Luang Prabang to Luang Nam Tha

We left Luang Prabang the day before yesterday by taking a seven hour boat trip up the Nam Ou River to Nong Khiaw where we met up with Sian and Jim as planned. The boat was hilarious – one of the passengers remarked that it was more of a Hobbit boat as it was tiny and we were all sat on small seats like the ones from primary school at home. The size of the boat was later explained when it became stuck in a low part of the river and nearly all the people on board had to get out and push. We thought that was crazy until we heard that on the boat the day before they had had a motorbike…(The things you see, eh?). We got there in one piece and the scenery was spectacular but we had the first hint of the coldness that all the guidebooks warn about. The hut had 24 hour electricity but the shower facilities left a bit to be desired and the whole ‘village’ closes down at 9.30. We were all tucked up in our sleeping bag liners early but not before we had hatched a plan to move on first thing in the morning. We hired a minibus to Udomxai and from there got a public bus to Nuang Nam Tha where we are hoping to stretch our legs after an entire day of travel. Both the bus journeys were interesting, the first because we were sharing with two older French men who had bigger budgets than we did and who were keen to go the whole journey on the one bus when it was more within our budget to do it differently. The second bus journey was great because we were squashed into a small bus with as many other people (mostly local) as could fit and then some more. The broken seats were the biggest challenge but sadly there weren’t any chickens running around so I was actually a bit disappointed. We heard a rumour last night when we got here that someone from one of the travel companies has ‘gone missing’ and we confirmed this morning that indeed a businessman who owns the more up-market Boat Landing Guesthouse and the Nam Ha Ecotourism Project has been abducted so the trekking options are thin on the ground as I guess guides etc are out looking for him. We are confident that this is related to a business matter and we are perfectly safe although a bit disappointed that we can’t go kayaking after making the long trip up here. The room we are staying in now is lovely and I am sharing with the lovely Suzi from Manchester and will probably travel back to Laung Prabang with her. Then I am hoping to travel for a day to see the Plain of Jars and after that go down to Southern Laos to see an area called the Four Thousand Islands before I head over to Saigon around the 9th of February. Most of the people that I am with are going to the Gibbon experience not far from here we are now but it is very hard to get a place. It sounds fantastic to travel through the jungle between tree-house-guesthouses from tree to tree on zip lines. My lack of sense of direction is as terrible as ever and may well become something of a memory for my companions but they generally point me in the way to go and I’m OK ;¬)

Up the river...

We arrived in Luang Prabang without any problems. Went to a beautiful waterfall, saw some rescued Asian bears playing and a tiger pacing, and then took a six foot jump from a tree into the pool. The following day Kim from Canada and I did a cookery course at the Tum Tum Cheng School that has Jamie Oliver amongst its previous participants but although we cooked and ate great food, we stirred a few dishes and I pounded some papaya, I can’t say I am an expert now… We cycled a fair bit around the town and to a few markets and Wats but there are some strange restrictions on bicycle hire in this town possibly to support the tuk-tuk industry. The night market here is outstanding but there isn’t very much room in the rucksack so I cant buy much (damage was done in any case and now rucksack management has taken on a whole new dimension). Jim and Sian travelled on ahead via the river to Nong Khiaw where I will hopefully join them tomorrow. It will be different for me in that there is limited electricity. After that I may follow Dave’s suggestion and head a little further up to Muong Ngoi where they don’t have any vehicles apparently.

