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Published: January 24th 2008
Only 10 sleeps to go!
Yes its that time again... Reet is finally off traveling again, this time with her crazy friend Rinna in tow! 6 amazing weeks of sun, sand, awesome food, adventure, mishaps, squat toilets, dangerous thai buses, creepy crawlies and most importantly CHEAP BEER! Mmmmmmm beer! How much trouble can 2 girls get into in a foreign land.... well for anyone who followed my last adventure you will know mishaps followed me everywhere ... from freak storms out at sea trapped in a tiny boat in 5 meter waves to crazy death rides in buses to snakes dropping out of the roof right near my head.... I am pretty sure you can expect the same again, although probably even more so... that's what happens when you travel with a crazy country girl who loves her alcohol..... :-)
For those of you that care where and what we are doing this is our 'un-official' itinerary below.... You have all been added to our subscription list because we think you care what we will be doing over the next 6 weeks (or you are a Government worker who has nothing better to do with your days!!)
If you would prefer not to be on our list, you can hit the link to unsubscribe in the email you received!
Part 1 - Our Laos Lowdown...
We will be beginning our journey in
Bangkok arriving on the 3rd February (yes Rinna had to stay in Adelaide for the Big Day Out!). We have a few busy days planned in Bangkok meeting up with fellow travellers, catching up with Reet's thai friends Tong & Nok and visiting the famous Floating markets... From there we will then jump on the 'overnight train' heading up north to the
border of Thailand and Laos. Crossing over, we will stay a night or two in
Vientiane (the capital of Laos)
(pronounced 'Viang Chan'). We have heard there is not alot to do here so we have left it open as to how long we stay (probably just the one night).
A short bus journey later we end up in
Vang Vieng.... backpackers paradise.... picture a small town on the banks of the Nam Song river amid 'stunningly beautiful limestone karst terrain'. The Lonely Planet describes it best - "For some travellers, sitting on an axe pillow, sucking down
a shake laced with marijuana/mushrooms/opium/yaba (methamphetamine) and tripping through endless reruns of Simpsons is heaven on earth (think Rinna here)... for others its a nightmare (think Reet here)" :-)
While that all sounds like - ahem - 'FUN' the reason for our trip to Vang Vieng is the infamous 'tubing' - a day floating down the Nam Song river on tractor inner tubes stopping at little bars along the way, where if you buy a beer or two you are able to use flying foxes to jump into the water... or just jump off the top of a rickety makeshift diving platform! For those who know me well, I am not sure I will be doing that part, but the tubing and beer sounds awesome..... somehow for those that know Rinna, I am sure she will be the first up the diving platform!! :-)
A day or two in Vang Vieng then we endure a long bus journey to
Luang Prabang - we will be here for about 4 days... this is meant to be one of the best part of Laos... and many say you could easily stay here for 2 weeks! Set along side the famous
Mekong River it is a UNESCO Heritage listed sight that has only been open to tourists since 1989. We do not have a lot of plans here, mainly just sightseeing and relaxing after what will have been a crazy week of travel. From here we then get the famous 'slow boat' up to the border town of
Huay Xui (pronounced way sigh) The slow boats take 2 days of travel to reach our destination.... aptly named slow boats for a reason. We stop halfway at a tiny village called
Pak Beng overnight... The scenery is meant to be amazing but the comfort level of the wooden benches you are sitting on for 8 hours a day is said to be torture! A pack of cards and plenty of the local amber fluid 'Beer Laos' should help us survive... We will see how we go I guess... the other alternative was a speedboat doing the trip in one day however we have been advised it is noisy, cramped and dangerous. Many serious accidents and fatalities are common on the speedboats, therefore the advice is that the risk outweighs the saving of time! Slow boat it is!!
Once arriving in
Huay Xui we are spending the night before setting off on the infamous
'Gibbon Experience' - basically a 5 hour jungle trek into the Bokeo Nature Reserve for 3 days/2 nights. You hike for a few hours and then you get hooked up to zip lines (flying foxes here in Australia) where you zip through the jungle canopy. We will be staying in a treehouse 100 meters in the air (which you have to zip into!) and on Day 2 you spend the day 'zipping through the forest like a monkey!' and/or trekking to a waterfall for a swim.... There is NO electricity, a squat toilet which you share with a hive of bees (Are you allergic Rinny?!) and basic food prepared by the local tribes people... Day 3 is spent trekking 5 hours back out dirty and tired! Unfortunately no travel insurance company will cover us for this ... so please Mum and Dad DON'T STRESS... the rest of you just pray!
