Advertisement
Published: April 14th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Me before we jumped in the kayaks
Obligatory photo of myself, as requested by mother Yeah, the infrequency of my posts is partly cos I'm having a fantastic time, and partly because I don't like to keep adam waiting while i update this, but he's at a bar watching zoolander so i suppose i've got plenty of time now...
Well!!!
At last update we were in luang prabang in laos after the day trek to kuangsi falls. so after my day of rest (during which i had an hour long full body massage for US$5!!), adam somehow managed to talk me into a mountain bike/kayak combo trip. Given that the last time i rode a bike was in whitianga to the supermarket and i almost collapsed from exhaustion and couldn't sit down for hours afterwards, I voiced my apprehension a number of times, but i couldn't bring myself to flat out refuse. And so i found myself on a mountain bike in 40 degree heat on the losing end of an uphill dirt track on the outskirts of luang prabang. Gravity has never been my friend, but that particular day it almost ended me. I did my best, but when i got the edge of passing out I had to get off and push
the f**ker up the hill!! the guides were really nice though and just told me to take me time and stuff. but yeah, the best part of the mountain biking experience was that it ended. and not a minute too soon.
so then we had a swim in the river and some lunch by the river bank. during which time i wanted to take some photos, but after my last entry that contained only photos of adam, mum sent and email requesting photos of me, so when i pulled out my camera, adam insisted he take some of me.. "why?" i ask.. "Because your mum said".
but after lunch we jumped in kayaks and when back down stream on the nam khan river (that meets the mekong in luang prabang). now this was much more fun because they were double seater kayak so i was able to just sit there while adam did the lion's share of the paddling. He did try to get me to paddle sometimes, but making comments like "come on stacey, less twaddle more paddle" gave me the weakies so i really couldn't help him. but that afternoon was great fun, just floating down
the river watching water buffalos on the edge of the river and people fishing and everything, very tranquil. in the wet season they white-water raft it, but seen it's the dry season we were on kayaks and there was not much white water at all, but it was still fun.
The next day we reluctantly left luang prabang and took a nine hour bus to vientiane. We splashed out a got the "super VIP" bus, which had air conditioning, but even that wasn't even to make that trip very enjoyable. At one point i saw a sign on the side of the road that said "dangerous road ahead"... what? as opposed to the safe-as-houses hair-pin turns we've been careening around for the last hour and a half? But we made it in one piece to vientiane and managed to fairly effortlessly meet up with dad's friend Dick who is working with the asia development bank sorting out the laos banking system (which apparently, isn't a picture of health after years of war and communism... who'd have thought?).
So dick, adam and I had a great night talking about stuff and drinking beer lao. at the end of the
Water Buffalo on the nom khan
There's a pattern developing here evening the check came and dick made to pay for it, now given he had joined us after we'd eaten, we didn't think this very fair and tried to say so, his response? "I got a direct order from your mother to feed you, and i dare not disobey a direct order from shirley. disobey your father perhaps, but not shirley." what recourse did i have from there?
the next day we meet dick in the lobby of his (MUCH nicer than ours) hotel and he let us through to the pool area, which is how adam and i found ourselves recovering from our traumatic bus ride and night of drinking by sunning ourselves on the edge of one of the nicest pools in vientiane. we got far too sunburnt but it was a great day, followed by another evening of good conversation and beer lao... although i had to forego said beer when i came upon a shocking discovery... cosmopolitans for US$2.40!!! and that wasn't even happy hour - then they're half that price!!
Laos is fantastic. It's really laid back, the people are lovely, the children are cute, and its cheap as chips. I could have
Hello Island!
another photo for mum - on the boat on the way to ko pha-ngan stayed forever. The only the Laos is lacking is a beach....
Or more specifically, THE beach. The beach with the biggest beach party on the planet, and so we made our way, via every mode of transport known to man (aside from animals), to ko pha-ngan. we took a mini-van to the laos-thai border (at which the thai immigration guy laughed at my last name, that joke transcends language barriers), on the back of the pick-up to the train station, an overnight train (in a first-class sleeper) to bangkok, plane to surat thani, bus to the pier and a 3 hour boat trip to the island... it took over 24 hours and we must have stunk something shocking, but we made it! We got the last bungalow at mac's bay resot, which came recommended from david... 300 baht for beachfront property? beautiful
This full moon party was a special one. It coincided with sonkran, the thai new year, and my lord do the thai's know how to celebrate a new year!! the whole nation is one big water fight! groups of people stand at the side of the road and get the taxi drivers to slow down so
View from our bungalow
more gratuitous shirtlessness that the people sitting on the back are captive targets for BUCKETS of water. Groups of people ride around of the back of pick-up trucks with barrels of water, throwing it at everyone they see. it's madness.
Once we'd figured out where the action was (thong sala incidentally), we got a taxi there and it was amazing... thousands of people just standing in the streets throwing water at each other and dancing to the massive sounds systems that pump out drum and bass...
Awkward beats...
Awkward angles...
Surface water.... Injuries.
And there are... many, many injuries. everyone drives around crazily on mopeds and there are so many people on crutches and with casts and stuff.
Then in the evening was the main event - the full moon party. we teamed up with a couple of couples from britian and went down. More madness. so many people, dancing, drinking, generally having a great time. fire dancers that would put anyone in NZ to shame. There were a few drunk people having a go with the fire poi's and i was tempted to have a go myself... but it's ok mum! I didn't
Awkward beats...
Awkwards angles...
Fire pois.... fatalities.
And that brings us up to today. another day of rest. tomorrow i'm going diving and adam's renting one of those mopeds and is going to try not to die. i'll keep you posted.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.227s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0472s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
David
non-member comment
Mac daddy
Hey stac, looks like things are going goo. I hope you enjoyed the Mac bay resort - I certainly did. Did you see the special menu. ba ha ha