Firstly I'm very, very sorry for my lack of recent updating, but as you may have noticed Thailand (where I've been for the last few days) has been a little bit manic, what with the airport closures, political protests and grenade attacks and all, and I've been frantically rearranging travel arrangements for as long as I can remember now! But I'm now settled in my own little wooden hut on a little island called Ko Samet for the next few days with little else to do but update my journal, read & sunbathe, so I can reassure you I'll be back up-to-date in no time.
So, back in the dim & distant past I'd managed to tell you all about everything up until the end of my travels in Vietnam - they ended with a painfully early start in Saigon, to get on a bus and head for the Laos border. So I packed up my life in to my backpack once again, finally regained my passport for good (in communist countries it's custom for the hotel to hold on to it from the moment you check in, which in a place like Vietnam isn't entirely reassuring), sleepily said goodbye to people I'd been traveling with for the last 3 weeks and sleepily said hello to the people I'd be traveling with for the next 10 days; one Hungarian & three Germans. The traffic was 'crazy' (this baffled me a bit as our tour leader says it, as as far as I could see we only passed something every few minutes - but apparently they normally only pass something every half hour) so we had to rush to the border, and with the exception of a stop off at the Vietnamese answer to a service station - a tiny empty restaurant and a toilet - for the Vietnamese equivalent of takeaway Burger King - fish and steamed rice with soy sauce, bundled up in little boxes for us to take on our bus - I spent most of it sitting or sleeping on a minibus which was pretty uneventful (unless you count the fact that it reeked of fish).
Things got slightly more interesting at the border, where we had to bribe each countries set of passport authority workers in order to get our passports back after they were stamped - only a dollar each though, which when you consider the alternatives or being trapped in Vietnam or no-man's-land, isn't really too much. So I acquired another impressive looking visa, which this time is all pink * purple and covered in shiny silver bits (making it the most impressive one yet), and we set of on our Laos travels. The border point was pretty high up in the mountains and very misty, but as we began to descend and see the country for the first time I could see why everyone we've met raves about it - it's so vast and green, mountains everywhere, and everyone we saw was so friendly. We stopped at a tiny collection of wooden huts along the roadside to give out balloons and hair bobbles to the kids there, and took pictures of the huge mountain and rolling countryside behind their homes. An old man in one of the houses saw us with out cameras, glanced back at the stunning view behind his house, and then looked at us with a confused look on his face as if to say "what's so amazing?!". At sunset we stopped off for 'jungle toilet' (that'd be tall grass, then) and took pictures again, prompting similarly confused looks from the motorcyclists driving past us. We stopped at another roadside restaurant for dinner, where I got to have my first Beer Lao - it definitely lived up to the hype. As a country with very few exports the Lao are very proud that all us Westerners approve of their brew, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it starts turning up in Wetherspoon's all over the UK.
After a night spent in Pak Sam - a very uninteresting border town, which was completely dead by the time we got there at half 9 at night - we had breakfast by the river and took another 3 hour bus to Vientiene, the capital of Laos. We only had one night there so after wasting a few hours consuming a lot of caffeine and sugar at JoMa, Laos' answer to Starbucks, we were able to check-in and go off exploring. We wandered to their version of the Arc de Triumph (not as big but much more beautfil than it's Parisian equivalent), a huge gold temple and stupa (recently repainted due to a historic anniversary, so looked very bright in the sunshine) and with the help of a flagged-down tuk-tuk that we shared with a little Lao woman and a bucket of fresh fish, managed to get to the oldest Wat (temple) in Lao just before it closed. It wasn't the most stunning building - unsurprsing due to it's age - but it's dilapidated wooden structure and collection of Buddha statues rescued from ruins was actually quite charming, and the numerous cats and monks going about their daily business whilst we were there just added to it. And just around the corner we spotted the monks house - easy to identify due to the orange sashes hung out to dry on every available balcony! One of Vientiene's nicest features is that it's only separated by Thailand by a river about the width if the Thames (Laos was originally part of Thailand that they offered to one of the invading countries - France, I think - on the agreement that they didn't try to take over what was left of Thailand after that, so the river was the dividing line that they used), so we sat having dinner looking over in to Thailand.
