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August 30th 2011
Published: August 30th 2011
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Right back to the grindstone! I'm having to consult my empty diary and scrappy lists to write this entry and I'm seriously digging deep into the few brain cells I have floating around up there to remember what the hell we've done since. Day's are flying past far too quickly and previous weeks feel like years ago! So I've adopted a new approach to this writing malarky and I'm now trying to list things in each place so I can revert back and jog my shocking memory! For an example of my forgetfulness I've left my handbag with the camera inside in 5 different restaurants so far! Luckily for me we've retrieved them or had ladies chasing us down the street like crazy maniacs with my bag in hand! Thankfully the people are proving to be helpful and honest! One time (no, not at bandcamp) I never even noticed that I had left my bag for a good five or so hours, I mean which dumb-ass does that?! So it proves Scott's theory that I cannot be trusted with anything remotely important, not even the cigarettes or lighter. I'm officially being treated like a child...but I secretly quite like having my own walking handbag (Scott!)

Anyway, the story continues...

Jumping on a bus to Chiang Rai from Chiang Mai was simple enough and only took about 3 hours. The scenery was lush and mountainous with farmers bent double tending to there precious emerald coloured rice paddies. We arrived on time, slung on the packs and after consulting a map we decided the walk to the hotel wasn't too far from the shiny new bus station and it would also save a few pennies too! After about 20 minutes of walking down the same high-way we realised that the surroundings looked nothing like what the Lonely Planet map showed! Then I remembered...a bit late but better than never hey, that there are 2 bus stations - whoopsie!! We hailed down a red Sawngthaew (pick-up truck for passengers) paid about 50p each and got dropped of at Bus Station No 2. After checking in at our guesthouse we ran back out for some grub. We were both hank marving and I don't think at this point we'd had a decent meal for ages which didn't consist of cookies or crisps so being the health freaks that we are we went to the local Pizza shop similar to Pizza Hut. We were total pigs and scoffed a set menu for four people...mmmm delish!! We practically rolled each other back out of the restaurant and rested our full bellies for the evening!

We were only using Chiang Rai as a stop off point in an otherwise long journey to hop over to the Laos border. Plus we had another 2 days on our visa to use so thought we'd make the most of it. When looking at the guidebook I got the impression that this place would be quite similar to where we had just left. However, it was considerably less touristy and definitely a local town for local people. This was nice though and we spent the next day walking the streets and spectating their daily lives. Garages were busy fixing rusty motorbikes, proud home owners mowing scorched lawns and children hurriedly racing out of school gates. It was so hot and we managed to get so lost! Nothing an ice-cream break couldn't sort and we eventually found our way back late in the afternoon.

We were pretty hungry again at this point and getting slightly grouchy so opted for yet another day of fast food. Don't roll your eyes or tut, I can hear you! It's tedious job eating rice & noodles everyday! Sometimes it's nice to feast on simple western stodge after a long hard day especially not knowing when we'd have another full meal with travelling the next day too! So it was another Pizza! Only this time instead of being rolled out Scott had to carry me instead! Not because I'd eaten too much but I'd accidentally hurt my knee on a step! Now start the violin music for me please.... I can't even begin to explain the amount of pain I was in, I spent 20 minutes with my head between my legs hoping it would stop me from fainting and face planting straight into my cheesy marguerita!! Thankfully Scott got me back to the room and swiftly went out to find ice, bandages and strong pain-killers whilst I sobbed the whole time thinking I'm not ready to go home, I don't want to go to hospital and pray that I'd not done any considerable damage! I'm not sure what our nextdoor neighbours thought of my painful wails but they decided to make a few noises of their own so I had to save myself from bleeding ears also and duck under the pillow! Why does everyone insist on getting jiggy at such inconsiderate times! The worrying thing about the whole hoppalong situation was the fact we had to leave the country the next day as our visa's had run out and with me disabled temporarily we started to panic just a little. Plan A was to adopt the RICE method! Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation - Good job Scotts a pro at knee injury's and the next morning I strapped it up and hobbled down the road to the station for our long bumpy local bus ride to the border. We didn't want to think about a plan B so thankfully plan A worked out fine! For the first time on a bus we had no air-con and the rusty fans were dead so we were pleased that our decision to get up before the crack of dawn paid off, even if we did feel like a couple of dogs with our heads hanging out of the window.

