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Published: April 24th 2009
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We crossed the Thai board at Huay Xai and after getting a visa etc we waited around to board the slow boat (truth is in the name) to Luang Prabang. It seemed that the Beerlao was already being cracked open by about 10am so we brought some Sangsong Whiskey to make the boat journey fun.
The slow boat could be great but it was missing a few basics, like seats for all customers, and if you are unlucky enough to sit near the engine it's very very noisy. I enjoyed the trip, the scenery was amazing drifting down the Mekong river watching people at work, fishing and farming etc. There is a bit of an 18-30's holiday scene with all the travelers but we met some fairly cool people including Jo and Russell from Australia and Shelton very funny American currently living in North Korea.
At the end of the first day the boat arrived in Pat Beng where we stayed for one night, it was a fairly early night as the town is powered by a single generator that was switched off at 10pm.
We arrived in Luang Prabang at 5pm on 7th April and went out
for the best food in Luang Prabang just off the night market, where you can get Beerlao, Chicken, Pork and sticky rice for about 4 pounds yum yum! Be careful with the eggs though as they are a Lao delicacy where the egg contains a un-hatched chicken rather than any yoke - nice. We met some pretty cool Aussie guy who took us out for a few drinks at some trendy bars and a few shots of Lao Lao (local whiskey).
Bit of a hangover today but we visited the Royal Palace Museum and a few temples (Wat Ho Pra Bang and Wat Phu Si) one involved 300 steps up to see a great view of the town. There is also a shrine where you can see Buddha’s footprint. The final day we hired bicycles to ride around a few of the local villages, if it was possible as the roads weren't great. This was fun except kids throwing water at us as part of the Songkran festival, foreigners were the main target for a soaking, so we got soaked. I fell off my bike onto my leg, leg is now a cut loads this seems to be a
new fashion for me while traveling.
On the 10th we set of on a 5 hour bumpy minibus journey to Vang Vieng, famous for caves and tubing. Vang Vieng is a beautiful valley in the middle of amazing mountains that rise up from both sides of the main road. It's backpacker central and if you can get over the multitude of bars playing back to back friends episodes it's actually a beautiful place to spend a few days.
The next morning we went to visit the caves called Tham Song Triangle, the Thom Hoi cave is around 2km long inside and you can walk right into the centre which involves a bit of crawling under limestone formations, the kind of thing that you would need training, a health and safety video and hard hats to do at home! In the middle of the cave is an underground lake, were you can strip off and have a swim in the freezing water.
The last day in Vang Vieng was for tubing down the Nam Song river, this has to be one the highlights of our trip so far, ok yes there’s a few Captain Cool's getting "amazingly wasted
man" especially one guy who had branded "40 days tubing" across his chest. Ok it's great fun but 40 days at anything is a bit obsessive.
Anyway despite that side it's so much fun, the river is about 3km long and the first 1km is full of bar with make shift rope swings, loud music and plenty of Beerlao, or other cocktails of the more potent variety. We set off at 1pm with the aim of getting back to town for 6pm. It's quite a trek after many drinks and after we stayed in the bar playing the Doors music for 2 hours we had to stop at a bar half way down the river and persuade a local to take us back in his boat for a small price.
On the 13th we headed to Vientenne for the Songkran (Laos New Year) festival, basically where everyone spend 3 days throwing water over each other, the streets come alive and it's a bit crazy, you need to arm yourself with a massive super soaker style water guns and go out to face the music.
To anyone thinking of heading to South East Asia Laos is my recommendation
so far, lets see what the South has to offer….
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JOHN
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NORTH LAOS
WELL YOU SURVIVED "TUBING" THE BLOG IS AWESOME - UNFORTUNATELY THE PICTURES WOULDN'T DOWNLOAD (APPEAR) BUT MAYBE THEY WILL WHEN WE GO ON LINE LATER. JUST TWO DAYS LEFT IN LANZ THEN BACK TO SUNNY COWLING. TAKE CARE LOTS OF LOVE TO YOU BOTH.....MUM AND DAD.