South East Asia - Week Six
Well we are finally up to date with the blogs and now we should be back to writing about 'last week', hopefully. So with that in mind we are now in Laos, both poorly and having some time out to recover, also giving us more time to get organised with pics and blogs. More of that to come, so last week.....
Monday was the start of our hill tribe trek. We had a not so early start of 10am which was great for us. Arranged our bacon sarnies to take away (for strength of course) and met the guys in our group. 2 Dutch lads and 2 Italian men. We jumped in the back of the pick up truck and headed out to the long tail boat which would take us up river to an elephant camp. The boat trip along the river was amazing, it took a good hour and was a great way to travel. When we arrived at the camp there were loads of elephants on the shore waiting for us, and what food we may have brought! When we got out the boat, the first thing they did was show us to the giant snake they kept and tried to get us to have photos with it, for a fee of course. We declined but watch some of the group get it round their neck, it weighed a tonne! After this we fed the elephants with bananas and bamboo, Tom got snotted on and we both got left with unsightly snot marks on our clothes, lovely. We then got on one of these big boys and trekked around the village, all the time worrying that our seat would slip off because i was a good foot under Tom and it wasnt feeling too stable. As we were riding along, we saw the elephant in front of us dart to the side of the road, his driver then shouted and gave him a slap on the head. It seems that the elephant had seen some more bananas and made a dash for them, only to get told off. The elephant seemed to like his spank though as he got very 'excited' lets say! We couldnt help but giggle as the 2 men on the elephant were oblivious to what was dragging along the floor below them! After this was lunch and then another boat trip across the river (where the boat wouldnt actually start and we drifted for miles down river wondering why there were no paddles) to the van to continue the trip to where we would start out trek. We donned our walking boots and set off. On the way, Kai, our guide, whittled us some bamboo walking poles. I got the dry bamboo one, the 'girls' one because it was lighter, Tom had the giant one. It was also meant for defense if we say snakes, argh. The walking today took us through dry areas, then jungle, we stopped only for Kai to make banana leaf hobby horses and to catch shrimps and eat them, oh and to make a bamboo bong and smoke a cigarette from it. A bit further along the trail we stopped again for Kai to ask our names again, when it came to Toms name, he laughed and then taught us all a very well known Thai song about Tom... 'Tom Tom where you been last night, I love moi Thai, I like Patpong', which translated means i love my country and i like ping pong (the gogo bar variety, not the sport!) This song hit on and any silences were soon filled by someone blasting out a rendition.Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYXe7afFyzc As we neared the hill tribe, we stopped at the peak of the hill and looked down on to the village that we were staying in we then walked down and over to the family that we were staying with. As Tom and I were together, they wouldnt let us sleep in the dorm type room and moved out and gave us their double bed and private room. We kept saying it was ok but they wouldnt have any of it so we got the grand wing which was brill! Once out of our socks and shoes we cracked open the beers that we had carried up the hill and drank local tea whilst sitting on the balcony and watching the world, very humbled. After tea we went for a walk around the village, what was different here was that people were interested in you but wanted nothing from you. In Chang Mai by this point we would have had kids begging us to buy something from us, here everyone was going about their usual business, smiling at us and carrying on. We watched the kids, and adults practising for a competition they run at Chinese New Year with what we would call a spinning top, we also watched the doctor treating a man who was poorly. The doctor pinched all the sore parts of the man until he got bruising, this is believed to get the bad out. Back at our hut we finished a beer and had another and then joined our guide and host family in the kitchen for whiskey and cooking. We had loads for dinner which mad us all fl bad as the family still hadnt had theirs and we were sitting in their kitchen eating. We offered them to join us but they wouldnt. At dark we had a fir and sat around it drinking beer and chatting. The head of the house joined us, he couldnt understand a word we were saying but each time we laughed he laughed. He sat with us all night with the biggest of smiles on and very now and then would make ooooooh noises when he saw something of ours such as shoes that he thought were posh. This made Tom wet himself with laughter, the oooohhs and the aaaaahhhs. One of our group went off and found 'the doctor; who in fact is the drug supplier of the village. Until recently opium was legal and everyone in the village smoked it, however it is now illegal so the farming has stopped and dealers are treated with death sentences. In the middle of no where in a hill tribe however, there is still some. We went to the doctor and watched as he and his wife spent the night getting high. a couple if the group joined in and although it felt like a circus watching them we couldnt help it. After a while we went back for another beer! We slept in our posh wing which was the most comfy bed we had had in weeks, we woke in the night with chickens running about in our room.
