VV to Vientiane to Khao Lak Day 25 & 26

Hi all,
Jeremy was going to write these posts but I managed to do them when he was sick just before he ended up in hospital :( At least he is better now so hopefully he will be blogging again soon!
Also as another aside I have managed to delete all our daily summaries off the iPad which means we have to write them from memory, so please bear with us for the remaining posts - thats if anyone is still reading :)

So after the craziness that is tubing in Vang Vieng I wake up early feeling awful. After my 4th trip to the bathroom I realise its more than just a hangover and that I have picked up what Jeremy and I have dubbed the Laos tummy.
Great stuff, I have the 3 hour journey to Vientiane to look forward to!
Anyway we go back to sleep until the last possible minute before we have to leave. We had decided to give the 'VIP' bus a try and I'm so glad we did. We had aircon the whole way and the road is a lot straighter than our last journey so all in all I managed :)
We get to Vientiane and all I can think of is sleeping, so Jeremy finds us a hotel, Douang Deuane and I have a bit of a nap. Eventually I start feeling a bit better so we go for a bit of a walk around. We eventually get a take away pizza from across the street from the hotel, and it is surprisingly good. I have a couple of pieces and decide to call it a day. Jeremy heads off to an internet cafe to do some catching up and then it early to bed for us.
The next morning we are up bright and early to start our day long travelling to Khao Lak. After weighing up the options we had decided to fly from Vientiane to Bangkok rather than the overnight train,and given the way I was feeling it was definitely the right choice.
We flew Laos airlines and they were actually pretty good. The plane was brand new and we got some snacks on board which is a change from the likes of air asia!
Anyway we get to bangkok with 5 hours to kill so we decide what better way to kill time in Thailand than by having a massage. So half an hour and a back massage later Jeremy and I are feeling a lot more relaxed and ready to take on the next leg of the trip.
We eventually arrive in Phuket after a pretty smooth flight with Air Asia,with some great scenery. After debating another hour or so wait for the bus we decide that the 1800baht for the taxi is probably worth it. So after 1h30min drive we eventually arrive in Khao Lak. Woohoo!
For those of you that don't know we actually decided on Khao lak because Philip and Estie, some friends of ours from South Africa, told us at the wedding that they will be there in April. We realised that it was possible for us to join them so we thought why not? I'm so glad we did. The Haadson Resort where we stayed was just great. It's about the only resort on the stretch of beach and there only about 4 restaurants on the beach too. Great for getting away from it all.
The resort itself is great, really nice attention to detail, and they upgraded us to a villa which was amazing. Very spacious, and it had a really nice balcony,which I used to do some yoga on a couple of mornings which was pretty amazing- wish I could always do my yoga in that setting.
Anyway after a swim in the pool we have a bit of a nap and then decide to check out the hotel restaurant for dinner as we just can't be bothered to look for anywhere else... The food was really good, Jeremy had the green curry (which you will come to realise is his go-to thai meal) and I had a noodle dish with wide flat rice noodles that was just delicious.
After dinner Philip, Estie, little Reece and Philips parents arrive back from their dinner in Khao Lak town and Philip joined us for a beer.
We chat about what we've been up to, and tell him some of our crazy stories and then its early night for us!




Signpost in Vientiane - although I'm pretty sure CPT is more than 1058km away :)




Beautiful scenery from the plane window




Swans on the bed for the Newlyweds- Haadson Resort




Dinner :)

