Laos

First of all check out some more photos on this site and also at http://www.flickr.com/photos/murrayandlynn

A quick update. For our last night in Viang Viene we got pleasnatly pissed and watched a dvd od American Pie 3 and laughed out loud several times.

As a result we were slighly rough on the morning of July 10th for our bus ride to the capital of Laos - Vientiane. Still we got there and after checking several guesthouses that were not up to scratch - dirty sheets etc, we found one just off the main street and near the river.

After checking in we immediately went in search of food as we hadn't had any breakfast in case we brought it up on the bus! We found a place called Tex Mex and had excellent fajitas and enchiladas. We wandered around and booked flights from Vientiane to Hanoi in Vietnam for $120 each - slightly outwith our budget but it was either that or a 23 hour bus journey with no toilet for $20. Thankfully I won the debate although I think Lynn was secretly pleased! We end up back at Tex Mex at night for a couple of beers to listen to a band. They are not that good so we sit on the balcony upstairs and chat about our plans for Vietnam and laugh at the ladyboys strutting their stuff downstairs.

July 11th - as it's our only full day in the capital we decide to go out sightseeing. I'm sure it won't surprise any of you if I say we saw a few temples. One was particularly stunning though. A 45 metre high temple coated in gold that looked fantastic against the blue sky. It was a scorcher again yesterday and we had to shelter from the sun in air conditioned bars a couple of times. We also climbed the Vientiane version of the Arc De Triomphe but it wasn't up to much. Building started in 1962 but it was never completed due to the war and as a result it is pretty grey and dull. The view of the city is nothing to write home about.

At night we wander along to a place called Sunset Bar to, you've guessed it, watch the sunset. The river turns all kinds of different colours as the sun sinks into the Mekong. We have a couple of beers and walk back into town and find a bar with a fourth floor roof garden. We end up getting a bottle of wine and playing pool and Lynn beats and Irish guy which is very funny as he was excellent and potted the black by mistake.

So we're now killing a few hours before getting a tuk tuk to the airport and our flight to Vietnam. Our third country of the trip. We;ll tour about up north before heading down the coast. I'll update teh blog again in a few days time.

Take care
Murray and Lynn
xxx

So we are now in Viang Viene so stand by for an update.

6th July
We head to a pub called lao lao for dinner. We order a bbq feast and our table (which is outside) is transformed into our very own BBQ right before our eyes. We find it pretty hard to manage by candlelight and with chopsticks but we make do. We do indeed meet Aussie Alex for a beer or two and also English Pete. At around 10.30pm we decide to go to a club outside of town that a local had told us about. The four of us jump in a tuk tuk and speed a few miles out of town to a club. We get inside and seem to be the only white people there in a club that is rammed. We order 4 large beer lao's and decide to do a circuit of the dancefloor. A band are playing but they soon finish and a very saucy young lady takes over and plays hip hop tunes while wildly gyrating in the DJ booth. We make it on to the dancefloor but decide it's really not our scene so we jump in a tuk tuk back to our guest house.

7th July
Our alarm goes at 6.45am and we both feel rather rough after quite a few large beer laos last night. We get a tuk tuk to the bus station and meet a dutch couple that were on our slow boat - Robert and Esther. They have already been travelling for 5 months and have a lot of good things to say about New Zealand, as indeed does everyone we have met to date.

The bus winds up some mountain roads and into the clouds where there are tiny villages. We stop at one for a 10 minute toilet break and you have to wonder what these people do up here. Basically they live - breed chickens and water buffalos, farm some rice and sell the occasional can of coke to passing tourists.

We stop of at a second tiny village for lunch of rice and vegetables and in our hungover state we wolf it down.

After lots more windy roads and avoiding water buffalos that seem to prefer standing on the road rather than munching grass, we make it to Viang Viene. My first impression was 'is this it?' as the bus stop is on an old abandoned dusty air strip that is just outside of town. We jump in a tuk tuk along with Robert and Esther and a french couple and head to look for a suitable guesthouse. The first one, recommended by lonely planet is full, but just along the road is a new one called Grand View guest house and we book in for $12 a night with a view of the river, mountains, the sunset and a balcony - well worth it!

We unpack our bags in a huge room with a super king size bed and a single (just in case Lynn snores too much). We wander around town and are not immediately impressed as there are a number of bars playing old episodes of Friends at ear splitting volume. We soon find a nice Indian restaurant and have dinner and an early night.

8th July
After a great sleep we wake feeling refreshed and go for breakfast. I have a huge salami and cheese salad bagquette and Lynn opts for french toast. We decide to take part in Viang Vienes most famous activity - river tubing. Basically this involves getting in a huge blown up tyre tube and floating down the river. It is very peaceful, relaxing and even quite romantic. There are riverside bars and jumps you can stop off at but we decide to chill out and just float and admire the scenery. Laos is very green with lots of mountains and rivers. A bit like Scotland only warmer!

