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Hi all, I accidently attached all the photos for this blog to the wrong blog. After you have read this, if you want to see the photos, just click on (next blog) or (previous blog) I'm not sure which one it will come up as!
6th May
The bus trip to Luang Prabang was just beautiful. 7 hours of roads winding their way up and down through the mountains with heaps of local villages and gorgeous scenery along the way. In the past there had been banditry on this route, one case back in 2004 where a bus was ambushed and 8 locals were shot and killed including two swiss cyclists who had cycled into the situation. Many other ambushes happened in 2003 killing and injuring many more locals, but these stopped a few years ago and the route is apparently now safe (for the time being anyway). I had read that occasionally you will still get an 'armed guard' or a soldier carrying an AK47 on your bus to protect you. We didn't have this guard, which we took to be a positive thing. (no need maybe??). Even still, the whole way, it was on my mind.
A couple of times, the bus stopped for no reason, and we thought - uh oh...especially when one time a guy was standing there on the road with a machete - but all was ok. It was only at the end of our journey that Gav said he had seen a motorbike in the bush, heavily camouflaged on the side of the road.
We arrived in Luang Prabang and fell in love with the place straight away (that speaks for all of Laos) Everything is so green, beautiful, relaxed and friendly. It is so relaxed here that more ofter than not, if you want a tuk-tuk, or to use the internet, or to even buy something in a shop or even at the market, you will have to wake someone up! Seriously! The Laos people have a firm belief that life should be fun and relaxed, and that everything you do should have an element of fun in it, or it is not worth doing. There is another saying that 'The Vietnamese grow rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Laos listen to it grow.' I think that sums it up pretty well!
The streets of Luang Prabang are gorgeous - most of the longer tree lined roadways are intersected by footpaths, or little alleys, leading down to the river, with buddist monks everywhere you look (including maybe sitting next to you at the local internet cafe)
We found a great place to stay that had only been opened four months (Namsok 3). The room was smallish, but very new, bright and clean, with one large bed, private bathroom and balcony. It did not have air co but we had heard that we did not need it here as it was pretty cool at night. For only $7 a night it was a bargain! We were also right outside the local night market where the local traders set up their goods on blankets along the road with a light bulb hanging over each - creating a beautiful atmosphere. The traders are all polite and not pushy - you are able to ask how much something is without being forced to buy (you can actually say "I'm just looking") The prices are also so cheap that I found it really hard to bargain.
It would sort of go like this -
"I'm just looking, but how much is this bag?"
"40,000 kip ($4usd), but if you buy, I can give you discount"
"OK, I may come back tomorrow"
"OK - see you then"
Then the next night at the same trader -
her "Oh, good to see you came back - I can give you special discount - only 30,000 kip" ($3)
me "Is that the best price you can do?" (How on earth could you actually offer them any less - it would just seem rude!)
her "OK - 25,000 kip"
me "OK!"
A hand made bag for $2.50 usd....
We stayed in Luang Prabang for 6 nights as it was just too hard to get up and leave such a gorgeous place.
After 4 nights at Namsok 3, we ended up moving just up the road to another guesthouse. Even though we had loved our little $7 room, I had had a 4 nights of not much sleep, due to a mixture off not being 100% well, being far too hot at night (it was so hot, and the fan on the ceiling only had one strength, and when on, blew you to pieces in the middle of the night!) and also the fact that there was construction work going on 5 metres away that started at 6.30am did not help!
We didn't fo a whole lot whilst in Luang Prabang. Of the 6 days we were there, we went to the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls twice, and did a one day elephant/kayaking expedition (more on that later) otherwise we just relaxed, walked around town etc.
