Hello again! The last post I wrote ended with me leaving the beach life for the next part of my adventure which began with me reluctantly returning to Bangkok on a looooong overnight coach journey from Krabi. I arrivied on Khao San Road, the main 'strip' in Bangkok, where, even at 5am, the streets were littered with Thais and Backpackers alike who had obviously been enjoying the many bars and clubs that line the street. I walked 5 minutes around the corner to find the hostel I had booked into, Suneta, not the cheapest one I could find but one with great reviews and a location close to the coach drop off point (I did not want to make the same journey as last time). I arrived at the hostel at 5:30am and, maybe a little naively, asked whether my room was ready yet. Of course it wasn't! It wouldn't be ready until 11am. I settled down on the sofa and looked around the communal area which really nicely decorated and air conditioned. It was big enough to accomadate people but small enough to encourage people to talk to eachother, I decided that I liked it.
I lay on the sofa and attempted to watch a film to keep myself occupied. Piece of advice: don't try to watch Interstellar on three hours sleep, NOTHING makes sense. When my room was finally ready I moved from the sofa to a very comfotable bed in a small dorm room and met my dorm mate Veronica from the USA. I napped until late afternoon then went downstairs, met lots of people in the communal area and decided to go out for some dinner as a group. I had Pad Thai (classic) and then we went to Khao San Road to experience some of the nightlife. It was overwhelming. Absolutely full of people drinking, buying, selling (everything from fried scorpians on a stick to fake IDs to traditional Thai hats), dancing and talking. After hearing so many horror stories about this area, I actually quite enjoyed the hustle and bustle and I think this was mostly down to the great group I was with.
During the rest of my time in Bangkok I enjoyed being in my hostel, with its air con and a really nice mix of people. On one of the days I visited the Grand Palace with some of them. Although the walk there was through stifling heat and the Palace was packed with tourists from all over the world, it was a really beautiful site. There were a number of very impressive buildings all decorated lavishly gold and multi coloured mirrored tiles. We walked from one to the other, stopping by the huge electric fans every so often to try and cool ourselves down until we were all too tired, hot and hungry to stay any longer.
I also explored the local market near my histel during my stay there and resisted buying a lot of little souveniry things (the kind of stuff that anyone who has been in my house will know that my bedroom is full of already). On my last full day in Bangkok Grant, a guy from south Africa that I had met in the hostel, and I went looking for a the best way to travel from Bangkok to Laos. I had decided a few days before that my reviewed plan was going to be to travel from the north of Laos to the south where it borders Cambodia in order to meet friends in Cambodia in early June. I had never planned to visit Laos, but from the things I had been hearing from other backpackers, it sounded like an interesting destination and just the sort of adventure I had been looking for. We walked down a road parralell to our hostel which had a number of travel agencies. The first one we went to couldn't offer us a train or coach ticket to Laos BUT was a company called Stray who sold package travel tickets. One route they offered us started in Chiang Mai, took us over the border into Laos, on a private two day cruise on the Mekong river with an overnight stay at a local riverside village, a stop in Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and finally Vientiane the capital where our ticket would expire. We could hop on and off the private mini bus at any of the stops and the ticket was valid for anything up to a year. It sounded amazing and I was convinced, even after we found out the price, which was undeniably more expensive than doing it with local transport. We quickly checked the prices for an overnight train to Chaing Mai and went back to book it. The idea of having a loose schedule, guides knowledge, private transport and meeting other travellers doing the same route sold it to me and I was extremely excited to start the trip. That evening we celebrated our last night in Bangkok with our hostel group, some ludicrously cheap cocktails and lots of dancing.
The next day I lazed around the hostel watching films until it was time to leave for the train station. Stephen, who stayed at the hostel, was travelling from the train station to travel down to Koh Tao (lucky bastard) also came with us. We parted ways on the platform and Grant and I went to find our compartment. We boarded and met an American couple from LA, Christie and Matt, who I spoke with until it was time to retire to my shakey top bunk. Despite the narrowness of the bed I slept surprisingly well and woke up in time to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery that we were travelling through.
When we arrived at Chaing Mai we jumped in a red taxi and were taken to our hostel where we met up with Isabel and Sydney, two girls who had also been staying in the Bangkok hostel. We went to a small restaurant for lunch and an incredible passion fruit shake then Grant, Isabel and I went for a Thai massage then jumped into the hostel pool (yes, the hostel had a pool!). Later on we met again with Christie and Matt and walked around the HUGE sunday night market which seemed to stretch for miles in every direction. I once again resisted buying anything, but certainly enjoyed window shopping!
The following day we were woken up in our studpidly hot dorm room by Tjeerd, a dutch guy who ALSO stayed at Suneta, walking into the room. Turned out he had been given a bed in the same dorm as us! The final bed in our dorm belonged to a Dutch girl called Suze and that day we all rented mopeds and travelled out of town to a tenple on the hill and the to a 'waterfall' which was more a trickle down a hill, but which we enjoyed anyway.
We wanted to go and get a(nother) massage, this time at the woman's prison, where the inmates were trained in traditional massage in order to give them a valuable skill that they could use when they got out. However, we got so lost in Chiang Mais one way roads and narrow streets that y the time we arrived there were no appointments left. We ended the day back at the pool with Sydney and Isabel to cool down and finally decided that we wanted to go and see a ladyboy show that evening (after my recommendation). We went as a group to the night bazaar and arrived just in time for the start of the show, which was just as entertaining as I remembered it to be.
