Laos!

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Hey everyone!!

Our journey's have been getting better and better by the day!! Right now I am writing to you from Vang Vieng, Laos. But before I get ahead of myself I will tell you our journey's in getting here!!

My last blog we were in Northern Thailand in Chaing Mai and we went to a cooking class. It was delicious, I can't believe I can cook such yummy food!! I made Hot and Creamy Soup, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Penang Curry Paste, Spring Rolls, and Bananas in Coconut Milk. MMMMMmmm..I will TRY and make it for you when we get home and you will fall in love with this food like I have!! Although making it at home probably won't be AS good since we don't have the same spices and vegetables as we do here!

On Feb. 17 we started our 3 day journey to Laos. To start it all off we hopped on a mini bus at 10 in the morning to take us to the Laos/Thailand border to the town of Ching Kong. Here we met up with 4 amazing people that we ended up spending the last week with. We met Kim from Thailand, Johnnas from Holland, Siljia from Norway and Shane from England. Feb 18 we started our travels to Laos. After 3 hours of waiting at the border waiting to get our passports back with our Laos visa's we finally went on the slow boat down the Mekong River. What was suppose to happen was we were suppose to travel for 7 hours go to Pak Beng stay the night there and then go on the boat the next day for 9 hours which was suppose to take us to Luang Prabang but instead...the first day we were on the slow boat for 5 hours on benches that were about 3 feet long and 8 inches wide sitting 2 people. These benches were also all wood no cushion and i had to sit sideways because there was absoltely NO leg room, talk about comfy hey!! After the 5 hours they told us we had to switch boats becuase the river was to shallow since it was the Chinese New Year (China shut the damn so we could not make it through). Instead of switching boats as we were told we had 2 options either take the "SPeed Boat" which I might add is VERY unsafe,you have to wear a helmet and costed us the same as the WHOLE slow boat trip!! So we went with option number 2 which was hike about 5 kms until to get to a desserted beach and camp out there for the night. I am glad we picked option 2. On our little hike we walked through a village and seeing the local people was very interesting!! Seeing their living conditions compared to what we are use to back home is eye opening. So after walking a couple kilometers in the blistering heat up and down come hills, through tall grass and sand we came and over looked the beach we were camping out on and it was filled with tables of food and booze. Everyone who took option 2 was VERY excited and glad they did. We got yet another night on the beach!! The only downfall on this was that no one was prepared for this one so it got a little chilly at night!!
We got up the next day at 7.30 am and start our journey to Luang Prabang sitting in the engine room not being able to talk becuase it was WAY to loud for about 11 hours! Talk about fun! 😊

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage City and it is known for its french architecture and the temples. It is an absolutely gorgeous city!! We stayed here for 3 nights in total. We spent our time here shopping at the market, which they close down a whole street for every night, enjoying the scenery along the Mekong River, looking at the different temples, and visiting the waterfall here. Everything here was great. This is not a "party" city. Everything here closes at 11pm, so after 11pm all the tourists go BOWLING!! We had a fun time bowling, I definately didn't think I would come all the way to Laos and go bowling, but apparently it is a "Must Do" in Luang Prabang!

Feb. 22 we made out way down to Vang Vieng. This ride was probably about 200 kms and took us 6.5 hours! There was no longer then 10 meteres that the road was actually straight. It was in the curviest and hilliest road I have EVER been on. Definately never got any sleep on the ride. My knee got bruised from getting tossed around in my seat! But we were VERY excited to arrive in Luang Prabang. Here we spent our time at the friends bar, climbing up a little moutain and tubing. The moutain was alot of fun and when you reach the top you get an AMAZING view of the city to one side and the mountains on the other. It is a breathtaking view!! Although it all went down hill very fast after we reached the top. We were sitting on a couple rocks taking it all in when all of a sudden a snake started poking its head our through the trees, and if any of you know me you would know that snakes are probably my worst fear in the entire world. So me freaking out on the top of this mountain, in flip flops might I add (I forgot my runners on the train) a steep hill and sharp rocks was not good. We were lucky enough that the snake tucked its head back in but I was shaking and paranoid the whole way down. It also doesn't help when you are clumsy like me either. Being scared, clumsy, on a mountain in flip flops, I was lucky to make it down alive!! haha. All in all we saw a beautiful cave and got a great view so it was well worth it.
While we were in Vang Vieng we HAD to do the tubing since that is what it is known for. I want you all to go to youtube and search a video of it (or go on my facebook, i was tagged in a video) and youwill see what the tubing is all about!! THere are ziplines, slides, music and of course the odd beer here and there. It was so so so much fun. When you watch the video youwill be convinced to come! You hop on a tube and the current pushes you down the river then you will get a rope thrown to you and you will get pulled into the different bars. I can't even explain this, you got to see it for yourself!

I wish I could talk longer but my bus just pulled up to take us to Vientaine to catch our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam for tomorrow (Feb 28). We are having a great time and we are almost half way done our trip!! AWH!!

Love you and miss you!!

Keyla <3

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