Are we there yet?

Hello from Savannakhet. This is our last stop in Laos before we dart across the border to Vietnam. We arrived here after a long, ugly hot bus ride from Vientiane. It was suppose to take 6 hours but wait a sec... This is Laos! It actually took about 10 hours and we stopped to pick up every single person along the road looking for a ride. The bus was not full so they were doing there best to fill it. We also got a flat tire which took about 30 minutes to fix. It must of been like 40 degrees outside and we were dripping in sweat through most of the journey.



It got even worse when we arrived at our "destination". We got off the bus when the driver told us to, saying "Savan, Savan". They offloaded our bags and pointed toward the street. The bus then got back on the road and continued south as its final destination was Pakse further south. Initially we thought we were in Savannakhet and we were tossing as to whether we should walk or take a tuk tuk into town. Normally in south east asia, if you look stupid and have lots of bags somebody will eventually come up and offer to take you somewhere. This rule didn't seem to apply as it seemed like nobody cared about us. We approached a tuk tuk and he started talking lao and showed no interest in taking us anywhere and then he left. Luckily a guy driving by said "Savannakhet?" and we said yeah and quickly got in to the back of the truck. After driving for about 25 minutes, we realised that the bus just dumped us at some other bus stop that was probably over 20km away from Savannakhet!



Anyway, this is rather ordinary here and we are happily in Savannakhet at the moment. There really isn't anything to do so we're just taking it easy before we go to Vietnam. Its pretty quiet here and there aren't many tourists at all. Maybe like 6 of them. The town is filled with old French buildings that have seen better days. Tomorrow our bus leaves for Dong Ha, Vietnam. Not sure what we're going to do next but we'll figure it out soon. - Uriah and Derek

Happy and funny for you!

Let me pick up where Uriah left off. The day after our tubing excursion we decided to get some mountain bikes and check out the many mountains and caves surrounding Vang Vieng. The place is packed with them and the landscape is quite beautiful. We got some Thai made bikes and by the end of the day, we rode back into town with sore asses as the unsealed road are pretty rough. It turns out that those things that look like shock absorbers on the handle bars are fake and just make the bikes look hardcore when really they are junk. My bike would change gears on its own and Uriah's seat had a mind of its own.

Overall, the caves we visited were pretty cool. Along the main road, there were many signs advertising each of the caves with bold promises like "thereisabeautifullagoonforswimmingandfishing" and that sort of stuff. We soon realized that most of the caves have identical signs just to lure tourists and often don't deliver whats promised. Naturally there is some sort of small admission fee to each cave and though cheap they do add up.. No ticketing counters though, usually just some guy half alseep in the middle of a field under some shade handing out little cutout paper tickets.



Tha Pouk ham was the biggest cave that we visited and we spent a good 40 minutes roaming around in the cave trying to reach the end. And we did. One cave we visited had some tight spots to go through that made me wish I was a little smaller. That night we headed out to some of the bars and at one we got slipped the "special menu" with all sorts of illegal no-no's. The picture below is a little blurry but I took it in a rush as I didnt want to look like a narc.



We heard around town that you could kayak between Vang Vieng and Vientiane (the capital city, 3.5 hours away) rather than taking a boring old bus. We somehow thought kayaking all day was a good idea, especially after a day of exhausting mountain biking so we signed up with our Irish amigos Fergus/Anna for the next morning. It pissed rain that night and didnt stop until we were getting ready to leave for the kayaking trip the next morning. Overall, it was a fun trip... Uriah and I had some teamwork breakdowns trying to paddle our 2-man kayak during the first leg but we smoothed things out and finished strong. We did one good-sized rapid pictured below. The guide told us to paddle as hard as we could through it but we opted to hold on for dear life and try not to loose our ores. Along the river we stopped at a point where people do cliff jumping. It didn't look too high from down below but when I got up there (8-10m high) I nearly made poo in my shorts. Still, I jumped and the small headache I had all day turned into a throbbing one 10 seconds later. Lots of fun though! We ended up kayaking 12km (4hours) and we took a sawngtheaw ride for the remaining 100km into town. Another tough day.




So now were in Vientiane, the nations capital and its a pretty decent city but it's stinkin' hot. Like 40 degrees hot. Here's a few shots around town. Vientiane has a lot of European flavour to it and there are lots of nice places to eat. We saw the two main monuments including Patuxai (the one that looks French) and That Luang (the one thats bling bling). Cool. We're just hanging around and we'll be heading south Savannakhet on Monday. That's our last stop in Laos before we crossover into Vietnam. Til then - Derek

Tubing the Nam Song river, Vang Vieng

Yesterday, Derek and I did the most popular thing to do in Vang Vieng which is floating in a tractor tyre inner tube down the Nam Song river. Lonely planet forgot to mention about the animal turds or perhaps human turds floating along the river with you. Occasionally, a handful gets inside the tube and you just accept to pick it up and throw it away from you. Disgusting i know. Believe it or not this was not the highlight of our day.