In the afternoon we hire bikes and cycle 10k out into the country and back again. Just before sunset the heavens open and there is an amazing rain storm that we stand and watch from our balcony. It soon passes and we head out past the bars that play old episodes of Friends and find a lovely Laos restaurant where we order = grilled fish with lime, veg and rice for Lynn and grilled fish with garlic and ginger, veg and rice for me. That along with 2 7ups and 2 bottles of water comes to 60,000 kip, or 3 quid in english!!!!

We book a day of caving and kayaking tomorrow for $12 each.

9th July
Another good sleep after our second alcohol free night in a row. We have banana pancakes for breakfast from a local street vendor (made fresh for only 10,000 kip, or 50p each) to give us some energy for the day ahead. We get a truck with 10 others to a small village 17k from town. We chat with a couple of English girls - Laura and Helen and two English guys Simon and Charlie.

The first cave we go to isn't that impressive but the second is amazing. It has a river running into it. We swim for 30 minutes in a pool outside and wait for another group to come out so we can jump on the tyres and get their head torches. There is a rope for guidance and we pull ourselves in. It is definitely one of the coolest things I have done and pretty hard to describe - not for anyone who suffers from claustrophobia!

We spend 20 minutes or so in the cave before emerging back into splitting sunshine and lunch. After lunch we kayak back into town. stopping off at a bar that has a huge trapeeze swing out into the river that I have a shot on. We kayak fairly well and don't fall in at the rapids unlike some others.

We're now golden brown after two days in the sun - tubing, biking and kayaking. We're going out for dinner and possibly a beer or two to rehydrate.

LOVE TO ALL

Hey

So we've had 3 nights in Luang Prabang and will be leaving tomorrow after our fourth. Luang Prabang is our favourite place so far. It really is beautiful, relaxed and peaceful.

Wednesday 4th July
We have a long lie and enjoy our comfy beds, clean sheets and spotless bathroom - ah the simple things we usually take for granted. We wander up town for some brunch and then around town. The mid-day sun is scorching. I get a wet shave at a barbers for 50p!

We visit the Royal National Museum. Again we see plenty of buddha statues, one that apparently dates back to 100AD. After that we put our passports in a local travel agents to get our visas for Vietnam. At around 4pm we climb Phu Si Mountain, right in the heart of Luang Prabang to see the temple perched on top. It's not actually a mountain, more of a hill! At the top we meet a few girls who were on the slow boat down - Sally from London, who is also travelling for a year and doing practically the same route as us, and Anne-Marie and Maria from Ireland. We end up chatting for ages and watch the sunset over the distant hills and into the Mekong River.

After a quick change we head to the night food market. We have BBQ'd chicken on skewars and then buy a nice BBQ'd fish for only 15,000 kip (under 1 pound). We take it to another stall down the road and for only 5,000 kip each we fill 2 bowls with rice, noodles and veg. We also get two large Beer Lao's! MMMMMMMMM

On the way back to our guesthouse we pass a lovely wine bar, jam packed with bottles of all varieties. Out the front is a small table with beanbags around it, and it's free! Inside Aussies are sampling different kinds of wine. Outside we veg on the beanbags and order the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu. It's $15 or around 7.50 sterling. It's nice to drink something other than beer and we have a very relaxing hour or so doing just that.

Thursday 5th July
We get up early as we have booked a trip to a cave and then an afternoon at a national park with a waterfall and pools you can swim in. On the bus we meet a lovely Australian couple called Matt and Kim who are very well travelled and full of all kinds of helpful tips. We actually passed the cave on the way in to Luang Prabang on the slow boat. It's set in the limestone cliffs that rise dramtically out of the brown Mekong. A bus ride takes us to a small local village where children and chickens run around our feet as we make our way to the jetty for a boat across. I feel like Indiana Jones as we enter the top cave into darkness. I half expect a boulder to come tumbling out of the wall behind me! The cave is famous for being full of 4,000 buddha statues. As if we hadn't seen enough!

Seriously though, the cave and the lower one are very impressive and hugely important to the people of Luang Prabang and the surrounding area. Like Luang Prabang itself, the caves are a listed World Heritage site. Well worth seeing. As well as the 4,000 buddha statues of all shapes and sizes we also see several bats up in the roof of the caves.

We head back to Luang Prabang and have a bite to eat before jumping in another bus to go to the Kuang Si National Park. There is a 30 metre waterfall there (that I have no intention of falling off!) and lovely natural pools you can swim in. The waterfall is certainly impressive and we climb through the jungle to get to the top for a stunning view out over the park. We climb back down and head for the pools. There is a group of travellers from the boat in the first pool and it looks lovely. The water is crystal clue and we jump right in, have a chat and a swim before heading down to the second pool where there is a rope swing and a 3 metre waterfall you can jump off and into the pool! After my previous experience I'm not quite ready to jump off the fall but the rope swing is great fun and a young local kid impresses everyone by doing back flips in off the swing. We have an excellent afternoon there and I would love to go back another time. Our photos may not do it justice so do a google search for Kuang Si waterfall and you should get an idea of how beautiful it is. I'll try and upload some more pictures soon.