The Kuang Si waterfalls were just beautiful. They consist of heaps of tiers tumbling over limestone formations into a series of turquoise pools. To get there we took a minibus with other backpackers and received another 32km of stunning scenery! Once at the pools, we walked right to the top of the tiers, before heading up a steep track that took us 1/2 way up the actual waterfall. Once back down, we soaked our hot, weary bodies in the very cool pools! Our only letdown on our first visit was that we had an aussie guy from the minibus attach himself to our family whilst at the falls. He would not leave us alone, and although I think he was just lonely and wanted company, there was something very creepy about him. In the end, we did a runner to one of the other 'pools' whilst he was getting dry! The second time we went was much better without our attachment!
On our last full day, we organised to do a trip to an Elephant camp where they look after retired logging elephants, which we would ride for an hour followed by kayaking down the river. We had booked through an extremely reputable company called 'Tiger Trails' and were really looking forward to the day.
The elephant camp was good. They had a 3 year old 'baby' elephant who we fed (he was tiny - Mia wanted to take him home!) and the riding was just what it was - elephant riding. Good, and much better than our last one as this was actually in the jungle and the elephants had the kindest mahouts (carers) that I had ever seen. After a great lunch in their lodge we set off in a jumbo down river to start our kayaking. We were not going with the others as they were doing the full 4 hour kayaking, whereas we had decided to only do two, as we thought 4 hours was far too long for Mia. Our guide (another 'La') set Gav & I up each with helmets and life jackets, to which Gav asked if we had to wear them (We didn't usually as the rivers we have been on have been very calm). He said that, yes, we had too, it was compnay policy. They didn't have a helmet for Mia as she was too small, but she did have on her normal floatation rashie that we had brought with us. The alarm bells should have started ringing for us straight away (re the helmets etcs) but we just expected the river to be like the others we had recently been on.
Gav, Mia and I shared a kayak with Gav at the back, Mia in the middle and me at the front. La had his own in front of us. Unfortunately the kayaking only lasted 5 minutes as we went through some rapids that were a little stronger than we had expected and our kayak overturned. We are all ok, but it was extremely scary at the time, as the river was running very strongly over a lot of rocks. As soon as we went in, I immediately turned and pushed the kayak up and just grabbed under it and found Mia straight away. She was not hurt at all, but very frightened. Gav was swept further down whilst I clung to Mia and a rock to stop us being dragged down. Our guide was fantastic - he immediately saw what had happened and jumped in - he was about 30 metres in front but he managed to grab our 'dry bag' containing ALL our money, camera etc, as well as Mia's shoes etc. All we lost was Mia's hat and one of Gav's thongs. We ended up all getting out ok but at first thought that we had no choice but to get back in and continue down river for another hour or two through rapids that were even bigger. We quickly worked out that Mia and I could walk along the river to the nearest road (200 metres or so) whilst Gav and La kayaked down and met us. We arranged to be picked up in a tuk tuk and taken back. If we hadn't had Mia with us it would not have been bad at all - we would have probably laughed and just got back in, but as you could imagine, a very different scenario having her with us, especially without a helmet. We had been kayaking last week with her in Vang Vieng and it was so easy and calm and had expected the same here. Have already been through so many 'what if's', and realise just how lucky we were for something more serious not to have happened. Needless to say we will not be kayaking again this trip!
From Luang Prabang, we were going to move onto to Chiang Mai in Thailand. We had sort of planned to fly, as this was the easiest way we knew. The only other options had been a 22 hour bus, or the two day slow boat up the Mekong to the Thai border (which was meant to be very unpleasant due to hard wooden seats and being squished in with heaps of ohter people) then on to Chiang Mai. We had been walking along the river the other day when Gav had spotted a luxurious looking boat called Pak Ou II - Loung Say'. He decided to check it out. Turns out that the boat does the two day slow trip up the Mekong, but 'luxury' style. It would cost us $135USD each for Gav & I, but Mia could travel for free. (Total $270USD compared to airfares costing us approx $300 - $400). The boat was set up with large padded, comfortable lounges, that apparently seated 40 people. The price included all meals and an overnight stay in a luxury lodge on the Mekong river at the half way point. We didn't have to think too much before we booked it. At least this way we would get to see a bit more of Laos!
