So, I'm lying in a hammock on a tranquil sunny island in the middle of the Mekong and armed with nothing more than a limited use of the English language and my questionable jokes I will attempt to write a blog that is worthy of this beautiful country. Here goes.....
We crossed into Northern Laos 2 weeks ago at the Chang Khong/Huay Xai border crossing. After one night in the quiet border town we boarded a slow boat (2 days) bound for Luang Prabang. The scenery in Northern Laos is up there with the best we have seen on our trip. We spent a total of 14 hours on the boat with it's very unforgiving wooden seats but it was well worth the pain in the arse! The landscape in the second day was even more beautiful than the first as the Mekong winds it's way through rugged limestone peaks and karst outcrops.
In the late afternoon we reached world heritage listed Luang Prabang where Buddhism reigns supreme (Yay! More Wats!). Situated on a raised tongue of land that stretches into the muddy confluence of the Khan and Mekong rivers, Luang Prabang is a sleepy French-Lao town where everybody wears a smile. We spent 3 days there but thinking back now its hard to remember exactly what we did with them. We went to a big ol' waterfall one day complete with plunge pool, rope swing and jumping rocks. The rest of the time we spent walking/cycling around enjoying the ambiance and majestic views. We also met back up with Gary, Neil and Rosie and met a whole bunch of new people who we would spend a good deal of time with whilst in Laos.
After a 5 hour bus ride down highway13 the jagged karst pedestals of Vang Vieng loomed into view, shadowing a bend in the West bank of the Nam Song river, a tributary of the Mekong. Many would say that Vang Vieng is over touristy and, to be fair, many would be right. However, it is a damn cool spot to enjoy the scenery and chill out for a few days. We spent 6 nights there, went tubing twice, did some rockclimbing and hired motorbikes to see the surrounding area. Tubing, for those who don't know, is a cracking 'sport' which involves sitting in a giant inner tube, floating down the river and stopping off at the odd bar or 9. Great fun. Highly recommended.
After Vang Vieng it was on down to the Laotian capitol, Vientiane. Lacking the beautiful landscape of the North, and having been virtually destroyed in 1828 by order of Rama III of Siam, Vientiane hasn't got a great deal to offer tourists. So after staying there one night (we went bowling. I was rubbish) we caught a night bus down to the market city of Pakse- a stop off point for visiting the Bolaven plateau. We arrived into Pakse in the early morning and set about finding a room and hiring a motorbike for the day. By 10 o'clock we were merrily on our way to the Bolaven plateau, a beautiful claw-shaped highland fortress of forests, rivers and waterfalls.
From Pakse it was a short sawngthaw and boat trip down to Don Det where you find me in my hammock. Don Det is just one of the Si Phan Don (four thousand islands), a 30 mile section of the Mekong littered with inhabited islands. Here the river widens to almost 9 miles before narrowing again at the Khone falls. This is our 4th (and final) day on the island where we have mostly been relaxing. We are a good way from most of the guesthouses and barring the early-rising cockrells it is veritable halcyon.
Well, there you have it. That wasn't as long as I thought it would be and is just about as good a job as I can do I'm afraid. For a more informative and informed view of the Indochina region I recommend The Indochina chronicles by Phil Karber. Or better yet, go there yourself. Seriously, you won't be disappointed.
Tomorrow we head back to Thailand for a bit of shopping before flying to Hong Kong on the 26th. Right, I'm off to check the internet to find out what the England Croatia score was.
Bummer. Ah well as a wise woman once told me "it's only football".
xx Matt xx
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Sunday, 4 November 2007
We are family
I've got all my sisters with me. Well that is to say I did have. We also had our parents with us. This of course means that most, if not all, of my blog audience was here to witness the events of this blog and so I shall keep it short and sweet.
5 Nights in Bangkok
And you've got a whole lot of worldly oyster action on the go. It also gives you time to do a bit of online job hunting/applying which took up the couple of days we had there before meeting up with the family. We had one day with the folks in Bangkok for which we had left the sightseeing- boat trip, King's palace and Wat no.'s 11494-11528 (we've seen a fair few of them now)-that said Bangkok has it's fair share of sparkly and more interesting Wats.
Then it was on up to Phitsanaluk for a couple of nights and a day trip to the historic park of Sukhothai -the original capitol of the first Thai Kingdom. We hired bicycles to explore the area and had a thoroughly enjoyable day in doing so.
