Laos

Bye bye Thailand (until April) and the journey to Laos begins.

We got a night bus to Chiang Rai which is where the new bridge has just been built to cross over the Mekong river into Ban Houayxay, Laos. From door to door the journey took us about 17 hours to reach our new home.

Ban Houayxay was the most desolate town we had visited, with a sad looking street and very few people we were glad to have made our 'couple friends' otherwise known as Carrotsnail. Together that first evening we witnessed an 8 year old boy speeding around on a motorcycle. And had a very lovely dinner served to us by a cat and 2 small girls aged around 6 and 10 years old. This village kind of reminded me of Haz Zebbug in Malta which is where all my family is from, I was driving a car in a carpark at a very young age- Shame it made no impact at all on the level of skills I have driving now ha!

The gibbon experience.

The best thing I have ever done in my entire life. In Fact it was SO great, CHRIBELLA are committing themselves to creating a small movie formed of short videos of the entire 3 day journey. * watch this space *

7km trek majority of which was up hill, to our first zip line. Silly me assumed they would take you on a little test one to show you now to clip yourself on and to break and control yourself Ect. Then I remembered we are in Asia haha.

So the first zip line- happened to be the second highest one in the entire national park, 120 meters off the ground and 400 meters long, flying from one end which was a wooded area and you could do a little run onto the zip line not knowing what was about 10 seconds later flying into open air high above a valley and trees and a stream, I did feel vulnerable suspended so high with nothing around but your going so fast you don't really think about that all too much...it was the most spectacular view of them all, and you forget all fears and just simply enjoy yourself up there.

An afternoon of zip lines and then we made it home for the evening, our treehouse, 150 meters high above the surrounding trees, only to be entered and exited via zip line, with a shower to die for, over looking it all- the toilet however, being a traditional Asian hole in the floor, no matter how confident we now we're at using these things, having one pitched directly on the end in the corner with no barrier just a sheer drop was the scariest part!

The guide left us at about 5.30pm with our dinner and told us he would be back at 8am. So we are thinking, what the hell do we do now, sitting in this tree, no electricity, all 8 inhabitants strangers, with basic food no alcohol and a fear of tree rats. It's definitely comparable to 'im a celebrity get me out of here!'

We all slept really well both nights and by the third day I finally got the hang of the zip line, I didn't crash into the treehouse once, or cry, or scream or fly out of control. It's a shame it took 3 days for me to love the experience as I know Chris loved it from the start, and 3 days of loving it and enjoying myself whizzing around at high speeds, would have been way better then my 1 day, so at present im trying to convince Chris that we should go back!

When we made it back to the tribe village after three very strenuous days a large beer was needed, or 2 and then we happened to stop in a town for a 5 mins break on the way home that happened to be having a wedding, so we gatecrashed! And tried to find more beer! Failing finding beer Chris tried to bath a chicken! Then we were made to get back in the truck again lol.

Luang Prabang

We arrived here via night bus with carrot and snail. After the usual scuffle at the bus station upon arrival we finally managed to get a Tuk Tuk to the Center and searched for our guesthouse.

Vanvisa guesthouse although far from luxury has got to be up there with one of my favourites we have stayed in, Luang Prabang still has all the old French buildings and bakeries from when the French took over Laos, and this guesthouse was like a small mansion which the owners lived in aswel. It was literally like walking into someone's house, filled with family photos on the walls, cosy furnishing, a courtyard in the middle set with a family dining table, and upstairs where we stayed we had to walk through a library which reminded me of Belle when she firsts discovers the library in beauty and the beast, except maybe not as grand. But seeing as that movie was based in France, this guest house definitely followed suit.

This was the day I decided to become a vegetarian.

So we dumped our bags donned our swimsuits and went to the pool for a much needed chill day...although it ended up more like a pool party it was nice to just have a day off from travelling and hiking and temples.

Kaung si Falls - (the blog photo)

6 waterfalls in 5 weeks and we thought we had seen it all. But this place is like something out of a movie. It's so beautiful it looks fake.

We hired mopeds to do the 32km journey out of town to find the falls, I obviously didn't drive and held on so tight to the back of the ped that my hands got cramp (much like the few attempts I've ever done to drive on the m23 to Gatwick airport)

As we walked into the national park there was a bear rescue Center founded by an Australian lady, we arrived at midday which was feeding time and it was so nice to see all the Bears up close and great to hear about such a lovely project happening throughout Asia. These bears were saved from farms where they were kept in small cramped cages and slept and ate in there own urine and poop whilst a wound that went directly to there stomach was kept open for as long as the bear would survive collecting bile for chinese medicines.

After the Bears it was a short walk to the bottom of the first fall. The pool was crystal blue waters and absolutely huge, we spent a lot of time here swimming and jumping in not realising the size of the falls. Infact every 10 meters and round another bend we walked there was another pool that mirrored the beauty of the first.

There were around 6 pools in total all with falls cascading into them and then the main attraction a 60 m tall waterfall with water rushing down into a huge pool which you were unable to actually swim in due to the force of the water hitting the bottom.

We decided to do the 60 meter climb to the top of the waterfall- there were stairs there on both sides so it was fairly easy, we took the left set of stairs. Just before the top tier we noticed there was a hidden pool overlooking it all- with no stairs, signs or people, we decided to ditch following the stairs and reared right directly into the falls. We found a dry tree, dumped our clothes and rock climbed in the waterfall for about 10 meters until a relatively flat surface was found. I was Actually first up and leading the way which is extremely out of character as I'm such a scaredy cat but I was so excited at what we had found I was almost running when we got to the top.

