Sabaidii (Hello in Loa)
We arrived at the Thai/Loas border crossing after leaving Chiang Sean in a Tuk-Tuk which we shared with a Chinese guy who we shared all our Chinese stories with on the 1 1/2 hour journey. Arrived at Chiang Kong on the Thailand side of the Mekong River to get our passport stamped and buy a boat ticket for the crossing over to Huay Xia in Loas. It was all very laid back surprisingly with our passports being stamped no problem not even checking if the passport photos etc matched who we actually were. Got on the boat for the 1minute boat trip across the Mekong and onto Loas territory. Huay Xia immigration was also very straight forward with an arrival form then payment of $35 US and granted a 30day visa on the spot.
We had no real plan once we were in Huay Xia and we didn't look like we were the only ones. There were quite a number of guys shouting out for boat trips and taxis to various parts of Loas and we eventually chose to not to stay in Huay Xia. There wasn't much to do so we thought no point wasting any time or money and to just get to the next place on our rough itinerary which was Luang Nam Tha.
We bought our private mini-bus tickets for £5.00 for the 4 hour journey to LNT. We along with two Americans from San Francisco were the only ones on the bus so had plenty room to lie down and stretch our legs on the very windy, bumpy journey. Right from the off we kinda knew we would like the Americans as were both around our age and seemed like nice people. The majority of the 4hour journey we spent talking about our travels and they had just spent 1year in Australia so have given us lots of info and if we have any questions to just facebook them.
We arrived in Luang Nam Tha around 3pm so the 4of us went to find a hotel where we found a very nice cheap clean place right on the main street. The 2 Americans (Matt and Cassie) were tired so decided to have a siesta while ME and B decided to go and try organize something to do the following day. We checked out a couple of places and activities but the prices were a little high so we decided to go back to Hotel to think about it. By this time Matt and Cassie were up and then we agreed to do something jointly the following day thus making it cheaper for all of us. We booked a Full Day activity which entailed Half Day worth of trekking in the famous Luang Nam National Park and Half day cycling around the tribal villages surrounding the area.
So it was an early night for our day trip the following day. We left the hotel at around 8am in a tuk-tuk with our guide Air who spoke very good English and headed for the National Park. The treck was quite tough, unlike the Indian one we did in Periyar; we were walking through the jungle not a dirt track. This made things little bit difficult clambering through trees but we enjoyed it none the less. On the way we didn't really see alot apart from a small black snake that B spotted which we were told by the guide is very very poisonous. At one point when we stopped for a break we noticed a few of us had leeches on our shoes/legs, think that freaked B out a wee bit haha. After about 3/4 hours of trekking we finished and had some lunch that we ate from Banana leafs and were now ready for some cycling. The tuk-tuk came back and dropped off our bikes for us so we could cycle the 22kms back to Luang Nam Tha town.
The cycling was really good as the gradient of the roads were not too tough but we knew we had a long way to go so were doing it in a nice pace. Along the way we stopped at a Loas Tribal Village where we walked about and were told about the local way of life by Air. We carried on our way for quite a distance where by this time we were all complaining about our butts aching from sitting on the concrete seats lol. We went off the paved road and were now cycling through a pot-hole infested road which was to be like this for the remaining 10K or so. We stopped off at one more village along the way where we got a tour of one of the local Laos houses. Most of the houses are on stilts, we were told this is to keep the rats out. We were then introduced to some of the family that live in the house and they gave us all some "Laos Laos" to try. Which is rice whiskey, although this isn't served in shops or anything, the locals just make it from rice and yeast. After one shot each we were all coughing haha, it had a fair burn to it and when we asked how much % alcohol it is, they just shrugged. But Jonny being the true Scotsman he is couldn't be happy with just one shot of this rocket fuel, he had to have a second haha.
We then continued our way back to LNT, thankfully it was only another 15 minutes on the bike. When we got back we all booked a minivan for the following morning to Nong Khiew, Matt and Cassie weren't stopping here but the minivan was going to take them a further hour to their destination.
That night we were pretty tired from our day out so we went down for some food and a couple drinks and Jonny found the Man U game on our TV so he was happy.
We leave tomorrow morning for Nong Khiew nice and early. First impressions of Laos are good, cant wait to see more.
J+B