Vang vieng tubing day 24

We thought it would be wise to start the day with a big brekkie, so we headed down to a restaurant for some food and some friends. After spending far too long watching friends we eventually make our way to the start.
You basically pick up your tubes from the town center, there is one shop that hires everyone tubes, and they then take you on a tuk tuk up the river to the start of the tubing.
We get our tubes and hop on the back of the tuk tuk not quite knowing what to expect.
A couple of things to note about the tubing. Everyone who does the tubing in Vang Vieng has a 'uniform' - Tubing in the vang vieng swimming shorts, tshirts and ray bans. And after the day is done you will add some wristbands to your collection, one for every bar and lao lao shot you drink. Every where you go in SE asia people are wearing these with pride, and it just adds to the craziness of the place.
For those of you that didn't see it there is a pretty interesting article here about the danger of the tubing, and Jeremy and I made a pact before we started that we wouldn't jump off any platforms or swing off any ropes, especially as it was dry season and I don't want to die just yet thank you.
Even still its amazing what dutch (Laos) courage you get after a couple of shots of whisky,but luckily neither of us broke the pact.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/07/vang-vieng-laos-party-town?cat=world&type=article
Anyway we get to the start, and the only way to get to the river is through the 1st bar. So its a shot of Lao Lao whisky and then we decide to get a beer and relax before we get going. We meet 3 Aussie girls that are travelling for a few weeks around Thailand and Laos and 2 english girls that are also travelling SE Asia. We end up spending way too long at the first bar with them just chatting and drinking, so eventually all of us decide to make our way to the second bar.
You basically grab your tube and just hop into the river and float down using the river stream (with some paddling too) Then when you are ready to be pulled in you put up your hand and someone will throw you a rope and pull you in. Simple really :)
Anyway the second bar is pretty cool and another shot down, Jeremy and I get involved in a beer pong game, and lose, but only by a little.
After all that beer we decide to get a bucket, which is great. We meet some more people and play some drinking games with the girls and some other people we meet.
We realise that if we want to get back in time to avoid the penalty on the tubes we better start heading down river. We end up at the third bar which is pretty dead to be honest. Another shot and another bracelet.... This bar has an added bonus - flying ants! So after being bitten a couple of times Jeremy and I decide to start making our way down the river to the end. We say goodbye to the girls with plans to meet them at the end and hop onto our tubes. Jeremy manages to leave behind his tshirt, and about 2mins later manages to drop his Oakleys in the river, never to be seen again, but I think one to many shots means we don't really worry about this until the next day!
Anyway we start making our way downriver, in some parts the river is hardly flowing and we have to paddle,and in others it is so shallow you almost scrape your butt on the rocks. But the scenery is amazing, I have quite a few 'can't believe I'm here' moments on the way down!
We make it about half way when Jeremy decides enough is enough and manages to barter with a local fisherman to take us on his boat the rest of the way. Although I wasn't very happy with him in the beginning, I realise now that it was definitely the best decision cos it was getting dark quickly! We make it back with minutes to spare before they close.
We head back to the hotel, send some drunken texts to Jarrod and Stacey (who have both done VV before), sorry guys :) And then decide its time for food before we go out to party.
Haha,after the food all either of us can think of is sleep,so we head back to the hotel and pass out. Great fun!




At the start




Beer pong -first bar...still pretty empty




Drinking games!



Me, Jem and a random 'let me take the pic I have long arms' guy




Flying ants!




Floating down the river

Luang prabang to Vang Vieng Day 23

Hi all,
Sorry for the delay in the posts. Promise we have been making daily summaries we have just had little internet access and time to type the posts out!!

So the only way to get from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng is driving, either by mini bus or a normal bus.
We decided to go with the mini bus thinking that it would be more comfortable and the fact that its quicker...After our journey I'm not so sure it was the best decision.

The road from LP to VV is only about 120km but it took us 6 hours to get there!! The road is through the mountains and very very winding. It makes Bainskloof pass look like a walk in the park. I had read that it was pretty tough going, and for the first 2 hours or so I couldn't understand what people were on about...and then we go into the next half. Seriously bad. And to make it worse the driver would only put the aircon on when going downhill, I think the car was loaded too full to make it up with the aircon on too. It is beautiful though and the scenery does go some ways in making up for the drive.

I was feeling pretty rough at the end of it, and very glad once we got to Vang Vieng. Although we heard from another guy in our bus that the journey from Hanoi to LP is the journey from hell. It takes 26hours and is just as winding, I am very glad we decided to fly. Although according to him the bus journey from hell makes for a good facebook post, so maybe we missed out. Sorry guys that our comfort came before your reading pleasure :)

Once we got to VV we walked around trying to find somewhere to stay. We hadn't really done that much research other than Jeremy doing some reading on the way there (his car sickness is a lot better than mine!) so we headed down to the river to see what we could find.

We ended up at TCK Guesthouse, which boasted river views and only cost us around 10 pounds. It was quite a nice spot and brand new. The rooms were quite funny though as they had been finished off really badly. For example the paint jobs on the walls stopped about 10cm from the skirting boards and the ceilings had circles drawn on them for the downlighters, but whoever installed those used the guides very roughly as you can see the circles quite clearly with the light installed right next to it. LOL. But the place was big and clean and the view was pretty amazing.

