Nine Days in Laos

Group at Lao Lao Garden

Luang Prabang is a really pretty city on the Mekong River that was ruled by the French until after WWII, so all the people speak French and English, the buildings are all European style and all the restaurants serve baguettes, crepes and other French food. We found a beautiful hotel on the river for about $12 a night. The hotel had just opened so had brand new washrooms and king size beds and beautiful rosewood floors and panelling and was run by a very friendly Lao woman. We ended up staying for four nights! :) We had arranged to meet our friends from the boat at a bar for dinner that we had read about called Lao Lao Garden. The bar was a little more expensive (meaning meals were $3.50 to $5.00) but was awesome, gave Lao Lao welcome shots and had open campfires in the middle of the bar! We got a big table for the seven of us plus a Dutch guy named Jasper that the other Canadians had met on the boat. The food was amazing and the drinks are super cheap, about $1 for a large Beer Lao, which is about the size of two regular bottles so we stayed until close (around 11:00 :)).

Jumping off Small Kuang Si Waterfall

The next day we had a few errands to do in the morning, then we had lunch at a restaurant on the water before meeting up with everyone to go to Kuang Si, a famous waterfall about 30km from the city centre. We hired a tuk tuk (basically the pickup again with benches) which drove us to the waterfall and waited for us to drive us home for about $3 each! The waterfall was amazing and had all sorts of small pools of cascading water of the coolest light blue colour which everyone could swim in. We had heard about some secret pools at the top of the waterfall so hiked all the way to the top but only found some great lookout points unfortunately. So we headed back down to the more popular large rock pools where there was a sweet rock to jump off. The water was super cold but beautiful and made for a cold ride home! :) We got banana pancakes outside the waterfall and caught our tuk tuk home.

Vege Buffet in Food Market

That night we met at the night market for dinner. We found a vegetarian buffet stand and sat at the picnic tables for dinner, Dev wasn't a big fan but later on we found the main food stall street and got some fresh spring rolls. They put everything even rice in a bag, then give you a smaller bag with the sauce or chilis to add which is kind of cool. We wandered around the market checking out all the merchandise and called an early night. The next day, the two Canadian girls, Dev and I had booked a trekking tour so we got up early to be bused to an "authentic Lao village'. Our tour guide, Kack was about the same age as us and was really into Western music so was a lot of fun. We went on a brisk hike through the new forests and met some kids in the village and then he took us to the Tak Si waterfalls where Dev and I went for a swim. The water was pretty cold again, but there were huge, beautiful rock pools to swim in and the whole place looked almost man-made. We stopped for a big lunch and then were taken to the elephant camp. We had an hour long elephant ride scheduled, but once we started going, we realized that that probably wasn't going to take us very far, they are surprisingly slow! :)

Elephant Ride Slow Motion

The elephants were so cool up close and were really funny, their trainers had to prod them every step of the way, the second he stopped, they would stop. It was also right before their feeding time so the whole way, the elephants were trying to grab bushes and leaves from the sides of the path. At one point, the girls' trainer got off to take pictures of us and their elephant went straight for a big tree and almost pulled it down right on top of them! :) It was pretty hilarious. Apparantely, elephants are also really good at walking up steep hills, so at some points we were almost completely lying down! :) Once we finished the ride, one of the elephants had her eye on Dev and kept following him around. Even though it was going super slow, it was still a little scary :) Our bus was late to pick us up, so we grabbed some beers and played cards. On the way home, our guide found a famous Asian song that he had been telling us about and put it on. It was called "Take Me To Your Heart" and was similar to Backstreet Boys. Until then, Dev thought he had been saying "Take Me To Your Hut" so I'm glad he hadn't said anything! :)

Birthday #25

That night, we met our friends at the night market again where we found some awesome vegetarian buffets and Dev and Miguel sampled one of the fried fish we've seen everywhere. We met a super weird American couple from New Mexico who told us that they've been picking up all the mangey cats and that they'd like to shoot up a Walmart. The next day was Meg's birthday so we had decided to stay in Luang Prabang another day. We met our friends for lunch on the water, then Dev and I rented bicycles and toured around the city for a little bit. We met up with everyone at a temple on top of a hill which has a great view of the sunset, then we headed out to dinner. Dev surprised me with a cake and they actually turned out all the lights in the restaurant and spelled my name right! :) I had been worried about being homesick, but ended up having a great time. :)



Checking Out the Caves



We were a little hungover the next morning catching our mini bus to Vang Vieng but that was partly due to the crazy winding roads around the mountains. The scenery was amazing but it was so bumpy no one could read without getting car sick. :) We were pretty happy to arrive in town that evening and find a place. The town used to be an old fishing village which has become a crazy tourist destination because of its river tubing. Tourists rent a tube for about $6 a day and you float down the river, which takes about three hours in dry season. There are loads of bars built along the river and they stand at the sides throwing ropes for the tubers to grab and come in for a drink. On top of that, the bars all have crazy water slides and rope swings! :) It's kind of like Cancun meets Southeast Asia. Everyone was exhausted the first night and we had arrived in the evening, so we went for a quiet dinner and had an early night. Aside from the river bars, the town is known for its caves, so we decided to meet up the next day to check them out first.

