The Big Adventure

Never travel by slow boat. The trip from Chang Mai began with being driven to Chiang Khong to stay the night at the border. Five hours in a minibus was do-able apart from the only other Brit on there who did not shut up the entire way and gave us all a bad name. Anyway, the next morning we had to cross the river into Laos and do the whole passport stamping thing. However we needed toget to Luang Prabang which is deeper into Laos and this involved a 2 day trip down the river on the slowest boat imaginable. It was a long boat with wooden seats nailed to the floor with room for 70 people. 120 people got on our boat with a further 40 more to embark. An Australian woman got up to complain and we were all shouting for '2 boats, 2 boats' it was well funny. So they did provide another boat and the other 40 got on it leaving the 120 on ours to suffer! It took 5 hours the first day which when you cant move much and everyone is in your personal space is a loooong time. It was also so weighed down by all the people and luggage that we tipped sideways and nearly collapsed into the water! The next day was 7 hours but not so bad. Luang Prabang was beautiful and we think we love Laos better than Thailand so far. The views from the boat and from the city was amazing and like from a movie. During the trip we made friends with another two couples, one from Canada and one from Oz and they are fab and also another 2 canadian girls - sisters. We've pretty much been spending all our time with them and all went out for a day trip to a waterfall with these amazing natural pools that we swam in and jumped off ropes into. It was the best day so far. After a few days we decided to move onto Vang Viene which is further south. We all got a minivan which took 6 hours winding through the most beautiful mountains all the way. The only downside is that people dont really know how to drive properly here and spend more time on the wrong side of the road whilst taking blind corners up a steep mountain. It was a bit of a hairy ride but apart from killing a chicken and nearly killing a 2 year old naked baby who was waddling down the middle of the road at a corner, we arrived unscathed. Vang Viene is nice and relaxing. All the bars play reruns of Friends or Simpsons all day and everwhere we go we get given a free Laos Laos, which is STRONG Laos whiskey, yuck. This place is amazing fun and we're really enjoying the atmosphere. Yesterday we went tubing down the river which was like a scene from a movie. We just sat in a big rubber ring each and cruised down the river for about 5 hours. All around us was great big mountains and greenery everywhere. After about 3 km bars started appearing on the side of the river with little Laos men pulling you in with big sticks of bamboo and giving us Beer Laos to aid us on our way! Some of the bars had zip lines and rope swings over the really deep parts. Mikey did the zip line but i was too scared. Me and Bonnie (Canadian) worked ourselves up and did a rope swing where we had to swing out over the water and just drop 10 metres. I was so scared, not too sure about the bungy jump now! Apparently I dropped perfectly straight though so although I hurt my backside as it hit the water im well chuffed. It was a fab day and we're doing it again tomorrow. We are staying in a riverside bungalow at the moment and it only costs 3 pounds a night! Today we went to a big lagoon and a cave with yet more rope swings so we're beginning to get the hang of them now. Its a hard life! Better go coz we're off to the Smile bar now which is on an island with a bridge to cross on to it. Its run by some irish dude so the music is what we know rather then Laos pop music which sucks! There are hammocks everywhere and big fire pits and lots of Beer Laos. Off to Vientiane on xmas eve to spend xmas in a nice hotel with the ozzies and the canadians. Merry Xmas!!! Much love xxxxx