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Published: March 16th 2008
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Hey guys,
The last update saw us leaving Chiang Mai for Laos which involved a two day slow boat along the Mekong River with an overnight stop. The first day was ok - 7 hours but we had our own benches and I got chatting to a nice guy called Ian from Scotland who gave me some tips for New Zealand which was handy. We stopped overnight in Pak Bang which was like a tiny little ghost town. All electricity went off at 10pm - thank god we had torches!!
Day 2 on the slow boat was a different story - they squeezed so many of us on there I'm still not sure how the boat kept afloat! To make matters worse I was stuck sitting behind Peter Stringfellow and his young Thai bride - if the motion of the boat rocking from side to side for 8 hours didn't make you wanna throw up - these two canoodling the whole way certainly did!! We also stopped at what seemed like every little village that we passed so that little kids could jump on the boat and try and sell you things. We also had to stop to pick
up a local man who had septacemia and was dying - he had to endure the rest of the journey (about 6 hours) before he could get to a hospital.
We arrived in Luang Prabang that evening and had to traipse around the streets looking for somewhere to stay. Nice little town - we dediced to go a bit upmarket after two hellish days and stayed in a nice place with hot water - my first hot shower in about 6 days!!!! Had my first pizza in Luang Prabang - woo hoo!!
The next day we booked a trip that saw us back on a boat on the Mekong River (ggrrrrr) to take us to see the Tam Ting caves. Nothing much to see there though. On the way back we stopped at a whisky village and tried that along with the local wines - absolutely gross and would get you drunk on half a glass!! After lunch we headed to the Kuang Si waterfall - very nice with lovely blue lagoons. We also saw some bears and a tiger there. On the way back from there we stopped at another village where 4 year olds were carrying
babies on their backs and begging for money in return for a photograph of them. It is such an eye opener to see how these people live.
The next day we headed to Vang Vieng on a very early bus. Evil journey - it took 8 hours and broke down twice. Again, they piled so many people in there weren't enough seats so they pulled out some plastic stools and people had to sit in the aisles - not very pleasant for a journey that long!!
We arrived late afternoon and were dumped at the bus stop so we set off looking for accommodation - the bit I hate when you're in sweltering heat with a heavy backpack on! We got chatting to a Canadian guy called Doug and he came looking with us as he was on his own. We eventually found somewhere but nowhere in Vang Vieng did rooms for 3 people so I ended up sharing with Doug (don't freak Dad!). Once Suzanne had declared he was free of any weapons we decided I would be safe with him for a night with the girls next door! We dumped our bags and went exploring, all
the bars and restaurants are really nice and had a good feel to them and everywhere seemed to be playing non-stop episodes of Friends which was a treat!! We ended up on the buckets of whisky again - so cheap and quite nice once mixed with coke and red bull!
The next day we excitedy headed off to go tubing - this was the reason we came to Vang Vieng. It was great, you get your massive rubber rings and taken in a tuk tuk to the starting point on the river. You basically get going as if on a lazy river and all the way along are bars where the staff pull you in using a bamboo stick. The point is to stop at each one for a drink and then carry on in your rubber ring to the next one until you end up smashed. Each bar also had climbing frames where you climbed to the top, then held on to the handle bar and went shooting across the river until you felt brave enough to let go and go hurtling ino the water. Lots of fun but me and Doug were the only ones brave enough
to do it. Each bar was pumping out loud cheesy tunes too which was good.
That evening Suzanne decided that she was going to be brave and try travelling on her own for a couple of weeks and meet up with us again on the islands in Thailand. We have met lots of people doing it and she wants to see if she can do it. She wanted to stay in Vang Vieng for another day too with Doug so she could go tubing again so Deaks and I decided to head down to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We said our goodbyes to Suz the next morning and set off on another sweltering bus journey which saw Deaks lumbered sitting next a chav. We arrived in Vientiane early that evening but didnt like the feel of it at all so we jumped straight on a bed bus for an overnight trip down to Pakse in the south. There were only a couple of beds left on the bus at the back so I ended up sleeping with Deaks on one side and two Lao men on the other. I decided to put this closeness to good use and
got one of them to teach me some laos words while we were going along. He was a nice man but his breath was paralysing me so Deaks slyly passed me some mints and I had one and then offered them to him out of politeness to which he clasped his hands to his mouth and chanted *some smell, some smell* Very funny.
We arrived in Pakse early the next morning and decided that we didnt like it in the south and were going to head straight to Cambodia so we set off for the border on what Im sure will be another long, interesting journey.
Will update again after Cambodia.
Bye for now.
Missing you all - email me with any gossip that Im missing out on and apologies for any dodgy spelling etc - nothing is where it should be on this keyboard.
xxxxx
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Godmother
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What an adventure so far
I am amazed you have had the time to sit and write the blog. You have fitted such a lot lot in a short space of time. Most of it looks fun but I could not have coped without en-suite facilities! How did you manage that long without a pizza? I love looking at the photos, keep them coming if you have time. Take care. Sue XXXX