Laos, The Time Has Come.

Hello!

Today I have vowed to myself that I will get up to date with this blog so I have found a nice shaded spot with my own personal electric fan and access to fruit shakes and by god I am going to do it!

I am currently right at the very bottom of Laos in an area called 4000 Islands. 'But Laos is a land locked country' I hear you cry, well yes, but these islands can be found in the mighty Mekong river, the route of which I have been following throughout my time in Laos, and that which will be leading me into Cambodia, my next destination. More about where I am now later. First of all I will cast my mind back to the 9th of May when I was in Luang Prabang with Grant and Robynne. That day I spent the entire first half of the day in bed while Grant and Robynne went to see some elephants. When they returned we went and explored the town and walked around the old French roads before ascending endless steps to a temple where we watched the sunset. Well, we mainly watched the backs of people standing directly in front of everyone to take photos but I think I glimpsed the sun at one point. We strolled through the night market where I was especially interested by the Lao Lao which came in a bottle with dead snakes and scorpians, yum.

After enjoying the waterfalls so much two days before we agreed to visit them again, this time planning to walk to the top of the watefall and to follow the signs for the cave that we had seen, but been unable to follow last time. The trail lead us down dirt tracks covered in hundreds of butterflies and up to a cave. 

The cave itself stretched for much longer than I had expected and housed lots of buddha statues of varying sizes. We used the torches provided by the ticket man at the entrance and kept walking further and further back. At some points the walls shimmered beautifully and there were some interesting stalactites and stalacmites. We squeezed our way in as far as possible then made our way back to the light. Another dirt trail lead us down to a deserted fresh water spring where the water was cool and clear and there were an abundance of beautiful flittering butterflies. We waded in the water for a while, enjoying the tranquility, until we realised that our tuk tuk home would be waiting for us down in the car park quite soon.

Luang Prabang is famous for the large procession of monks that walk the streets very early in order to recieve 'arms' or offerings from the local people. This can be money but more often it is food and most often, rice. After a disgustingly early alarm we wandered out to the town centre reminding ourselves of the rules of respect that we must abide by including covering shoulders and legs, not standing very close to the monks unless you are offering something (in which case you should be lower than the monks), and definitely not getting in the way or too close to the monks to take photos. We had read up on the ritual beforehand and assumed that other would do so too. However, when we arrived we saw that not all tourists had done their research. My favourite awful moment was when a woman in tiny short shorts ran alongside the monks in order to get in front of them to take a selfie. 

The monks did not look impressed. Its no wnder that the mayor of Luang Prabang is considering stopping this ritual because of the behaviour of tourists (Western and Asian). Nevertheless the sight of the brightly coloured monks walking majestically through the town was really quite beautiful and it was nice to witness such an aged ritual in this setting. 

After heading back to bed for a couple of hours we spent the rest of the day walking around the town and stopping at a couple of French bakeries along the way (how could we resist). 

Our mini bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng left the next morning and due to the lack of rain La informed us that we would be able to take the shorter route whoch would get us there in the early afternoon rather than early evening. I am so glad we got to go on this route as the scenery that we passed through was absolutely amazing. Many parts of it reminded me of some of the driving we did in the south of New Zealand, with its impossibly green rolling hills and dramatic rock formations. 

We travelled through towns and villages which were untouched by tourism and saw countless farmers and children everywhere. When we arrived in Vang Vieng we threw our belongings in our rooms and set out for some lunch before we experienced what vang Vieng is most famous for, tubing. The idea behind tubing is a simple one. Hire out large rubber rings to backpackers, drive them to the river and line the river with bars. A few years ago this river was full of dozens of bars but after the party scene got too dangerous and there were some fatalities the local council closed down most of them. We got to the river and were greeted by an already intoxicated girl who gave us each a free bracelet and a shot of whiskey. At the first bar we met Sydney and Isabel again. The was full of people ready to get going but I wasn't really in the mood to party like them. Instead, we played a quick game of beer pong and then walked down to the river and played catch with some local children before deciding to head with our tubes down the river, ahead of the rowdy crowd (who were mostly English, surprise surprise). At the first bar we came to we played a game of beach volleyball with some others who had chosen to avoid the main group and at the bar after that we found a wooden pier which you could jump from into the river. Grant and Robynne both managed to do a backflip but I was only brave enough for the modest pencil jump (and a small scream). We continued to drift down the river enjoying the mountainous surrondings and the free shot we got at each bar.