At night we have some pizza and then discover a funky little tea house reminiscent of Tchai Ovan in the West End of Glasgow. We both have a pot of tea and read the National Geographic magazines they have dating back to the 70's! We are both tired so opt for an alcohol free night instead of meeting some people from the bus for a drink.

Thursday 6th July
We have a relatively long lie, waking at 10am. We head out for breakfast and meet Alex from Perth Australia who is a top bloke and arrange to meet him for a beer tonight. After that we hire bicycles and spend a pleasant few hours cycling around the town and outside it as well. We've booked a VIP air conditioned bus to Vang Viene for tomorrow morning for 125,000 kip each (around 5 pounds each). We'll spend a couple of nights there before heading down to the capital and figuring out the best way to get to Hanoi in Vietnam.

I'll post from there if not before.

Hello blog fans, stand by for a rapid update.

Since my last entry we did indeed have a very chilled day in Pai on June 29th. I nursed my sore right bum cheek and Lynn rested her blisters after our trek to the waterfalls. It was a scorching day and we spent most of it sitting outside our riverside shack reading. I started Richard Bransons autobiography that I picked up at a used book store in Pai and immediately became engrossed in it. Lynn read Nick Hornby's excellent 'How To Be Good' and we both enjoyed lazing in the sun. Lynn dozed off and snored on the porch while I rigged up the hammock I had bought Lynn for her 31st last year and dangled in the sun - lovely!

On June 30th we had a lazy morning before hiring a moped for 180 baht and driving along some backroads in baking sunshine to some hot springs. They were lovely but not worth the 400 baht we paid to get in. Locals only had to pay 200 baht. Still, worth seeing and the scenery on the drive was lovely. At night we went to Pai's top restaurant called Luan Tuang. We got a 'combo' dish and it was outstanding. Our tongues sizzled and our taste buds cried out for more as we sampled prawns, chicken, beef and more. As well as a couple of large Chang Beers of course.

On July 1st we started our journey into Laos. We got a mnibus back to Chaing Mai then on to Chaing Khong (right on the border). We picked up some English guys, a very intersting and amusing guy from Chile called Juan and a very annoying Israeli girl.

Juan had us spellbound with his stories of Chile and his childhood sweetheart. He is currently writing a book about their romance! We stayed in a guesthouse right on the border overlooking the mighty Mekong River that we would be travelling across to Laos and then down over two days to Luang Prabang. It was only 100 baht for the night.

On July 2nd we got up early and crossed the river to Laos. We proceeded to get our passport stamped and checked about 6 times before getting on the boat and starting our journey down the river. What a way to get into a country - no plane or taxi or waiting for luggage - just cruise down a mighty river in the sun.

The boat was full of all nationalities - with loads of Aussies as usual. The scenery was spectacular - the river was wide and golden brown and on either side rose green trees and mountains (well hills). I tired my first Laos Beer and it's pretty good. Although Chang is still my favourite so far. I wonder how many beers I will sample on my way around the world. Drinking beer, watching the world go by, listening to my Nano, Lynn by my side.........life is pretty good. I enjoy listening to music, soundtracking the lovely scenery.

At around 6pm we stop off at a tiny village for the night. I thought
that our 100 baht per night guest house was a cheap as we could get but this one was only 50 baht. Well under a pound! It had a lovely balcony overlooking the river and we watched the sun go down with buffalo steak! Our room was probably not even worth 50 baht per night though as it didn't have mosquito nets, the sink was blocked and the light didn't really work. Still we hooked up our own mosquito nets and made do. Just when we had settled we were told that all the electricty in the village went off at 10.30pm so the fan stopped. It was like a sauna but I think the heat must have knocked us out and we slept soundly.

Our second day on the river didn't go quite as quickly as the first. Sure the scenery was as spectacular as the first day but it was another long hot day in a crowded boat. However we are now in an amazing Laos town called Luang Prabang and our first impression is that it is gorgeous. This is what Lonely Planet has to say about it.

'Stunning Luang Prabang is a dream location for any travel photographer. It's incredible collection of French colonial architecture, dotted with delicately decorated Buddhist wat and surrounded with emerald green mountains, is the postcard-perfect illustration of historic Indochina.'

It's on the Unesco World Heritage list, it is spotless and we can't wait to explore tomorrow. After 3 days travelling we intend to spend at least 3 nights here and visit waterfalls and caves. The French influence is evident already and we may hire bikes tomorrow to cycle around.

We have checked into a cool guesthouse at 4 pounds per night. The room is spotless and the bathroom is huge. A nice change after our shack (although we loved it) and the last two places we have stayed.

I hope all is well and I'll update the blog again before we leave Luang Prabang.

Ta
Murray