Luang pruabang - Vang Vieng - Vientiane - Don Det

(Amy) So we had a great last night in Luang Pruabang with more bowling til the early hours. So random but so fun! 

Next we got a minibus to Vang vieng, which in true Laos style was late, slow and pretty cramped. But 5 hours later we arrived and managed to bag the last room in the hostel we had been recommended, which was more like a hotel than a hostel! We met a bunch of people and headed off to the blue lagoon for the afternoon. Spent the afternoon relaxing and I managed to work up to jumping in off the 5m branch of an overhanging tree! Trust me when i say it looks pretty high when you're up there. 

For pure comedy value! 

Despite being infamous for tubing, vang vieng is just beautiful, and the views were pretty immense. 

The next day was pretty action packed! We went ziplining in the jungle in the morning, and we were the only 2 doing it so basically got our own private session with 9 zip lines, 3 bridges and then they basically let you freefall off the last platform- great fun! 

In the afternoon we went tubing- which is what Vang vieng is famous for! basically you float down the river in a tractor inner tube and stop at various bars along the way. While much tamer than it used to be (people don't tend to die anymore) the bars are slowly returning and it was still a lot of fun! We started at about 2pm....Lao Lao whiskey fruit shakes are my new drink of choice! We didn't know how far it was until the end and as it was getting dark rapidly we decided to call it quits and get out the river when we saw a sign for a Tuk Tuk. A quick shower, dinner and a few more drinks later and it was off to the jungle party. Which turned out to be less of a jungle and more of someone's back yard, but it was still good fun. No pictures from my camera of tubing as I didn't want to risk getting it wet, but one of the Aussie girls we were with had a go pro so there may be some pictures from hers. 

We had booked the bus to the Laos capital of Vientiane for the next morning, but instead got given a minibus, luckily not so busy this time! However Laos roads are not in the best of shaped and I got some serious air sitting in the back, and a pretty bruised bum. We just had the afternoon in Vientiane, and visited the COPE centre. This exhibition was all about the unexplored ordanance left in Laos, and how it is still affecting people now. The cope centre is inviolved in giving artificial limbs and rehab to those who have been injured. It was very interesting but also very sad and sobering when you hear that Laos had 580,000 bombing missions carried out by USA, and up to 1/3 were unexploded at the end of the war. 

Finally it has been a pretty long day travelling today! We got up at 4 for our 6.30am flight to Pakse... Which was 2 hours delayed as usual. We then went to the 'bus' station to get the '2hr' bus to Si Phan Don (or 4000 Islands as it is known)... Turned out to be a 4 hour journey in the back of a truck with many Lao people, furniture and chicken feed. 

Oh well we arrived in the pouring rain and eventually made it to our bungalow here, which is pretty nice. We are just here for a couple of days before heading to Cambodia, but are hoping for better weather tomorrow to explore the island and hopefully see some rare freshwater dolphins. 

Huayxai to Luang Prabang

(Harriet) 

After the scabby night in chiang kong we started the process of getting to the slow boat, which involved a minibus, bus, border control and finally extremely cramped minibus! Having been told we would cast off at 11 we actually left at 12 after having watched our bags being shoved under the floor boards by small boys before climbing aboard. I really enjoyed the journey and spent the vast majority of it staring at the scenery which was absolutely stunning. Literally everything you looked at was green and beautiful (apart From someone of the locals taking a bath)!! We had a 7 hour journey each day with a night pak beng which was surprisingly cheap and clean! (Apart from the massive cockroach)! When we finally arrived in Luang Prabang we the view was of a steep hill which looked like at some point it had had some Kind of staircase which was sadly no longer there. After scrabbling to the top we got a Tuk Tuk into town and had another surprise as the driver clearly thought he was some kind of racing driver and tried to overtake everything- with our bags held precariously on top!! 

 After we arrived we saw a few guys having dinner and asked if we could join and asked where they were staying. We checked in at there hostel for £2 a night and it was pretty clean too. We went to the night market which was amazing with so much clothing, jewellery and paintings before heading to a. Bar utopia which was really cool. I ordered a 'poor man's drink' which was basically local whiskey and coke (and was actually pretty good) before it shut at 11:30. However, the night did not end there as we jumped into a Tuk Tuk with some of the English guys from the slow boat and went bowling which apparently the normal way to finish then night here! Amy improved as the game went on however the I struggled to even carry the balls which was quite embarrassing! We kept forgetting where we were until we looked at the fuzzy screens or watched someone manually extract a bowling ball Which reminded us we are in asia! 

Yesterday we explored the town and climbed to the hill at the centre which was hard work but the view was worth it. You could see housing enclosed by the Mekong and nam kong rivers and the never-ending jungle beyond. We tried to go to the national museum and despite the opening hours being advertised as 9-11:30 and 2-4:30 we were there at 11 and again at 4 and it was completely closed so who knows when you can actually visit! Classic Laos. We ate loads of great food which has a strong French influence here- having a sandwich is legit! And had a chilled evening of a yummy dinner and local rice wine (so sophisticated)! 