That evening we all met again and had dinner at one of the many restaurants which, for some reason (possibly the large number of hungover backpackers) plays Friends back to back. After dinner we all headed to a nearby bar which seemed to be full of middle aged Chinese tourists all playing beer pong with much delight. At some point in the night we found oursleves on the dancefloor surrounded by these tourists, all of them with their smart phones out. Needless to say I found this both hilarious and highly uncomfortable in equal measures.

The 13th was the day that La and Robynne would be leaving in the Stray mini bus and Grant and I would stay behind. After sleeping through the alarm I had a quick but heartfelt goodbye with Robynne, who I will hopefully see again soon (party in your scotland house?). Later in the day we met with Sydney and Isabel andphired bicycles so that we could explore more of the surrounding area. We cycled and cycled, trying to find one of the many waterfall or caves that the map said exsisted but to no avail. I personally enjoyed the off-road ride through the countryside, but the heat and the endless cycling was pretty tough nd eventually we stopped at a little towns store.

I have never been so sweaty in my life, even my eyeballs were sweating. We sat at the shop with the friendly shopkeeper, who spoke no English, and made the decision to turn back. The way back was much easier and allowed us to enjoy the scenery around us instead of focusing on the heat and the bumpy road. Hat evening we said goodbye to Isabel and Sydney after dinner, but perhaps we will bump into them again at some point.

The next day was a day that I had been looking forward to/dreading since I started my plans to come to Laos. Nearly everyone in this part of the world travels via mopeds or motorbikes and I have always been interested to learn how to ride myself. In South East Asia you don't need a license to dive a motorbike (most of the children can ride them before they hit puberty) but I did not feel confident enough to just hire one straight away. I searched online for courses and came across one which had 100% excellent rating on trip advisor and brilliant reviews. Why not!? This trip is about adventure and doing something new, so I emailed Steve, the owner of 'Uncle Tom's' and booked myself onto the course. Grant had rode bikes before but said that he would like to join me so we took off that morning from Vang Vieng to a town called Kasi. At Kasi a tuk tuk collected us and took us to Uncle Tom's which was a garage and some bungalows located behind a local Lao restaurant. Steve came out of the garage with open arms (literally) and greeted us. He showed us to the bungalows and I knew instantly that this was going to be fun. He had a very contagious enthusiasm and classic Welsh friendliness, which instantly improved your mood. We freshened up and met him in the restaurant for some noodle soup before we started on the bikes. The first thing Steve did was make sure Grant was ok, and sent him off to ride around by himself while he did the introductions with me. He showed me to the bike I would be using, love at first sight! The bike was called Gary and although small, it was still pretty cooooooool. 

We started learning about starting the bike using the accelerator and clutch, a completely new idea for me, someone who has never been in charge of a road vehicle before. After getting the hang of this on the rollers we started practices riding around the garden. I started pretty slow and shaking until he showed me how to change gears and I gained some confidence. I continued to go around the garden first in circles then figures of eight until grant came back and Steve said I was ready to go on the road. 'Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh' was my first thought, but I managed supress that feeling and set my sights on the road. Before I knew it we were travelling up a mountain! The helmet Steve had given me was fitted with a mic and speakers so that we could communicate and he guided me through everything, telling the odd joke here and there. When we stopped at the viewpoint, I couldn't believe I had ridden all that way when that morning I had never driven anything before. 