The day starts off you paying $4US for a whole day of fun and then being driven by the local tuk tuk driver to the top of the river with a few stops along the way- engine problems - tuk tuks are old!... As you float along you do get greeted by Vang Vieng's blessings that are its amazing limestone karst formations, jungle, and local river life. Some locals have made things easier for those who want to drink while floating along the way. The locals have set up bars ("refreshment stops") along the river banks and if you wish to stop they gladly pull you in with a home made fishing rod thing.... The bar owners have also created a home made trapeze swing thing off high, unstable platforms. It was quite scary witnessing people swinging off this and landing in a not so deep river as its dry season.

Things you could order include mushroom shakes and happy garlic bread which, naive me wanted to try not knowing exactly what "happy meant..... I didn't try it of course. Drugs are well, kind of easy to buy in Laos. I have however, fallen in love with the Lao cocktail bucket which is a mixture of whisky, lao lao (local cheap rice whisky), coke, M-150 (like red bull) and lemon. Surprisingly, I can drink the whole bucket on my own. (Proud of me Kim?).



The day was fun and tiring even though you just float along for about 6 hours. A local Lao girl at 8 years of age somewhat ruined the end of the day for us. We were close to the end of the trip and this girl pulled us in to the shore as the water was too shallow to move anywhere. We were thinking "how kind, give her some money for a tip" so Derek thought 6000Kip was generous and was waiting to hear a 'thank you' of some sort but instead the little girl demanded 10 000 kip! Brushed us off when we said no. Kids so annoying! Lesson learned... Never ever give kids money unless you've bought something.

Tomorrow we will go cave exploring.....
-Uriah

Luang Prabang

Yo,



After the Gibbon Experience, we joined the flock of travellers heading south by boat on the Mekong to Luang Prabang. We took the slow boat down which is a 2 day journey with an overnight stop in Pak Beng. The other options are taking a very small and uncomfortable speedboat or a faster private tourist boat that both get you there in a day. Things went fairly smooth and we got to see some nice scenery along the Mekong. Pak Beng is a notoriously seedy place and I definetly felt it in the air. Lots of little kids trying to sell you dope and somewhat dishonest guesthouse operators making large claims about how good there place is and then falling short when you go to check it out. Still, after the initial guesthouse scramble, Uriah and I managed to find a safe and comfortable place to rest. We also found a good place to eat and we tried out some Buffalo Larb.



Day 2 of the boat trip went well and we found ourselves in Luang Prabang before sunset. We found a nice guesthouse room for $7 and checked out the city. Luang Prabang is very small and is filled with Wats (temples), Monks and old French architecture. It's a surprising city that doesnt really feel that asian at all. Too clean, not stinking hot and smells too good. It was voted the best preserved town in south east asia and from what we've seen so far, thats accurate. The food selection is good and Uriah is loving the night market. She landed a good deal last night on bedsheets and we'll be lugging around some extra weight until we get to Vietnam.



A couple days ago we headed out to Kuang Si waterfall which is the nicest waterfall I've ever seen. It's not just one big one, rather its a series of small waterfalls, each with its own swimming hole. We spent some time swinging off vines and jumping into the water. A good day. It's also the Lao New Year holiday season at the moment and it's kind of a water festival where everybody throws water on each other and liberally engages in water gun warfare. We've been partaking in the festivities and unfortunately have been on the recieving end for most of it. We've walked home totally soaked the last couple days and it probably wont stop until we leave.



Yesterday we headed to a local market where it was all out war on the streets. Any body driving down the road, whether on a motorbike, bicycle, tuk tuk or whatever was getting buckets of water splashed on them. Normally being foreigners we are on the recieving end of those buckets but we got into it nice and thick when some shopowner let us get involved with the bucket and pal.. If you can't beat them, join them - Derek

P.S I have been recently introduced to the Digital Macro feature on my camera. Please join me in enjoying this shot of an ant. I spent almost an hour taking pictures of small creatures on our waterfall trek forgetting to enjoy the actual waterfall. Dont' understand why Derek hid this DM feature from me all this time.Did not enjoy my omelette it was filled with far too many bean sprouts and shallots

-Uriah

The Gibbon Experience

Hi all,

A lot as happened since our last entry. Lets start at our border crossing from Chiang Khong, Thailand to Huay Xia, Laos. Stayed at a guesthouse in Thailand overlooking the Mekong River and Huay Xia. Derek and I enjoyed a surprisingly good mexican food dinner in Thailand overlooking Laos that night. The next morning we caught the 30 second ferry crossing over the Mekong and into Laos.



On the 5th we headed to The Gibbon Experience head office and met the other eleven travellers doing the same trip as we were called " the Classic Experience." Hopped on a truck for a couple hours and enjoyed the scenery of villages, local Lao people's every day activities, dogs chasing pigs and chickens waiting to cross the road. We stopped at a little town called Baan Donchai which had a gas station consisting of barrels of gas with some sort of manual pump, three little stores and 1 guess house with two rooms for rent. Truck ride took another 1 hour to reach the main village at the beginning of the Bokeo Nature Reserve.



