Bangkok, Thailand

We have spent four days in Bangkok so far. We spent out last few days in Laos doing some trekking in Nam Ha National Park in northern Laos. We based ourselves in the small town of Luang Nam Tha and headed out for two days to see the national park and some of the ethnic minority villagers who live in the buffer zone.

It was really hot trekking. The first day wasn't too bad - we trekked for about 5 hours. We ended up in an Akha village where we stayed for the night. It was pretty basic accommodation - we were in a traditional style hut and we had a mattress, mosquito net and blanket on the floor. The hut had a thatched roof and I was glad that it didn't rain because I could see chinks of the sky through the roof. Our guide slept in the hut with us. When we first got to the village in the afternoon we went for a swim in the river. After that we had to shower under the tap in the middle of the village - quite an experience.

One of the ladies from the village cooked our dinner which was really nice. Throughout the whole trek we had so much sticky rice! But I didn't mine - I have developed quite a love for sticky rice which is ubiquitous all through Laos. At night some of the pot-bellied pigs from the village came to sleep in this dusty patch under our hut. There was one big one and four little ones and they were all squashed up in a line together, head to tail, head to tail. It was pretty cute - we could hear them grunting during the night.

The second day we headed through another few villages and then up through the national park on the way back to Luang Nam Tha. Unfortunately for Paul we didn't spot any tigers. Actually, although the national park is supposed to be full of animals we didn't see anything except birds. That probably isn't so surprising considering the amount of noise we were making and the fact that the villagers eat anything that wanders into the buffer zone.

Luang Nam Tha is quite well known for its ecotourism into the national park. We picked a trekking program with the national park office and it was very good. You can see how all the money is spent. Part of it goes to the guide and the tuk-tuk driver, the majority of the rest goes to the villages that we passed through, the local guides who guided us part of the way on both days, the people who cook and carry our food and the village where we spent the night.

After Luang Nam Tha we headed to Huay Xai where we crossed the Mekong into Thailand, having picked up our Thai visa (for free - yay!) in Vientiane. We took a mini bus from the Thai side of the border to Chiang Mai where we spent a few days. It seemed like we spent most of our time in Chiang Mai shopping - there's a market for almost every day of the week. The Saturday and Sunday markets were my favourites - they were huge and stretched out for kilometres through the old city.

Being on a budget, we hired bikes one day and biked out to the museum. It was quite an adventure navigating the old city's one way streets on the bike and then heading out on the "superhighway" to get to the museum. It was so hot that day we were disappointed that the museum didn't have air con. To make up for it we stopped in a shopping centre on the way back to town to cool down.

Bangkok is ok but it is quite expensive, hot and huge! Because of our budget we have to take the bus everywhere and it is quite confusing! The other day it took us three hours to get to the Chinese embassy only to find out that it only processes visa applications in the morning! Aaaargh! Oh well, that's travelling I guess....

Luang Prabang, Laos

We got to Luang Prabang safe and sound. It is a World Heritage Listed site and is full of wats. We visited the Royal Palace Museum and some of the oldest wats (Wat Visoun and Wat Xieng Thong) in Laos. Wat Visoun was built in 1516 and Wat Xieng Thong was built in 1560. Wat Xieng Thong is still in good condition as it was regularly used by the royal family until the last century, whereas the original Wat Visoun was burnt down a few times in the course of history.

The temples themselves were pretty amazing with all the delicate wooden carvings and murals on the walls. Together with the sight of devout saffron clad monks walking around in the complex, the experience for me was just surreal.

The town centre itself is full of colonial French style buildings which are now converted to shops. The main road was surprisingly quiet in the day, but then it transformed into a busy night market from around 7pm which had stalls of handicrafts, tribal weavings, and thousands of souveniors for tourists. You could also eat at the night market. A couple of nights during our stay, we had vegetarian buffet for 5,000 Kip (A$1) then bought take-away barbequed pork ribs, chicken fillets, fruit shakes and fruits etc. It was so cheap. The whole dinner only cost us like A$3.50.

We bumped into the Austrian girls that we met in Vang Vieng about half a dozen times while we were in town. I will not be surprised if I see them in Luang Nam Tha as well (next stop). It is a small world here. As we are on the main backpackers' route, we will probably see a lot of familiar faces all the way to Thailand.

