Lazing in Louang Phabang and Chilling in Northern Thailand

---

Sorry everybody, but we feel that this is going to be a rather bland blog entry....we have both not been feeling 100% for the last week and have been forced to "lay low" as much as possible. But we will give it a try at least......

The time we spent in Louang Phabang was really lovely - we would recommend this place to anybody!! Louang Phabang used to be the captial city of Loas before it was moved to Vientiane and just oozes history, spirituality and charm. The night markets were really good, selling hand made "everything" by local ladies. We could not help ourselves and bought a silk doona cover, a handbag for Maart's mum and some beautiful cushion covers which will suit the Scotland Island Lodge just perfectly! The stuff is so well made so we just could not resist - although we did keep it nice and didn't go overboard too much!! We also managed to do another cooking class which took us to the local markets and taught us how to cook traditional Lao food. We also got a very needed hair cut by a noice Belgium poof so we feel a little more refined now... We could have quite easily stayed in Lounang Phabang a bit longer than what we did (the fact that it has been the only place where they have served decent wine so far kind of encouraged this sentiment..!). However, travelling duties awaited and we therefore made our way to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.

Chiang Mai is one of those places that did not meet our expectation's in any way shape or form. We both thought it would be a rather big village full of quaint rustic hill-tribe stuff, but instead the place feels more like a small Bangkok (which it is really since its the 2nd biggest city in Thailand!!). It took a little bit of adjustment, but we still managed to have an OK time here. Unfortunately we both fell sick while in Chiang Mai and were forced to spend more time here than what we would have liked. Then again, our room had satellite TV which made it all a bit more bearable (we have soooo many films to catch up on since we left!). Felicity did another cooking class (suprise surprise) that specialised in Northen Thai food and Maarty went hurtling down a mountain on a moutain bike. We also managed to go and visit some temples and do a small trip down the Ping river to a local farm. We do most of our city travels by tuk tuk's, which are driven by some of the most colourful characters in the country. Most of them are wonderful and always willing to lend you a hand to find what you are looking for. A trip across town is about 60cents so we just catch them for the fun of it, even if the place we are going is within walking distance.

From Chiang Mai we travelled to Pai, which lies closer to the Burmese border. Nice little town with a very laid-back atmosphere and nice cosy bars. The plan was to organise a hill-tribe trek from here, but due to our wobbly legs and slow recovery we decided against doing this and keep it for another trip in the future. We did rent a scooter for a day and zoomed around nice little villages, hot water springs and 'The bridge over the river Pai' (not quite the famous one, but build in similar circumstances).

We are now briefly back in Chiang Mai for 1 night and are very excited about tomorrow morning when we expect a pick-up from the 'Elephant Nature Park', where we will spend two nights and three days looking after elephants which have been rescued from hard labour, abuse and other nasty things by a very committed Thai lady. For any animal lovers out there who would rather learn about and look after elephants instead of riding them, check out the website:

http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/

We can't wait!

We have decided to make our way towards the Gulf of Thailand after our elephant adventure and try and get some more diving in at Ko Tao. Apparently it is the start of the whale shark season, so fingers crossed we will meet one of these giants in the water!

---

Photos

Monk in front of temple
Capturing the serenity of Luang Prabang.

Food in the Market
View of the chillies in the market. Did you know that there is over 50 types of chillies in Thailand??

Cooking Class
Learing to cook traditional Lao cuisine. We made 6 dishes this day!!

alms giving in the morning
100's of monks walk down by the Meekong river each morning for the alms giving cermony.

Waterfall near Luang Prabang

What Wat Was Which???
So many Wats so little time

Comments

[Damien]

Work Work Work
It all sounds so hard. I don't know how you are managing to cope!!!

[Garth]

Wok Wok Wok
Hello loves Hope you might cook for me sometime Trip sounds fab and looking forward to seeing you when you get to this part of the world. Hong Kong awaits you. and we have great but not-so-cheap wine here too.

[Ev]

Happy you day
Well, you both sound like your having a fantastic time - with the pictures to prove it! I can't bear to look at them too long while I tap, tap away here at work. :( I hope you're both feeling better enough to kick up your heels a bit for Maarty's birthday tomorrow - Happy Birthday! xx ev