Time to contemplate - Luang Prabang

Quotes for the Day 'You can't get lost, when you don't know where you're going' ( Wording on Bangkok T-shirt - Special relevance to me, I think those of you who know me will agree) "I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down." - Mitch Hedberg AND FINALLY - A Laos T- shirt to the person who can tell me the exact source of this French quote... 'The Vietnamese plant rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Lao listen to it grow'. This quote is so true. These guys make the every other South East Asian look manic. All the people who are supposed to be selling stuff in the markets spend most of their time sleeping, and there are far fewer offers of tuk-tuks etc. I am told that using too much brain power here is frowned upon as 'bad for you'. I'm enjoying getting lost in the sunshine today and looking for places to cheaply replace all the bits and pieces that I have recently lost or broken...so far I have a watch for $2.50. I asked a watch seller to replace the battery of my watch back in Vientiane, it was never again going to waterproof but I took a few swims with it so its well and truly shot. I am guessing that exploration of the waterfalls will happen tomorrow as most other things to see close down on a Sunday. There are lots of temples and a museum to have a look round. I still haven't been to any night markets so I may do that later, and we are planning to go see a newish western film 'The Queen' at about 6pm (nothing like living like a local I say LOL). A cookery course is still on the list of things to do. The $7 Mano Guest house is clean and basic and last night a young Canadian woman shared with me, which brought the price down to $3.50 each. I was very excited about this. I have no plans yet for what to do next so any ideas are, as usual, welcome. I will be sitting down today to have a think about this. The Gibbon experience sounds fantastic but I'm concerned I might freeze with fear of heights or fall off a zip line/out of a tree - see http://www.ecotourismlaos.com/activities/gibbon_trk.htm X

Luang Prabang - the departure plan from Vang Vieng

I can honestly say that I would be happy to stay in Vang Vieng for several more days. If I have a chance to come again, I would go from here to Vientiane in a kayak. The 7 hour bus journey has been booked to Luang Prabang for tomorrow morning at 0930 and I have just booked into Mano Guest house for 3 nights with Sian and Jim. Today was very relaxed as expected.

Vang Vieng - The longer version

Once I got on a tuk-tuk to the bus for Vang Vieng where I said good bye to Andy, I said hi to Terry, a Kiwi living in Oz. This resulted in lots of fun over the last few days. He had made the acquaintance of Sian and Jim, a young married couple and the best story tellers I have met in a long time. I can’t imagine a dull moment with those guys or better companions for exploring caves and tubing down the Mekong. Their rather impressive blog is at www.travelpod.com/members/sianandjim and it is well worth a look. Yesterday we cycled 6 km on a dry rocky road to one of the caves (and back). When we got there, we had a well deserved swim in a natural pool which was deep enough to swing in to (so believe it or not I did - but not very elegantly). Then we had what the guidebook described as, ‘a 200 meter stiff climb’ up to the cave entrance. I nearly turned back a few times but eventually got to the top and it was so worth it. The light and rock formations inside were beautiful. Terry went right inside a few hundred meters through the caverns and Sian and Jim hung back a little as it was around 4pm by that time and we were all considering how the hour-long cycle home was best done in daylight. I was sticking close to the exit of the cave dreading the trip down but I didn’t need to worry as Sian was a star and talked me through the first 20 or 30 meters for which I almost had my eyes closed. In a wicked twist of fate I got so cross with someone else who was delaying my efforts (by stopping me to tell me stories), that my fear of heights faded into the background as I told him in no uncertain terms where to go and I managed to get down the last part of the hill on my own. Looking back, I think that was the funniest thing that happened that day. Jo Foley, the owner of the lovely MayLyn guest house where we are staying, is taking some people who are interested and fit enough on a two day trek to an area off the beaten track called Tam Nam Ao Hou or something like that, a place that normally doesn’t see many humans except perhaps for the occasional monk. They will be led by a local guide who will cut through the undergrowth with a machete as they go. Terry is one of the team which is going – they are sure to have a great time. They looked a motley crew as they set off this morning. I would have loved to go and can’t wait to hear the stories but I’m not fit enough (despite all my recent cycling) and I can’t imagine being stuck up a mountain in this country, when I wasn’t very happy with heights on the mountain near home in Adrigole – there just aren’t that many helicopters in Laos. The guest house is 10 minute walk from town across rickety wooden bridges. Initially, I was drawn to the place because Jo is described as a ‘character’ and he happens to be Irish from Waterford. He has a big heart and when he is in the restaurant you know about it - I fully understand why many of the comments on the internet are concerned more with his character than the way the guesthouse is – he built these wooden bungalows on stilts himself with his experience as a carpenter in London. There is a lovely relaxed atmosphere here because of the ways the hut-bungalows are set out in the garden, the cosiness of the restaurant area and we are away from the town where most of the bars are set up for backpackers to watch back to back episode of telly series. We have everything within a stones throw except internet but that is no big shame and the staff are lovely. The only down side (if you can call it that) is the rooster that is making his call every hour or so right outside my hut. At 4am there was some very strange drumming in the distance which I will make some enquiries about today – it could have been monks performing a ceremony, a strange sounding tractor or we could have (as I suspected when it woke me alone in my dark hut) been under attack by a group of river bandits. Anyway it woke me up properly so I am now up and hovering and preparing a very wordy blog which I will post when I next get to the internet cafe. Yesterday we all went ‘tubing’. Initially, I thought that tubing sounded like a backpacker phenomena of the worst kind (and some might still say it is) but I had a great time so I can’t agree. We walked to the town at noon to queue for our inflated tractor tyre inner tube and set off on a little bus about 3 kilometres up the river where we sat into the tubes and started to drift gently (for the most part) down the Mekong with towering rocks/mountains on either side. Straight away there were locals calling for our attention from the banks as they offered us the chance to jump from platforms in an effort to sell us beer. We were in the company of people who had experienced all this before so we were guided to our first and best jump off point by them. As we approached, men offered us outstretched bamboos with which, if we held on, they could pull us in. The place we stopped off in was about 30 minutes from the start and we stayed for more than an hour, some playing volley ball and some jumping from a high zip-line or swing. We set off again so that it wouldn’t get too cold and dark before we finished. After 2 beers the whole event took on a new dimension. The ‘rapids’ we came across swept away my sun glasses and as I went to retrieve them, my dress slipped out of my hands and my flip flop, which I had been using as an oar, started floating down the river – with only one ‘oar’, I started to travel in circles so my efforts to recover my possessions were fruitless but funny. In the mean time, Ingrid’s tube started floating off without her in it and Jim’s tube took on a puncture so he started sinking into the 10 inch deep water. Jim soon caught up with Sian and they made the rest of the journey close to each other. As we got near the end, the boys rowed the girls home which was a lovely touch and some local kids got in on the action and helped us to finish the journey, for a fee of course. We came back to the guesthouse where a pre ordered (?Tilapia) fish BBQ was waiting for us and it sure was tasty. I think today will be a hammock and internet day.