For those of you that don't know what Vang Vieng is, its basically a sleepy town on the road between LP and the capital of Laos, Vientiane. This town has now been transformed into the party town of SE Asia and has quite a reputation. You basically hire tubes,go down the river and stop at numerous bars on the way down to drink. Water, tubes and drunk people makes for a pretty awesome party experience!! After you get sick of the tubing all the bars in the town serve western food and most of them have daybeds and endless re runs of friends or family guy playing.

After we checked in we went into town for some food and killed a couple of hours watching friends. Doesn't matter how many times you have seen friends it is still great, and even more so after a few weeks of BBC News and if you are lucky a decent movie on HBO (that you will inevitably only catch the last 30mins of).

We ended up at bucket bar after that. And the name really says it all. Jeremy and I ordered a lao lao bucket and I will say that it went down really slowly.No amount of ice could make it taste better. We decided that we would stick to vodka buckets from now on. Anyways we spent some time laughing at the drunken tubers, knowing that it would probably be us tomorrow...And had a relatively quiet night knowing that we would need it the next day.

Will leave you now with some pics, Jeremy will take over for the actual tubing day.




View on journey from LP to VV




Vang Vieng




Watching Friends :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Luang Prabang - day with the giants Day 22

Candice and I had originally planned to go the elephant village on the Thursday but after my stomach bug we decided to shift it to the Friday to give a little extra time to recover.
They picked up us early at our hotel on Friday at about 7:30am. Fortunately for us there was only 5 people booked on the day trip which made the group really small. It was three Americans Megan, Ethan and Rachel. Interestingly Ethan and Megan were also newly weds and having that in common made for some interesting conversation. It's interesting to hear other peoples stories and their reasons for travelling what they do for a living etc. I had a really interesting chat with Nathan who was a lawyer for the American army and gets deployed to various bases around the world. His next deployment is in a small village in Germany. He defends American soldiers for any wrongdoing or against war crimes they accused of. We chatted a lot about wars and the military etc. One thing I found really interesting though is that the US army is deployed all over the world, war or no war. If you are a US citizen the US army can reach you anywhere in the world in 40 minutes.

The elephant village while being a major tourist attraction is good in that they capture elephants from logging where they are exploited. Instead of working 16 hours a day logging in the forrest they work a maximum of 4 hours a day and are well looked after.
Our guide for the day was a laos man who's English was slightly broken but we could just about understand him. Happy and friendly as ever he tells us we are going to learn basic commands in Laos to talk to the elephants.
The elephants are very well trained and you learn pretty quick that they are intelligent creatures. After he takes us through the basic commands we walk over to a mahout who is sitting on an elephant. A mahout is someone who basically lives with an elephant as his job to train them. Out of nowhere the guide says to me you first time to ride elephant. I can't remember the command but he talks to the elephant and it bends it's right front leg so that I can stand on its leg and climb into it. Before I know it I am sitting on top of this massive creature and and it starts to walk. A little nerve wracking at first but you feel pretty safe. We each take our turn one by one and then after that we did what most tourists do and go for a hour long walk whilst sitting on the elephant.

After that was a buffet lunch where we had a good chat with the three Americans who were on the tour with us. Megan we learn is a English teacher in South Korea but is heading back to the states to study. South Korea sounded like an interesting place maybe one day we could visit there.

After lunch we did what for me was a truly unforgettable experience. We each got an elephant with a mahout and went down to the river. We waded into the river with the elephants and are given a brush to scrub the elephants and splash water on them. The elephant I was on was extremely playful. As I brushed it and poured water over its back it would take water with its trunk and spray it back at me. I jumped off the elephant to swim in the river as it was about 36 degrees. As I was in the river looking across in the river watching everyone swim among the elephants and playing with them was very surreal something I won't forget for a long time. We were in the water for about 20-30 mins with the elephants after which we got on a boat to take us up river to a waterfall. The waterfall was dry as its the dry season. The reason they take you there is that their is that there is a zip line in the forrest that you can do as another activity. We then went back down the river to the elephant village where we could swim in the pool and have a drink and just relax. The pool was quite nice it had a concrete chairs in it and a bar you could sit at and have drinks. We swam and relaxed for about an hour before heading back to Luang Prabang town center. When we got back we went for an early dinner with the Americans at a little coffee shop/restaurant called JO MA which was all to easy to pronounce as jou ma.

