Still lovin' Laos

Apologies again everyone but have had a bit of difficulty getting our blog up in Laos. Last time we wrote we had not long arrived here in Laos and were absolutely loving it. Well our opinion certainly hasn't changed but we move on again tomorrow to Bangkok and have to leave this stunning country that we've both come to love so well. Last time we checked in we were about to go for a trip to some waterfalls just outside Luang Prabang, it was fabulous, just beautiful. When you first get there there's a little bit of a trek through the forrest, they have moon bear rescue center there and a Indochina Tiger that was rescued from poachers when she was just a cub. We were a little bit nervous when we discovered there were animals there, as we imagined them living miserable lives in tiny cages. But we were pleasantly surprised to find them in spacious enclosures, beautifully kept and contented. So that actually turned out to be a bonus! There was a path up the side of the waterfalls which passed several deep, green-blue pools where people were swimming. We decided to do the walk first and then relax in the pools on the way down. It was nothing short of idyllic. Although the water is pretty chilly! On the way back we stopped at a tribal village for a look around it was interesting but obviously the point is for you to buy things and you get bombarded by people and children trying to sell you stuff!
The next day we completed a walking tour of the town seeing yet more wats! (Buddist temples) Although they are very pretty to look at and some are very old. That afternoon we went to the royal palace museum which was interesting, the kings reception room was our favourite, painted a deep, rich red with stories depicted on the walls made from multicoloured pieces of glass.
On Saturday we had to get up early and catch our bus to Vang Vieng which is an absolute must on the backpacker circuit as it's surrounded by rivers, mountains, caves and tribal villages. This makes it a haven for climbing, trekking, tubing, kayaking and caving! Laos has only really been tourist friendly for about 4-5 years now and there are a lack of decent roads just due to the terrain and money really. What this means is the bus to Vang Vieng ,which is no more than 200km away, takes 7hours and winds slowly up and down mountains not exactly fun! Especially without air con! Now let me paint the picture for you here, we have just left Luang Prabang a sleepy little town where most people are tucked up in bed by 10pm and the national curfew ensures the remaining party animals are home by 12 midnight! It's beautiful, old fashioned, relatively untouched by the tourist trade and very clean. When we turned up at Vang Vieng I couldn't quite believe it. We had been warned that it had been transformed from a tiny town to tourist mecca overnight but nothing prepares you for it! It's a really weird place, basically all traces of Laos tradition have gone leaving a town that caters for a travellers every need. It's full of guesthouses, T.V bars, restaurants, tour operators and souvenir shops and the whole place is like a massive building site! The huge influx of foreigners has encouraged building on a massive scale and new streets, roads and buildings are popping up everywhere. We soon found our guesthouse and checked in. It was run by a british guy and an american girl, both seriously chilled out (as is everyone there!). We went for a walk around and the town was busy and noisy. T.v bars are everywhere. They are full of these wooden platforms that are covered with cushions and pillows and you can watch friends, The Simpsons or films all day! The funny thing is that you can sit in one of these bars watching one episode of friends whilst three or four surrounding bars play different episodes! There is no getting away from that theme tune. Infact we were both singing it in the shower! Our first full day there we took full advantage of this and watched a couple of movies and then read all day, getting our strength up for all the adventures coming our way! The day after we decided to go tubing, an absolute must in Vang Vieng. What this entails is floating down the river all day in an inflated tractor tyre inner tube! But when we got to the place it was closed and all the tubes were gone. Not to worry though we found a posh hotel with an outdoor pool overlooking the river and for the bargain price of 20,000 kip ($2) we did a bit of sun worshipping! On Tuesday we had booked a trip to see some caves, trek to a village and then Kayak back to town. This was a brilliant day. We had a young guide called Nom who was friendly and had a cracking sense of humour. We were dropped of at our first cave named Elephant cave after a curious rock formation within which looks exactly like an elephant, but apart from that there wasn't much else to see as it's tiny. We then walked to Caves 2 and 3. Cave 2 was amazing, it was enormous this one had been used for civillians to hide in when Laos was being bombed during the Indochinan wars. There were three huge chambers, the first for young men, second for women and children and a third for the elderly. Nom had got some headtorches for us to use (Corinne had brought her own), I thought it was a joke when he brought them over the battery was so big you had to where it on a string around your neck! Of course Miss Sensible with her lovely streamlined torch thought this was very funny! The cave was full of tunnels and cool stalactites and we had to climb things and through things, brilliant fun! On to the third cave, my least favourite! Before going in, Nom told us how two years ago a French tourist had died in the cave. They had only found him because of the smell! Euww! This was because he'd gone in alone with only a candle and a lighter and got lost in the dark. If that wasn't spooky enough when you're about to head into a pitch black cave, he then announced that it was full of huge spiders! When asked what they eat, he replied "tourists!". He then went on a mission to find one for us! Calling "come on spiders lunch is here!". I decided I didn't really like Nom very much any more! Thankfully we didn't spend to long in there and hiked to the next cave. You had to get in the water, sit in a tube and pull yourself under low hanging rocks and into the cavern by a rope! It was wicked, hauling ourselves along in the echoy darkness. We did a little circuit and when we came out it was lunch time. Nom built a little fire and cooked us meat and vegetable kebabs whilst we swam in the clear water outside the cave. We sat down to a feast. Warm bread, fried rice wrapped in bamboo leaves and the kebabs, washed down with water and followed by delicious sweet bananas. Then we trekked to the village through paddy fields where out tuk tuk driver met us to take us to the river to kayak. We got all the stuff ready and set off, me and Corinne in one, the two other girls on the trip in another and Nom in his own little one. Nom had decided Corinne was the captain (how apt!) and once we got into it we made a pretty good team, infact we had to keep waiting for the others to catch up. We could tell that we had become Noms favourites and he was pretty impressed with us! It didn't take us long to click that the route we took was the tubing route. The biggest clue is all the riverside bars with loud music. We stopped at the last bar, a lovely place with mountains in the background, a log fire and Bob Marley playing. it was perfect. Then it was back to the kayak for the final push home.
Next day was tubing day! Wahoo! We got up early, had breakfast and headed for the tubing depo. The girls that were on our trip the day before joined us and we headed off in the tuk tuk. You get dumped by the river with your tube and off you go. We weren't on the river two minutes before we stopped at the first bar ( well it is all part of the tubing fun!) and had our first beer at 11am! You get free Lao Lao shots aswell (rice whiskey- good stuff!) however we declined because we did actually want to remember some of it! All these bars have jumps, either zip lines or swings and you ( by you I mean Corinne!) climb up rickety bamboo frames and throw yourself off! So that was basically it floating from bar to bar, jumping off things and drinking beer lao! We eventually got to the last bar, the one from the day before, and sat round the fire listening to Bob Dylan having another beer. You could also buy a joint from behind the bar, it was like something from the sixties! (Don't worry mum we didn't!). By this stage the sun had started to set and it was getting abit chilly so we stopped and got a tuk tuk back to town. What a great day! On Thursday we chilled out at a shady bar down by the river and read our books and Friday we made the dreaded journey back to Luang Prabang. It was lovely to be back! Yesterday we went out to the elephant park project and fed and rode some elephants. It was a magical experiance. They are so gentle and when you ride them they're so careful where they step! Today we have had another easy day, reading by the river and eating cake! Off to Thailand next and shopping in Bangkok!

Vientiane, Laos