I also spent a day doing elephant riding, washing and training in one of the elephant sanctuaries. Although it was a bit steep in price (US$50), it was the best day ever. These animals are the gentlest things. Each weighed probably around a tonne or more, but you could not hear them walking. I was really scared of them when I was riding them. I didn't really want to direct them just in case they got angry and tossed me off their head.

It was also very scary riding them to the river to wash them. My elephant wanted to enjoy a swim of her own and totally ignored me when I was trying to brush her. Frankly I don't think the brush I was given had any real effect on her. Her skin was really thick and her hair was probably stronger than the brush hair. The elephant went away from the herd and was deep in the water. Both myself and the mahout were getting bit worried as her whole head was submerged in water and only her trunk was above the water. The mahout who was sitting at the back changed with me and was directing the elephant from the head to bring all of us to safety. When he was in charge of the elephant, the elephant got back to the rest of the group in less than 10 seconds. It felt like a tank moving when she swam back to the herd.

I also did a half day to Kuang Si Waterfall. It was a cascading waterfall in the rainforest. It was quite famous for its blue colour water. The trekking would have been nice in the forest if it wasn't full of leeches. A couple of people in the group had leech attacks and one lady apparently didn't find out that she was bitten until she had shower that night. I think it put her off trekking for the rest of her trip. Naomi couldn't come to either the waterfall or the elephant park as she as too poor after buying too much weaving.

Oh, it is such a pity that the town did not have a sports bar. As State of Origin was on while we were in Luang Prabang, it took me pretty much the whole day to find a bar that showed the game. I am really glad that I watched it though. What an awesome game with a great result for Queensland. I even taught a few locals how to boo the Blues and told them that they had lost 3 years in a row as they can't play football.

I am surprised that there weren't many bars at all in such a touristy place. In Vang Vieng, the whole town was littered with bars and pubs. If only they had a quarter of the bars..... Angus, you don't need to come to this town mate.

Oh, I spent a few hours one afternoon volunteering in the 'My Library' project. It is part of the Stay Another Day campaign which is a non-profit campaign aimed at getting travellers to help out on various projects in Laos and also to promote the Lao culture to the world. 'My Library' is pretty much a library for Laos students (from primary school to college) to come and hang out and read books. They also have free computers for students to learn and play on.

I initially was instructed to help some students out with Microsoft Excel. It was super embarrassing when I couldn't answer the first question they asked me which was how to type in Laos language in Excel. Other questions I managed to answer ok with the assistance of the Help function. I then spent the next hour doing something that I am pretty good at – talking!

Vientiane to Vang Vieng, Laos

Bus-ride from Hanoi to Vientiane

It is true that the bus ride from Hanoi to Vientiane was hellish. I don't think I had ever endured a bus ride as bad as it was, especially as it went for 21 hours. I think the bus ride brought all the backpackers together against the bus driver & co. We even agreed that if some of us got asked to pay for a higher price along the way at the risk of being dumped, we would all get off the bus and create a big scene. Fortunately we never got to that.

I think it was the first time that foreigners got treated unfairly during my travels. It is one thing having to pay higher prices for everything, it is another thing to be treated like animals and get sent to the back of the bus where most of the cargo was. I hope the poor American girl that got ass-slapped did end up complaining to the Vietnamese Tourism Bureau.

After a sleepless night, I just couldn't care about the bus ride anymore. I just wanted to get out of the bus ASAP and not see the bus or the bus drivers anymore.

Vientiane

I have been very pleasantly surprised by the landscape and scenery of Laos. Despite its proximity to Vietnam and Cambodia, it's completely different – yep, “same same, but different” as locals would put it.

Whereas Cambodia is flat and Vietnam is known for its coastline and its dense population, Laos is a mountainous country (at least here in the North) and it is very laid back. When we got to Vientiane (capital city), we were surprised how much of a small country town atmosphere it had. Traffic was light, high-rises were absent, and people were nice.

We were there for 3 full days. We checked out a couple of ancient wats (temples), some of Laos' national monuments (Patuxai, Pha That Luang etc), rode bicycles around town and yes, did some shopping for Naomi's sake. I also checked out the Laos National Museum myself while Naomi went to the weaving centre. The museum was actually very well organised. Compared to the museums in Cambodia and Vietnam, it had a much better collection of the artifacts and detailed description of Laos' history from pre-historic times to the present day.

