"Its Getting Hot In Here...(Laos)"

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Yo Yo Yo!! I'm currently back in my fave Asian capital (well, fave might be a stretch) that I've lovingly nicknamed BBK, killing time until lunch when I catch a flight to Surat Thani, then catch an overnight ferry to Koh Tao!! I feel like a character from Lord of the Rings or something: first I took a motorbike to the train station in Chiang Mai, then I caught the overnight train, now I sit for a few hours, then I fly, then I sit some more, then I take an overnight ferry and HOPEFULLY make it tomorrow morning in time to start my diving course in the afternoon! It is a journey of epic proportions! BUT so far things are going better than anticipated because a) the train was much cleaner than I expected and they even served a good meal (although the man sleeping in the bunk below me snored ALL night long, gave Jeffrey C. Joudrey a run for his money in the title of "Loudest Reigning Snorer") and b) once I got to the train station I found out that it comes fully equipped with SHOWERS for 10B, AND a great coffee shop so I have started the day squeaky clean, full of coffee and feeling much better than I expected to!

So where did I leave off?? Ahh flying from miserable rainy Hanoi to bright sunny Laos. Did I mention it rained almost the whole ten days in Vietnam? So when I got to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, i wasn't prepared for the heatwave that greeted me. Recommence sweating. I met a wonderful girl on the plane named Eve and we split a cab into the center of the "city". I use "city" in quotations because for anyone who has been anywhere else, Vientiane is not a city. What it is, is a beautiful, relaxing, lazy, sprawling town with a silly little population of 600 000. I was immediately charmed, especially due to my previous location and my newfound hatred for crowded cities. Eve and I wandered and I found a place to stay, which was wonderfully cheap : 30000 kip, which is somewhere around US 2 or 3 dollars. We rented bikes and explored the "city", then went outside the city in search of the "forest temple" to get traditional Laos massages. After getting lots many times over (in a very small and simple town) we found the temple. A small handpainted sign said "Laos traditional massage this way" and pointed to a little dirt trail through the woods. So we biked down and saw little houses with lots of Lao people sitting around and staring at us. The signs seemed to lead us to a slightly larger house, with people sitting around a table outside, drinking and laughing. It seemed like all the other houses. We hovered near the entrance until one woman said "massage?? go up! Up!!" and ushered us into the top of the house. We climbed the stairs and did indeed see makeshift massage beds lined up. About 5 or 6 Lao men and women sat around doing absolutely nothing. We were given sarongs, told to change and laid down on the beds. The men cleared off two of the beds to make room for us but stuck around the whole time. In the end the massages were great, and only 35000 kip (about 3 dollars). It was a great introduction to the country. They made us amazing smoothies after the massage and we took pictures to commerate the experience.

I stayed in Vientiane only one night, and left early the next morning for Vang Vieng. I wanted to meet up with my tour group, who were travelling on throughout Loas. Vang Vieng is known to be very touristy, its where all the tourists go "tubing" down the river and by "tubing" i mean drinking. Vang Vieng suprised me though because it was so beautiful. The town is nestled right up to a river and beyond the river are huge limestone karsts, similar to the ones in Ha Long Bay. I managed to get a cheap clean room right on the river so every morning I woke up to the beautiful mountains right outside my window. I did manage to find my group after much desperate searching, and we had a good last night. I ended up staying in Vang Vieng for 4 or so days, I met up with Eve there, we went tubing (but i was well behaved) and rented bikes again and went exploring some caves (which also involved getting lost again, goes without saying). It was loads of fun. Eve was travelling with another girl named Zandra, so we all hung out, went drinking, ate huge amounts of Indian food, and had fun. Then I moved onto Luang Prabeng, they moved down to 4000 Islands. Luang Prabeng was also beautiful, i found a great guesthouse and eventually met lots of cool people staying at the guesthouse. I did loads of shopping at the Hmong night market, ate more Indian food (i honestly can't get enough, Ive decided its my all time favorite, sorry Thai food) and went kayaking & elephant riding, which was a fun experience.

After 5 or so days in LP it was time to move on. Because I had some time to kill, I took the slow boat to the border with an Aussie guy (Brad) that I had met at my guesthouse. Brad was lovely. The slow boat was...slow. About 10 hours each day. But it was beautiful scenery and I just chilled with my ipod and my book and killed the time. On the second day though, we did have to crack a bottle of whisky in the afternoon to make it bearable. We finally arrived in Huay Xai, which was the border town, and also the place where they have the Gibbon Experience! I found a room, checked in at the Gibbon office and prepared. The Gibbon Experience was to start the next day. What can i say about the Gibbon Experience? It was easily one of the top 2 coolest things i've ever done, and I'm not even sure what the other thing would be. Its a two night, three day trekking and ziplining thing through the deep jungle in the Bokeo Nature Reserve. We stayed in treehouses 40 or 50 meters from the ground. The view was rolling hills of jungle as far as the eye can see. The only way to and from the treehouses was by a zipline that started 50 meters away, up a hill. We spent the days trekking through the hills and zipping over the valleys. I have never been an adventure sports type, but this was insanely fun! On the second morning, we woke at 5 am. Watched the sun rise, made coffee and at about 5:30 we actually saw a group of Gibbons from our treehouse. We watched and listened to them for about 45 minutes, they hooted, hollered, swung through trees, it was amazing. Seeing animals in their natural habitat is 100 times more rewarding than in a zoo.

So that was that. Amazing. I was feeling sort of ill the whole time but it was definitely worth it. Once it was over, I spent one extra night in Huay Xai, then crossed the border and made my way to Chiang Mai. I have spent the last week laying low in Chiang Mai, trying to get over whatever it was I caught. I took a cooking class (brilliant! i made a mean pad thai and penang curry!!) went to the zoo (haha - very nice, but not as cool as the Gibbon thing) got several massages, and did a lot of sitting in coffee shops and reading. oh and did I mention SHOPPING Like it was my JOB?!?! Finally I am feeling better, and ready to go again. Next is my diving class in Koh Tao..nervous but so excited for it!! Wish me luck!! I've gotta catch the bus now, hope everyone is doing well and I'll see you very soon!! D-Day is June 15th...get ready!!
xoxo
Jamie

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