Well we made it to Laos.. it was crazy adventure!! After leaving Chiang Mai we took a 5 hour mini bus to the thailand/laos boarder. The next morning we were scheduled to take the 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang, however after a few too many beverages the night before we paid the extra fee to take the 6 hour speed boat. How to describe the speed boat??? It's a long tail boat that barely fits six people let alone their luggage. Your feet are crammed into a time space where you can't move and you are offered to wear a safety helmet that looks like it might actually have been used once or twice!! So for the next 6 hours we boated down the Mekong River and it wasn't out of the ordinary to see dead dogs, pigs, and garbage floating everywhere! The scenery surrounding was nice however. We stopped about half way down the river for lunch and a toilet break. THe toilets were basically a hole in the ground that anything going through the hole went right into the river. We were surprised to see many of the local people people washing their hair just 20 feet away!!!
We arrived at Luang Prabang at about supper time and found a place to stay and grabbed some food at Martin's Pub which turned out to be our restarant of choice for those two days we were there. THe next day we had a good sleep in and went for a long run in the heat! We had breakfast over the river and we discovered a new fruit that we can't find the name for as well as some banana pancakes! We tried renting motorbikes or pedal bikes to head out to this waterfall but they were too expensive so we took a tuk tuk out to see the falls. Had we known before had how beautiful it was going to be there, we would've spent the entire day. We arrived just one hour before the gates to the waterfall closed so our time was limited!! Just before taking our tuk tuk back to the city, our driver invited us over to a table with local laos people where we got to have a few beers and talk to the family who ran a restarant by the falls. The guy taught us how to say "Cheers" and "Bottoms Up" which are the only other laos words we know other than "Hello" "Goodbye" and "thanks you". Luang Prabang is known for it's after hours bowling as the entire city shuts down at midnight and the only place left open for tourists is the alley. We thought we'd just go for a game or two and ended up spending our entire evening taking shots of local "true manhood" whiskey and tequilla.. let's just say it was a long bus ride to VangVieng the next morning!!!
So now we're in Vang Vieng. WE found a gem of a place to stay as it's a newer guesthouse with toilets and a comfy bed.. all for $5 each a night!!!! We went out for our first meal here to find out that all the rumours were true.. they do play the tv series of FRIENDS at every restaurant and bar in town!!
We plan on staying in Vang Vieng for the next 5 or so days until the boys have to head back to bangkok to fly home to saskatoon. We're hoping to do the tubing down the river tomorrow if we're all feeling up to it!!! It's what Vang Vieng is famous for in the tourist world so we're stoked to try it!!
Until next time,
"SABIDEE" (goodbye)
Tanis & Kristin