The next morning started with another very early to start to get to Vang Vieng, a backpacker town further north of Vientiene - although it has a lot to offer (beatiful countryside, caves, lots of outdoor activities) it's famed for one particular activity; floating down the river in a tractor inner tube, stopping at the many bars that have set themselves up along the way. It's considered a backpacker right of passage nowadays, so after a local lunch of sausage and sticky rice - my new favourite food (it's a block of rice stuck together that comes in a sweet woven basket, and you tear off small portions of it to eat with the rest of your meal) - we rented our tubes and waterproof bags and headed off in a tuk-tuk to the organic farm by the river, the starting point for the journey. We came to the first bar after just 50m or so, struggled out of our tubes and got out first drink of the day at about 1 in the afternoon. Here I got myself in to a bit of a sticky situation - nothing to do with alcohol, more my ridiculously competitive personality. The bar had a swing where you climbed a tree, clung on to this trapeze-type piece of apparatus and swung yourself in to the river, before letting go about 12m above the water. My tour leader was jokingly trying to persuade people to do it, except as soon as she challenged me I couldn't NOT do it... so after drinking my Lao wine (vile pink sugary stuff - like small bottles of cherry lambrini) I climbed up, was followed by the 42 year old guy in our group who in a similar manner could not bear to be beaten by a 24 year old girl, swung myslef out there and dropped.
Now, Andre and I didn't go in to this lightly - we at least had the common sense to ask people who'd done it already, and found out that the best way to enter the water was from the highest point, because otherwise you hit the water whilst still travelling forwards or backwards and get fairly beaten up doing it (an Aussie girl showed us the very impressive bruise on her thigh from doing just this). So that's exactly what we did, and I landed perfectly straight with just a tiny bit of a tuck as I didn't know how deep the water went; and I was in PAIN. I got an extreme wedgie and winded, a huge bruise that came out a few days later and a week on my back has only just stopped hurting! The worst part is that I know given the same situation I'd still refuse to be beaten by the swing, and do it all again... it's things like this that annoy me about me. So we spent the rest of the day floating down the river - drinking cocktails out of seaside buckets, playing in mud pools, jumping in the water after each bar... Angela (my roommate) and I lost everyone else after a few bars but kept meeting plenty of nice, happy, drunken travellers to take their place and had a great time. At about 5 we decided to float down the empty stretch of river to the tubing station, where we were met by kids offering to take our tubes back for us (how a 7 year old half my size thought it would be easier for him to carry my tube rather than me I'm not sure) and only just made it back in time to get our deposits back. We spent the rest of the night in a Friends TV bar, where endless episodes of Friends are shown back-to-back all day every day - something tells me these were designed with the mushroom-consuming traveller in mind, as a lot of the bars offer 'happy shakes' and 'happy pizzas', but we loved it despite our lack of hallucinations.