Tuesday we woke early, due to the chickens and the cocking cockerels and went for a coffee around the fire. After breakfast we said our goodbyes. We had a photo taken with the villagers which was nice. The elder lady of the village looked like she had been on the whiskey since the morning and was all over the place, she fell into Tom and then was in her element when she saw who had caught her. She patted his chest and said sweet nothings to him, i think she liked him, big strong man. When she said goodbye to me she pinched my cheek and chatted away for a while. It was lovely to stay with the village and it was a good send off. It made you feel very welcome and very humbled. We trekked down with our new 'bamboo man' guide into a Chinese village where they grow local tea and exported tea. They are a lot richer there and have houses made of bricks instead of wood or bamboo. While we waited here for the shop to open for water, a trekking crazy dutchman with a multi coloured plaited beard and tiny orange shorts came past and stopped for a chat. We carried on our trek up another hill which was hot hot hot and stopped at the top for a rest break where we cut down papaya and some odd local fruit which makes you burp! We trekked for a while today until lunchtime, where we got to put into use our new bamboo cups and utensils that bamboo man had whittled on the way. It was amazing. Within 30 minutes we had a kitchen made from bamboo. Cooking pots full of river water and noodles, soup and veg boiling in them. Soup bowls, chopsticks, tea cups, banana leaf mats, everything. It was amazing and lunch tasted really good, especially the bbq pork, oooooh yeah, it was real pork, no added water, crispy and yum. After our adventurous lunch we walked to a waterfall which was beautiful and then further to another village where we said goodbye to our bamboo man. Trekking into the next village and there were 2 little kids showering until a hose and the moment we walked into the village they shouted 'falang' (foreigner). It was hilarious as these kids were probably about 3 and yet they knew the word. We are getting used to being called falangs though! We walked through the village and people came to greet us and have photos taken with us, then we left and walked from the village to the truck and off to the hot springs. The springs were hot so we didnt stay in long but after loads of trekking it helped the aching muscles. Driving back to town in the back of the pick up truck with the sun setting and the wind blowing we thought about what we had done. trekking with the tribes is amazing we would and we have recommended it to anyone. It is so humbling and shows what little is needed (in our western opinion) to be happy. Such simple lives and such big smiles. We had dinner in our guesthouse with 2 of the guys from our trek and a booked our slow boat through to Laos. Tonight was our last night in Thailand, it has been wicked, as always.
Wednesday, we started our way to Laos with James and Sophie. They were from our guesthouse and we hit it off the moment we got in the van to the boat ramp. The drive to the ramp was 2 hours and the boat journey 8 yet we talked the whole way. The slow boat to Laos starts in the north of Thailand and takes 2 days travelling along the Mekong River into Luang Prabang in Laos. We wanted to do it since we heard about it 2 years ago when we were last in Thailand so it had to be done. When we arrived at the ramp we had to get our departure stamps from Thailand and then get a longtail across the Mekong and into Laos where we got our visas (expensive) and then boarded our slow boat. Now first impressions of Laos were not good. The moment we handed over our passports at the immigration office, the officer decided to go on his tea break leaving us without our passport and waiting, talk about pick a time. We then walked up the street to get a tuk tuk to the slow boat pier, here some stranger told us we had to buy another ticket blah blah, big con again. We are now used to these cons but they are still frustrating, especially when the guy who we said no to took a photo of us. Imagination goes wild, will we get stopped getting on the boat? Argh!!! Well we managed to get the tuk tuk and get on the boat, all beit a lot later than we expected. As we were there late, we got the crappy seats. There were about 6 rows of seats which looked like they had been ripped from a mini bus and were the comfy seats, then the bench seats which looked and felt like a plank of wood on stilts with a very upright back, not comfy, not for 8 hours! There was sever seat envy. After about 30 minutes we got twitchy and needed to move, not that there was a lot of pace as they cram people in like sardines, people on the floor, on bags, everywhere. The scenery though was amazing. Sometimes you have to see through the pain and pinch yourself and realise where you are and what your doing...boating down the Mekong, bright sunshine, amazing scenery. Today was all on the boat, we mixed it up with cards on the kitchen floor at the back of the boat and some standing up then we arrived at our first stop, Pak Bara. The driver took ages to park the boat, because he was trying to cram it in a space that wasnt there. When we got off it was dark and you had to watch your bags as people tend to run off with them here never to be seen again. We thought we had lost Toms but found it and i had to fight someone off mine as he was trying to carry it away, cheeky buggar. There was an older man on the boat who had been sinking beers all day and was a little worse for wear, this became even more apparent when as he walked out of the boat, he fell into the water, bags and all. all he did was scream 'help me out, get me out', Tom grabbed the scruff of his neck and dragged him. Who had a beer?! We walked up the steep hill and arranged a room on the way, however when we arrived at the pace they tried to charge us more. It seemed that so far we were always trying to be conned. In the end we paid the price that we had originally agreed only and smuggled James and Sophie in to, naughty. James and Sophie didnt have any Lao currency so we were all trying to survive on what Tom and I had, which wasnt a lot. We went out for dinner and hoped that we could get back into the hotel without being noticed...we did. We shared the twin room for a cheap cheap night.