The life of Pai
From Phitsanaluk we headed North to the much talked about Chiang Mai. To be honest I was a little disappointed with Chiang Mai, I mean fair enough it's got a shed load of Wats to visit and a village nearby which seems fairly good at making pretty umbrellas (ellas, ellas), but apart from that its nothing to rave about.
Pai on the other hand is. Set in the mountains with clean crisp air, Pai has a lively and yet chilled ambiance and activities that could see you entertained for a month. S adly we had but 4 nights. Still we found a 2 day trek/white water rafting trip that was just the ticket. The first day we headed into the jungle to a camp on the river. After a quick dip in said river Myself, Em and Dad went to a nearby cave with Jacka (our guide). I was expecting to just walk around in a cave a bit admiring a few stalagmites and stalactites, so I was pretty pleased when it turned out to be more pot-hole stylee caving. Tho as I was squeezing through gaps I thought I might not be able to make it back through, I couldn't help but think about the people who drowned in Thai caves a few weeks ago. All adds to the excitement tho hey.
The second day was white water rafting. Although the rapids weren't as wild as they could have been it was a really fun day which included a spot of cliff jumping as well as some damn hot hot springs. At this point I should big up my Mum for going white water rafting as she was a tad scared and to be fair you don't see a whole lot of 54 year old women white water rafting.
The next day we hired motorbikes to explore the surrounding area, take in the views and get hugged by an elephant (see photos). Sadly that was all we had parsley sage rosemary and thyme for before going back to Chiang Mai to see M, D + L off for their week down in railey beach.
I went to Tha Ton and all I got was this lousy blog title
From Chiang Mai Em and I headed North to Chiang Dao. The plan had been to do some walking but the elements, they say no. So we looked in the big ol' caves a bit and did a load of reading. Today we went to Tha Ton, decided not to stay, turned back and came to Chiang Rai which is where I am typing this now. We're off to Laos tomorrow. Pip Pip, Cheerio.
xx Matt xx
5 Nights in Bangkok
And you've got a whole lot of worldly oyster action on the go. It also gives you time to do a bit of online job hunting/applying which took up the couple of days we had there before meeting up with the family. We had one day with the folks in Bangkok for which we had left the sightseeing- boat trip, King's palace and Wat no.'s 11494-11528 (we've seen a fair few of them now)-that said Bangkok has it's fair share of sparkly and more interesting Wats.
Then it was on up to Phitsanaluk for a couple of nights and a day trip to the historic park of Sukhothai -the original capitol of the first Thai Kingdom. We hired bicycles to explore the area and had a thoroughly enjoyable day in doing so.
The life of Pai
From Phitsanaluk we headed North to the much talked about Chiang Mai. To be honest I was a little disappointed with Chiang Mai, I mean fair enough it's got a shed load of Wats to visit and a village nearby which seems fairly good at making pretty umbrellas (ellas, ellas), but apart from that its nothing to rave about.
Pai on the other hand is. Set in the mountains with clean crisp air, Pai has a lively and yet chilled ambiance and activities that could see you entertained for a month. S adly we had but 4 nights. Still we found a 2 day trek/white water rafting trip that was just the ticket. The first day we headed into the jungle to a camp on the river. After a quick dip in said river Myself, Em and Dad went to a nearby cave with Jacka (our guide). I was expecting to just walk around in a cave a bit admiring a few stalagmites and stalactites, so I was pretty pleased when it turned out to be more pot-hole stylee caving. Tho as I was squeezing through gaps I thought I might not be able to make it back through, I couldn't help but think about the people who drowned in Thai caves a few weeks ago. All adds to the excitement tho hey.
The second day was white water rafting. Although the rapids weren't as wild as they could have been it was a really fun day which included a spot of cliff jumping as well as some damn hot hot springs. At this point I should big up my Mum for going white water rafting as she was a tad scared and to be fair you don't see a whole lot of 54 year old women white water rafting.
The next day we hired motorbikes to explore the surrounding area, take in the views and get hugged by an elephant (see photos). Sadly that was all we had parsley sage rosemary and thyme for before going back to Chiang Mai to see M, D + L off for their week down in railey beach.
I went to Tha Ton and all I got was this lousy blog title
From Chiang Mai Em and I headed North to Chiang Dao. The plan had been to do some walking but the elements, they say no. So we looked in the big ol' caves a bit and did a load of reading. Today we went to Tha Ton, decided not to stay, turned back and came to Chiang Rai which is where I am typing this now. We're off to Laos tomorrow. Pip Pip, Cheerio.
xx Matt xx
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