The next day bought yet another bus - 7 hours along winding mountain roads this time, where the bus driver regretted his decision to speed up to save time, as he had to stop for me to unceremoniously throw up all over the place; ha! That'll teach him. We arrived in Luang Prabang in the evening, and having emptied out my stomach I was understandably starving, so we headed to the famous night market to stock up on more street food; one 5,000 Kip (about 40p) vegetarian buffet bowl and a local-style chocolate donut later and I was a much happier camper. We had an early night as we'd decided to get up early the next day to see the monks collect their food - monks have to rely on donations, and the tradition is that they walk through the town early in the morning with the metal bowls and locals put food in to them when they walk past (mostly older locals, as not only do they have the time but they're also trying to rack up some karma points before their next reincarnation). So after getting up at quarter to 5 in the morning (you all thought I was having a relaxing holiday in Asia didn't you?! Not a chance!) and dressing conservatively (knees and shouldres covered) we walked in to won, purchased some bananas and sticky rice, and sat on mats to await the monks. Whilst we were there the 'VIP' area next to us began to fill up - an odd concept, where wealthy Thai's pay to have little seats and be the first in line to feed the monks rice. At around 6am the monks started their procession, and we sat with our feet pointing behind us (it's unforgivable to point them at either a monk of an image of Buddha) making sure we were lower than the monks at all times, and dropped small bowls of rice or an individual bana in to each monks bowl - as a woman I also had to take care not to touch either the monks or their bowls, something considered highly offensive. One of the nicest parts is that just after the VIP area local homeless people and poor children wait with carrier bags, and the monks tear away a huge chunk of the food they've been given to give it away to them.
Once my rice was finished I got out of the way and took a few photos, then headed to JoMa (I know,. I know - again... I do love the local food, it's just that I'm not addicted to it the way I am with coffee) for a spot of breakfast before heading on to the royal palace. The royal family were forced to leave for the jungle around 30 years ago, and as such it's been left just as it was when they lived in it - it also houses the Prabang buddha, a famous gold Buddha staue where Buddha is standing; it gets hundreds of worshippers coming to see it, offer gifts and pray, so they're currently building a stunning temple near the entrance to the grounds that will house it when it's finished. Whilst wandering around town for a bit I also came across an art gallery, which has been doing the same thing with it's photos as I have with mine - having the photo completely black and white, apart from the bright orange of monks robes (my camera has a setting that does this, it's not like it's any work on my part!) - and they were charging $10 for a pack of postcards!! What am I doing wasting my time in medicine, eh?! By this point I was wiped, and after a pedicure I decided the best idea was to go back to the hotel and sleep - I was accompanised on my walk home by a little boy who couldn't have been more than 6 and bless his heart tried to talk to me, but unfortuantely all I know is Sabai Dii (Hello) and Khoap Lai Lai (Thank you)! The night was spent sampling more local food and then the famous night market, where I picked many of you up presents and so can't talk about it very much!
Luang Prabang is also known for the beautiful waterfalls and caves that surround it, so the next day our group chartered a tuk-tuk to take us the half hour drive to the Kuang Si waterfalls - a very bumpy journey that was agonisingly painful for me, due to my river swing-related stupidity. Luckily the waterfalls were definitely worth the pain - a huge waterfall with a huge pool, then a succesion of pools each 20m or so of bright blue clear water, the last few of which you could swim in. So we had a dip in the absolutely freezing water surrounded by huge trees and jungle plants - cold but amazing, I don't think I've swum anywhere so naturally beautiful in my life. After a bit of time spent reading Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby is my new favourite author - not only is he very good, but you seem to be able to get his books everywhere in Asia) we headed to the bear sanctuary, where Asiatic bears rescued from captivity are cared for - it's a really sad situation, where because of the medicinal qualities bear bile is considered to have in traditional chinese medicine, many bears are kept in bile farms where the cage them up and either have catheters inserted in to their abdomens or an open wound, so that they can drain the bile regularly. So I donated some cash to them before we got the tuk-tuk back, and I headed to a small temple on a hill in the town centre, to see the sunset. After that it was time to run around stocking up on food as we were spending the next 2 days on the Mekong river, and although breakfast was included I would have cried if I had to eat another egg sandwich or omelette-based brekkie, before going out for Bernt's birthday. We headed to an amazing restaurant where they set p a barbeque in the table, and you then cook your own meat and soup - brilliant fun! Although I can't help but think there's something backwards about paying to cook your own food...
But that's enough for now, and you'll have to wait to hear about the Mekong and my adventures in Thailand thus far; needless to say with everything that's been happening I've had a pretty eventful time so far! As always look after yourselves and keep in touch,
Lots of Love,
Kat
xxx
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