LAOS

Chiang Kong - Thai Border
From Chiang Mai we headed for the next country of Laos. This was going to end up taking us a total of three days to get to our next stop of Luang Prabang which used to be the capital city before Ventianne. The first leg of our journey was a mini-van to the Thai/ Laos border which took around 4 hours (including stopping at the tour office to get the paperwork started for our LAOS VISAS). We reached the sleepy border town of Chiang Kong and checked into our humble abodes for the night on the banks of the Mekong River. In our van was the two Irish lads - Paul and Phil (who were on the one day trek with us) a guy from England named Lee and a lovely Australian couple Paula and Ken. We all got on like a house on fire and ended up banding together for the next week of our trip. We had a couple of cool beers with the people from our van outside our rooms and then went for a walk through the town to have a look around a bit. Livi had another massage and then we all had dinner together (which was part of the package we had bought) and hit the sack.

Huay Xai - Laos Border
Early the next morning we went to the border after getting our passports back with our Laos VISAS in them and caught a longtail boat across the Mekong from Thailand to Huay Xai in Laos. On the other side we went through the border control and then were taken to the 'SLOW BOAT' which would be taking us down the river to Luang Prabang. It was by no means the most comfortable of trips sitting on wooden benches with thin cushions on them, especially as day one of the trip took almost 7 and a half hours. The 'SLOW BOAT' is aptly named not only because it travels rather slowly down the river but it stops all the time to either pick up more locals or for villagers to be able to try and sell things to the passengers.The scenery along the way was nothing short of spectacular as we passed many villages and rolling hills covered in jungle. The Mekong is definitely 'MIGHTY' to say the least. There are rocks and whirlpools and strong currents that buffered the boat as we travelled and made it even more of an adventure.
Pak Beng
We arrived in Pak Beng where we stayed the night. For dinner both Livi and I tried water buffalo. She had it in a curry and I had it in a stroganoff type dish. It was absolutely delicious!
This remote little town out in the middle of nowhere only has power from generators so the power at our guesthouse went off at 10.30pm which meant a very hot and sticky night.
The next day the 'SLOW BOAT' took us the rest of the way to Luang Prabang. There was more beautiful scenery and lots of time consuming stops too. It was an incredibly hot day and we were all glad to get to the other end.

Luang Prabang
We were all relieved to finally be off the boat and then came the tedious task of finding somewhere to stay. Livi, Lee, the Irish boys and I found a really nice guesthouse that was pretty much brand new and most important of all CLEAN! The only problem was - there was no electricity in the whole city as there were some major repairs going on somewhere. This didn't help matters as it was hideously hot and the water in our shower was barely a trickle (as it was fed with an ELECTRIC PUMP) so getting clean and refreshed was near on impossible. Liv and I went into the the little township worried that it could be yet another STICKY night without a fan and went to a nice restaraunt in town where we had PIZZA by candlelight. About half way through our meal the power came back on and there was a mighty cheer from not only all the people in the restaraunt, but all the people in the street too!

The next day our little group all headed out to the Kouang Si waterfalls that are top on the to do list in Luang Prabang. We got a pickup truck tuk-tuk to the falls which are about 35kms out of the city. Of all the falls that we had visited so far these were by far the most impressive and beautiful. The water comes from Limestone springs and is an amazing aqua-marine colour. There are a number of smaller pools that you come across as you make your way up the main falls that people swim in and picnic around. The main falls were breathtaking. We had worked a little bit of a sweat getting there so we all ignored the strategically placed sign that said 'DANGER NO SWIMMING HERE' and headed straight in. The water was wonderfully refreshing and we all had a great time swimming there (yes Perry and Brent - I did some staples on your behalfs) and taking photos.
Liv and I then went on a bit of a hike up a track on the left hand side of the falls which eventually took us to the very top to a swamp that looked like something out of Lord of The Rings. You could see for miles up there and the view over the falls was awe inspiring. We then climbed down to the top tier of the falls where there was an enchanting pool surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of falls. You could swim up to the edge of the pool and look out over the edge to the waterfalls below - it was awesome! To get down from here we had to climb down another small waterfall to get back to the track which turned out to be pretty easy as the rocks weren't slippery at all.