Vang Vieng (days 1 and 2)

I went to a beautiful cave yesterday where I climbed 200 meters and afterwards had a dip in the rock pool outside. Joseph Foleys place is the best $5 I have spent ever and I love it and he is great as well. Highly recommended. It looks like (tongue in cheek) I might be the base camp coordinator for a 3 day trek that he planing to a place where no foreigners have been for years. Today I went tubing which I thought would be corny but was very beautiful - saying that I managed to loose my favourite dress, sun glasses and a flip flop (later recovered) in the little rapids. I am safe and it was great fun. x

Travel plans for today to Vang Vieng

Good morning, It is 0845 here now and the weather is lovely as always. I will get on a 'VIP' $6 bus at 10am which will take about 4 hours to get me to Vang Vieng and I am going to stay in the $5 May Lyn guesthouse that is owned by a Waterford man called Jospeh Foley who has assured me in the nicest possible way that he will find me if I dont turn up. I'm really looking forward to meeting him - he sounds like a character and his place, which he built himself, is getting good reviews everwhere despite the fact that it is out of town a bit.

Vientiane

I write to report a few lovely days. Judith and I did the tourist sights circuit in about 5 hours on our bicycles on the first day. Colourful Wats were explored, sunset was watched, stories were exchanged over beer Laos and we bumped into Andy, a Canadian traveller who I had met previously in Nong Khai. I will be heading to Vang Vien tomorrow and then on to Luang Prabang. I have been taking it very easy, chilling out by the river while having my first Laos coffee which has the consistency of cocoa and packs a pretty big caffeine punch. Judith headed back to Thailand and I wandered around the town on my bike. I had a quick look in the museum at some dinosaur bones that were found nearby. I also read about Laos history in my new Lonely Planet Guide Book (thank you Judith) – it sounds as though they have been pillaged by French, Siamese and Chinese, Americans and English and I don’t think they trust their own politicians much either which is why there was unrest here as recently as 2003. I plan some early nights and a longish bus journey tomorrow assuming the laundry comes back in time. x

Crossing the Boarder from Thailand to Laos.