Being our last evening in Luang Prabang we decided to walk up the hill which has a viewpoint over the town. We did it at sunset and it was pretty scenic. After that we went back to our room and got ready so we could go out. We had a couple drinks at a place called Lao Lao Bar which is name after the famous Lao Lao whisky. We were there till about 11:00 before we decided to hit the infamous bowling alley in Luang Prabang. In Luang Prabang everything closes down at 11:30pm so everyone at the bars/pubs either heads off home or two the bowling alley as it is the only place open for a drink after 11:30pm. Quite a random thing a bowling alley in a place like Luang Prabang but great fun at the same time. Candice and I played three games of bowling and it ended up in a tie.I won the first game, Candice won the second game and the third game was tied. We were only their for about an hour in all as we had to go home and pack as we were leaving early the next day for Vang Vieng.



Look ma no hands.




My beautiful wifey.



Two saffas and three Americans.



FTeeeessssss (f..king tourists)






swimming with the elephants.



View from the hill.



At the bowling alley.



I won I won.

Luang Prabang - Man down day 20-21

Not to much to say about the third day in Luang Prabang. I got a pretty bad stomach bug and I was pretty much man down the whole day. Laos is a pretty poor country and so hygienic standards will vary. You also eating from street vendors and the like so there is always the chance of getting the odd bug. Thats why Hepatitis A vaccination is so important as it is the only type of Hepatitis you can obtain orally. Oddly though Candice had eaten the same as me so its weird her stomach was okay. To give you an idea of the scale of the diarrhoea the Imodium box said take one tablet after every time you go to the loo. I ended up taking about six imodiums. Obviously being dehydrated in temperatures of 35 is not great so I just stayed indoors with the aircon on fulltilt. Candice played the role of nurse and went to the pharmacy and got me some re-hydration salts and vitamins to help me along. I spent the day indoors for most of the day and just slept and drank lots of fluids.

In the evening we decided to go get some food. There was a really nice place called saffron cafe we went to on the Monday or the Tuesday where I had an awesome salad and my thinking was that the food and the kitchen should be okay. Anyways the 500m walk there was a killer being weak and dehydrated in the heat is not fun. I wasn't exactly feeling hungry so I just ordered some french fries which I only managed to eat a couple before giving up. I then decided to go back to the room and just rest some more and get some sleep.

We woke at 5:30 on the Thursday to go to the alms giving ceremony. Its an age old tradition in Loas but basically the Buddhist monks walk in a line through the town and the locals give them offerings into a basket type thing they are carrying. Loas in some ways is very similar to Thailand except the people are even more friendly and the traditions and culture is a little more in tact. I read whilst in Loas that the average person in Luang Prabang lives of 1 US Dollar a day. What is extremely fascinating is how poor the people are they literally have nothing yet they are extremely happy and friendly. It makes one thing a lot about western culture and the problems associated with it where we think more money is better but clearly it is not the answer.

After the alms giving ceremony we headed back to the room for some sleep as I was still not feeling lekker. After a power nap we decided to get some breakfast of some pancakes. The traffic in Luang Prabang was nothing like the cities of Vietnam so we rented a motorbike and drove the 30km to the waterfall. The going was pretty tough as although I felt better I was still a bit queasy and weak. The waterfalls were really refreshing though and we had a nice swim to cool off. After that my appetite started to return so we got some watermelon to snack on and just took it easy reading our books and relaxing. I had a good chuckle at two Buddhist monks as they were smoking and were wearing sunglasses which was different from the norm.

We then had another swim in another of the pools at the waterfall. There was a nice swing to launch you into the water and a high rock you could jump off into the water. My energy levels started to return and so I had a go jumping off the rocks. We left the waterfall at about 3pm and drove back to Luang Prabang. The 30km road is quite windy but very few cars so being on holiday I just took it easy on the bike with candice on the back. You go through quite a few viliages and its very rural and very poor. We drove past a school and I stopped to get a picture with some of the kids who I think thought was bonkers.

On the way home I got my appetite back so we stopped at Luang Prabang bakery for a burger, thinking its one of the few things my stomach could handle. After that food it was time for another nap...

We then went to do some shopping at the night market and then headed off to Utopia bar, which a couple of people recommended. It is down some side streets on the banks of the river and very chilled out.




Alms giving




Pools at the waterfall




Jumping




Waterfall




Me with the school kids

Location:Luang Prabang

Tamarind Restaurant LP

So for our one month anniversary we decided to check out Tamarind restaurant in Luang Prabang. It comes highly recommended, and we weren't disappointed.