That night we went out for dinner with Paul, Phil and Lee and had a couple of beers at a local bar called the Hive while playing GRASS. The bars close at midnight and if you want to kick on here you have to go the local bowling alley. All the tuk tuk and moto drivers are waiting on the road and harass you to go bowling - so of course we did. Liv, Paul, Phil, Lee and I had a laugh bowling and met some more Kiwis from Christchurch and many other people from all over the world. When the place closed we went out to the carpark which was once again full of tuk tuk and moto drivers begging for our custom. The one that we ended taking started out with about 7 people in it. However a couple of minutes down the road and he decided to pick up another dozen or so. There were people hanging off this thing left, right and centre. It was quite a funny way to end the night.
The next day was spent lazing around and sorting out transport to our next port of call.....

Vang Vien
Lee, the Irish lads and Livi and I caught and early mini van from Luang Prabang and set out for the 'TUBING' (will become more clear what this is soon) capital of the world Vang Vien. The journey took us through incredibly winding roads over amazing hills and almost mountain like countryside. We passed many a local village on the way and it was truly an eye opener to see the conditions that most of them lived in and yet seemed so content going about their day to day business. About half way there we stopped for lunch and got a heck of surprise to see two guys barely into their 20's with AK 47s slung over their shoulders. They stood there smoking their cigarettes quite oblivious to the fact that our whole mini-bus was freaked out by it all.

With lunch out of the way we continued on and reached our desitnation in the late afternoon. After trekking around doing what we have now dubbed "the backpacker shuffle" looking for a place to stay within our budget, the boys and us found a place and then went for swim in a tributary of the Namkong river that our balconies overlooked to cool off. The water was beautiful and cool and we all got very excited about what lay ahead for us the next day. This was the view from our balcony:

Vang Vieng is a strange sort of place that many a backpacker has wound up staying for weeks after originally only planning a couple of days. There isn't much too it but a whole lot of guesthouses around a main town centre with lots of restaurants and bars to cater for the tourists. The weirdest part about the whole place is that unlike other tourist meccas like the Thai and Malaysian islands where the restaurants typically play the latest pirated DVD movies - in Vang Vien they seemed obsessed with only playing re-runs of Friends and in the odd place 'The Simpsons'. I don't know who told them that these are the shows that backpackers want to watch when eating breakfast, lunch and dinner but they all seemed to have listened to that same wise man??
Day two saw us all sign up to do what most Westeners come to Vang Vien to do 'TUBING'. The name is pretty much self explanatory. You hire a big inner tube and then everyone loads into tuktuks piled high with people and tubes and they take you about 5kms or so up the Namkong river. The driver drops everyone off and you grab your tube and jump on it and simply float down the Namkong. Now I know that a lot of you back home will be saying - well how is that any different from doing the same thing on any river at home? Well firstly it was about 35 degrees that day so that water was extremely refreshing. Secondly dotted along the shores of the river are all these bars. What happens is that as you float down you can paddle yourself over to get close to the banks and then someone will stick out a long bamboo pole and pull you over to their bar which is more or less a bamboo platform built onto the bank. Each bar either has a flying fox or huge swing at it also and so the idea goes that you buy a Beer Lao and then have a crack at the zip line or the swing. Every bar also offers free shots of a locally made whiskey called 'Laolao' which is incredibly potent. After having our first free one at the first bar we went to we all decided that even that was one too many!

We had the most amazing day. We met people from all over the world including a contingent frome home and had an absolute blast on the swings and flying foxes too. Part the way down the river we got to one bar where we had planned to stop for a beer when the winds began to howl and the heavens opened up. Man it was as torrential a downpour as you are ever likely to see. Instead of dampening everyones spirits it had the oppposite effect and once the rain had died down the crowd hit the river and floated down through a series of rapids to the main bar on the trip. It had the second to largest swing and a volleyball court as well. While Livi watched and took some amazing photos the boys and I were like little kids on that swing and Paul took control of what was a very competitive game of volleyball from all reports.

The day ended with us all being a little on the tipsy side and in total darkness. Livi and I got seperated from the rest of our group and when we finally dragged ourselves from the river she lost her tube and it floated off down the river in the darkness. Luckily the guys at the tubing place thought she was a bit of a dish so they let her off for the indiscretion saying that it happens all the time and not to worry about it. The funny thing was that Paul lost his tube also and they charged him an extra $7.00 US!