My boarder crossing started at 12 mid-day when I checked out of my guesthouse. The town is well set up to support travelling people as they make this trip. I got a tuk tuk for 40B to the bus station, and then got a 15B bus to the boarder where I parted with $35 ($5 more than 'usual') for what I believe/hope is a 30 day visa (I have been too distracted finding accommodation to check). Then I paid 10B to walk through the facility and 50B to get on a bus to Vientiane. I ended up having to hide from various taxi and tuk tuk drivers who got to me before I saw the bus. I was at the bus terminal in the capital town by 1330. The hardest part of the journey started there as I hadn’t pre booked a place to stay and had to humour a tuk tuk driver as he took me to his friends place. The bus station is only 5 minutes walk from the centre of town so I could have walked to the Wonderful Guesthouse, where I ended up staying for $12. I hired a bike again for $1.5 and had a cycle along the Mekong Promenade where there are hundreds of seats set up for people to relax and view the sunset with a beer Laos and barbeque. I made my way to a place closer to home where I met a young woman called Judith from Holland who has agreed to help me avoid getting lost (and manage cycling on the wrong side of the road) on a longer bicycle ride tomorrow.

Non Khai

I stayed in the 400Baht Ruan Thai guesthouse, rented a bicycle for 30B and took off around the relaxed town. The first place I came across was the Mutmee guesthouse which seems to steal the show in the guidebooks and became a base for me for the next day. Their food was simple, tasty and cheap, although the ordering process was unusual until I got used to it – it’s a bit DIY. I cycled the 5 kilometres to the Sala Keaw Ku sculpture park which houses many huge fantasy statues of deities from Buddhist writings. Then I went on a 100 Baht river cruise (owned incidentally by Mutmee), having made a quick pit-stop at the Tesco Lotus Supermarket outside town. This cruise was a great sunset photo opportunity and then I sat at a very relaxed little bar on the pier, run by a lovely young Essex girl called Caroline (on behalf of Mutmee), and spoke about all sorts of world politics with some other people who were travelling on their own. This was in part facilitated by my ordering 2 Beer Chang instead of the much more safe Singa Beer. When I got back to the guesthouse, I realised the air-con wasn’t working in my ‘posh’ room and there wasn’t a fan so I decided to move on this morning and set off to make my second boarder crossing to Laos.

The train from Bangkok to Nong Khai

I am nearing the end of my first overnight train journey and am happy to report it was one of the best sleeps I have had for ages. I ended up in a first class carriage on my own as my unknown female room mate failed to show. A member of staff came to help put the complicated looking beds in position in my box room which was about 5 times the size of an airplane toilet. I watched the lights of Bangkok fading for two hours and before falling asleep. I woke about an hour ago and partook of a cup of coffee as the chap selling it was walking past but it was horrid to the point of being worthy of a photo. The good old guide book had warned of this but I thought how nice it would be to wake up to fresh coffee…hmmm. Over the last week, I have been to the Teak Palace where the Waterford Cristal vessels used for ablutions by the previous Kings of Thailand are amongst the displays, and Jim Thompson’s House where I recommend a view of the television-like ‘mouse house’. We went for a walk in Lumpini Park and bore witness to the super bright Monty succeed in all his exam objectives. I stepped back from my plans to do the Wat Pho Massage course and intend to do it in March if time and budget allow.

Provisional Plan - Loas

On the night of 9th Jan, get the train to Nong Khai from Bangkok, stay there until the 12th, then go over the Friendship Bridge to Vientiane hopefully with a 30 day visa for Laos.