The restaurant prides itself in doing traditional Laos food.
When we got to the restaurant we were worried that we wouldn't get a table as it was pretty busy, but luckily someone was just leaving as we arrived so we managed to grab their table.
The menu explains how traditional Laos food is ordered and how it should be eaten. You should never order one main for yourself but rather a number of dishes for the table and share. It can be considered rude to pull one dish in front of yourself to eat.

Using this advice we ordered the rice & dips set, the stuffed lemongrass and the bean salad to share.

I also ordered a lemongrass granita - which is probably as far from traditional as you can get- but it tasted delicious.

When the food arrived the waiter explained how to eat it. The sticky rice comes in a bamboo basket. You then take a bit out the basket and form it into a ball, which is then dipped into the various dips that come with it. The dips included a tomato and onion dip (kind of like a salsa), a smoked aubergine dip, and sweet and smoky chill dip that comes with dried buffalo skin on top and a green chilli dip. It also came with dried river seaweed with sesame seeds, that were like chips and very delicious.

The stuffed lemongrass is made by rolling minced chicken and herbs into a cigar shape, then stuffing it in the lemon grass and deep frying. It was served witha peanut dipping sauce, that was actually just ground peanuts in a watery type sauce. Very different to the 'normal' satay type peanut sauce but it was delicous nonetheless. The green bean salad was served warm and had a delicious garlic and soya sauce.

Afterwards Jeremy had some coffee and ordered a sweet tray for desert. It was explained that these sweets will normally be eaten as snacks as like a lot of Asian countries Laos people don't normally eat desert.
These were interesting and most had a jelly like texture. One was made from sticky rice that was cooked and slightly sweetened and steamed in banana leaf. This had a very interesting texture.

All in all it was a great meal, the food was really good and it was nice to try some traditional food. Recommended.





The restaurant




The rice dipping platter




Jeremy and the food! Stuffed lemongrass in the front, dipping platter in the middle and the green bean salad back right.



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Location:Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang Day 19

So our second day in LP was also our 1 month wedding anniversary, and we hadn't planned to do much but ended up doing quite a bit.
We decided that we would hire bicycles and cycle around the city, so after breakfast we headed off to find bikes to rent. After going to a couple that needed our passports as a deposit we eventually found someone who would accept our drivers license and we were ready to go. As I said before Laos is quite relaxed so hiring bikes is a very good way to see the city.
We decided that we would go to get massages and had read that the Red Cross charity give massages and the money you pay will go towards charity projects in Laos so it seemed like the best place to get a massage! The building itself is a bit run down and tired, and the place is a little grotty but the massages were really good and very cheap. We paid 40 000kip (just over 3pounds) for a 1 hour full body massage. The women used a balm which reminded me of tiger balm - but just not as strong- which she rubbed over my body during the massage. And while it is similar to a Thai massage in that they use their body weight to press down on your muscles, she didn't click my joints or twist my body like a Thai massage normally does. This is a not a bad thing because sometimes a Thai massage is more of a workout than it is relaxing :) The massage was very good though and just what we both needed.
After the previous day's heat we decided to have a look online to try and find a public pool somewhere in Luang Prabang where we could go for a dip. We found a bar that has a pool and decided to go check it out. La Pistoche is a bar pretty far out of town, down a side road in between the houses. The drive there was amazing in itself. As soon as you turn off the main road the roads become gravel and the houses become more and more rural. With the mountains all around you it really doesn't feel like you are in a town anymore and we stopped a couple of times just to admire the view.
Anyway we got to the bar and really enjoyed the pool. You pay 20 000kip to use the pool for the day and we also got some fruit smoothies which were really good and we shared a pad thai which was also tasty. I don't think many people know about the place so it wasn't too busy. And later on we were joined by a fair few Laos families who bring their kids to swim too. The pool was heaven in the heat and we lazed around for a couple of hours, reading and catching up on our blogging.
After looking at the map I suggested that we go for a bit of a drive before heading back to the guesthouse. I had seen that there were 2 bridges that crosses the Nam Khan river so thought we could cross both of them and that way see the other side of the river banks too. LP is surrounded by the Mekong river on one side and the Nam Khan river on the other. We crossed over the Sisavangvong bridge, which is a bridge for motorbikes and cyclists only and has some wooden slats over which you can drive in single file. Across the river is even more remote as it is almost unaffected by tourists so it was really nice to cycle through the streets. We then decided to cross the river using the bamboo bridge. This bridge only exists in the dry season, as during the wet season the river is too strong and the bridge which is made completely from bamboo is swept away. Each dry season a family rebuilds it. You have to pay 5000 kip (about 40p) to cross the bridge and this is used for materials and labour to rebuild the bridge next year. While we were crossing the bridge it is easy to imagine that you have stepped back in time and we enjoyed watching the kids swimming and playing in the river below us.
Once we reached the other side of the river we started making our way back. We passed by a temple and decided to stop and take a look. After a short stop, the sunset and river looked too tempting so we bought some beers and took the flight of steps down to the riverside to enjoy the sunset. Halfway through our drinks 2 girls came down with a longtail boat driver for a sunset cruise. We decided to join them. What a great way to see the sunset, he took us up the river for about 30mins before turning around. It was quite an eye opener to see the families washing their clothes and themselves in the river as its easy to forget how poor the Laos people are. They are all smartly dressed and living in built houses, rather than the mud huts and tattered clothes you see in Africa, so you forget that they are just as poor. We noticed that the family a couple of houses down from our guesthouse cooked all their meals on a clay pot in which fire is made outside their house. They obviously have no kitchen and all the food is either cooked in pots on top of the 'braai' or braaied. We saw many people washing themselves and even shampooing their hair in the river, all the while keep covered up in their silk skirts. It was a truly memorable experience and a sight I will always remember.
As a special treat for our anniversary we decided to go to Tamarind restaurant for dinner as we had read good things about it. I will do a separate post on this as I think it merits its own post...
All in all it was a great day and a great one month anniversary!