The new day dawned and Livi and I decided that unfortunately we would finally have to part ways with our mates and move on. The last week or so travelling with those guys was so much fun and it was kind of hard to say goodbye but we made our farewells and caught the supposed VIP Bus to the capital Ventianne.

Ventianne
We spent one night in the capital and had a lovely Indian meal which was right up there with the meal that we had in Penang almost two months ago. The next day we caught the overnight train back to Bangkok where we spent one more night before setting off on the next stage of our trip.

Arohanui
Livi and Tama xx

CHIANG MAI

From the mass of tuk-tuks and smog we headed north on our first overnight sleeper train for the southern capital of Chang Mai. I was not too impressed to say the least when we got on the train and saw our seats (which incidentally become your bed) and the ceiling fan that was to keep us cool. Anyhow once we were into the journey it proved immeasurably better than travelling by bus. The guard put up a table for us and we played some more GRASS and read our books over a couple of Singhas. This journey was to end up taking 15 hours or so and around 7.30 - 8.00pm the guard swept through the carriage and moved the seats so that they became a bed and unlocked the overhead bunk so there was an upper and lower berth. They were actually quite comfortable and had fresh sheets, pillows and blanket (as if you would need one!) and also very cheap considering the distance travelled.

When we arrived in Chang Mai at around 6.30am, being as prepared as we always are (not) we got a ride to a guesthouse to see what it was like and decided that this would be our home for the next couple of nights. It was called the Royal Thai Guesthouse and I would say that in its heyday was something to behold as it was yet another place where maintenance was a bit lacking but it had a pool and a neat little restaurant too.

We weren't sure what we were going to do that day as we were quite tired from the train trip, however an old woman that ran the inhouse travel agency asked us while we were having breakfast if we would like to join three others on a day trek which included elephant trekking, visiting a couple of villages and a waterfall and bamboo rafting(this was basically a three day trek condensed into one). As we were wide awake anyway we decided why not and scoffed down our breakfast and set off for the day. In our group was a guy from Japan named Aki and two Irish lads called Paul and Phil. Unbeknownst to us but the boys from Dublin would become our travelling mates and good friends over the next week or so. We went to the elephant trekking first and it was such a buzz to see these beautiful animals up close and not in a zoo. Olivia and I rode Pucho and he was the dominant male of this particular camp. He was HUGE! The two Irish boys had a slightly smaller one and Aki had one to himself. The secnery that surrounded us was breathtaking as we rode through the jungle for about 50 minutes in total. As a treat for the elephants and a good little earner the locals and mahoots sold bunches of bananas that you could feed the elephants while riding them so all of us got a bunch each and kept our charges fueled throughout the jouney. There were also sort of fill up stations along the way where you could convenienlty buy MORE of bananas or sugar cane too. It was so much fun feeding Pucho as he would snake his massive trunk back over his head and reach out so that we could place a banana or piece of sugar cane in it for him to eat. You could also feel the immense power that he had riding up on his shoulders and his skin had the most incredible texture to it almost like a leathery rough carpet. The view from up on his back was so picturesque as we gazed over the rolling jungle covered hills that typify that part of Thailand.

Once we had recovered from the excitement of the elephants we drove to the next stop which was a 20 minute hike along a gravel road to a small village that has home to one of the shortneck Karen tribes. (Their famous cousins are the Longneck Karen tribe) The Karen people have been relocated by the Thai government from the Thai/ Cambodian border as their main source of income had been growing marijuana and opium.