Part 2 - Thai'd & Ready for Relaxation
From there we will cross the border back into Thailand, catch a bus to Chiang Rai and jump straight onto a budget flight (God help
Reety) to Bangkok. A quick overnight there and the following day its the overnight train/bus/ferry (think journey from hell!) to
Ko Pha-ngan (pronounced Ko Pan Yan) - home of the famous FULL MOON PARTY, which coincidentally we just so happen to arrive in time for! Planned?! Maybe!! :-) I might be almost 34 but the FMP just has to be done once!
For those who do not know what the Full Moon Party is... its the worlds largest monthly rave which takes place on the Full Moon (obviously). It is reported that up to 30,000 ravers turn up to 'dance, drink and smoke the night away'. It is held on the beach of Haad Rin and has more than '10 major sound systems on the beach playing everything from psy-trance to drum'n'bass', all within stumbling distance of each other. Fire dancers, fireworks, bubble parties... anything and everything goes! The last DJ shuts down at 11am the next day.... Crazy time expected! :-)
After all the crazy traveling we will settle into a little beach hut on Ko Pha-ngan for 7 sweet nights, where the plan is a little swimming, a little snorkelling, a few massages, alot of
lazing around and a little drinking time! Rested and ready to start traveling again, we begin our journey south.... traveling overland to the west coast of Thailand to
Khao Lak.
Khao Lak is the area that was most hit by the 2004 Tsunami. When driving through here last time this was evident by the lack of vegetation, the empty ruins of hotels and the police boat several hundred meters inland (now a memorial). Our sole purpose here - a snorkelling trip to the
Similian Islands. We are doing a 'liveaboard' snorkelling trip for 3 days... where we live aboard the boat, snorkel and swim during the day and sleep under the stars at night! The Similian Islands are a Marine National Park located 70km off shore and offers some of the best snorkelling/diving in the world. This is exactly where my birthday will be spent!
From Khao Lak we then head to
Phuket. To me, Phuket is Thailands own little 'Gold Coast', and there are Australians everywhere! I was here 10 nights on the last trip and really didn't have any intention of returning, however since we were going to have to fly back North from here, and
because Rinna hasn't been here before I figured we should probably stay a few nights.
Part 3 - Party in Phuket, Chillin' in Chiang Mai & Back to Bangkok...
We have decided to have a little splurge and will be staying at the luxurious Holiday Inn for 3 nights. Rinna's only criteria? A Swim Up Pool Bar.. Reety's criteria... somewhere in the middle of all the action.... Reety and Rinna's plan? To make it through the whole cocktail list and attempt the 10 meter swim back to the edge of the pool.... If we can peel ourselves away from the pool bar (or even at attempt to swim) we are planning on heading out to seedy Bangla Rd at night ... Ahhhhh Bangla Road... home of the Go Go Bars (ie : dirty old western men and beautiful young thai women all vying for their wallets... I mean attention..), pubs, tourists, gogo bars, freaks and did I mention Gogo bars (yes I know you are dying for the photos already!!!) .... A night at the awesome Sunshine Bar (which those who followed my last trip will know I fell in love with) is also planned... this
will be Reety's 'official' birthday celebration.
Anyone still reading?! Almost finished I promise (remember it is 6 weeks, and no I am not trying to rub it in!!!) From Phuket we fly up to
Chiang Mai - yes another flight for Reet.... argh! Actually make that two flights.... we have to go via Bangkok... cheapest way of course! Once we arrive in Chiang Mai we have 6 nights to enjoy the North. I loved Chiang Mai last trip... it was one of my favourite areas. We will spending 2 days/1 night at the Elephant Nature Park, stocking up on some presents and just enjoying the hospitality of the north...
Then its time to head back to
Bangkok for our last 5 nights. Time to catch up with my friends Tong and Nok again, as well as finishing last minute shopping... Dependant on funds of course!! :-)
So that is all folks.... we arrive home in Adelaide on the 17th March.... hopefully refreshed, and maybe even Reety will have the travel bug out of her system by that stage.... Ha! Yeah right! We are going to miss alot of people (or maybe just a few) but hopefully we can rack up some amazing experiences and times... I will try to blog as much as I can, but knowing the inner party animal that I am, and knowing the influence Rinna will have over the inner party animal, I might find it difficult to make it to a computer! Promise to make an effort though!
I hope we can entertain you along the way.... At the left hand side above is an area where you can email us privately, leave a quick (or lengthy comment) or print out the blog for others to read... We will be dying to hear from someone familiar, and it will be nice to know that someone out there is listening! :-)
Love to you all
Reet and Rinna xxxx
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Kerry
non-member comment
FIRST!!
Hey Reety, Great first blog for your new trip!! Look forward to hearing about all of yours and Rinna's experiences over there! Behave Ladies! Love Kerry xxx