The pool at La Pistoche




The streets on the outskirts of LP




Sisavangvong bridge




Bamboo bridge




Sunset cruise




Bathtime on the banks of the Mekong




Cooking outside the house
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Location:LP

Luang Prabang Day 18

So we decided to skip the 26hour bus journey from Hanoi to Luang Prabang and flew instead. Our flight was slightly delayed by Vietnam Air, but they let us know the day before the flight that they time had changed and it suited us better so we weren't complaining. And when we got to the airport we were given a free lunch, so we were pretty happy about the time change. We are never going to say no to some free pho :)
Flying into LP you get to see the beautiful mountains of Laos and even from the plane you can see that Laos is going to be a lot more relaxed than Vietnam was. Flying into HCMC was like flying into an ants nest with all the bikes and people but flying into LP it's more mountains and green spaces. This is exactly what we want to see after 2 weeks of crazy Vietnam and I could already see that I'm going to love it.
As we arrived in LP and went through passport control I had the immigration officer staring at me for about a minute not saying anything. I started getting nervous that something was wrong with my visa only for him to say "you are very beautiful!!" lol first time I have ever been picked up in passport control. A pretty interesting place to pick up men, but hey.
We didn't have anywhere to stay in LP but had read that there are tons of places behind Joma bakery so we decided to make our way there. Once we got the bakery the aircon and fruit shakes sounded to good to miss so we decided to sit down for a bit. Little did we know we will be visiting Joma quite a bit in the trip....They are pretty much like a Laos starbucks, the food was good and they were about 2 mins from our hotel so it was a convenient breakfast stop!
Anyway we eventually ended up at Somjith guesthouse the main selling point being the balconies...although LP was so hot that I don't think we used it once. But the room was good and cheap and the place is family run so it was a good choice.
After settling in we headed out for something to eat and ended up at Saffron cafe. One thing about LP is the number of bakeries/cafes around. Because it was a french colony at one point there is still quite a strong french presence which means a number of cafes, good coffee and loads of baguettes. I suppose it's not really a true reflection of Laos but they are awesome after a couple of weeks of Asian food. We got a great salad and wrap which was exactly what we needed. Jeremy even went as far as to say its one of the best salads he has ever had...but I think that might just be the lack of salads talking ;)
We headed off for a walk around town and happened across a temple with some monks doing their prayers. It was a pretty awe inspiring thing to hear, about 20 or so voices chanting in a temple in front of you that is glistening and glowing in the sun that is setting over the mekong behind you.
We couldn't miss the sunset so headed over to the river for a sundowner, a sight we saw quite a bit in LP but one I never tired of.
We then decided to walk around the town a bit and check out the Laos new year celebrations. Unfortunately for us we had just missed the main bit of the new year where everyone is out on the streets spraying each other with water. It sounds like it would be an amazing thing to have seen and I wish we had planned that a bit better! But oh well. We went to the main temple where they have a buddha statue. Everyone then takes water and pours it in big gutters which then pours the water over the buddha statue. There are also monks around the temple that have bracelets and flowers etc that people seem to buy. All the while there are monks chanting, and people praying. The mixture of the incense,chanting and perfumed water makes for a very spiritual atmosphere. It made me really interested in the religion as there are so many symbolic rituals and customs which makes it fascinating.
After seeing this I did some research and found here:
Water is for washing homes, Buddha images, monks, and soaking friends and passers-by. Students first respectfully pour water on their elders, then monks for blessings of long life and peace, and last of all they throw water on each other. The water is perfumed with flowers or natural perfumes. Some people prefer flowers in the water to give a pleasant smell, as well as adding cologne/perfume. The idea of watering came from the legend of King Kabinlaphom, whose seven daughters kept his severed head in a cave. The daughters would visit their father's head every year and perform a ritual to bring happiness and good weather.
In late afternoon or evening of the last day, in the temples, the Buddha images are moved back to their permanent homes. On that same evening devotees go to wats to listen to the monks chanting as an act to ask for forgiveness from the monks as well as from the Buddha images for what they did (pouring water on them) in this past few days that might have accidentally touched them (monks and Buddha are not to be touched). After that, a vien tien – a candlelight procession – takes place around the wat and that is the end of the Lao New Year celebration.
One thing we did notice straight off is that Laos is a lot more conservative than Thailand and Vietnam. They request the ladies not to walk around in Bikini tops and men can't walk barechested. It is also frowned upon to show affection in public. I think this is probably due to the strong religious presence.
I ended up buying a longer skirt as I felt uncomfortable at the temples, especially during the new year rituals, in my shorts.
It definitely makes for a change from Thailand and Vietnam's sex industries and girls in short skirts...but its definitely not a bad thing! Although all that goes out the window once you get to Vang Vieng, but that we will talk about in another post.
Candice