After riding some more we came back to base and Steve asked the restaurant to prepare us some of 'the best garlic bread in the world'. I was cynical at first but he was not lying, it was absolutely delicious. Later that evening we met for dinner and met Renee, a young German guy who was working as Steves apprentice. We ate duck, the restaurants speciality, and did some karaoke, which was hilarious in itself because there were also a table of locals who were singing (terrible) Lao music.

Our second day at Uncle Tom's started with another early alarm so that Grant and I could ride with the restaurant owners wife to the local market. I have seen many markets since being in Asia but all of them have catered for tourists to some extent, this market however, was completely for the locals and mainly food, everythg from eggs to unidentified wild animals were on offer. Grant and I were the only white people there and so we got a few funny looks and giggles from children as I walked, feeling like a giant again, around the stalls. 

After breakfast with Steve and Renee we got back on the bikes and Steve took us for a ride around the local area, we rode to a dam which was used to power the nearby town and Grant and Renee took it in turns jumping into the water from a ridiculous height (I bravely took the role of photographer) 

We then rode to a backpackers hostel called Nola's Hostel in a little town with nithing much else but a small shop and some houses. We had some coffee with the owner and Grant and I decided that we should stay at the hostel for the next couple of days. We did some more offroad stuff and got extremely badass photos of us riding through water (see below).

After a full day of riding we got back to the garage and said goodbye to our bikes and to Steve and Renee, and thanked them for a really brilliant experience before getting in a tuk tuk and travelling to the hostel. I would HIGHLY recommend Uncle Tom's to anyone travelling in Laos, it was a great couple of days and We achieved so much, Steve couldn't have been more helpful, welcoming and hilarious and it was a wonderfully memorable experience. 

At the hostel we settled in, starting with a welcome shot of home brewed Lao Lao and I decided to have a rest after such a fun-packed day. As I was lying, enjoying the complete silence a very excited group arrive and colonised the rooms next door. I go out onto the balcony and introduce myself and find that they are a group travelling on bikes from Austria, Germany and France. That evening we have a delicious home cooked meal at the hostel and have some beer together along with Madeline, a Belgium girl who is also staying at the hostel for a few days. Madeline mentioned that she had been informally teaching a couple of the local girls some English in the evenings and I asked if I could join her. The girls were a dream to teach, so eager to learn and you could really see how hard they were listening. We talked about parts of the body, numbers and family members and  they wrote everying down in their excercise books. It was a really enjoyable experience and it has made me even more interested in doing some teaching while I am abroad. 

The next day was so hot that we spent the whole day in the hostel, sleeping, eating, talking or drinking. 

The day after that Grant, Madeline and I caught the local songtao (glorified tuk tuk) to Vang Vieng because we believed that the Stray bus was going to pick me and Grant up the next day to take us to Vientiane, the capital city. However, on the way to Vang Vieng, doubt started to grow and as soon as Grant got some reception our fears were confirmed. The minibus had left that morning and not the following morning as we had thought. The next hop on bus wasn't for another four days so we decided to get in the same songtao as Madeline in Vang Vieng and travel with her to Vientaine. The journey was horrible but funny. It began to rain so we had to block the open windows with our bags and the roads were in a terrible condition so our bums were thoroughly sore by the time we reached the city. 

We checked into a hostel and Maddy took us to a great Indian restaurant that she had sampled the last time she was in Vientaine. 

The theme of great food continued as the next day we had some mouthwateringly good french pastries at a bakery/cafe near our hostel, we had pain aux raisin and croissant almande yum yum yum. I was in my happy place. 

