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Published: February 8th 2008
Hello Friends, family and Subscribers of really long travel blog entries!
Hope you are all doing well back home.
In our last blog, we mentioned that we had made our way to Luang Prabang in the North of Laos, initially the plan was to stay for just a few days, but it was such a relaxing town and very picturesque, we refused to leave for a whole week.
Its a quiet town surrounded by mountains, and despite being quite touristy and busy it still has a very laid back feel to it. Its lovely to walk through a town and look up to see mountains, something we're not so used to in the flat land of Norfolk!
We spent New Years Eve in Luang Prabang, and had a very civilised affair in a swanky French restaurant. The restaurant was so busy that we were seated next to a couple from Switzerland, who turned out to be our ideal dining comapanions.
Hans and Edith have been travelling around the globe for the past 30 years and had so many stories to tell us over our 6 course meal (Im pretty sure the image you all have of us slumming it in South East Asia has just dissapeared!), we had a really good night, and we still went outside at midnight to sing Old Lang Syne. We seemed to be the only people who were willing to do this but Hans and Edith joined in with us even though they didnt know the words. Our lovely dining Companions then covered the bill for the wine from the evenings events and even invited us to stay with them in Bali! not bad at all, maybe the next trip....
In Luang Prabang we spent our days wandering the town, sitting in street cafes, people watching, reading our books, it was too good to leave, but after overstaying we finally moved down South to Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng was a stunning place, where we stayed in a little hut down by the river. Vang Vieng has turned into a very touristy place and is full of bars playing re-runs of Friends and the Simpsons, but luckily you can get away from it all, and go for nice bike rides and visit the nearby caves and lagoons. As much as we enjoy Friends and the Simpsons its not really what we came away for so we tried to make the most of a different side of the town.
We were able to meet up with a friend of ours during our stay, a friend who we met over Christmas on our Halong Bay tour, as most people in these parts tend to do a very similar route around South East Asia you tend to bump into the same people.
We all hired bikes for the day and rode up 7km 's of dirt track and gravel to some nearby caves. On the way, the pedal fell off of Jem's bike, but luckily we only needed to push the bike a few metres further and a local man was able to bolt it back on for a small fee.
The Caves were amazing to see, and very different to any we have seen before. We hired head torches and climbed about 100feet (in flip flops, not the best climbing footwear) up to the cave entrance. You enter the cave and can literally just climb and explore and go wherever you want, into the depths of darkness and find your way around crawling in and out of rocks, and over big bolders and catching your clothes on sticky out bits. It was really good fun, we felt like Indiana Jones exploring the caves! (or that women who he hangs around with)
There is absolutely no health and safety over here in South East Asia, so after an hour or so we decided we had done very well not to slip in flip flops and headed back down to ground level. Outside the caves was a blue lagoon full of fishes, so we jumped straight in and swam about for a few hours enjoying jumping off of the rocks and swinging off a rope hanging in a nearby tree, it was just what we needed in the heat of Laos!
After our swim we relaxed in a nearby hut, and noticed that everyone in the area kept looking around at where we were sat, some people were even taking photos, after a few confused looks and getting ready to shout at people to stop photographing us, we realised that there was a masisve globe spider hanging in the rafters of the hut we sat in.
At first, we froze and thought about running away like big girls, but then we got used to its size and it was a fascinating thing to look at. It is by far the biggest spider either of us have ever seen, and although we were concerned about being able to see its huge red fangs from a few metres away, we took some pictures and found it quite an intriguing little creature, when I say little I mean the size of my hand!
Before we knew it, we'd spent the entire day at the cave and lagoon, so we biked home as the sun was setting and headed for dinner in the town.
On the last blog, we mentioned that tubing was a big past time in Vang Vieng, so we decided to give it a go! we really didnt know what to expect, but everyone we had spoken to who had already done it, absolutely loved it.
We were collected by a tuk-tuk and driven to the riverside a few kilometres out of town, we were then given some big rubber rings and left to float away!
We clumbsily boarded our rubber rings (not in the most lady like fashion) and started to float down the Mekong river.