Little boy outside the temple while the monks are chanting




Temple in the sunset








New year celebrations - washing the buddha




Sunset over the mekong
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Location:Luang Prabang

Halong Bay Day 15,16 & 17

We decided to do the 2 nights 3 days ha long bay tour. Most people that do the South East Asia route and go through Vietnam will tell you to stay at Hanoi Backpackers. It also comes with great recommendations so we decided to stay there for our time in Hanoi. We stayed at the original hostel. Sadly they were doing reservations so the rooftop bar was not open so we missed out on that front. They did have happy hour at 5 in the street. The nice thing about the backpackers is the English guides who work there who can tell you about the good places to eat and places to go out. We also found out later that the new Hanoi backpackers 15 minutes walk from the old one was fully operational so we went to check it out. It's really cool built over a couple floors and has a great vibe.

Anyways back to Ha Long Bay. We were picked up at 7:30am. Our guide Steve an Irishman was an absolute legend.
I got chatting to him quite a bit. A qualified Actuary he worked in Australia for 11 months before going backpacking through asia. He decided that he liked Vietnam and Hanoi so got a job through the hostel.
He does the tours 6 days a week but then also gets a chance to stay on castaway island which i will talk more about later. He is not the only guide I met about I met 3 others and their stories are all pretty similar. They were backpacking through Asia went to Hanoi and the Hanoi backpackers did a trip to Ha Long Bay and enjoyed it do decided to stay. None of the are employed legally they are simply on tourist visas.