Once refuelled I took the step to go and finally get my hair cut by a professional. It took two hairdressers 10 minutes to comb through my hair, it was like a birds nest, but once the transformation was complete I felt like a new woman and couldn't help swishing my hair from time to time. Grant and I wanted to visit the COPE centre which was over the other side of the city and so after what seemed like hours of walking in the boiling sun we got there. The COPE centre is an exhibition that is part of a rehibilitation centre for people with prosthetic limbs and displays facts and evidence of the secret war that happened in Laos during the Vietnam war when american dropped a huge amount of explosives on the east side of Laos in order to flush out Vietnamese. Laos had signed an agreement in which they said that they did not want any foriegn military involvemnet in the country, yet America built a barracks there and although America never declared war on Laos they still bombed, extensively, Laos land. The effects of this are still being felt today as tonnes of explosives failed to go off on imapct and now lie, hidden around the country. Many people are injured or killed by these bombs every year and the centre does a lot of work with those of whom lose limbs as a consequence. The centre was harrowing and optimistic and a definite must see if in Vientiane. As we were waling through the exhibition we were approached by a young monk who asked if, when we were done, we could help him and his friend practice their English skills. We sat outside with them both, one was 18 and the other 19, and learnt about why they wanted to know English and some things about their everyday schedule as a monk, which I found very interesting. The younger of the two was very shy but the other was hugely talkative and had a good grasp on the language. We spoke about our Laos trip so far and about the blessing we had received at the homestay and he said that he had some cotton bracelets that he would like to bless us with. Both monks then blessed the bracelets and placed them on our wrists. They were a beautiful bright orange just like the robes they were wearing and it was a really touching gesture. Just befire we left and after we had learnt about the spiritual life of a monk Grant noticed that one of the monks had a blue bag while the other had an orange bag and so he asked about that the significance of blue was. The older monk tunred to his shy friend and had a quick conversation in Lao before turning back to us and saying 'well, blue is his favourite colour' to which we both felt very stupid and decided to call it a day. We took a tuk tuk back to the hostel and told Madeline about our day before going to a bar on the bank of the river to enjoy the mild evening.

Maddy left the following morning for Tha Khek and Grant and I spent the day exploring. We found some huge sand scupltures by the river and Grant, inspired by my transformation, got his hair cut by a very extravagent Lao hairdresser called Tony, who thought he was French. 

That evening we went back to the same bar as the evening before to watch the sunset over the Mekong which lit up the sky with countless colours.

We indured the worst journey so far on my trip the next day from Vientiane to Tha Khek, it was hot, noisy and looooong in a local coach. We kept stopping which dragged the journey on and the worst part was that the coach was fitted with screens which were playing music videos of the popular Lao music of today which all sounded the same and was just horrible. When we did finally arrive we coincidently bumped into Maddy, who was staying at the same hostel as us. We also met two girls Vivi and Natalie and went for some dinner. The reason we had travelled to Tha Khek was that there was a 3 day motorbike loop starting and ending there which we had heard was well worth doing. At dinner we decided to go as a group along with a German guy called Felix who was also at our hostel. In the morning we got up early, had some breakfast and went to the bike rental place. We set off on the loop at about 10:30 and it felt so good to be back on a bike (although I must say this one, a semi-automatic Honda Wave, was nowhere near as cool as Gary).

The loop was gorgeous as it snaked through countryside, farmland, mountains and past rivers. We drove down a long dirt track to one, slightly disappointing cave and also stopped by a river for a swim in the clean water before we decided it was time for food. A quick hearty noodle soup at a stall on the side of the road was perfect before we got going again. That afternoon, after driving past a huge dam which had. Very obviously flooded much of the surroundg area, we arrived at the Saibaidee Guesthouse, where we would be staying for the night. We piled into the dorm room and I had a much needed cold shower before we went to sit in the communal area and get to know some of the other people who were on the trail. After a couple of beers we had a delicious BBQ dinner and a couple of games of patonk/boules.

The second day of the loop started off great, we got going at a reasonable time and drove through some atmospheric ghostly trees, killed off by the flooding and up and down snaking roads around the mountains. At one point the road, without warning, tunred into a dirt track and continued that way through some local villages for a long time, which was quite uncomforatble with the little suspension I had, but fun all the same.

