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This was the first country either of us had entered by long boat and we should have taken this as a sign of things to come, but no Denise then went and ordered Mekong River Fish for dinner...big mistake, food poisoning followed (her prayers were answered, a chance to lose weight at last!) Jenna in the mean time loved sharing a room with her, especially the toilet!
Despite the set backs we were still excited about the Gibbons experience. This was described as "a relaxing stay in a tree house in the Bokeo reserve with the opportunity to zip wire from tree house to tree house with a chef on hand to cook delicious meals and to see Gibbons." What we got...A treehouse that resembled a shack complete with annoying eco warrior canadian housemates who were scared of insects...why then people did you think you was going to enjoy living in the jungle?! and a hole for a toilet (not good with food poisoning!) The lesiurly walks consisted of full day hikes through the jungle, climbing what seemed to be mountains and wading through rivers, in what felt like 40 degree heat and the worst humity ever. We never thought it would be possible to sweat this much but we were encouraged by the fact that no matter how much we sweated, Dan sweated more! Thank god for Bans, our fellow non hiker who moaned with us the whole way round. We soon adopted the phrase that we are 'flashpackers not backpackers'. To make matters worse the food consisted of 'morning glory', sticky rice and cabbage for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were lucky one night when they threw in a bit of chicken. Thank god for Dave the ozzy volunteer who provided a bit of eye candy and lao lao wisky to numb the pain. Oh and we almost forgot, during the whole experience we saw no gibbons, just mosquitos and leaches, and Jen even got bitten by one...minging!
After the Gibbons we were looking forward to relaxing in the next town but we were faced with a dilema of how to get there. Jenna opted for the speed boat (which people have died on) where as Denise wanted to go on the slow boat to see the 'stunning scenery'...as recomended by Christopher Robin. As Denise gets what Denise wants, Jenna was dragged on along with Dan and Bans. When we steped on the boat the emotions ranged from shock, dissapointment and hatred towards Denise. But for jenna the final crush came when she discovered she had lost her headphones. A temper tantrum followed which became full out rage when the shampoo exploded in her bag! As well as this the seats consited a two planks of wood which a midget would struggle with for leg room. It was without a doubt the most uncomfortable mode of transport so far and we had to endure it for two days. Games of 20 questions, the name game and cards came into their own.
We eventually arrived in Luang Prabang, a lovely little French Colonial town, complete with bakerys, Spas and an amazing waterfall. Embracing our flashpacker status we took ourselves off to the spa for a massage, manicure and pedicure. it was amazing and the three of us were in heaven! Unfortunately Luang Prabang was tarnished by robbery number 5 where the b****** guesthouse actually went into our room and took Denise's Ipod and purse...and yet againmums were called in the middle of the night to deal with it. Jacqui, your a star!!
After this we headed down to Vang Vieng when Laos rose considerably in our estimations. A backpacker town we saw people from Chiang Mai, the slow boat and other stops along the way. They all had the same priorites as us...getting drunk on the tubes! A Laos genius came up with the idea of setting up bars along the river (well, we say bars, more like bamboo floor with a cool box full of beer and whisky for buckets), and getting people to 'tube' down and be pulled in as and when they wanted. Why oh why has the Thames not adopted this?! Needless to say we drank all day, had a break for an Indian and then carried on drinking. We lasted well considering we were having a drinking competion with 6 Irish lads (thankfully they didn't notice that for every bucket they had, we were sharing one!)
After this we had a quick stop in Vientiane (the capital). Nothing special to report here except we had to say bye to Bans who deserted us for the high life on the Thai islands (we miss you!) and we cant go without mentioning the buffet at the airport. We were a little annoyed when the flight was delayed but annoyance turned into pure joy when we had an all you can eat buffet, complete with sushi, laos, thai and BBQ, FREE wine and beer and ice cream all for $5!! We felt that by eating 4 meals each we got our monies worth and it meant we left Laos happy. Bring onthe "Good Morning Vietnam!"
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