The sun was blazing and we just gently floated away, listening to the music as we passed bamboo hut bars built along the river attempting to pull you in for some local Loas Loas whisky. For a while we just drifted chatting away with stunning mountains as our backdrop it really was amazing.
We did make a few stops at bars along the way, as you glide past pathetically attempting to control the rubber ring in a certain direction, the bar staff hold out long bamboo sticks and haul you in.
What with delays at bars, and chatting to other tubers its quite easy to spend an entire day drifting just 4km's down a river! which we successfully did, arriving at the last stop just as the sun was setting we headed off to a bar with some friends we had made along the river. Tubing was really good fun, and we would highly reccommend it to any Loas visitors, however Jem managed to lose her precious Havaina FlipFlops (she is still shedding a tear as I type) and I managed to sprain my ankle.
Jem's flip flops were lost somewhere between the last bar and boarding back on our rings, and I sprained my ankle whilst walking on a rickety old wooden bridge in the dark.
Despite this we had a great day though!
After tubing we spent a few more days in Vang Vieng relaxing and elevating my fat ankle, then we decided to make a move further South and headed for the Four Thousand Islands at the most Southernly point in Laos.
The area called Four Thousand Islands, is where the Mekong river splits and forms loads of little Islands, some are inhabited, and thats where all the backpackers head to explore.
Our first night was spent on an Island called Don Khong, a quiet and very peaceful Island, then we headed to Don Det by boat the following day, where we spent the rest of our time in Laos, and celebrated Jems 25th birthday!
Don Det is a beautiful Island, where you can happily laze in your hammock for at least a week! watching the local fishermen and everyday life on the Island. The pace of the Island is very slow and relaxed, and as soon as you arrive you can't help but adopt that style and do as the locals do.
We stayed in some bamboo huts on the riverside which gave us stunning views of the sun setting every night, the huts/guest house was run by a friendly local family who had a really cute cat that slept on our hammocks with us, and came to stay in our little hut with us.
On Jem's birthday we rented out bikes and rode around the banana tree plantations on little dirt tracks exlporing the local area. We headed for some nearby waterfalls and lazed on a secluded beach, we even made our way to the loacl spa where we enjoyed the steam room, not that we needed it in the stifling heat! but it was good all the same.
On the eve of Jems birth we had a wee party at our guesthouse (bamboo huts) and celebrated with the friends we had met on the Island, drinking a few too many mojitos dowsed with the local delicacy of Laos Laos whisky. A pretty good way to spend your turning a quarter of a Century birthday!
After a week in Don Det we sadly left our hammocks and new cat friend behind, and headed to cross the border for Cambodia.
That was actually a good few weeks ago, so we are already behind with our blogs!
We have been to Cambodia, been back to Bangkok in Thailand, met up with our friends Sam and Lucy who are on a three month travelling adventure, and we have also met up with Nina and Will our friends from back home, who have joined us for a two week holiday.
There are now 6 of us travelling around the South of Thailand for the next few weeks, and its really lovely to see some familiar faces.
We will hopefully get round to typing another blog very soon, and we'll update you on Cambodia and Thailands lovely Beaches! but for now the beaches are way too stunning, and the weather way too hot to be sitting in an internet cafe with very slow connection.
We promise to improve our blogging when we reach Oz, which we're assuming has much faster computers.
Apologies for the lack of pics, again the whole slow computer thing makes it very difficult, but we will deliver eventually!
Thats all for now,
Lots of Love,
The Animals x x x x x x x
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badger
non-member comment
you are so lucky
Hi you two,it still amazes me that you have been and seen so much,And the last blog (albeit) without pictures,cant wait to see them,anyway the blog was great reading,I actually read it twice,and it was as good as the first time great keep it up and continue to have a superb time on your travels,. You will definately find it a lot differant when you arrive in Oz,but you make the most of it ,and I am sure that you will have a great time in Oz,you might even get to see Sydneys famous Mardi Gras,(think thats how its spelt),see you soon and have a safe trip, take care . Badger and Kanga(roo) xxxxx