After booking, we were told that there would only be 13 people on board other than the crew, meaning we would be able to lay down and sleep, relax etc for as long as we liked for the two days!
The trip went really well. The other people on the boat were great - most around our age and all really easy to get on with. The first day the weather was gorgeous, but it poured rain overnight and drizzled the whole next day. The food was great, service excellent and the lodge we stayed in overnight was great. Even though Mia was meant to have shared a bed with Gav & I (hence her coming along for free) they put us in a triple room. (They had also brought special food along for Mia such as salad, bread etc and they kept ensuring she was happy and well fed!) .The lodge room itself was all 'open air' meaning you just had to open up all the windows and it was like being outside directly over the Meking. Other than the bugs that obviously came it when the lights were on before bed, it was 5 star!
We arrived on the border of Thailand late afternoon where the crew helped us through passport control etc and took us over to the thai side of the river. We had been planning on staying the night in Chang Khong (thai border side) and then atching a 6 hour bus to Chiang Mai the next day. Two of the girls from the boat had organised a private minivan transfer to Chiang Rai that night and they asked if we would like to come with them. We did, as this saved us a night in a shitty border town, and would take a couple of hours of the trip for us tomorrow.
Arrived in Chiang Rai (In the Golden Triangle - also quite close to the epicentre of the earth quake that was to hit Laos a couple of days later) and had trouble finding a decent place to stay. We ended up at an average hotel on the outskirts of town. We wandered into town for dinner and finally found somewhere to eat. Everything was pretty much closed up and the whole town just felt weird. We had thought it would be bigger with more happening, but not so. Definately a place that we would not like to go back to.
The next morning we headed to Chiang Mai for a cruisy 3 hour bus ride. First thoughts of Chiang Mai? Loved it - much better than Chiang Rai! I had found a place to stay that morning on the internet called Chiangmai Thai House, which looked really nice and had a pool (1150 baht - $40aud), so thought we'd checked it out. It was a great place - really nice rooms, pool, restaurant, staff etc and also really close to everything.
Thursday 17th May
Well, we have been here at the guesthouse in Chiang Mai for 3 nights and are finally up to date on the blogs! We met another family here from Melbourne who have a 2 yo and 6 1/2 yo girl that Mia had befriended. They left today to go to Bangkok via train, but the girls have had a great time over the last couple of days just splashing around and eating dinner together!
Our first night we just walked down though the Chiang Mai night market and went to dinner at another local market.
The next day we went to a days cooking course. It was fantastic as this time we actually got to cook ALL of our food and eat our own food (poor Gav - just kidding!) It was a lot of fun and there were only 8 in our group this time (inc Mia).
Yesterday we had a rest day just lazing by the pool, wondering why the pool had a sudden tidal wave go through it. This of course we found out was caused by the earthquake not far away in Northern Laos. It appears that everyone here felt it (except me!) and apparently the taller buildings around here were swaying!
We are about to catch a plane to Bangkok and will stay there overnight trying to decide on what to do next. We only have about 8 days left and will probably head down to Ko Samet (small island) for 3 to 4 days. Our only problem at the moment is the weather. The wet season has well and truely hit Thailand and we are trying to magically pick the island where there will be least rain (???) We have been to Ko Samet 5 or 6 times before and it is known as the island where it hardly rains. We'll just see!
Until then, hope you are all well, and not long now until we see most of you again. We are actually looking forward to getting home and being able to not live out of a backpack and eat home cooking - not having to order food of a menu - I miss cooking!!
A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ROB AND HAYLEY!!!!!
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Brad
non-member comment
If you got time
Hey guys, great to read your travels in Laos and that you had a fun time. If you have a few days to spare try Hua Hin. It's about 300km south of Bangkok and is a great sea side place to hang out with lots to do and plenty of good accomodation. Otherwise have a ball wherever you are look forward to the next chapter. Love Brad