We got a tuk-tuk to Thai immigration, stamped out of Thailand, crossed the river by boat to Laos and had our shiny new 30 day visa processed fairly swiftly for $35. There's something about border crossings that make me edgy and nervous. I mean I shouldn't be because I'm an angel of course but the officials look mean and tough with there starchy pressed green uniforms and long grungy nails. Fag smoke bellows out of the port hole style window as they order you to step forward to the line. As usual no problems, we pass and later always enjoy a good flick through the pages of immigration stamps in our passports, there racking up quite nicely at the moment too!

We quickly grabbed somewhere to sleep for the night close by the boat pier so we could get up at a semi-reasonable time to catch the 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang. We'd heard it's best to purchase a ticket the afternoon before as sometimes they can be pretty full and after looking at our room for the night we certainly didn't want to be hanging around. Although our luck had run out and the ticket office had recently shut up shop for the day! It just so happened that a young man close by offered to sort our tickets for us and pinky promised he would get us good seats on the boat with my leg becoming quite uncomfortable. So we thought about it for a minute and decided to go with it. Instantly after exchanging money for a receipt we had a sinking feeling that we had probably made a big mistake and were going to get our pants whipped down, spanked and robbed! But we couldn't change our mind, it was too late. We'd have to keep our fingers crossed and pray that he was genuine. We all arranged to meet back at the boat pier at 8:30 the next morning after picking up more customers nearer the town.

That nights sleep was not the best.. Our room was damp and smelt foisty. To top it off we also had a slight infestation of ants to the point where a few had crawled right into bed. We were relieved when we woke in the morning and escaped as quick as we could ditching the offer of coffee and bananas! By the way I forgot to mention the dock was really busy importing/exporting goods from either borders. What was impressive though was the HGV's being transported not by sturdy bridges but huge water taxi's that tugged them across the fast flowing Mekong River. I only mention this because our morning started off with a bang as a huge truck drove past us up a tiny steep dirt track, as we jumped on to a set of the steps out of it's way the tyre exploded sending pieces of rubber flying everywhere and into our legs! Great beginning to the day we thought. It got worse as the clocked ticked past half ten and our friendly helpful ticket man yesterday was no-where to be found. What was more worrying was the boat departed at 11. We didn't have enough money to buy any more tickets and the nearest ATM was 2km in the other direction. I was that fed up the situation nearly reduced me to tears and before giving up altogether we played a spot of sign language with an official who pointed us to a restaurant/guesthouse on the edge of the river. As I wobbled over in a last ditch attempt suddenly our guy rocked up in a mini-van filled with other backpackers and his official tour guide badge on! We were both totally relieved but super pissed off that he had us waiting about for three hours not knowing what the bloody hell was going on. He was such a cheeky chappy though I couldn't face being angry so instead I zipped it for once and we jumped on board. He kept his promise surprisingly and sat us down right at the front. He just swapped over the numbers which had been hand-written on to a square shaped piece of paper stuck down with sticky tape. What were seat numbers 89 & 90 suddenly became numbers 1 & 2 which was super handy because these were ours! He even arranged for us accommodation at the half-way stop over in Pak Ben for a decent price and decided we may as-well trust him once more now he had redeemed himself! He did fab too, the room was one of the best we'd had yet so we started feeling a little guilty that we'd probably called him all the names under the sun and he eventually delivered what he promised.

After reading a few horror stories in LP and on the internet about the slow boat conditions we were a little apprehensive. But we needn't have worried so much as the seating was much better than we expected with rows of comfy car seats bolted down behind one another, a bar selling refreshments and snacks and an actual toilet, even if it was totally stinking it was better than nothing at all! It was a slim but long vessel and as expected packed to the rafters with every kind of passenger going. The usual gap year students were busy playing cards and sipping on a beer Laos or 10. The in-between category which included the mid 20's + age range backpacker/flashpackers all the way up to the adventurous OAP's. Lastly not forgetting a few curious locals and the pot-smoking hippie hobos who's dreadlocks looked as if they were harbouring deadly diseases! It became apparent a long-term bearded backpacker was on-board; Adam, (who Scott re-named Alan for some strange reason!) whom everyone wanted to be their new Aussie best friend. We couldn't escape listening to his millions of stories and attempts of cracking onto the groups of younger girls. He was fairly entertaining, he seemed harmless and friendly but Scott took an instant disliking, it's nothing new, he's a hater of everything living and breathing. It was entertaining though watching Scott's impersonations later in the week!