After a 1 hour trek in the reserve we finally reached our very first zip line to reach treehouse one. Had a quick briefing and a quick snack, divided ourselves into 3 groups of 2, 6 and 5 people. We were the group of 6 people who stayed in treehouse one for the first night and treehouse three the second night. Our group consisted of an Irish couple who are super funny, an English man who reminded us of Tarzan or George of the Jungle, a Canadian guy and us.

We had an interesting first night where it started to thunder with a little bit of lightening and strong wind. At 2am one of the guides on the ground had shouted "come down, no good" and signalled us to evacuate immediately and with no hesitation we put on our harnesses and zipped down to safety in pitch black darkness. We stayed in the kitchen shelter where the guides sleep and cook our meals. We shared the shelter with a monkey and an asian baby black bear. After 15 minutes the storm had passed and we were able to return to our treehouse. This was a bonding experience for us all.




The Gibbon Experience is by far one of the most unique, exciting and well worth it experience Derek and have shared in our lives. The trekking often made me question why i was doing this especially the trek after visiting treehouse 5. By far the most strenuous trek walking directly up hill for almost an hour. Visiting treehouse 5 is a must, as it is the newest, most remote and has a great view of the reserve. You also get to zip the longest line of 400m. Zipping down from treehouse 5 however was the most scary as it is a steep drop down.

We are now in Luang Prabang and will possibly stay here for a week. Blog you then.

- Uriah...

p.s Yesterday was our 1 Year wedding Anniversary. So happy anniversary to us. We spent it in a 4 dollar guesthouse and on a 9 hour slow boat ride. How luxurious.

Overnight train, Good morning Chiang Mai

On the 29th we flew from Phuket airport to Bangkok's old Don Muang airport. We walked towards Don Muang railway station because the lady at the information booth at the airport told us we could walk it. The walk was a little longer than we thought and after walking for about 20 minutes in the heat we decided to hop on a taxi. We got to the train station and conveniently managed to get tickets for the 6:46pm train to Chiang Mai, which was leaving in 20 minutes. Got some snacks and climbed aboard. The train was very comfortable and a great experience for both of us.



We arrived at Chiang Mai railway station at 7am and very quickly got talking with a tour company/ booking office about where we were going to stay in Chiang Mai. One thing led to another and rather than checking into a guesthouse, we booked ourselves in for a 2-day hill tribe trek through northern Thailand. We dropped off our bags, had a cold shower and then it was off on our journey travelling first by truck, foot, elephant then bamboo raft.




At our first stop, we found ourselves showering underneath Mong Ka waterfall at Doi Suthep National Park and shortly after this shower we saw some natural hot springs before commencing our 4 hour trek through the mountainous terrain of northern Thailand to a Karen hill tribe village. Our group enjoyed a sunset bath in the Mae Ping river, while Susin (our guide) and Gee (our group porter) began preparing dinner. Late in the evening, Susin introduced us to a thai drinking game called Ping Pang Pong- where losing a round means you have to skull some thai moonshine which is made from sticky rice and sometimes corn. Its kind of like Japanese Saki and tastes like a smooth tequilla.



Our long house lodging was "comfortable". All 10 of us slept in one big hut that had mosquito nets per couple of mats. We were all greeted by the many noisy roosters (the tribe had) early in the morning. Green tea and coffee was waiting for us in the morning as well as toast, jam and scrabbled eggs. Susin our guide, however let us try their thai breakfast of sticky rice and fish soup and chili sardines because we told him that we are rice eaters.


8:30am at camp 5 elephants and 5 mahouts arrived from the jungle and got ready to take us on 1hr 30mins elephant trek through the river and jungle. The best trek we've had by far. They treat the elephants with a lot of freedom and respect here compared to some of the other places we've had elephant rides. The elephants just freely walk their course and really don't require any guidance from the mahouts. In fact, our mahout got off the elephant and went for a swim leaving Uriah and I in control. We just let the elephant do what it wanted to!!

Further down the river, Gee and Susin got our rafts ready for a 3 hour bamboo raft journey to visit another 2 villages. Within this hill tribe experience we have met some wonderful people from Poland who are more crazy then we are in terms of travelling,a lovely French couple, great English couple and the quiet yet friendly Swedish couple. Chaing Mai is a must to visit and is a great place to visit if you're looking for something more than just beaches. For some reason the Thai people up here seem a bit more friendly and relaxed. Tomorrow we will go and visit a Long Neck Tribe, and the next day make our way up to Chiang Khong from where we cross by ferry to Laos. Here another exciting journey begins!

-Uriah and Derek

Similan Gallery

Hi people,

Above are some shots we took during our Similan Island adventure. A few facts- Similan in Malay means nine, and logically the Similan Islands consist of 9 magnificent pristine islands. Nothing but mother nature's gift to us. You can only stay on one of the islands, either camp or one resort. Absolutely loved this experience, loved the people who looked after us and enjoyed the company of people from all walks of life that were on board with us. We found a new love - diving and marine life. Enjoy!

-Uriah and Derek

ps. I went to the dentist and they said my tooth is okay and the problem may be with my sinus cavity above the tooth. Happy my tooth was not in danger of exploding or cracking but Im bummed because the problem isnt really solved. Hopefully it works itself out but if it doesn't...? - Derek