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Published: September 26th 2006
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Rather annoyingly we are forced to leave our safe haven of Top North Guest House, our lovely swimmingpool, chicken sandwiches and most importantly, Chaing Mai, to go and try somewhere else. Next stop, Laos. Now i dont think many people who havent been to Asia have even heard of Laos and we certaintly didnt know what to expect from our trip here.
From Chaing Mai we had a 6 hour minibus journey to the Thailand border where we stayed over night by the river, had a few beers and wathed the the Arsenal and Liverpool games back to back. (i know people keep saying 'why are you travelling when you are doing the same things i do in england when im away' such as watch football, see friends from england etc etc etc. well, i dont care. its fun. so there.)
Early start bekons and we climb on top of a pick of truck where we are taken to the border crossing point, have people examine our passports, get on a small boat and sail accross the river Mekong - and say goodbye to Thailand for the next month or so. Thats no more Singha beer, no more 7/Eleven
convenience stores and no more Sandy the elephant.
We get to Laos and for some weird reason, the mood all changes. it was litterally 3 mins across the river, the weather is gloomy, the locals look strange and depressed and the whole place seems pretty shit. still, it was good to get here and good to know we are about to begin our 2 day slow boat trip down the river Mekong.
Basically, we heard nothing but bad things about this trip. it was either this 2 day thing, or a 6 hour speed boat. we chose the slow option because the speed boats are prone to smash into rocks and in turn, kill people. The boat itself was hardly the most comfortable of things, small wooden bences, a small Thai/Laos baby beating a chiken tied to a bit of rope up but with loads of different people on board and some amazing scenery to be seen, it was worth it. The pics basically describe what went on. i must also add that me and james purchased some fishing lines in the vain attempt we could catch a shark/salmon/whale and cook it somewhere. This went horribly wrong, the
fishing line tied to the boat mearly bounced off the top of the water, the weight floated and the hook almost took a scots girls eye out. That was the end of that...
After 7 hours, we stop for the night in a ghost town. i have no idea where it is, but basically it was a village built on the side of a cliff, a few guesthouses and alot of dodgy laos men trying to sell you weed and opium. They see westerners and they think money. fair play for trying i suppose.
in the morning we set of again for more scenery which we were sure we saw all of the day before and more boat fun. not quite as good as the last day as the seats were rubbish and you couldnt move them which meant it wasnt as easy to talk to people.
After 8 more hours, we arrive in Luang Prabang, i nice, quaint, French orientated town with nice guesthouses, a market and plenty of restaurants and places to drink. we step off the tuk tuk in town and who should run over to say hi? bloody kirsty. cant get rid of
her can i...only joking!!!
we got chatting to a couple of dutch girls on the boat and they decided to come along with us which was cool so we walked around for ages looking for a hotel, found one, set up camp and went in the hunt for food. The night turned into a bit of a session, we met up with kirsty and nicola, the dutch girls, taught them how to pour beer properly and generally got pretty smashed. the next day was a right off, we booked our journey to the next place, had a few beers and that was that.
From Luang Prabang, we go to Vang Viang. a small, weird town that is ok by day, but a small magalouf by night. all the bars dont play music, but play films and have episodes of friends and the simpsons on back to back. interesting to say the least. Appart from being a route through to Vietnam, Vang Vieng was home to the rubber ring trip.
You hire a ring, sit in it and sail down the river, stopping at purpose built bars with roap swings and generally having a bloody good time! i
was shit at it mind. the first 2 stops i missed as i couldnt get the hang of the paddling with your hands thing. the current took me past the stops and i managed to hook onto some weeds about half a mile away. i climbed ashore, hiked through the jungle with me ring, got stung to crap and ripped apart by nettles and after about 30 mins, found the boys who found it the funniest thing ever. not to mention 30 odd other people laughing at my vain attempt to grab onto the rings the workes through out to you.
the swings were class. just swinging into the river from 40 foot up, and swimming back in. we stopped at a few more places, drank some Lao Lao local whiskey with some scottish/irish/dutch people, drank more beer and carried on sailing down to the end. bloody brilliant day. the night ended up in us getting drunk at a river side bar till 6am, we wrestling with a rottweiler named bundy and meeting more people.
The next day was once again a right off, us mulling around feeling sorry for ourselves, booking our journey to Vietnam and sitting
'Mr Cumman'
a small monkey we found tied up behind a shop, i bought him a tuna bagguet, he loved it. except he hated the tuna. the coolest monkey ever... in a bar watching friends. kirsty and nicola caught up with us again, matt and james spend the evening with the same dutch girls from earlier in some bar watching football.
Again, we havent really done a great deal in terms of culture stuff. the rings has definatly been a highlight of the trip so far and we then leave loas, head to the capitol vientiene (possibly the worst most shittest capitol city ever - its like a bombs hit it and know one has bothered to try and build it back up. plus it smells) and get on our 24 HOUR bus journey to Hanoi.
We thought we were getting a VIP aircon bus. oh no. we ended up being the only westerners on the whole bus crambed with locals, playing the worst techo music out of their mobile phones (some in polyphonic format) and generally being the most annoying people ever. 2 had sex 3 rows infront of us, we counteracted their music by playing our ipods through our own speakers with a mix of "We Built This City" by Starship and Ricky Gervais podcasts out loud. funny. The bourder crossing was dodgy to say the
Daves Leg
Forgot to mention in Chaing Mai, dave fell off a wall when drunk and may or may not have broke is ankle. horrific either way, he isnt going to A&E least. money being passed everywhere, the collection and dropping off of TVs, hot pot machines and the locals stopping odd every 10 mins for 'toilet breaks'. it made it interesting and the driver was a complete nutter, almost hitting several on coming vehicals and with a ladder broken on the side of the bus, swinging in the air as we fly at 100kph, it wasnt the safest journey ever.
anyway, enough rambling yet again. Hanoi/Vietnam is the wettest place ever. 9 hours of monsson rain, flash floods and a bloke on a moped getting killed right in front of us on our bus, we are here. and tomo we are leaving!!!! woop!!
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Mum
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Big Softie
Big Softie Andrew, buying a tuna baguette for the monkey, you are always giving mollie tit-bits at home because you feel sorry for her now you are doing it thousands of miles away!! All still sounds fantastic, especially the tubes and rope swings.....how is your liver with all the alcohol....what on earth will you be like on your birthday October 4th...be careful!! lots of love Mum