Vientiane
Waking earlish we got the through the boder over the Friendship Bridge without any hastle- very easy! In fact, we had been told we needed exact dollars which we didn't have so we thought we'd have to pay the higher Baht price but they easily changed my $100 to our relief. On the longer TukTuk ride at the Laos side we met a man who hadn't spoked to a Western woman for over a year. He had moved 10 years ago to Tailand with his son. His son now speaks English, Chinese, Thai and Laos- all of which without an accent! Very impressive! Arriving in Vientiene we found quite a good guesthouse and wandered to the bowling alley!! Here it was real old-school bowling, old computer screens that you type your name into... it was like being back when I was 8 years old again! We had a great time but discovered neither of us are particularly good at bowling without bumpers! Then we headed to some food and had a couple of Beer Laos- this does not sit well!
14/02/2011- Valentines Day
I was rudely awoken by Shav throwing a card into my face which was from John- so organised sending it before she left! So very happy start to the day. We hired bikes and cycled around town. We headed to the VISA office for Vietnam first thing. Bit of a mission but we eventually found it. As we were early there was hardly anyone there. We charmed the guy into giving us a visa that day so we got one immediately having been told we'd have to wait 2 days. We luckily cycled past the Patuxai, Laos Cultural Hall and the That Dam on route. Now quite excited we went to see their That Luang. This is the national symbol of Laos- its a big gold stupa. Quite interesting but was a little underwhelming after Angkor Wat and Bankgok. I did try some sort of local dish though, it was like mini very sweet pancakes with syrup and with savory chives etc in them. Very tasty. We also saw some sort of cultural dance that was being filmed! We decided to get massages. We both got a Laos massage- way better than both my Thai and Oil massage- they properly stretched you and pushed those knots out. Being quite hungry we thought we'd head for a fancy valentines meal, having embarrasingly left one place due to the price we picked up 2 margaritas in happy hour then headed for food. Unfortunately for Shav, first her margarita pizza cam plastered with Thai basil- basically anacede tasting- yak! Then her 'vegetable noodles' had beef in them!
Vang Vieng
The next day we headed off on the local bus- not too comfy but very cheap- to Vang Vieng. This is where the famous 'Tubing' is. Luckily we found a really cheap hostel for the area run by a family, they didn't even have a recpetion area or anything. STUNNING place, these pointed kind of mountain formations everywhere with the Mekong going through. on arrival day we watched a lot of Friends. This along with Family Guy and South Park are played constantly in all bars with lay down cushion sits- very nice. Tubing was great fun though we weren't on the tube for long. Having met, very randomly, two girls from Wolthamstow (Shavs home arear). Meredith was life long friends with Shavs best friend from home. They knew of each other but had never met! Strange! With these girls we drank quite a few 'buckets' and Beer Laos along the river. We met some awesome people, did a lot of PENCIL ROLLS and had the best time. Spaghetti Carbonara! We even went out that night like the crazy cats we are and I danced a lot whilst the girls met some Australians and an Irish. Next morning we felt the effects of the M150- the Asian version of Red Bull, though I think it has something other than caffeine in as no sleep was had what so ever. Deciding not to tube again we just took it a little easier and the girls all walked whilst I decided I wanted to swim the river, unfortunately it was not wet season so I hit a few rocks on the way... still fun though! A few more pencil rolls later we watched everyone (mainly guys) just off the crazy swings and zip wires into the river- which is quite shallow in a lot of places- a few people whilst we were there had a few injuries, luckily we didn't see anything nasty though. Dangerous sport. We had a much more laid back third night.
The next day we got the bus early with April and Meredith. This was a small minibus with 13 people in it. We were quite lucky as our driver was relatively sensible but we were dangerously close to other trucks and buses as some points. Maniac drivers. The drive is around 7 hours winding through the mountains of Laos only seeing the smallest of town and villages that literally live along the road side. The rest of the land is unspoiled the whole way! AMAZING! The ride itself was a little stressful as the road was an interesting surface and you could never relax into your seat. The back row often flew up and smacked their heads on the roof. En-route I did get to try a Tamarin- I didn't enjoy it as it tastes a a more sticky sweet prune.