One distinctive thing about Laos that I have particularly noticed is that no one uses horns here. It's quite amazing compare to Cambodia and Vietnam where everyone is beeping nonstop around the clock which drove me crazy! They even beeped when there was literally no one on the road just so that people don't run into them at midnight???

I picked up the bad habit in the first couple of hours of my bike ride in Vientiane and couldn't stop using the bell to warn trucks and buses that I was there. I then realised that no one actually used horns and I was getting a few stares...

We had some pre-dinner drinks on the bank of Mekong one night and ate at the night market. It was very beautiful and relaxing watching the sunset over the Mekong in Laos. Where we were, you could literally see Thailand just on the other side of the river. The food at the night market was also very delicious. We bought half a duck, some local sausage balls, roast pork, vegetables, a grilled half a chicken and dessert. Naomi unfortunately got a funny tummy the next day...

Vang Vieng

Welcome to party central!!!!

We arrived at Vang Vieng on Saturday. Vang Vieng is around 150km north of Vientiane. It is the adventure capital of Laos. It is like a mini-Queenstown in NZ. It is surrounded by gorgeous mountains, steep karsts, fast-flowing rivers and there are heaps of adventure activities to do.
We spent one day kayaking down the Nam (River) Song. It was awesome kayaking between big mountains and these sheer karsts. We stopped at a couple of limestone caves (Water cave and Elephant cave) for tubing and lunch.

At the Water cave, we were given tubes (massive rubber floating circles) and mini car-battery powered headlights and were told to swim inside this tiny cave with an entrance that was no more than 40cm high and 1m wide. It was one hell of an experience and definitely not for the claustrophobic guys! Once we got into the cave, there were ropes that we could pull to move forward. You could move forward on your tube by pulling the rope – because it was rainy season we only went about 100 metres into the cave.

It was very eerie and windy in there. As I was the last one to go in, at one stage, I could not see anyone in front of me nor behind me in the cave that was now pitch black. I nearly died when I remembered scenes in those scary movies about people falling behind in rivers or caves and getting eaten by crocodiles or weird animals in the water/cave. Great time for such thoughts!
The water in the cave was quite deep and COLD. I am not sure how Naomi survived the water because even I found it quite chilly.

After lunch, it was when the fun began. We kayaked some 20km down the river. It was all very nice when the fast-flowing river was carrying us down the valley. Until we had too much fun in the rapids!

We tackled a few small rapids alright. When we hit our first big rapid, we thought it would be okay too. Five seconds later, we were both in the water with a capsized kayak! Naomi, who never really liked water and kayaking, started screaming at me frantically. I think even the tigers and the leopards in the mountain were scared by the screams. After a few struggling moments in the river, we eventually, with some help from the guide, got up on the kayak.

Good times never lasts long. Three minutes later, we were down again. This time the water really was flowing too fast for us even to get up on the boat. Whilst Naomi was screaming at me again at the top of her lungs, we were hanging onto the kayak and our oars the best we could manage. At some point in the water, I could even touch the bottom of the river. But the current was too strong for me to hold onto my footing and grab the kayak in the same time!

At one point, it looked like the kayak was going to hit the bank which would have been easier for us to turn the kayak over and for Naomi to jump on. But the guides were already hold the kayaks for us. After I successfully turned the boat over and jumped on, the guide helped Naomi onto the boat. Maybe with a little frustration, she rocked the boat so hard when she was climbing back up and I fell back into the water for the third time! Lucky me got to go for another swim.
After that, Naomi refused to talk to me again until we got to the bar islands. It really wasn't as bad as it seemed. We were wearing life jackets and were protected with helmets and there were not many hindrances in the water.

[I would just like to add the following points to clarify the truth of what happened:

1. The tour company never warned me beforehand that there would be rapids involved with the kayaking. If I knew that there were going to be rapids I would DEFINITELY not agreed to go. I asked them whether it was dangerous to go kayaking during rainy season and they said no. I knew from my experience kayaking in Halong Bay that I did not want to do any kayaking where there was any turbulence or any kind of possibility of falling in the water.