Finally we made it to Luang Prabang after chugging along for what was 13 hours in total and passed some pretty fabulous scenery, remote villages and cute kids showing off their water acrobatics.

We settled into our new digs quite nicely for the lazy 6 days we spent here. Soutikone 1 was a lovely cosy place with such friendly family owners running the place. She regularly shared with us local seeds, nuts and fruits and showed us how to eat each tasty treat like a small child copying it's mother. They spoke very little English but her smiles would express a thousand words, what a lovely woman. In fact - while we're on the subject, the Laos people in general were the most warm and welcoming locals we had come across so far on our travels. Such trusting eyes and pure natured. We found there laid-back approach and relaxing pace difficult at first but we seemed to adjust well after a few days and ended up enjoying being near-on horizontal or upright and slow for our time here.

Quaint French colonial style buildings, Buddhist temples housing monks wearing tangerine coloured cloth and young inquisitive children busily visiting tourists tables selling there home-made jewellery for "a good price!", we loved it all! They made THE best warm chicken baguettes, yummy Oreo milk shakes and each evening after tea we swung past a stall selling nearly every tummy busting cake, biscuit or doughnut we'd ever seen!

We thought we'd struck gold on the first night with it being a Sunday and noticed whilst wandering around town the locals setting up stalls ready for the night market. We returned later in the evening prepped and ready to get mauled and hassled to death by pushy sellers but to our total surprise we were able to wander round aimlessly without being pestered whatsoever! In fact they were happy enough saying hello, exchanging pleasantries and smiling sweetly. We had learnt already in other countries to not even look at anything unless you were ready to be pounced on and guilt-tripped into a sale so were pleasantly surprised we could pick-up things of interest, take a look and carry on to have a think and return later to purchase after a minute of light-hearted haggling! The stalls went on forever lining the pavements under red and blue marquees. All the silks, home-wares and jewellery were so beautifully crafted; a kaleidoscope bursting with colour. I'm usually not a massive fan of market shopping but this was a real treat for us both and we spent hours checking it all out. In fact we were that impressed we wanted to buy all sorts of random bits, if we had the money our parents would be expecting a few large airmail boxes just about now! It just so happens we wouldn't have anywhere to put a set of plates, a samurai sword, bed sheets and lamp shades so we settled with purchasing a few bracelets each, the obligatory Loas beer t-shirt and a handmade book each to probably stick in some memorable photo's when we get back home! It turns out though it wasn't just a Sunday thing either, the night market was on every night, bonus!

One afternoon we decided to visit the local waterfalls. They looked pretty amazing in pictures I had seen looking tranquil and turquoise so we arranged a trip with the husband at our guesthouse in his clapped out tuk-tuk for the hours ride out into the countryside. With it currently being monsoon season the falls rumbled and thundered in the distance. Once in sight they had clearly burst the banks and bridges collapsed in tatters at the edge. They were muddy brown in colour but we didn't mind too much as they were still an awesome sight.

So by now you will have probably gathered that Luang Prabang was highly ranking in our top 3 favourite towns we've visited so far. We found it difficult to leave but knowing there's much more to explore we needed to keep moving. Next stop was Nong Khiaw and continuing steadily north-east towards the border to Vietnam. We decided early on that we didn't fancy going south to the backpacker tubing central area of Vang Vieng, it's just not our thing. We actually couldn't think of anything worse than being surrounded by hundreds of drunk students so we stuck to our plan. To the North & beyond!

Much Love

x x x


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31st August 2011

Jealous
Hi babe, the wish i was there, has gone to totaly envious. you look like you'r having the time of you'r life. Keep writing the blogs as you are realy good at it. As always take care but enjoy. Love always DAD.
4th September 2011

Missing You
Hi Hun. Was good to see you on Skype the other day :) i have been following your blog like an addict. keeps me sane during the day at work lol. Work - bet that is a distant memory for you hey lol. oryt for some. Like Dad has said, keep up with the blogs, you are really good at them and they keep us chuckling back here in 'Sunny' England. I hope you havent had to use Scott's make-shift taser gun just yet ;) As always, missing you. Take Care hun. Lots of love, Lauren xxx

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