Luang Prabang
Arriving in Luang Prabang we all had to get on a tuk-tuk and the wheel burst. After switching tuktuks and getting totown we walked around for probably about an hour asking various hostel prices- $25, $100, $20! Knackered with our bags I asked a random tourist in the street that looked quite young where the cheap hostels were. He walked us there whilst the heavens opened on us. The cheap hostel was great, we had quite a few mossys the girls had a dusty blower but there's always compromise. We ate a fantastic meal along the river side, I had more Thai Green Curry- again the Mekong- we may as well have tubed the whole way and avoided the horrible bus ride!
The next day we headed to the waterfall- CRAZY tuk-tuk driver, very moody and decided he had to drive faster and overtake every other vehicle on the road- pretty scary. We didn't know before but we also saw a bear park- sun bears! SO cute!!! Rolling around in their hammocks and getting food out of balls. This was a bear conservation camp as they are hunted for their pile and parts for Chinese medicines. :( The waterfall though was stunning, it looked fake as the water was too blue and the rocks were all perfectly placed. Incredible. We decided to do the practically vertical climb to the top (in flip-flops- big mistake) but there was basically no view at the top, bit of a disappointment so clambered down on our bums and practically crawling. Now, we were hot so swam in the waterfall. So nice. Playing Yanif passed the time. Back to town with out mad tuk-tuk driver (:s) we found our favourite restaurant- Laos Laos Gardens. The girls found the best veggie burgewr (apparently) and I had some amazing Red Laos Curry (with coconut milk) and I also tried Buffalo Laap with sticky rice the next night. Breakfast was great too!!! The waiter knew us by the end. They also gave 2-4-1 cocktails!!. We went to the night market which had some lovely things in it and to a local pool as the girls hadn't seen sun yet really!
After hearing complete horror stories from everyone who knew people to have done the Luang Prabang to Hanoi bus ride I decided to pay for the flight with Siobhan. This also took 1 hour as opposed to 30! The Luang Probang airport is the smallest I've ever been too- but iobhan assures me there are smaller. The check in was all manual and the security was this one pretty old x-ray machine. A man beeped constantly at every part of his body and they let him through. I got through with my big opened bottle of water as well. Crazy. We'd been told there was an airport tax but there it was actually included in our ticket so we bought some rubbish food to use some of our remainder Kip.
Waking earlish we got the through the boder over the Friendship Bridge without any hastle- very easy! In fact, we had been told we needed exact dollars which we didn't have so we thought we'd have to pay the higher Baht price but they easily changed my $100 to our relief. On the longer TukTuk ride at the Laos side we met a man who hadn't spoked to a Western woman for over a year. He had moved 10 years ago to Tailand with his son. His son now speaks English, Chinese, Thai and Laos- all of which without an accent! Very impressive! Arriving in Vientiene we found quite a good guesthouse and wandered to the bowling alley!! Here it was real old-school bowling, old computer screens that you type your name into... it was like being back when I was 8 years old again! We had a great time but discovered neither of us are particularly good at bowling without bumpers! Then we headed to some food and had a couple of Beer Laos- this does not sit well!
14/02/2011- Valentines Day
I was rudely awoken by Shav throwing a card into my face which was from John- so organised sending it before she left! So very happy start to the day. We hired bikes and cycled around town. We headed to the VISA office for Vietnam first thing. Bit of a mission but we eventually found it. As we were early there was hardly anyone there. We charmed the guy into giving us a visa that day so we got one immediately having been told we'd have to wait 2 days. We luckily cycled past the Patuxai, Laos Cultural Hall and the That Dam on route. Now quite excited we went to see their That Luang. This is the national symbol of Laos- its a big gold stupa. Quite interesting but was a little underwhelming after Angkor Wat and Bankgok. I did try some sort of local dish though, it was like mini very sweet pancakes with syrup and with savory chives etc in them. Very tasty. We also saw some sort of cultural dance that was being filmed! We decided to get massages. We both got a Laos massage- way better than both my Thai and Oil massage- they properly stretched you and pushed those knots out. Being quite hungry we thought we'd head for a fancy valentines meal, having embarrasingly left one place due to the price we picked up 2 margaritas in happy hour then headed for food. Unfortunately for Shav, first her margarita pizza cam plastered with Thai basil- basically anacede tasting- yak! Then her 'vegetable noodles' had beef in them!