2. I asked Paul before we started kayaking whether he was confident to sit in the back of the boat and he said yes. He assured me that he knew how to steer the boat and wouldn't tip us out. It was essentially up to him to steer the kayak through the rapids as I couldn't really do anything from the front position. The only reason we fell out is that we kept getting side-on to the rapids – NOT a good way to stay in the kayak. Since no one else in the group fell out of the boat it can't have been that difficult to get through the rapids IF you were facing the right way. I'm not saying that I could have done a better job.....really....

3. The water in the river was very high. It was rainy season after all. The water was all brown and had heaps of weird currents which I could only assume were coming from hidden obstructions under the water. There were also trees sticking up now and then from the middle of the river. It was like the type of river that you are always warned not to go swimming in – you know, the ones that kids go swimming in when it floods and then get swept to their deaths. I just knew that if I fell off the boat it was only a matter of time before I was trapped in an underwater obstruction and drowned. How would a life jacket and helmet help me then, huh????? Ok, so there were some kids swimming in the river but they were at the edge, in the shallows. The river was literally about 100 metres wide!

4. I did not deliberately tip Paul off the kayak. I was merely focused on getting away from the hidden obstructions under the water. I wasn't paying any attention to what he was doing as I was in a blind panic. I will admit that I could possibly have been heard to shout “I am never paddling with you again!” but I swear it was just coincidence if it occurred at the same time as he fell off the kayak. - N].

My reply to the above. Firstly, the tour company did warn us that there were going to be rapids. I think Naomi was a little distracted by the handicrafts and weaving nearby to pay too much attention. Secondly, it would be helpful if only one person (read: me) steer, not both steer in different directions. Thirdly, the water in the river was not really high if I could touch the bottom...

Tubing is really big in Vang Vieng. Nearly every backpacker hires a tractor tire inner tube, gets driven 3km up the river and floats back to town. To cater to the tuber's thirst, there are heaps of makeshift bars along the side of the river. I thought I'd arrived in Cancun when we kayaked round a bend in the river and suddenly heard thumping music playing from speakers in these bars which were packed with backpackers drinking beers and going on the water-slides and flying foxes. It was WILD! I did the water-slides and the flying fox. It was quite fun actually. Angus – this would be somewhere to come to if you are serious about your partying!

[Some of the tubers are really feral though. They drink all day and get back to town and stumble down the streets in their bikinis covered in mud and basically making fools of themselves and offending the locals. It's ok to have a bit of fun, which most of the tourists do, but some of them just don't have any respect. In the end we didn't do the tubing for this reason, and because the bit of the river where you do the tubing is nowhere near as pretty as the bits that we had already kayaked – N].

I just had 1 drink just in case that someone had to handle more of those rapids down stream back to town.

The rest of the trip was beautiful but uneventful. We went through some minor rapids smoothly. I think my encouragement to Naomi did eventually calm her down a bit with these rapids.
We met 2 nice Austrian girls during the trip. We caught up for dinner/drinks that night and swapped contact details. I think one of them is coming to Australia next year for a few months.

We were very sore the next day but spent the day biking though farming villages and rice fields. We also visited a cave that was like 7km from Vang Vieng town. The ride in the middle of the day was hot, but the scenery was quite rewarding. The villagers are really lucky to be living in such a beautiful place with so many stunning karsts and clean rivers all in their backyard.
At the moment we are on a snail VIP bus to Luang Prabang now. The trip is going to take 7 hours for a total of 180km. Amazing. No one around me is throwing up yet from the windy road which is good. The highlands are so beautiful.

I know I have only been in Laos for less than 1 week but I am loving it so far. It's such a relaxing and pretty country. No one really hassles you to buy stuff. In fact, you have to go and find waiters in the restaurant to bring you a menu or a drink. During our bike ride yesterday, we stopped by a corner store in a village to buy water. I couldn't initially find the shop keeper, then realised that he was asleep down the back of the glass case. After having some difficulty in waking him up, I just grabbed the water and put a 2000 kip note on the table and left.

Just for those who enjoy a bit of side-gossiping

Rumour – the Belgian couple we met in Vietnam told us that Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Cljisters broke up because Lleyton had an affair with Kim's mum. Apparently the rumour came from inside the Tennis Federation in Belgium.....

[They assured us that Kim's mum was a “hot mum” - frankly I have difficulty understanding how either Kim OR her “hot” mum would want a piece of Lleyton! - N].