The trip from Hanoi to Ha long bay takes about 4 hours. The road is really bad and busy which makes for an interesting bus ride. I've mentioned it before but the rules of the road are non existent in Vietnam and we had a few near misses. It was raining when we arrived which was a break from the overwhelming heat. We got on a small long tail type boat which takes you out to a bigger boat waiting in the bay. We got onto the big boat were given our rooms. After that we were served lunch on the boat which was really good. Most meal times inI Vietnam involve rice. We had crispy pork some veg, potato chips. After that we were summoned to the deck of the boat to begin playing drinking games. The Hanoi Bacpacker tours have a reputation of having a party atmosphere and we were not to be disappointed. Steve said he had 4 drinking games he would teach us. The first one was really simply it involved heads and tails with a coin toss and depending on if you get the call correct or not you drink. Suffice to say you end of consuming quite a bit of beer fast. After a bit of drinking we all went for a swim in the bay which was good. It was then time for kayaking. We hopped into our kayaks and paddle through the bay and ended up on a hong with a cave. Quite interesting paddling in a kayak a bit tipsy. One guy had to much to drink and had to be taken back to the boat. Another game that applied right throughout was Buffalo. For those that don't know you aren't allowed to drink with your right hand. If you drink with your right hand and some catches you and says buffalo you have to down your drink. Whilst we were paddling some people were caught buffalo by Steve which was quite funny. Steve was very strong about this rule and would hassle you till your drink was done. From the cave we went to a small fishing village. By this time it was getting Dark so we left our kayaks at the village and got a boat back to our big boat in the bay. After a shower and a nice dinner it was time for drinking games again. The boat had happy hour on the cocktails with by two get one free. We played a game with a couple packs of cards where each card had a certain rule with people having to do different things. After all the stiff drinks it got pretty wild. We were broken up into two teams so when you picked a certain card it meant that you could challenge the other team. Steve obviously had played this game a couple times so made suggestions to each team about what we should dare the other team to do. Some of the dares involved thinks like drink fish sauce out the other teams belly buttons, Sadly I was captain I the team so ended up doing this. Not a pleasant experience but being spurred on by 15 other drink people I couldn't exactly say no. One dare was ludicrous which was to sniff salt out someone's else's bum which some guy ended up doing. Another one of the cards I think 8 meant the whole game stoppe d. You had to stand on your chair and tell one of your most embarrassing moments to everyone. Their we're a couple Americans aboard the boat and needless to say some of the stories were quite interesting. One guy told how he was caught having sex in a park by a granny. I had a good chuckle at a Spanish girl who in her broken English said " I like sex on beach. Once I get caught having sex on beach". What was remarkable about this was that on the Saturday night she ended up with a Dutch guy in full view of everyone having sex in the water. Clearly she was not lying.
Anyways after the drinking games the music was turned up a big party erupted on the boat. We all ended up at about 1 in the morning on there deck of the boat.

We were woken up early on the second day at 7:30am. Needless to say everyone had a massive hangover. Breakfast on the boat was not great eggs which looked like rubber and bacon which was so crunchy it had been so deep fried. There were some bananas so I opte for those. Time to change boats onto another boat which would take us to castaway island. Castaway island from my understanding is owned by Hanoi Backpackers. Its really just a beach with some huts, a bar and eating area, toilets and showers literally in the middle of nowhere in Ha log bay. The great thing about the day is that there are loads of activities organised. You can choose between wake boarding or tubing, do rock climbing, play volleyball, kayaking or just generally relax. It was really a good day on the island and everyone had a good time. lunch and dinner were served again which with both were 10 times better than the breakfast. Candice and I did the tubing which good fun although we were flung from the tube quite a few times an had some nasty wipeouts. Candice has a massive bruise on her leg and I ended up with a couple myself. All the time whilst you are on the boats in Ha long bay you spot the Jelly fish which are massive. Literally bigger than anything I have seen. My only worry after coming off the tube is that one would get hold of me but fortunately I was lucky enough not to.

During dinner in the evening I was not feeling great quite queasy and nauseas so went and had a lie down from 6:30 till about 9pm. After waking up I went back to the main area an drinking games were in full swing. The good thing is that our group had joined up with another group so some people were playing the games and others had opted out and were just having a quiet drink. I personally was still a bit worse for wear from the previous night so just took it easy. The next morning we were woken early again to make the long trip back through Ha long Bay and then another 4 hour bus journey back. We were essentially away for 3 days two nights and it was really good and we met a lot of people during our stay. I added a couple of them on Facebook an hope to stay in touch when we are back in London.

The party boat aside Ha long bay is also dubbed the 8th Natural wonder of the world. To be honest it's an extremely scenic place. I had seen lots of pictures online but actually being on the boats in the bay was a brilliant experience the place has a surreal kind of feel to it. I would highly recommend the rock hard rock long tour through Hanoi backpackers but if you dont do it do go to ha long bay as it worth seeing.





Halong bay crew



Ha long bay



Kayaking



Chilli sauce out the belly buttons



Party time




Castaway island


View from our beds at castaway island




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Location:Ha long bay