Unfortunately, when we were on our way to the next waterfall I experienced a problem with my bike and was unable to continue riding it. I was absolutely gutted that I couldn't continue the loop and had to head back to Tha Khek in a songtao along with the bike and a disappointed expression. Grant and Madeline both came back with me and checked back into the hotel we had only checked out of the previous day.

My next Laos destination was Savvanakhet, a dull residential town with not much going on but here, Grant and I met up with Tjeerd, the dutch guy from Suneta who we had also seen in Chiang Mai and the girl he was travelling with, Solene. Grant had hurt his back so we decided to stay in Savannakhet another day before travelling down south. We spent this time organising where to go next, playing cards with Solene and Tjeerd, eating and sleeping, a very uneventful location. 

We left Savannakhet in another hot noisy local coach (take me back to Stray minibuses!) and made our way to Pakse, a vibrant surprisingly fancy city where we saw more than one superbike zoom last as we ate dinner. We found a basic, admittedly overpriced, hostel and stayed there for one night before heading onto our real destination, 4000 Islands, or more specifically, Don Det in the 4000 Islands. 

Waheyyy! I made it, both physically and in this blog, I made it all the way to Don Det! I will take a celebratory gulp of fruit shake and stretch my tired fingers for a second before I continue (and you probably deserve a gulp of tea, actually no, a gulp of gin, for sticking with me and reading this far).

Right, we happily arrived at Don Det, after pointlessly waiting at the port until I decided to walk round the corner and found the ticket office for the longtail boats, at around midday at walked with our stuff past shops and guesthouses until we found a very reasonably priced guesthouse with rooms. We then met with Tjeerd and Solene again as well as Carlos, Carla (Spanish) and Diego (Brazilian), who Tjeerd and Solene had met here. We relaxed in the heat for a while before getting proactive and deciding to go and watch the sunset and then get some dinner at a place that I was informed on countless occasions by Solene, Tjeerd and Carla, served the 'best curry ever'. After a stunning sunset...

...we had the curry, and it was incredible. I was not misinformed. 

Don Det is one of three major islands in the area and so the following day we agreed it would be nice to see a bit of the other big island so Tjeerd, Solene and I hired bicycles and Carla, Diego and Carlos took their motorbikes. Grants back still wasn't feeling back to normal so he spent the day in a hammock (hard life). We cycled across the bridge to the other island and to a waterfall which was being used by the local people to catch fish and so had many wooden structures at certain points in the rapids. 

We swam there for a while to cool oursleves off and then hoped back on the bikes to find some lunch. After Lunch it was already 4pm so Tjeerd, Solene and I went to visit the larger waterfall on the island whilst the others could speedily ride to the other side of the island before the sun set. The larger waterfall was just that LARGE, where does that much water come from? It was very beautiful in its powerfulness the way it had carved out its surroundings.

We got back just in time for sunset which I watched from a hammock on my balcony over the river. Grant and I then met up with the others and rode into town to find a restaurant. We heard loud music coming from one of the restaurant and a very enthusiastic woman appeared and ushered us to a table, giving us each a balloon crown to wear. At first I though there must be some special occasion ut in the end I think that they were all just drunk. We had our dinner and ended up in a circle havng a dance-off with some of the strangest moves I have ever seen. The restaurant closed and we went to another bar but it wasn't long until I got tired and had to go to bed.

And now it's today! I am up to date. I almost can't believe it. Today I have nothing nothing other than eat and write this blog post and it is already 5pm. Wow. Tomorrow I leave Laos, a country that I have had so much fun in and learnt so much. It's been an absolute blast, but next is Cambodia and especially Ankhor Wat, very very exciting. 

Thanks you very much for reading SOOOO MUCH this time. Good news, I am up to date and so will try and make posts more frequent and much shorter. 

We got there, we did it, well done. Go on, you can finish that gin now. 

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