Laos!

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Well after a nightmare 24 hour bus journey from Hanoi to Vientiane we arrived in Laos - a country with beautiful scenery and friendly people, where we spent two weeks.

I can't even begin to describe the chaos of our bus journey getting there but I'll try anyway:

- Firstly our driver was swigging beer before he left and continued throughout the whole journey!
- The bus was vastly over booked so lots of people were sitting in the aisle
- Our backpacks were strapped to the roof of the coach and the aisle was filled with cargo to waist height!
- There was a local behind us smoking opium for most of the journey!
- Vietnamese people just decided to tie their hammocks up to the bag racks and have a sleep (therefore getting off the bus for a toilet stop was like an obstacle course, climbing over the bags and under the hammocks!)
- Most of the locals were continually being sick
- And to top it all off a Vietnamese guy sitting next to me kept putting his head on my lap and trying to snuggle up and sleep on me! (People here don't seem to have to much of a concept of personal space)

Well apart from the less than pleasant journey the rest of our stay in Laos was great and I would recommend it to anyone!! We headed straight out of the capital (Vientiane) after a much needed shower and good night's sleep, and headed up to Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a somewhat sleepy town which is pretty much only famous for the tubing. Tubing was a great experience - basically you get in a massive rubber ring and float down a river. There are bars on the riverside on the way down and if you want to stop for a drink you just get pulled in on a long pole. All the bars have increasingly scary rope swings and jumps into the water. So needless to say, Adam and I had a couple of fun-filled days floating down the river in a tube, drinking and jumping into the river!!

After this we headed further north to Luang Prabang - a really pretty town, with lots of culture, and in the mornings we were woken by the sound of monks playing music on gongs. We visited many temples here and one evening attended a traditional Laos dance performance - it was very different to any of the dance classes I've done at home, but it was really fascinating and the costumes were great!

Next we headed to Huay Xai (near the Thai border) where we began a 3 day trek into the Bokeo Nature Reserve called "The Gibbon Experience". It is a really unique ecological tour, set up to help raise awareness and preserve the forest in which the gibbons live . On the first day we had a long walk deep into the forest through lots and lots of mud! It took 7 hours to get there but was well worth it when we arrived - we were basically living in the middle of a forest in a huge canopy-level tree house, connected to other parts of the forest by zip wires hundreds of feet above the ground.

We awoke in the tree house on our second day to the sound of the gibbons, although unfortunately we didn't see any. We spent the rest of our day zipping at high speed through the forest unsupervised, and the feeling you have when you look around you at the views and down at the trees below is amazing!!!! There was also a tame black Asiatic bear at the base tree house - she had been rescued from poachers and was being rehabilitated. Her name was Pola - she was gorgeous and really playful!

The trek back to civilisation was really hard - especially since I had really sore feet (I literally had blisters on my blisters!) but the trip was so much fun, really rewarding and we're glad that we did it.

Next we cross into Thailand and then down to Cambodia! Missing everyone at home.
Love to you all,

Janice and Adam
xxxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[Shelley]

Yeh yeh!!
'''Next we cross into Thailand and then down to Cambodia! Missing everyone at home. '' Missing everyone at home?! Why dont i believe you?! Hehe....glad you are having a wonderful time...you both look really well! xxxxxxxx