The 5th was the set off date for the Stray tour bus, so after saying goodbye to people and Chiang Mai, Grant and I set off in the mini bus with a group and our enthusiatic, friendly Laos guide, La. We travelled north stopping at my final Thai destination, The White Temple. This temple was unlike any temple I have seen before. It was designed by a contemporary artist and, as well as much buddist symbolism, also offers pop references, such as a model Predator, Gollum amd Darth Vader. Yes, really. The building itself was absolutely stinning white, covered with huge numbers of mirrored tiles.
My favourite part though was the toilets. Probably the most over the top toilet block in the world, the building is a huge golden palace. Well, why not!
We continued travelling until we reached the border, purchased our visas and then took a tuk tuk to our first Laos guesthouse in a small town called Houay Xai. That evening La took us for dinner at a riverside restaurant where I sampled a Lao dish called Beef koi which was delicious and was happy to find out that Lao food is traditionally less spicy than in Thailand. I also tried Lao beer for the firsttime which was surprisingly nice for a cheap beer, and cyainly nicer than Chang beer in Thailand. I decided I was going to like it here. After dinner La invited us to try some Lao Lao whiskey too, blergh.
The heat in the village was almost unbearable so when we were given the opportunity to jump into the river we gladly accepted. We splashed around in the water for a couple of hours then watched as the sun set behind one of the distant jungle covered mountains.
That evening we were treated to an unforgettable experience. The chief of the village organised a blessing for us in one of the host houses. We waited patiently for the elders of the village to arrive, some of which looked close to 90 years old. We were ushered into a room and asked to sit on the floor in a circle around a centre piece covered in flowers and plates of food. The chief asked us all to place one hand on the centre piece and uttered a local blessing then passed round a shot of the distinctive flavoured Lao Lao whiskey, one for each of us. We were also given a small plate of food; sticky rice wrapped in a leaf and a banana. Once we had each had a shot the chief (translated by La) said that life has two legs so we must have two shots, to which we were all politely shocked and bravely forced another gulp of the whiskey down. We were then all asked to turn around to face the villagers as they moved around the circle and each tied one piece of cotton string around each of our wrists whilst speaking a blessing which we were told was basically wishing us luck for the future. The sounds of all these people speaking the blessing was unlike anything I have ever heard. After the ceremony we went down to the riverside and sat around the campfire listening to music and chatting under the stars.
My prediciton was pretty vague but Grants prediciton was spookily accurate. He had been applying and interviewing for a job in London and was waiting for the final decision to come through. His prediction was translated by La and said that he will be successful in work and will get the job he wants and that afternoon, when we had arrived at Luang Prabang with WiFi, he received an email offering him the job!
Luang Prabang is a beautiful, world hertitage site, town full of french colonial buildings, temples and great restaurants. Our hotel was cheap and surprisingly nice and I got a huge king sized bed all to myself! We relaxed that afternoon before La took us to a nearby restaurant called Lao Garden. Me and Robynne, a British girl in our group, decided to be daring and ordered a DIY bbq meal. The waiters then transformed the table into a bbq grill and arrived with copious amounts of meat and veg. We had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to do with all this food and ended up nearly choking everyone with smoke. We eventually got the hang of it and the food turned out to be pretty delicious. When dinner was finished we all walked through Luang Prabang to a bar until half of the group decided it was time for bed. The other half (including me of course) continued onto a local Lao nightclub. One word: surreal. We walked into the giant room and found a crowd of people all standing around small tables on the dancefloor. I felt like a giant in this room as I tower over most of the people there. We found a table and suppressed the desire to dance (well, almost suppressed it). When that bar closed La escorted us to the late night bowling alley which, in contrast to the nightclub, was full of falangs (foreigners). We played a hilarious game of bowling, which of course I lost, then piled into a tuk tuk back to the hotel.
To sooth our delicate heads the next day La had organised for us to visit the Kuang Si Waterfall, which was about 45minutes drive from Luang Prabang in a bumpy tuk tuk. When we arrived we paid our entrance fee and walked through a black bear conservation area where there were about 6 bears chilling out, some hanging in huge hammock type things, others wallowing in little pools. We learnt about the bears being used in medical experimentation or killed for the bile which is used in traditional medicines in SE Asia. When we made it to the waterfall my jaw nearly hit the ground. A large idyllic turquoise pool stretched out before us with a beautiful babbling little waterfall feeding into it. Paradise. On further inspection we found a path leading up to another incredible pool, and then another and another. We jumped into one of the pools from an overhanging tree and climbed carefully up the slippery waterfalls to find more and more pools.
At the very top of all these pools was the pièce de résistance, a giant waterfall cascading down the mountainside. There was a path that kead all the way up and up to the top where you could stand over the waterfall and enjoy the views of the surrounding farm land, jungle and mountains.
Unfortunately we were running low on time as our tuk tuk was scheduled to leave at 3pm so we begrudgingly walked back to the carpark and drove to the hotel. That evening we decided to sample the French cuisine at one of Luang Prabangs French restaurants. Our whole group came out for the dinner as the next day most of them would be jumping back into a minivan to continue their trip, only me, Grant, Robynne and a newly wedded couple Dave and Hayley would be staying in Luang Prabang. That night there was an amazing storm, with huge crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning that kept me up nearly all night.
This post has taken far too long for me to write, I apologise. And as I fall further and further behind, the more work I have to catch up on.... I hope you enjoyed reading it, I will try and get the next post out much quicker :)
Thanks for reading,
Emma x
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