around, riding the skytrain, buying very cheap things - i got a fake baby-g for NZ$4.
on saturday flew to chiang mai on airasia, a carrier i would highly recommend - it was so cheap but was perfectly efficient and comfortable.
in chiang mai we stayed at a lovely guesthouse fronting the ping river, the highlight of
which was the puppy - lucky... such a cutie!!
That afternoon we went on a bit of a tour of factories where they made silk (or made that's woave silk?), lacquar and umbrellas... all geared to get you to spend as much baht as possible. i made a fair rash purchases and now i'm stuck with a hand-painted unbrella in my pack for seven weeks.
sunday we went on a one-day trek to the highlands - went elephant riding, bamboo rafting, visted some hill tribes and swam in a beautiful waterfall. great day. I then powered through what i believe was heat stroke and went to two different night markets - one for the locals and one for the tourists. very different... the one for the local was super crowded but the stall owners weren't overbearing, compared to the tourist one where there was more room to walk but the minute we got with-in earshot the stall owners would be shouting stuff and generally being very persistent.
I considered calling this entry "pimp my tuk-tuk" because the tuk-tuk we took around chiang mai all seemed to be customised with lights and sound systems, very entertaining.
the
following day we bought our plane ticket to laos flying lao airlines, and then afternoon asking a few people and taking a few wrong turns, found a plush hotel that let you use their swimming pool for 100 baht (NZ$4ish). it was exactly what we needed. fabulous
according to the lonely planet, the safety records for lao airlines are not publicly available and some NGOs advise their staff not to fly with them, so i was expecting something very devil-may-care. But aside from some moderate turbulence, which the staff warned us about, it was very smooth.
we had picked a guesthouse out of the lonely planet (this is the super-new edition, March 2006, specially ordered in, for which I've had mad-props from other travellers, ok one other traveller, but still) and organised a taxi ride to the address, only to find it has shut down, so we walked with our packs in the blazing midday sun to another one that was listed. the shared bathroom is pretty filthy and the shower is the worst I've had, but our room is US$5 a night so i suppose you get what you pay for.
Luang Prabang is lovely. After
the busy, crowded, dusty streets of bangkok and chiang mai, this place is wonderful. i think the sun is harsher, but once we get in the shade, it's bordering on comfortable. last night we sat at one of the restaurants and ate US$3 pizza and drank US$1 quart (ie jake-the-muss) bottles of beer lao. by volume, beer is cheaper than coke so adam gets his wish of me drinking more, he always was a bad influence.
Today we've been on a trekking tour which involved visits to some tribal villages and aLOT of walking in the blazing sun. I've never sweated so much in my life!! but at the end of it was a gorgeous waterfall which was the most welcome swim ever.
given the extreme physical excertion of today, tomorrow is officially a day of rest. then on friday we've booked ourselves on a mountain-biking and kayaking tour.. more exercise, but it sounds lovely.
righto. this is long enough. i'm tempting fate just being here. and i need food.
hope everyone's well. Lots of love
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Simon
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So Jealous
Hey Stacey, Looks and sounds as if you are having a fantastic time. You are making me so jealous. Can't wait to make it back to SE Asia. Keep us posted, Simon.