In order to try and control the production of both these illegal substances the government moved them away from the border and provided them with land and shelter etc and taught them how to grow other crops that they could sell instead of drugs. From there it was a short walk to a the waterfall and we all had a welcome dip in its cooling waters. Once we had refreshed ourselves we walked on the track through the jungle to our van which took us to the next village where we saw some local women using these amazing looms to weave intricate and delicate fabrics.
Next stop was lunch and then we headed for the last part of the day and one of the most fun - the bamboo rafting which was litrally that - floating down the river on rafts made from huge pieces of bamboo. Aki and the two Irish boys went on one and Olivia and I went on the other. I was given a big bamboo pole to help in the steering of the raft and Paul took the first shift on their one. It wasnt long before the boys got in trouble and Paul more or less sunk their raft trying to stop himself falling in. Phil had a go after that and didnt do any better - in fact he broke it into pieces and lost his bamboo pole! Liv and I made it down unscathed and so ended a very full on but fun day.
The next day we decided to do a one day Thai cooking course which we also booked from our guesthouse. We got to choose 6 different dishes each and Olivia and I made sure that the ones we would learn were all different. We were picked up from the guesthouse and taken to the local market where the lady that would be our teacher for the day explained all about the ingredients that Thai's use in their cooking and of course purchased what we would need also. We then went to her house about 20 mins away and were given an apron and hand towel each. Their carport had been turned into a purpose built cooking school with about 12 cooking rings and a couple of big tables to teach around. The first thing that we all learnt to make was curry paste. Each person made the paste that they would need for their first dish, which in my case was red curry and in Liv's her favourite Masaman Curry. This was a lot of fun as you chose how hot your curry would be and then pounded the chillies and other ingredients with a mortar and hand pounder.
When done this was added to the rest of the ingredients to make your curry. What was even better was when everyone was done making the first two dishes of the day that they had chosen, we had a break and tried them all! Everyone shared so we got to try some amazing food and basically cooked and ate all day - TERRIBLE AYE. By the end of the day we were all so full and ended up taking doggy bags home with leftover spring rolls. It was absolute heaven!
That evening we went out for dinner and went to check out the local night market - it was massive. Liv got a massage and I got a couple of cool t-shirts, my favourite being one that says SAME SAME on the front and BUT DIFFERENT on the back. Anyone who has been to South East Asia will know what it means - its their way of saying that things are similar!

Chiang Mai was a really lovely city and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there and once again after packing up our bags for the umpteenth time we got up bright and early the next morning and headed for..........

Arohanui
Livi and Tama xx

BIG BAD BANGKOK

We arrived on Khao Sarn road at about 6am after taking an overnight bus from down south. The trip wasn't that comfortable but arriving so early was interesting as we saw one of the busiest streets in Bangkok when it was pretty much deserted, just a few hawker stands preparing to set up, some homeless/drunk people and the odd rat trying to find leftovers from the night before in the gutter.
We managed to find a hotel that let us check in early. The hotel had a roof top pool which Tama immediately took advantage of but I still had to keep my burn dry! Then we went to bed for a couple of hours sleep as we didn't get much on the bus!
On our first day we managed to fall hook, line and sinker for a jewellery scam and lost a fair bit of our hard earned money :-( There are con artists all over the place and being trusting kiwis we weren't prepared. Tip for anyone who comes to Bangkok, don't use tuk tuks, metered taxis are much better and often cheaper. Tuk tuks we have discovered are where a lot of the scams start. After finally finding some police that aren't corrupt (most of them ask for money in exchange for their help) we are trying to get some of the money back but it is proving difficult. Not surprisingly we started to form a bad opinion of Bangkok after our first day. However, we did see and do some great things there dispite our bad luck and stupidity.....

After the first steps of trying to recover from our loss we spent the next day walking round in the extrodinary heat, humidity and dirt. First we visited the Grand Palace which was beautiful. Everyone in Thailand seems to ADORE their king. There are huge posters of him everywhere. This year is his 60th year as king and was also his 80th birthday. To celebrate these anniversaries half of Thailand (almost) is wearing yellow shirts with the royal emblem on the lapel. It is lovely really, he has obviously been doing a good job as he is very popular. His palace was elaborate as you can see in the photos. We saw the Emerald buddha and his outfits, he was wearing his 'Summer Attire' but also has outfits for the 'Cold Season' and the 'Rainy Season'. All made of gold of course! Also saw a museum there with heaps the royal families jewels, gold wash bowls and spitoons etc! Lots of scary looking weapons too. After the Grand Palace we took a short walk to Wat Po where the HUGE reclining buddha lives. He really is enormous, what more can I say? He's a huge, gold buddha!