Thursday we had to get up early because we were on a mission for a comfy seat. James and Sophie made a run for it and unfortunately were spotted so Tom and I had to pay for them to, bum! Serves us right i guess. We grabbed breakfast and lunch for the boat and the boys ran ahead and grabbed nice seats. We got the last comfy seats and a floor space which Tom and I made a bed on. Today was loads more comfy. Drunkan wet man didnt learn his lesson and carried on drinking all day and even went on to whiskey in the afternoon, oh dear. We arrived finally in Luang Prabang about 6pm and walked around to get a good hostel for the night. It was nice to have a nice room, hot shower and get ready for a night out. James and Sophie were taking us for dinner as a thank you for helping them out. We had dinner, i had a local stew which was odd but nice and we sank a good few beers before moving onto a cocktail bar for cocktails and pool. In Laos, everything closes at 11pm so we were forced to leave and even given a plastic cup for our cocktails. We walked back to our hotel and then Tom and I crept out to get some munchies. We found a baguette stand and had a sweet chilli chicken baguette which was yummy. We met a group who were off to the bowling alley and wanted us to join them in the tuk tuk, only space was the roof and there want even enough space there so we decided that we would head back instead for laptop films, water and our munchies. We didnt see the film through, just the back of our eyelids.
Friday, we realised that our phone was missing. We had left it in Pak Bara the morning before and so we spent the morning sorting it out. Having drinks in free wifi places and trying to call to get our phone blocked. In England it was still the middle o the night so it wasnt easy but we did have another phone and sim that we could activate. We got there in the end (after a good few days!) We walked about the town and worked out our plan for Laos. We wanted to get a motor bike and travel around on that, however we planned a one way route and so we couldnt loop back to here. WE had our classic Indian for dinner and home.
Saturday we caught a tuk tuk to the Kuangsi waterfalls. They were stunning. There is a bear rescue centre there and we visited that before walking up to the waterfall via the swimming pools. At the top we walked up the side of the falls and over the top. The walk up was steep and we were having to climb on hands and knees, Tom with bare feet. We stood and the top and looked down, it was a long way! Then we walked down the other side where we passed a monk having a good phone call. We thought that monks were meant to be away from things like that and yet we have seen them on phones, taking photos, smoking, we need to research! On the way back we stopped at a smaller waterfall and pool where people were jumping off and swinging from the rope swing. i jumped off the waterfall but didnt dare the swing. Tom watched and joined me in the water, it was Freezing! After a freshen up we went for some lunch and then caught the tuk tuk back to town. WE walked though the food market but everything was covered in flies so didnt eat anything from there, was good to see though.We had dinner by the river tonight and although we ordered a steak and potatoes ( very western i know) we ended up with a stir fry and chips. It tasted like Lomo Saltado that we had in Peru, I went off that so was off dinner to. We wandered around the market but brought nothing, very well behaved then finished for the night.
Sunday, Valentines Day we were off to Vang Vien, the capital for tubing in Laos. We couldnt wait but we had a 7 hour mini bus journey ahead of us. We brought baguettes, a brew and an oreo cookie shake and then got on our tuk tuk to the mini bus station. Once again, another day on a bus, winding around, bumping up and down, stopping a few times for wee's and drivers lunches. Amazing scenery all the way. Laos is really mountainous, more so than we expected, green, cliff edges, big valleys. We finished bumping about in the afternoon when we reached Vang Vien. We caught a tuk tuk to our hostel, checked in, dumped bags and went for beer. Well one beer turned into 2 and as we hadnt had lunch we went for dinner because i was starting to feel sick, probably due to not eating all day. We found a nice place to eat and waited for our food. I was not feeling good at all, when our food arrived Tom said those deadly words 'baked beans' and that was it, i ran and was poorly. Tom had to eat both dinners and we had to make an early retreat back to our room. I felt better now though so felt like a lumoux, but it didnt stop there. We made a bed for me in the bathroom next to the loo and Tom worried about my temperature. It was food poisoning, defiantly. Tom tried to sleep but at 1am, he joined me in the bathroom and we swapped places, me in bed, him in the bathroom bed. Tom was sick as a dog to. What a great Valentines Day night!