Today we got up at 5:30 to watch the locals giving alms to the monks. It was really interesting and I was really grateful to be able to observe a tiny portion of the monk's day. Afterwards we went back to bed before heading to the waterfalls with a group from the hostel. Turned out to be quite a trek with some more white-knuckle driving and shouting abuse at the police from the Tuk Tuk man however when we reached the top it was beautiful. We then went swimming in the shallows of perfect turquoise water WHICH TO MY HORROR WERE FULL OF FISH!!! Anyone who knows me will understand when I say that it was a big deal for me to get in that pool but I jumped in and it was even more brilliant because of it! After lapping up the gorgeous scenery we headed back to the hostel and are planning on going out again and bowling tonight before bussing it to vang vieng tomorrow. We love Laos already.

Ayutthaya- Lopburi - Chiang mai - Chiang Khong

(Amy)

The weather forecast wasn't looking good so we decided that trekking in the national park may not be the best idea. Instead we set off on the train to Lopburi, about 1.5 hours north of Ayutthaya. There wasn't much to do here, but the town is overrun with monkeys! They literally run all over the streets and all the ruins... It was fun to watch for a while until they started jumping on us. We wandered around the town and killed time until the 8.30pm night train to Chiang mai.

In typical Thai fashion the train was about an hour late, but then we both got a pretty good nights sleep and were in Chiang Mai for about 8am Wednesday morning. We walked around all the temples, got in a taxi to the 'day market' and once again ended up in the middle of nowhere... Almost like an outlet store thing. So we had a massage and got a Tuk Tuk back to the city. That evening we met up with the guys from our Bangkok hostel and went out for a few drinks with them, but weirdly everything in Chiang mai shuts down by 12.30, clearly the effects of the military are still going on here despite the fact that the curfew is over.

On the 2nd day we did a Thai cooking course. They took us to a local market and explained about a lot of the ingredients and we each cooked 5 dishes (way too much food, we could all barely eat half of it). A great day out although I'm not sure we'll find all the ingredients at home! That evening we just had a few chilled drinks at the rooftop bar with a couple of Scottish girls we met, but again this was shut down at midnight.

On out 3rd and final day we did a one day trek. We were in a group of 6 with a couple of Irish girls and a English couple on their honeymoon! This started with a trip to the 'elephant camp' which we didn't want to do but we struggled to find a trek without this. We both decided to sit the elephant riding out as they were all chained up and clearly not particularly well treated. Next we bamboo rafted down the river, which was a lot of  fun as long as you try not to think about what else mightbe in the river! After lunch at a Thai cafe we trekked through the jungle to see a waterfall (decided against swimming as the after looked pretty grim!) and then carried on to the Karen hill tribe, and saw a few of the long neck women. Felt a bit artificial and staged but still interesting. We decided to move hostels for our final night as the previous one had been dead- definately the right decision. (For Emmy/Katy we recommend Deejai hostel!) as it was much more lively with loads of people and Newly opened pool bar.


Today we got the bus to Chiang Rai this morning, with the intent of spending the afternoon there. As it turns out we only had about 2 hours but it made for a nice stop off. Following the nice air con bus from chiang mai the bus from chiang rai to chiang Khong was much more 'traditional'. But we have arrived and are in a slightly skanky guest house overlooking the Mekong, with Laos in view on the other side. Tomorrow we are intending to cross the border to Huayxai over the new friendship bridge and then board the slowboat for the 2 day journey to luang pruabang.

Monkeys in Lopburi

Loving life on the sleeper train 

Thai market

Cooking school

Waterfall (sorry still trying to work out the issues with transferring photos, can't turn it on here!) 

And with the long neck tribe

Bangkok- Ayutthaya

We've had a pretty crazy first few days so I'll try and keep it short!

We landed in Bangkok after a few hours delay at Abu Dhabi, and got in a taxi to Khoa San Road as it was about 10.30pm and we were a little concerned about finding the hostel before the curfew! We got a taxi with a couple of girls we met at the airport- turns out Amy went to primary school with one of them... Talk about freaky coincidence!

Our 22 bed dorm was surprisingly nice! Split into 2 bunk bed compartments by curtains, and we woke up to the arrival of 2 English guys in the bed opposite, and then spent the rest of the day with them (turns out one is a 1st year at Bristol uni and the other is going next year....more weird!). We walked to the Grand Palace and managed to avoid getting scammed twice on the way.

Next we decided to hear to the floating market... Which we thought would be about 20 minutes or so in a taxi. The taxi driver didn't seem to know where we meant but eventually had a lightbulb moment when we whipped out the guide book and said 'amphawa'. However we didn't realise quite how far away this was, and 2 hours later (only £8 between 4 of us) we arrived at the floating markets of Amphawa! We had some food then did a £1 boat tour which lasted a good few hours and involved many many temples (or wats as they are known here)... When we finally arrived back on dry land we got a mini bus back to Bangkok, much shorter journey than on the way! 

We spent the night on khoa San road and also met another guy from our uni halls!