Most days we spent some of our time looking around Khao Sarn and the surrounding area as this is where we were staying. We found some great restaurants, our two favourites were an Isralei one and an Indian one, both were so good we went back on another day! Some restaurants we went to played movies in the evenings which was a good cheap way to relax at the end of the day. All the movies were pirated copies of new releases, Spiderman 3, 300, The DeVinci Code, Pirates of the Carribean 3 etc. They play them with English subtitles and the translations are hilarious! In The DaVinci Code the 'holy grail' (what the whole story is based on) was traslated as the 'holding grill' all the way through and the 'fleur de lys' was the 'bleeding flute'! haha was so funny, all the tourists kept laughing whenever it came up. This partuicular night we ran in to our friends Michael and Leticia whom we had met in the Perhentian Islands in Maylasia, was great to catch up with them over a drink while the movie was playing. At one of the restaurants we went to watch a movie and the menu had lots of bad spelling mistakes, the funniest was New Zeeland Leam Shobs (we guessed NZ Lamb Chops!).

As is usual in a lot of Asian cities and towns, kids try to sell you stuff on the streets, it was quite upsetting here as there are kids, some as young as 5 with huge armfulls of single roses to sell. The saddest part is that they have to sell all of them before they are allowed to go home. We had a talk to a couple of them at about 4pm then after a night of looking around came back to find them still there with half a bundle of roses left at 2am, in the pouring rain. So sad but you don't know what to do. If you buy them you are supporting their parents/guardians sending them out but if you don't they have to stay out longer :-(

On our third night in Bangkok we went for a tuk tuk ride to Pat Pong which is an area famous for it's nightlife. It had a fabulous night market which took up a whole street. It's quite funny observing the backpackers from around the world because some of them buy so much junk! Then they end up wearing top to toe fake designer gear (Gucci, Prada, Versace. You name it) or they go to the other extreme and end up looking like a hippie even if they're not with about 20 shell braclets up each arm (and leg), braided or dreaded hair, over the shoulder tie dye bags with tassles and wrap around canvas 'pyjama' pants! We haven't gone to either extreme, you'll be pleased to know. Though we have been sucked in buying the odd T-shirt or bracelet. Tama got a Singha Tshirt and I got a Tiffany necklace to match my earrings Mum and Dad gave me, the earrings are real Tiffany, the necklace I'm afraid is not! But still real silver (I hope) and pretty all the same.
All down each side of this street at Pat Pong are bars with girls who do the famous in Bangkok 'Ping Pong' show. The bars are called vulgur names such as 'Super Pussy'! They shoot ping pong balls, darts etc, smoke cigerettes, pull out strings of razor blades and all sorts (from you know where). Poor ladies :-(

On one of our days we did a day tour which was fabulous. First we stopped at a coconut factory where they made sugar from coconuts.Then we went to the famous floating market which was pretty gorgeous. There are heaps of stalls and food hawkers in little gondolla-like boats on the river and you can go on boats through the middle of them and shop or if you buy something from land they send your purchase out to you on a long stick with a basket at the end and you replace it with the money! It was fascinating just watching the locals work.
The next stop was the Bridge of the River Kwai. It's a famous spot because 2 versions of it were built by English, Aussies, Kiwis etc under instruction from the Japanese in WW2. It was blown up by American bombers and the current bridge was rebuilt on what was left of the foundations. It was really sad to read about the conditions the soldiers were living in and was pretty moving to see the remains of the 1st bridge and walk across the 2nd bridge.
After stopping for a nice lunch at a roadside restaurant our tour continued on to the Tiger Temple. It was a pretty cool experience as we got to touch and even cuddle the tigers and get photos with them. We even got to play with a tiger cub! It was very touristy obviously and hard to know how much fun it was for the tigers but certainly an experience none the less. The aim of the project (run by Bhuddist monks) is to save endangered tigers and eventually reintroduce them to the wild. The enclosures there were fairly small, the ones we saw anyway, but they have a big plan to build a huge sanctury for them if they get enough money from the tourists!

On our last day in the big smoke we went to The Weekend Market. We have never seen and will probably never again see such a HUGE market. You can litterally buy everything there, such as live sharks for example. We spent about 5 or 6 hours there and didn't even see a quarter of it and we were moving through pretty fast! We didn't buy much, Tama brought some shorts and I got a braclet but thats about it. Most of the clothes are too small for the average Westerner anyway (let alone us!) We did do something we had said we would try to do in Thailand though and thats eat crickets! They were actually ok, just tasted really crunchy! We had to do it once!
I think that is about it for Bangkok. We had a mixed experience of this place, certainly won't forget it but have to make do with less money for the rest of our trip now :-(

Tama will continue the story soon and describe our next stop, Chiang Mai.

Love Olivia and Tama xx