Blue Lagoon

The next day after lunch we decided to hit the caves. One of the girls we were with had had a motorbike accident on her trip, so we opted for traditional moutainbikes. The bikes were of dubious quality but we were able to find four that worked enough and we hit the road. I don't really know why but I was a little surprised at how rough the roads were, at some points it seemed like it was pure rockbed, but we managed the 7km ride fairly well and also didn't get lost! :) We chose a cave with one of the better swimming holes called the Blue Lagoon. We grabbed some fruit shakes at the base of the mountain and then tackled the 200 metre climb up the side of the mountain in our flip flops to the mouth of the cave. We had been to some caves in Australia, where there are wooden footpaths, lights and stairs but this was much more do-it-yourself. There were no real paths and the only light we had was our head lamps. It made it way more fun to explore though! :) After making it out of the cave alive, we headed down to the Blue Lagoon for a dip. It looked like a small pond but was actually crazy deep and that great blue green colour again (which we're told is because of the limestone rock sediment in the water). We took turns jumping off a tree that stretched over the water then had to head home for dark. I don't think we've had that much exercise in a long time! :)

Tubing Tattoos!

The next day was Gareth's birthday and our tubing day! We got a head start and were on the river by eleven in the morning for our first beer. The sun was out and there about 280 people tubing that day. We had a great time, went on all the waterslides, did all the free shots and some of us tried out some of the rope swings. Dev and I weren't quite ready for those yet, they were super high!! The day went by sooo quickly, that before we knew it it was 4.30pm and we had to jump into the water and paddle our tubes to get them back for the deadline. We got changed for dinner then finished off the night with more drinks at a bar in town. The next day, Dev, Gareth and I were the only ones up for a tubing repeat although we did get a bit of a later start, on the river by noon. It was a bit colder, so not as busy and we had decided to have a more relaxing day.

One of Many Waterslides of the Day!

We chilled at some of the better bars including one that was owned by an Australian girl and her Lao boyfriend that lived in Toronto for thirty years (random :)), I tried two of the rope swings which were awesome and we spent the rest of the day floating down the river with our beers. It was pretty relaxing! We had dinner on the river and had to get up early the next morning to catch a bus to Vientiane, where we fly out to Vietnam. Not too much to see in Vientiane so we just relaxed but did get a chance to get a few rounds of bowling in! :) I actually beat Dev the first round! :) Flying out to Vietnam today!

Chiang Mai & Slow Boat!



Temple in Chiang Mai



We flew into the enormous Bangkok airport on Nov. 28th and jumped on an overnight bus to Chiang Mai (in Northern Thailand). The bus ride was a bit over 10 hours but the seats folded down almost all the way and blankets and pillows were provided so we settled in for an uncomfortable sleep. :) The bus dropped us off while it was still dark but luckily we were picked up right away by a sawngthaew (basically a pickup with benches in the flat bed) that took us to a decent hotel in the city. They only had twin beds but we were really tired and the room was only about $12 so we checked in and went back to bed. I actually think Dev prefers twin beds :)



Devin at the night market



We woke up late and had lunch then I dragged Devin to some of the city's temples which he was really excited about. This was the first Buddhist city that we had been to so all the monks walking around in their neon orange robes was a novel sight. The Thai people seem to love Dev because all day he was getting chatted up outside the temples and on the streets! The people were crazy nice and love to practice their English by talking to the tourists. We walked around the old quarter (half of the city is enclosed by a wall which used to be the old kingdom) which is filled with cute restaurants and guesthouses and we stopped for our first Chang beer. Apparantely the beer averages about 6.5%, each bottle is different and they call what you feel the next day after drinking it, the changover. :)



Meg scarfing a banana roti!



Chiang Mai is known for its night markets, so that night we decided to get dinner there. The market was located near all the fancier hotels and consists of a large square and side streets filled with stalls selling scarves, trinkets, watches, etc. There are about 500 stalls but only about 10 varieties. :) There were so many cool things, it was hard not to buy anything! We ate way too much food at dinner but still had to check out the roti stand on the way home. There are loads of these women with food stall carts selling what looks like a crepe filled with bananas then covered with chocolate and sweet condensed milk. They are crazy good and less than $1, we've been eating way too many of them! :) I think we're going to come home about 100 pounds heavier! :)



Jungle Flight!