What was there in front of us was the most beautiful creation from Mother Nature I have ever seen.

With still about 20 meters of water above us falling into this naturally made infinity pool over looking the entire set of crystal blue pools we had been seeing and swimming in below and Views of the jungle and mountains in the distance, we were all gob smacked at what we had found, and the best part, we had the whole thing to ourselves! There were several points we could see people below looking at us there and attempting to get to where we were, all of which failed, they would see our clothes and stand at the bottom and the looks on the faces was almost like- there must be another way, surely they haven't climbed directly into the waterfall- but that was infact we did! Ha.

Another thing I really enjoyed about this town is the street vendors and the yummy cheese omelette baguettes every morning for breakfast. The women making these sandwiches seemed to work 24/hours no matter what time you would come past they were there smiling and laughing. That evening as we stumbled home just before the midnight curfew the entire town has we stopped so carrot could get a crepe and watched a Laos man get his choice of baguette- the filling being half a can of condensed milk! Now I've seen some people eat some odd things, bugs of all kinds on menus but that has got to be the strangest most horrific baguette I ever had the pleasure of viewing this lady put together haha.

Vang Vieng

We arrived via mini bus which was about a 6 hour journey. Up and over a mountain, God knows how many twists and turns there were but we saw some beautiful sights along the way, and for any one that watches game of thrones we saw what looked like the setting for 'casterly rock' I know I've said this a lot but honestly it was so beautiful it looked fake.

We arrived around lunchtime and then came the search for a bungalow on the river- except since the town was closed down in 2012 due to many deaths on the river doing the famous 'tubing' none of the river bungalows seemed to exist anymore. Instead of quaint basic bungalows stood high rise hotels, no longer a hippy town, more a chinese tourist spot. Snail the girl we were with had come before the closure and re invention of the town and was describing to us how much it had changed. It seemed a terrible shame.

We found a bungalow with a beautiful view- but it was attached to a hotel so was still quite flush and an upgraded imitation of what there used to be.

The next morning we hired bicycles and began our 7km cycle to Tham Phu Kham Cave and Blue Lagoon. Sounded like an easy task, but it was off road biking, without mountain bikes. What should have been a short journey took over an hour, 31 degrees heat on a dirt track with several inclines on a push bike is bloody hard work.

When we finally arrived I was devastated to see the beautiful blue lagoon of which I had seen amazing photos off full to the brim of tourists, no longer tranquil and private this place was like a fun fair. Screaming, shouting and crowds. We opted not to join in, it was like a seen out of Takishi's castle.

We headed straight for the cave, put on our head torches and climbed through. The cave was so deep you could easily have got lost. At one point we turned off our torches and it was pitch black, like the darkest space I have ever been in. There were lots of sheer drops as well, so far down you couldn't see to the bottom.

When you looked at the rocks deep in the cave they were sparkling, it looked like diamonds. After about an hour and some climbing and pretty questions moments on how to get out I saw a glimpse of daylight and literally ran like I had been trapped for years. Ha. It's pretty clear caves aren't my favourite!

On the way home we stopped at a bat cave and at sunset everyday a river of millions of bats come pouring out ready to feed. It was really interesting as a hawk had a nest at the top of the mountain and U could see it circling just before sunset ready to prey on the bats. Proper David Attenborough stuff right there!

So the famous tubing... For those that don't know tubing is where you are given a rubber ring and you basically float down the river that runs between all the mountains and caves and the town. In all its glory there were 30 bars lining the river with rope swings, zip lines , slides and balconys over hanging the river. In high season however the river is obviously very shallow due to no rain so this was how all the deaths were happening, alcohol and slides into a river up to your knees! People jumping off balconys and breaking there legs. This is why it was closed down. Now there are 8 bars and without stopping it would take you 2 and half hours to get from the first bar to the last. But obviously we stopped at every bar and we were lassoed in by staff. I'll some up a very fuzzy day for us quickly.

£1 tiger whisky 70cl for breakfast. 20 person mud fight in bar 2- the mud was deeper then the river. Chris riding a cow. Hoola hooping in a shower on a basket ball court. Chris attaching himself to the chinese tourist kayaks to get a quicker ride. Then utter darkness in the river Chris and I lost eachother, I'm just screaming Chris Chris and then after about 10 mins from the faint distance all I can hear is 'Bella' so funny he was just sitting in his tube on the side of the river in pitch black hoping I would come... Everyone else had got back on the Tuk Tuk to go back to the town and there he is just sitting there with his cheesy grin waving!

The night ended with Chris passed out face down in bed at 8pm and me going out for some pasta and more drinking but only making it until 9.30pm

The next day we had a minibus booked at 8.30am and Chris was in the worst state I have ever seen him. Probably Something to do with the fact that he bought a bottle of that whisky at bar 3 and was drinking it straight! Clever. After some persuasion I managed to get him up, clothes, packed and fed and we were on our way to the capital.

Vientiane- the capital

Honestly, not much to do here at all, despite being the capital it seemed eerily quiet. And strangely full of indian restaurants. We had to go to the Vietnamese embassy to apply for our visa which was the main reason for visiting the capital. After that we went for an Indian and strolled through the night market before an early night ahead of our long coach trip to Vietnam the next day!

Next stop Hanoi- Vietnam X