The Long & Winding Road

Well I'm getting pretty lazy with the journal writing because it looks like only write in it every 10 dyas or so now.  After our day of rest in Vang Vieng, we decided to go tubing one more time the next day because the first time was so much fun.  This time we saved our $8 and just swam or grabbed tubes from the bars as we went along.  It turned into another day of mayhem with some new friends from Perth.  We ended up getting a lot of free whisky that day and were pretty much useless by the end of the river.  We went out to Smile Bar at night and had a great time.  The next day we grabbed a bus up to Luang Prabang.  The bus ride was amazing with some of the most stunning scenery I've seen on the whole trip so far.  Just so much untouched forest and mountains everywhere with a little road running right through the middle.  We arrived in Luang Prabang, ditched our bags, grabbed some eats and then walked down to check out the famous night market.  I had read it was the most tranquil market in Southeast Asia and it definitely was.  No one tried to get us to buy anything at all.  Everything seemed to be fixed price though because they wouldn't barter at all.  We didn't buy anything because it was pretty expensive compared to Thailand where we would be in a couple weeks.  The next day we rented bikes and rode around checking out the city and some of the temples and sights in the historic district of town.  During the afternoon we took a minivan tour to an amazing set of waterfalls in the forest.  They had so many pools of turqouise water everywhere.  We swam right behind the falls of the biggest set!  It was a really cool spot.  That night we went to a really cool bar called the Lao Lao garden which was on a hill with a bonfire and candles everywhere.  We met a whole bunch of other travellers who were heading to the local bowling alley so we decided to join them.  It was a really good time other than the fact that I hit my own ankle with my ball during my release of my first bowl attempt.  Excrutiating pain for sure, don't try that smart move ever.  That bowling alley is really funny too because it is the only place in Luang Prabang that serves alcohol after 12 so it turns into quite the bowling party once everything else closes.  The next morning we booked our tickets for the slow boat ride up the Mekong River to Houay Xai which is where we needed to be to do the Gibbon Experience which we had booked online.  The slow boat journey was very long but had some amazing scenery along the way.  We spent 9 hours on the boat the first day, got to pak Beng that night, checked in at a guesthouse and awited part 2 of the trip.  The next morning we boarded a boat again and completed the 8 hours all the way to Houay Xai.  A lot of ipod listening, playing crads and sleeping kept me from going insane from being on a wooden baot for 2 days straight.  Overall though, I thought it was a really cool way to see some remote parts of Laos you would never see by road.  We headed straight to the Gibbon Experience office off the boat to check in for our 3 day trip which was starting the next morning.  The Gibbon Experience is a very unique program that brings you right into the canopies of the forest by using ziplines to get around and sleeping in treehouses that are 100m off the ground.  We had booked it 2 weeks before and were pumped to check it out.  Day 1 included getting driven 2 hours by road and 1 hour on a dirt path to a remote village in Bokeo Province, Laos.  After that it was about an hour walk to our treehouse.  They gave us harnesses when we got to the staff housing because the only way to get in or out of your house is via ziplines.  Some of the lines we were hitting were over 400m long with amazing scenery all around.  After ditching our bags, we hiked and zipped all around the forest until the sun went down.  Our group included Matt, Adam and Ashley from Ontario, Doni from Ireland, 2 girls from Melbourne and myself.  We all got along really well and had a great night in our treehouse playing cards and listening to tunes.  The next morning we were woken up at 7am to go on a trek to search for the elusive gibbons.  It was a pretty lame attempt because our guide just walked for like a half hour, stopped, and told us he had seen gibbons here before.  We sat and listened, we could here them but no one saw anything.  Then he just took us back to the treehouse.  Another guide showed up to give us a little tour of the forest and brought us to some of the ziplines we hadnt been on before.  It was such a good morning and I got some really cool videos while zipping over the treetops.  The guides told us we had to get to treehouse 1 for lunch, the only problem was that treehouse 1 was occupied by a german lady who was the worst person I've ever met.  Everyone hated her so much just after a couple hours of being in the van with her, that no one wanted to go for lunch with her or sleep in the same place as her.  So we all crammed in treehouse 3 while her and her smelly husband along with poor Rod from Portugal had the spacious number 1.  She refused to switch treehouses after the first night which is what the guides told everyone to do.  It would have been cool to check out that treehouse and zip some different lines but she was too much of a bithc to comply.  The turning point of the whole experience was dinner on Day 2.  It tasted great and everyone ate heaps of it.  Little did we know that we were eatingfood with vicious bacteria in it and that we would all have food poisoning within 24 hours.  I was the first to get hit.  About an hour after dinner my stomach was aching, I was getting the chills and I just felt weal all over.  I spent about 6 hours huddling under 2 blankets while everyone else drank and played cards.  By about midnight, I had never felt worse in my life.  Having diahhorea in a treehouse with an asian squatter toilet that is 100m off the ground is really not that fun.  Add the constant vomiting at the same time and I was ready to just throw myself over the bannister of the treehouse.  By about 2am, 4 out of the 7 of us were all barfing or had the runs or both.  It was an awful scene and I would never wish that upon anyone.  I didn't sleep the entire night and felt like hell the whole time.  Lucky thing Matt had some Paracetamol left over from Vietnam because one of the girls from Australia had a really high fever and was very ill.  The 3rd day was absolute hell as we all had to hike and zipline our way out of the forest with no energy while throwing up along the way.  It sucked a lot!  Matt and Doni both felt fine all night but they strated to get ill during the van ride back to town.  A couple pistops needed to be made.  So when we got back to the office Adam and I decided we were going to talk to the boss to try to get half our manoey back becuase it was a very expensive activity.  They were hesitant at first but thankfully they refunded everyone in our group about half of what we paid.  We just relaxed that night trying to forget the nightmares of the previous night.  The next morning which was today we decided to leave Laos and head back into Thailand.  Before we crossed the river we decided to try and eat something because we hadnt eaten for about 24 hours.  And guess who was at our restaurant being as bitchy as ever, the german lady and her poor husband.  We were about to order our lunch when she blew up on the waitress tellin her that she saw the cook run her fingers through her hair while preparing their meal and she wanted a new dish made.  The she proceeded to walk right into the kitchen to explain to the cook what she was doing wrong.  Matt and I could not believe our own eyes.  I feel extremely sorry for her husband because he has a life of hell in front of him.  She told us she didn't think we should eat there.  We ignored her.  Matt then ordered a banana shake and the waitress sarcastically asked Matt if she was allowed to touch the banana.  Pretty funny though cuz the german chick heard it and looked so pissed off.  I hope I never run into them again.  So after that we got stamped out of Laos, took a boat across the Mekong, got stamped into Thailand and caught a local bus to Chiang Rai.  From there we caught another bus to Chiang Mai which is where we are now