Farewell Samui & Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh

We moved out of the first place we were in due to some unwelcome ant visitors in our room. I even found 3 in the bed and they were big boyos! I took the initiative with these little fellas and got some bug spray from the huge Tesco nearby but it made matters much, much worse and I must have upset a nest. This place was miles from the beach anyhow so I was pleased when we took up residence in the reasonably priced Admiral Lord Nelson Pub and guesthouse across the road from Cheweng beach. This beach is the most popular (and pricey) and once we were able to find it hidden behind all the resorts, we came to see why; it really is beautiful. The waves break quite forcefully against the shore and the water temperature is just right. (you can just make out Monty in the distance in this photo) My favourite time of the day quickly became the evening, getting into the water and jumping up to meet the waves as the sun was setting over the high coconut tree covered hills. We became homeless victims of the high season and had to move from our room on St Stephen's Day to a place across the road which wasn't as nice but cost twice as much. Koh Samui business people are well practiced in separating the cash from the tourist and it is painfully transparent. When bar girls aren't working the punters, the staff and bar owners from back home are doing it. We had a few very nice cocktails at Akwa which is a colourful bar full of pop-art but the staff are the most gentle rail roaders I have met so far - gently coaxing for business with their helpfulness and confining us to the 20 meter area around their bar with their kindness. There are way too many businesses in competition so it is a cut throat set up. I did get to taste a 'funky monkey' cocktail which made it all worth it. I am planning a birthday party when I get back in April and the chocolate ice cream, banana and coconut blend will be my piece de resistance. Monty hired a quad bike for a day and we went for an off road adventure up through the forest in the middle of the island. It was pretty scary at times. Having exclusive, unsupervised use of one of these bikes is relatively new on Samui and we seemed to be the only people on the hills apart from a few people picking coconuts. I saw a massive spider - black and yellow, in a giant cobweb which made me acutely aware of the other 'nature' out there, specifically snakes. My backside was starting to hurt anyway after a hour or so on the back of the bike with Monty giving it full throttle so I begged to be let off under the pretext that I wanted to have a go on an elephant, completely forgetting my fear of heights until I was in position. Just before I took my seat, I asked the chap in charge if I could just do 30 minutes instead of the planned hour but he wasn't having it and looked at me like I was mad. Anyhooo, there was nothing at all to be worried about and it was wonderful. I got right into it and even rode the elephant bareback on my tod and got drenched when she went for a drink. I was reminded of Poldi's advice to bring a pillow as the ride can be a bit bumpy but my bum was still numb from my time on the quad bike so all in all it was quite a work-out for my glutes. Incidentally, the elephant that I was on was a female and the handler had a giggle when he was telling me that they have the biggest male elephant on the Island at their establishment but he is a lady-boy. I nearly fell off my perch on the elephant with laughter. These elephants are all well cared for and strong and would be unemployed (and therefor I deduce probably constipated and miserable) if it weren't for foreigners/farangs taking them for a stroll for money. While I was doing this, Monty had gone off on his own for some more manly quad bike action and crashed into the spiders web, becoming entangled in it and then reversing over the spider in his haste to get away. It was a great day for nature... We arrived back in Bangkok yesterday looking forward to what we hoped would be spectacular New Years Eve celebrations at Central Plaza where 200,000 people were expected to congregate. Sadly (you will probably know more than me about this) there were coordinated explosions around the city, ruining the New Year for many people. As I write this, its hard to believe that lives have been ended so close by. We had no understanding of what was going on and were completely unaware of the warnings. The whole place was really calm and even when I asked some people who were taking a stage down about 15 minutes before midnight at Central Plaza, they were smiling as they told me why the celebrations were cancelled so I assumed it was all likely to be hoaxes. It must have been minutes after that, that an explosion happened just there but we had moved on. We went to a bar which turned out to be seedier that I was happy with, so we spent the next hour or two listening to a young band on the street side who turned out to be very entertaining with a tuneful drummer (so I was happy - hehe - made me think of olde Pinfold Road days). Had a gorgeous homemade ham and cheese sandwich yesterday and a nice cup of Earl Grey tea. Now I know I am starting to ramble so I will sign off... Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh (for those of you who have forgotten how to say it LOL - AH vlee-ihn fwee WAH-shuh Heev)/ Prosperous New Years to all!!! Be Safe. Cat X