The next day we had booked a zipline trip near Chiang Rai with Jungle Flight so we grabbed a quick fried noodle at the stall next door and got picked up by our guide. It was about an hour away and as soon as we arrived, we got suited up and headed for the first platform. We had opted for the long program which included something like 33 platforms and 4 abseils. It was a little scary at first but after a few, it was easier to enjoy the scenery :) The guides were crazy Thai teenagers that kept everyone laughing and the mountains in the background sometimes didn't even look real so we had a great time. Meg was especially nervous during the abseiling, because you get dropped freefall style. The last jump off was 40 metres high and was super scary! :) We had lunch with our group which consisted of an older Dutch lady and some Koreans. We were then taken to a hot spring then back to the hotel. Along the way, Dev got bumped to the back seat to make room when our driver offered a monk a ride home. :)

Meg in action!



New friends at Riverside Bar



That night we went back to the night market for dinner then decided to check out a bar by the river we had heard about, the Riverside. We got a great table upstairs with a river view and had a few beers and were just heading home when an awesome live band starting playing downstairs. It was a six piece band with three really great singers and they played loads of great music. We made friends with an older Irish guy and his English friend and ended up staying for the rest of the night. :) We caught a tuk tuk home from the bar that night. Changover.

Cooking class in Chiang Mai

In the morning, we had to get up early as we had a Thai cooking class scheduled. We didn't know what to expect but it was great. The class was run by a younger (25 ish) brother and sister pair with great English. Outside there were 10 covered cooking stations and inside there was an air conditioned room with a table for eating our food (yummy!) and a classroom where they showed us how to make each item. Everyone chose seven dishes (one appetizer, one stirfry, one curry, etc.) and we would watch the brother/sister make all the appetizers, for example, then we would head back to our stations where the ingredients would be set out for our choice and we started cooking. Dev and I both chose spring rolls for our appetizer which were pretty fun to make, I needed a few tries and some assistance to roll them, but frying them was really fun and mine ended up better than his :) We also made green curry, phad thai, coconut chicken soup, papaya salad and mango sticky rice. I ate soooo much food but Dev started to feel a little hungover during the day :) The food was delicious, we're hoping we will be able to recreate some of the dishes at home, the phad thai for sure!



Slow Boats in Laos



After the class we were really tired so we booked a room for a couple of hours for a nap and a movie before we caught a mini bus to the Thailand-Laos border. We were picked up about an hour and a half late (not unusual here :)) and got picked up last so we both had to sit at the very front of the van. It was maybe the most uncomfortable ride yet as my middle seat was super high with no leg room and no headrest and I was a couple of centimetres from the air conditioning vent for the whole van, so super cold. The ride was a bit over four hours but felt like way longer and we arrived at our overnight stop at about 2:30 in the morning. We went right to sleep as we had to be up at 6:30am for breakfast and the ferry. Everyone at the hotel was on their way to take the slow boat from Thailand to Luang Pradang in Laos, a two day boat trip down the Mekong river. It is actually twice as slow but twice as expensive as a bus to Luang Pradang but pretty famous here for tourists. There were a number of steps in this process that morning, first the truck ride to Thai immigration for our departure cards, then the ferry to Laos, then Lao immigration for our visas, then an hour wait at a restaurant to board the boat. At the restaurant we met a few friends that we ending up spending the next week with, Miguel and Kathy both from Germany and Victoria and Ashley from the Waterloo and Stratford area (small world :)). When we finally boarded the boat, there were barely any seats left, luckily Dev and I got a seat together! :) The seats were these wooden bench seats set super close together. We had luckily bought seat pillows before we got on! :)





On the Slow Boat



The trip the first day was about six hours which we spent either watching the crazy scenery, reading or chatting with people on the boat. Having people stuck on a boat for two days was a great way to meet people. :) We got off the boat in a small town named Prabang which is mainly just guesthouses and restaurants for the slowboat riders. We met up with the Germans and Canadians to find a hotel together then we headed out for dinner. The hotel owner dragged us to his restaurant where his kids were running around with no pants on...but the food was good and he gave us free banana pancakes for dessert and Lao Lao shots for everyone! :) (their local liquor made from sticky rice). Miguel had met an English guy on the boat named Gareth who joined us for dinner and joined the crew for the next week as well. :) Laos is a communist country so there is a 12:00am curfew, so bars close around 11:30pm. So after dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night. In the morning, we got up early to try to get better seats and managed to all sit together. The ride was about seven hours the next day and so I think everyone was happy to get off the boat in Luang Prabang although it had been a good trip. :)