Vang Vieng
The next day we headed off on the local bus- not too comfy but very cheap- to Vang Vieng. This is where the famous 'Tubing' is. Luckily we found a really cheap hostel for the area run by a family, they didn't even have a recpetion area or anything. STUNNING place, these pointed kind of mountain formations everywhere with the Mekong going through. on arrival day we watched a lot of Friends. This along with Family Guy and South Park are played constantly in all bars with lay down cushion sits- very nice. Tubing was great fun though we weren't on the tube for long. Having met, very randomly, two girls from Wolthamstow (Shavs home arear). Meredith was life long friends with Shavs best friend from home. They knew of each other but had never met! Strange! With these girls we drank quite a few 'buckets' and Beer Laos along the river. We met some awesome people, did a lot of PENCIL ROLLS and had the best time. Spaghetti Carbonara! We even went out that night like the crazy cats we are and I danced a lot whilst the girls met some Australians and an Irish. Next morning we felt the effects of the M150- the Asian version of Red Bull, though I think it has something other than caffeine in as no sleep was had what so ever. Deciding not to tube again we just took it a little easier and the girls all walked whilst I decided I wanted to swim the river, unfortunately it was not wet season so I hit a few rocks on the way... still fun though! A few more pencil rolls later we watched everyone (mainly guys) just off the crazy swings and zip wires into the river- which is quite shallow in a lot of places- a few people whilst we were there had a few injuries, luckily we didn't see anything nasty though. Dangerous sport. We had a much more laid back third night.
The next day we got the bus early with April and Meredith. This was a small minibus with 13 people in it. We were quite lucky as our driver was relatively sensible but we were dangerously close to other trucks and buses as some points. Maniac drivers. The drive is around 7 hours winding through the mountains of Laos only seeing the smallest of town and villages that literally live along the road side. The rest of the land is unspoiled the whole way! AMAZING! The ride itself was a little stressful as the road was an interesting surface and you could never relax into your seat. The back row often flew up and smacked their heads on the roof. En-route I did get to try a Tamarin- I didn't enjoy it as it tastes a a more sticky sweet prune.
Luang Prabang
Arriving in Luang Prabang we all had to get on a tuk-tuk and the wheel burst. After switching tuktuks and getting totown we walked around for probably about an hour asking various hostel prices- $25, $100, $20! Knackered with our bags I asked a random tourist in the street that looked quite young where the cheap hostels were. He walked us there whilst the heavens opened on us. The cheap hostel was great, we had quite a few mossys the girls had a dusty blower but there's always compromise. We ate a fantastic meal along the river side, I had more Thai Green Curry- again the Mekong- we may as well have tubed the whole way and avoided the horrible bus ride!
The next day we headed to the waterfall- CRAZY tuk-tuk driver, very moody and decided he had to drive faster and overtake every other vehicle on the road- pretty scary. We didn't know before but we also saw a bear park- sun bears! SO cute!!! Rolling around in their hammocks and getting food out of balls. This was a bear conservation camp as they are hunted for their pile and parts for Chinese medicines. :( The waterfall though was stunning, it looked fake as the water was too blue and the rocks were all perfectly placed. Incredible. We decided to do the practically vertical climb to the top (in flip-flops- big mistake) but there was basically no view at the top, bit of a disappointment so clambered down on our bums and practically crawling. Now, we were hot so swam in the waterfall. So nice. Playing Yanif passed the time. Back to town with out mad tuk-tuk driver (:s) we found our favourite restaurant- Laos Laos Gardens. The girls found the best veggie burgewr (apparently) and I had some amazing Red Laos Curry (with coconut milk) and I also tried Buffalo Laap with sticky rice the next night. Breakfast was great too!!! The waiter knew us by the end. They also gave 2-4-1 cocktails!!. We went to the night market which had some lovely things in it and to a local pool as the girls hadn't seen sun yet really!
After hearing complete horror stories from everyone who knew people to have done the Luang Prabang to Hanoi bus ride I decided to pay for the flight with Siobhan. This also took 1 hour as opposed to 30! The Luang Probang airport is the smallest I've ever been too- but iobhan assures me there are smaller. The check in was all manual and the security was this one pretty old x-ray machine. A man beeped constantly at every part of his body and they let him through. I got through with my big opened bottle of water as well. Crazy. We'd been told there was an airport tax but there it was actually included in our ticket so we bought some rubbish food to use some of our remainder Kip.
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